| Chapter 4 GUIDesigner | ||
|---|---|---|
 | 4.2 Guidesigner Overview |  |
| Chapter 4 GUIDesigner | ||
|---|---|---|
| | 4.2 Guidesigner Overview | |
Once you have opened the XMAa file with Guidesigner you will probably see the following eclipse editor and views:
Don't panic if you can't see some of the views. You only have to define the correspondent views within the Window.ShowView menu.
In the context of the XMA Guidesigner the views have the following tasks:
Package View:(Package View) package explorer from eclipse. Is used to navigate in the project resources like xmi or java files.
Outline View:(Outline View) hierarchical view from eclipse. It is used to navigate the page and widget hierarchy of the component. Furthermore there are context menus for widget manipulation.
Preview:(PreView) is responsible to draw the widgets of the actual selected Dialog- or Embedded page.
Property View:(Property View) property view from eclipse. It is used to edit properties of the actual selected widget or page.
Problem Viewer:(Problem View) problem viewer from eclipse. It is used to mark inconsistencies in the actual component.
Task Viewer:(Task View) task viewer from eclipse. It is used to mark TODOs in the generated code.
Save a XMA File works just like saving Java files or other resources in the eclipse workbench.
The Guidesinger tries to synchronize the selection state between the Outline View and the PreViewer. This means that the item selected in Outline is also marked in the Previewer, if it has a correspondent UI object. if more than one item in the Outline View is selected, only the correspondent first element is marked in PreViewer.
The Guidesigner uses the eclipse package explorer to navigate in the project resources like xml or java files.
The information of a XMA component will be stored in an XML file as XMI document. The component element is the root element of the XMI document. You can find more about XMI document in EMF User's Guide chapter 2.4. .
The Guidesigner uses the eclipse Outline View to navigate the page and widget hierarchy of the XMA component. The Outline View always contains the hole content of the underlying XMA components XMI document. You find a detailed description of the possible content of an XMA component in Topic Guidesign Model(Reference A: Guidesigner Model)
Furthermore there are exist a context menus for creating, copying, pasting, moving and deleting the document's elements.
If a new content object is created, reasonable default values are set wherever possible. Moreover in some cases there is more content created than the selected menu item shows. For example creating a new text widget also creates a correspondent label widget. Another example is when creating a page, the correspondent page composite is also created. All Guidesinger creation processes are dialog or wizard supported.
There are two possibilities to create new content with the outline contextmenu:
New Child: If it is possible to create a new child under the current selected outline tree item, a submenu with possible child types appear. After creation, the new content object appears at the end of the parent's node list.
New Sibling: If it is possible to create a new child under the parent node of the current selected outline tree item, a submenu with possible sibling types appear. After creation, the new content object appears immedeatly after the sibling selected before.
The following table describes possible parent / child relations:
| Parent | Child | Purpose |
| Component | DialogPage | corresponds to Dialogwindows |
| Embedded Page | Page that may be reused from other Dialogs in other Components | |
| AppShell | An application main window with menus and tasks (Application Shell) | |
| Composite | Push Button | Corresponds to Command Buttons |
| Composite | Is a pane that can recursively hold other widgets (controls) | |
| Text | Corresponds to Text input fields | |
| Sashform | Corresponds the control that is used in the Windows explorer to separate the folder tree from the detail list | |
| TabFolder | Corresponds the Notebook control | |
| Group | Corresponds to Group boxes and is used to | |
| ChechBox | May hold true/false conditions | |
| Radio Button | Corresponds a on/off switch. Used in Groups you may mapp Domains with few values | |
| Label | Used to create read only Text ore Images. | |
| Tree | Tree Control like the folder tree in the Windows explorer. | |
| Table | Used to show spreadsheets | |
| Seperator | Horizontal/vertical Lines. Often used to simplify Formlayouts | |
| DomainCombo | Used to show value ranges in a drop down list | |
| List | Used to show value ranges in a list widget | |
| Hidden Widget | Has no UI Control and only used to transport further information with the Widget Models | |
| XMA Container | Is used to hold embedded components | |
| SimpleCombo | Used to show value ranges in a dropdown list without fill support on the API | |
| Scrolled Composite | Is a pane that can recursively hold other widgets which are shown with scroo bars at the right and bottom | |
| DatePicker | Datepicker control from Windows | |
| XMAGrid | special widget. see Grid documentation for further information | |
| Table | Table columns | columns in the Table |
| TabFolder | NotebookPage | Corresponds to a single Tab in the Folder. |
| SashForm | Left Part | Shall contain widgets like Composite. |
| Right Part | Shall contain widgets like Composite./TD> |
Table 4.1. parent child relationships
See theGuidesign Model's(Reference A: Guidesigner Model)part-of associations to learn more about possible childs under a destinct tree item.
The sequence of widgets in the outline tree decides the tab sequence in the generated mask. The sequence of widgets in the outline tree can be changed by drag and drop. If it is wished, that a widget should not takes part on the tab sequence, the property 'YN TabSequence' should set to no.
Example:
In the ouline shown below, the tab order will be generated as follows:
namVornameCriteria (text field)
namNachnameCriteria (text field)
search (button)
clear (button)
results (table)
ok (button)
cancel (button)
With the context menu of the outliner there are more manipulation action possible:
Edit FormData: calls the FormData Dialog for the selected widget
Cut: cuts the selected objects's and put it in the clipboard
Copy: put the selected objects's in the clipboard
Paste: insert objects from the clipboard
Delete: delete the selected objects
The Preview is shown in the eclipse editor pane. For every opened xma file there will be an autonomous preview like for java files exists autonomous editors. A distinct Preview is activated through mouse click the appropriate tab.
The Guidesinger tries to synchronize the selection state between the Outline View and the PreViewer. This means that the item selected in Outline is also marked in the Previewer, if it has a correspondent UI object. if more than one item in the Outline View is selected, only the correspondent first element is marked in PreViewer.
Selection in the the preview is also supported. In the Preview only content could be selected, that directly is mapped to a SWT object. In the preview it is also possible to edit the selctable widgets. You will find the same actions as in the Outline View(Outline View) context menu:
The Preview doesn't show the later generated dialog. It only shows the underlying dialog composite. Therefore no title bar and no dialog margin are shown. The page composite shown in the Preview is resized in accordance to the given dialog height/width, such that the display in the Guidesigner suit the size in the generated Dialog.
The Preview also doesn't show hidden widget ore hidden table columns.
It is possible to start 2 actions from the action bar of eclipse that are only available if the PreView has the focus:
Map the widget of a component to existing BusinessData (DataBinding):
Generate Java Code from the GuiDesigner:
It is als possible to start all actions from the eclipse action bar an from the PreView context menu from the eclipse menu:
The Property view supports editing attributes (properties) of existing content objects in the xma file. Learn more about the content in a XMA file in the Model description topic(Reference A: Guidesigner Model).
A single property value in the property view could have five different property editors:
Boolean type editor: You can only select true or false. Example: YN Border property of different widgets
Numeric type editor: You can only input numeric values. Example: height property of XMA Dialog
String type editor: You can input strings. Example: Label property of XMA label
Combo for selection type: You can select a adequate value. Example: Align Text property of XMA Text
Edit Dialog: A dialog appears, where you can enter further information. Example: FormData Dialog of different widgets
In the context of the Guidesigner the Problem View indicates error conditions, which prevents the Generator from generating the appropriate java code. After saving a XMA file a constancy checker is started, which may write tasks in the task list. Double click a problem selects the relating content object in the Outline View and the Preview.
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| Chapter 4 GUIDesigner |  | 4.3 Layouting with the Guidesigner |
