Let us first take a look at what the Backbase framework contains. On the Developer Network site of Backbase, there is a set of demos that you can view online or download for further inspection. The URL for this site is http://bdn.backbase.com/client/demos.
These demos include Sample Application Layouts, a Progressive Enhancement Demo, a Rich Forms Demo, and Coexistence Demos. You can take a look at those and run them online, but according to our opinion, they are only mildly interesting, except for the Backbase Explorer.
The Backbase Explorer allows you to view all UI widgets from the Backbase Tag Library ( BTL); you can see the source code that is needed to show the example, and you can change the source code to see what happens. For example, if you click on Windows & Dialogs | window management | windowArea, you can see something like this:
The Backbase Explorer is an interesting and useful application that can be used to learn more about the Backbase framework and about the widgets it offers.
Also, take a look at the Sample Application Layouts on the same online demo page. This will give you an idea of the kind of layouts you can easily make using Backbase. We will use a simplified version of one of these as the starting point for the example application that we will be developing throughout the book.
Each of the demos is downloadable and contained in a ZIP file. When unzipped, it can execute immediately on your local PC because the essential parts of the Backbase framework are included with it.