SWT Designer suggestion

[CrystalPalace]

Hi everybody!

First I have to say that I am using SWT designer Pro now for almost a year and it has saved my life several times when I was trying to design SWT stuff
But now to the subject part:
First, I often use CTabFolders in my apps and I am missing an easy way to tell SWT whether or not to use "simple" mode. I code it manually but it would be nice to have that feature available in the designer.
Second, do you plan the integration of a status line control? SWT offers the creation of status line via StatusLineManager, so i would appreciate some way to click on a "status line" control, place it and designer creates the necessary code for me

Thx in advance and greetings from germany!

Christian

[Eric Clayberg]

First, I often use CTabFolders in my apps and I am missing an easy way to tell SWT whether or not to use "simple" mode. I code it manually but it would be nice to have that feature available in the designer.

The latest v2.0.1 build includes support for the new Eclipse 3.0 CTabFolder styles and attributes.

Second, do you plan the integration of a status line control? SWT offers the creation of status line via StatusLineManager, so i would appreciate some way to click on a "status line" control, place it and designer creates the necessary code for me

In the context of JFace ApplicationWindows or something else? We could certainly add StatusLineManager support to ApplicationWindows, but I'm not sure it would make sense in any other context.

[CrystalPalace]

The latest v2.0.1 build includes support for the new Eclipse 3.0 CTabFolder styles and attributes.

Well, I downloaded the latest release before writing this suggestion after having made some real bad experiences with the cheetah release of eclipse - and I found your warning after my system crashed severely several times

In Designer, when I select a CTabFolder, i can only see properties in the style section for "border,flat,tabs"...i cant find anything to chnage simple mode.

In the context of JFace ApplicationWindows or something else? We could certainly add StatusLineManager support to ApplicationWindows, but I'm not sure it would make sense in any other context.

Yes, in my opinion a status line should be available in a JFace ApplicationWindow, but it could also be useful when creating a plain SWT application using the wizard

[Eric Clayberg]

Well, I downloaded the latest release before writing this suggestion after having made some real bad experiences with the cheetah release of eclipse - and I found your warning after my system crashed severely several times

Considering that I added the enhanced CTabFolder support after seeing your suggestion, I am guessing that you are using the latest release - 1.

[CrystalPalace]

I downloaded now the 2004.07.10 release and I can see the CTabFolder properties that I wanted

Thx!!

So, I havent check for the status line, but this helps me a lot so far

[admin]

Yes, in my opinion a status line should be available in a JFace ApplicationWindow, but it could also be useful when creating a plain SWT application using the wizard

org.eclipse.jface.action.StatusLine class is package private.
In reallity I am not sure that it is possible to do something useful with status line with Designer. IMHO status line is useful in such complex applications as editors, IDE, etc. I.e. in places that in any case require much manual coding.

You can easy implement something like status line using Composite with one or more Label's.

[CrystalPalace]

What I was thinking about is that you select a "status line" control in Designer, place it anywhere e.g. in a JFace ApplicationWindow and Designer takes care of creating something like the following:

Code: Select all

//field declaration
   private StatusLineManager mgr = new StatusLineManager();


and

Code: Select all

   protected Control createContents(Composite parent) {
      Composite container = new Composite(parent, SWT.NONE);
      container.setLayout(new BorderLayout(0, 0));
      {
         final Control statusLineControl = mgr.createControl(container);
         statusLineControl.setLayoutData(BorderLayout.SOUTH);
         mgr.setMessage("Test");
      }
      //

      return container;
   }


I often use StatusLineManager when e.g. a long-term op is running and the use of a ProgressMonitorDialog is not possible because it would hide a important part of the app which is constantly updating.

Since it is only a suggestion, I would prefer to have some easy kind to implement that, but I can also code that manually
It would be nice to have that since Delphi and the rest apps provide an easy way to create Status lines-maybe you can spend some time thinking about how to integrate taht

[Eric Clayberg]

Second, do you plan the integration of a status line control? SWT offers the creation of status line via StatusLineManager, so i would appreciate some way to click on a "status line" control, place it and designer creates the necessary code for me

In the context of JFace ApplicationWindows or something else? We could certainly add StatusLineManager support to ApplicationWindows, but I'm not sure it would make sense in any other context.

StatusLineManager support has been added to JFace ApplicationWindows in the new v2.0.1 2004.07.11 build.

If you create a new ApplicationWindow, the constructor will now call addStatusLine() and a createStatusLineManager() method will be created. You will be able to set the status line text (and image) in the property pane. If you have an existing ApplicationWindow, you should add the call to addStatusLine() and then call setStatus() or getStatusLineManager().setMessage().