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Layout Model
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The Layout Model defines the visual composition of the user interface in terms of ScreenAreas.
A ScreenArea is a contiguous area of a graphical user interface that serves a purpose. ScreenAreas are rectangular, but multiple independent ScreenAreas may be arranged to form arbitrarily shaped areas in future versions. Each ScreenArea is used to model an area on a screen mockup or piece of software. The root ScreenArea is the Screen. It contains all elements of a GUI that are displayed at one point. Its instances are for example application windows or a web page displayed in a web browser. 
There are four kind of areas: Final: The final areas are used to present navigational content using a control. A final area cannot contain areas; they are “leafs” in the composite of areas. In this kind of areas, you must define content rules that look as follows: "For all indexes, use the IndexViewer control." In the image above, help1 can be a final area. Container: These areas only contain other areas. The navigation elements are not presented in these areas directly. The content is only propagated to the contained areas. In the image above, LeftArea is a container area. Abstract or Conditional: This kind of area is used “to break the Visual Framework pattern”. When you inherit from an abstract area, you can break the layout within this area in different configurations. In the image above, Target is an abstract area, and VerticalTarget and HorizontalTarget are inheriting from it. Only one sub-area is displayed on screen at a time. Disconnected: They are final areas that do not present navigation content. That is, they do not use a control to present application domain navigational content. Usually, they are used to show another type of content such as UI state, top-level navigation, animations, etc. In the image above, ApplicationStateHolder can be a disconnected area. Disconnected areas cannot start transitions. |
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