The infrastructure comprises client runtime and programming concepts not directly related to the features of Spotfire. Particularly the Document Model Framework must be mastered.
Overview
The Spotfire runtime is divided into Model and View. This distinction
separates application state from user presentation, and defines
the interaction. In Spotfire the Document Model Framework is
responsible for building and maintaining the model.
Runtime Division
The Model-View-Controller design pattern separates representation
of state (Model), from presentation of state (View) and manipulation
of state (Controller). Since Windows® Forms programming
treats the View and the Controller as a single UI concept, this
runtime description will solely rely on the Model and View concepts.
The general principle of Spotfire is to represent the state of
a UI artifact by a Model object, and then present this state
using a corresponding View object. For instance, a bar chart
is defined by two objects: The BarChart object
represents the state, from which the BarChartView
presentation object retrieves the data it needs to draw itself.
The Spotfire Runtime
From the moment data is loaded, the state of the view is derived
from the state of the model. Actions in the view result in model
changes that propagate back to the view via events, which in
turn result in the view redrawing itself:
The clear-cut distinction between model and view ensures that
the state of the document is consistent prior to any UI updates.
Violations to the interplay between model and view potentially
result in vicious event–redraw circles. Since corruptions
of the model result in error or worse, there is a dedicated
structure, the Document Model Framework, guaranteeing the integrity
of the model. Successful development of Spotfire requires basic
mastery of the Document Model Framework.
The Document Model Framework and related concepts
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Document Model Framework
The Document Model Framework provides the building blocks of a Spotfire document in a running instance of Spotfire. It guarantees the integrity of the document model.
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Extending the Document
The document model is a node tree. It is extended by adding new nodes.