# COSMOS Developer's Guide

## Web User Interface Framework Design Overview

This topic explains the web user interface framework design.

Consider the various configuration scenarios that are possible with the framework. This provides an understanding of the kinds of problems the framework can solve.

Scenario 1: Provide a web console for users to query a Data Manager

In this scenario, a developer would like to assemble a web console made of a set of widget components provided by COSMOS. You want to create a whole new look and feel of the COSMOS UI console in terms of how the widget components are laid out, and how they interact with each other. Furthermore, you want to change certain cosmetic attributes like fonts, background color, and so on.

Scenario 2: Develop a web widget to manage a Data Manager

In this scenario, the existing out-of-the-box web components cannot be utilized to interact with the data manager. You want to create your own web widget to visualize the contents of your data manager and submit queries to the data manager. These new custom web widgets are better suited to interact with your data manager.

Scenario 3: Develop a report to visualize the contents of a Data Manager

You want to develop a report that will visualize the data from a particular data manager. These new reports provide a way to visualize the data so that consumers of the data can analyze the information more efficiently.

Examine the overall component architecture of the COSMOS UI framework and explore how the framework meets these requirements for each scenario.

The COSMOS UI framework is comprised of these key components.

- Pages templates
- Widgets
- Widget Configuration files
- Data feeds
- Reporting system
  - COSMOS utilizes the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) system. BIRT provides core reporting features such as report layout, data access, and scripting. For more information, see the BIRT project site, as well as the document "Generating a report from the Web UI" that illustrates how the COSMOS UI makes a request to the BIRT system.
- Report templates
  - The report templates are based on the BIRT framework. You can create report templates using the BIRT report designer. For more information, see the BIRT project site.

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