Designing wizard patterns

After initializing the class with the wizard pattern, the wizard frame should be adapted to specific requirements by setting proper headline text in the title area (data source) and assigning an appropriate icon in the upper left area (data source).

In order to run the wizard, one may call executeWindow() from the application program or define a window action referring to the wizard window. The window action may be directly associated with an action control (button, menu item, context menu etc.).

Most effort has to be spend into designing the wizard steps. Wizard steps provide data and textual information for the wizard. Each wizard step control defines the sub-headline in the upper area (tool tip text), the label for the navigation frame on the left side (label) and explanatory text for the wizard information area (long text), which are set automatically when changing the wizard step.

Wizard step controls may refer to data sources defined in the complex data type the wizard is bases on. Moreover, wizard step controls may contain any number of additional fields for controlling wizard steps. In order to define fields not based on data stored in the wizards data source, typically a user-defined (data reference type) field with an appropriate data type (set in class name) may be defined and auto-position and auto-initialize have to be switched on.