Organization of This Manual

This manual includes the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, "Getting Started with Visionary," introduces the basic concepts and tools of Visionary.
• Chapter 2, "Designing a Visionary World," describes how to plan and design a Visionary world.
• Chapter 3, "Creating Data Sources," introduces the concept of a data source and outlines the steps to create one.
• Chapter 4, "Creating Scenes," introduces the concept of a scene and describes how to insert a scene into a world.
• Chapter 5, "Displaying Data in a Scene," describes how to display data in a scene using layouts and data-bound objects.
• Chapter 6, "Adding Static Objects to a Scene," describes how to work with graphic objects that are not dynamically linked to data in a database.
• Chapter 7, "Modifying Object Properties," describes how to modify object properties.
• Chapter 8, "Adding Navigation Features to a Scene," explains the navigation features available as you design a Visionary world and tells you how to create these features.
• Chapter 9, "Adding Event Actions to a Scene," introduces the concept of event actions and describes how to define event actions in a scene.
• Chapter 10, "Adding ActiveX Controls to a Scene," introduces ActiveX controls and explains how to add ActiveX controls to a Visionary world.
• Chapter 11, "Adding Resources and Global Parameters to a World," discusses resources and global parameters and explains how to add them to a Visionary world.
• Chapter 12, "Managing a Visionary World," provides information about basic file and editing operations in Visionary Studio. It also explains how to search for objects in a world and how to modify parameters.
• Chapter 13, "Publishing a Visionary World," describes how to publish a Visionary world as an ActiveX component.
• Chapter 14, "Viewing a Published World," explains how to use Visionary Viewer to view a published world.
• Appendix A, "Object Properties Reference," provides a brief description of Visionary objects that can be modified using the Object Inspector, along with their properties and their child objects.
• Appendix B, "Data Types, Casts, and Value Formats," provides reference information about derived data types, enumerated data types, data formats, type casting, and formatting symbols you can use when you set object properties.
• Appendix C, "Functions and Support Syntax," provides reference information about functions, operators, and support syntax that you can use when you set object properties.
• Appendix D, "Event Action Reference," describes event triggers and associated actions that you can use for navigation and commands in published Visionary worlds.
• Appendix E, "Viewer Control Interface," describes the properties, methods, and events used to control Visionary Viewer.

Types of Users

Software Dependencies

Databases used in conjunction with Visionary can be created with or without the logging option.

You must use BladeManager to register the ifxbuiltins DataBlade module in any database you want to use in conjunction with Visionary. Additional features such as spatial cursors are available if a spatial DataBlade module is installed.

If you include the WebBrowser or ActiveMovie ActiveX controls in a Visionary world and publish the world, both you and your end user must have installed Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later.

The Informix Visionary InfoShelf requires either:

• Netscape Navigator 3.01 or later.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later.