At 23:46 21/01/2010, Nick Ager wrote: Nick, PRSearchView is a subclass of PRViewComponent, which expects to be instantiated with #on:, instead of #new. The argument to #on: is supposed to be aContext, which is then cached for later use by methods like #refresh. There is an example of such call in PRViewCommand >> viewComponent. The issue is related to the fact that in your case, PRSearchView is instantiated by #new. Here is the call sequence: PRPierFrame >> children PRPierFrame >> buildChildren PRPierFrame >> componentsOf: (PRComponent) PRStructure >> componentsIn: PRContext >> componentFor: PRContext >> buildComponent:for: PRComponent >> componentFor: PRSearchView class (WAComponent)>> owner:link: #owner:link: calls #new, instead of #on: Now, there are PRWidgets that don't cash the context, and can be instantiated by #new. Consequently, the above call sequence works just fine in their case. And, Pier standard distributions use PRAjaxSearchWidget instead of PRSearchView,, which is a kind of PRWidget. So, the following app should work: PRPierFrame registerAsApplication: 'piersearch' kernel: (PRKernel new root: ((PRComponent named: 'search') componentClass: PRAjaxSearchWidget); name: 'testKernel'). Hoping this helps, Regards, Reza