The Properties of an object (Figure 4.1) provides the basic functionality to display the primary object in the UI.

Figure 4.1. The Properties Facet.

Parts of Properties are very similar in purpose -- and, therefore, deliberatey similar in syntax -- to a FeatureDescriptor. Specifically the "standard properties" are the information obtained by methods such as Properties.displayName and Properties.smallIcon is intended for UI elements to be able to display a minimal iconic representation of the primary object.

The standard properties are also obtainable as full-fledged Property objects. A Property is a that encapsulates some sort of information about its target. Methods to obtain these are, for example, Properties.displayNameProperty and Properties.smallIconProperty.

Finally, zero or more additional Property objects, built depending on the application at hand, are available via the Properties.additionalProperties method.

Important

The number of additional properties is allowed to change at run-time; views that depend on this fact are expected to listen for propertyChange events, with a key of additionalProperties, from the Properties object they are using.