DesktopX 2.4 Developer’s Guide
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Page 28
Parents and Children
'Parent / Child' relationships are slightly more intimate in that an object is more directly affected
by changes made to its Parent/Owner. Again, in the same section there is a 'Parent/Owner' drop-
down list where all the other objects in the theme are listed. Simply select one of them and your
current object becomes a child of that object.
If a Parent is hidden or moved then the same is applied to objects that it “owns”. Owned objects
are also shown higher in the z-order than (above) its Parent. You might initially think that this is
excessive when Groups work in almost the similar way. Consider however, that this saves so
creating many named groups to manage where they are unnecessary, it provides increased
control over the z-order and also that it provides increased flexibility to control visibility within a
group without affecting the whole group.
One added option you have for an object that is owned is to make it a 'Child’. This means two
things. The first is that its position is defined relative to the Parent object not the screen. This
makes positioning within the parent easier. Also, the object is only visible while it is in the
confines of the Parent object. Note that this is based on the actual rectangular size of the object,
not defined by the visible area.
Children also make DesktopX more efficient and therefore should be used wherever possible.
