Custom property editor

[domfe]

I'm trying to add a custom property editor.
The property stores an instance of a widget present in the designer,
like "control" property in LayoutData.left.
How can I provide such a list? Can I make it with an innerClass editor?
Can I reuse an existing editor?

Thank you.

[Eric Clayberg]

SWT Designer has built in support for properties with widget data types, so you just need to have an accessor pair for the property.

Object properties like that are considered "advanced" so you should also turn off the advanced property filter in the property pane.

[domfe]

The property work like expected with an SWT source but I'm using an XWT file
and the property is not shown.
Do I have to write something in the *.wbp-component.xml?

Thank you.

[Eric Clayberg]

We have not seen general support for custom properties like this in XWT.

The support in FormLayout for attachments is very specific to that layout.

Please provide a compete, working XWT example that illustrates how this should look.

[domfe]

Code: Select all

<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="test.Example2" text="XWT Application" layout="{x:Null}">
   <MyText control="{Binding ElementName=label} bounds="10, 10, 76, 19"/>
   <Label text="New Label" bounds="10, 76, 49, 13"/>
</Shell>


I want that the text of the Label is the same as the MyText control.
I will be able to add a Listener in MyText that get "control" property and
set text on it. The Label is not known at the time of implementation of MyText.

Thank you for your answers.

[Konstantin.Scheglov]

Can you confirm that this code really works?
There are problems in XWT (not Designer) with using forward references to the controls in the FormLayout attachments.
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=316815

Code: Select all

<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="test.Application_3" text="XWT Application" layout="{x:Null}" xmlns:p1="clr-namespace:test">
   <Label text="New Label" x:Name="label" bounds="10, 76, 49, 13"/>
   <p1:MyText control="{Binding ElementName=label}" bounds="10, 10, 142, 44"/>
</Shell>

[domfe]

I'm not using FormLayout but anyway...
This works:

Code: Select all

<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="it.test.Example2" text="XWT Application" layout="{x:Null}" xmlns:p1="clr-namespace:mydesign">
   <Label text="New Label" x:Name="label" bounds="10, 76, 49, 13"/>
   <p1:MyText myProperty="{Binding ElementName=label}" bounds="10, 10, 76, 19"/>
</Shell>


This don't works because the object Label isn't in memory when XWT calls setMyProperty.

Code: Select all

<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="it.test.Example2" text="XWT Application" layout="{x:Null}" xmlns:p1="clr-namespace:mydesign">
   <p1:MyText myProperty="{Binding ElementName=label}" bounds="10, 10, 76, 19"/>
   <Label text="New Label" x:Name="label" bounds="10, 76, 49, 13"/>
</Shell>


But I don't see why you have disabled a features already present in the editor.

Bye.

[Eric Clayberg]

This don't works because the object Label isn't in memory when XWT calls setMyProperty.

Doesn't that strike you as a serious problem? Or do you only intend to reference controls defined prior to the current control?

I don't see why you have disabled a features already present in the editor.

I don't know what you mean. We haven't "disabled" anything. The Java parser/editor and the XML parser/editor are not the same thing. They have some similarities, bu there are also considerable differences. SWT and XWT also do not overlap 100% in capabilities, so you should not assume that because a feature/functions exists in the Java UI editor that we can or will add it to the XML UI editor. We have already seen many cases where XWT offers only a subset of SWT's full capabilities. If you choose to live in the XWT world which is far from mature (unlike SWT), you are choosing to live with those limitations.

Also, to be brutally honest, XWT support is very low on our priority list (relative to SWT support, for example). Until XWT matures a bit and we see more than a couple of actual users, I don't see that changing much.

[domfe]

Thank you Eric for your reply.

Or do you only intend to reference controls defined prior to the current control?

Yes!

I know that SWT is better but my work is focused on XWT. So, there's something I can do (innerClass
or other) to have a choice from the controls already present in my XWT file?

Thank for your time.

[Eric Clayberg]

We have added support for object properties like this in the latest 8.1 build...

http://code.google.com/javadevtools/dow ... -beta.html

Keep in mind that object properties like that are considered "advanced" so you should also turn off the advanced property filter in the property pane

[domfe]

Hi Eric and thank you for your time.
My component works well with SWT but still doesn't work with XWT.
Here's a snippet of my component.

Code: Select all

   private Label myProperty;

   ...

   public void setMyProperty(Label myProperty) {
      this.myProperty = myProperty;
   }

   public Label getMyProperty() {
      return myProperty;
   }


Also, the Advanced properties button is pressed.
Thank you again.

[Eric Clayberg]

What exact build are you using?

Can you provide a complete teest case?

[domfe]

Product Info
Product: WindowBuilder
Product Version: 8.1.0.r36x201012090854[201012090854]
For Eclipse Version: Eclipse 3.6

I've attached the java source. I put the xwt code inline because the forum web interface doesn't load my file (Example2.xwt).

Code: Select all

<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="test.Example2" text="XWT Application" xmlns:p1="clr-namespace:test">
   <Shell.layout>
      <RowLayout/>
   </Shell.layout>
   <p1:MyComponent/>
   <Button text="Double click me!"/>
</Shell>


Regards.

[Eric Clayberg]

Give this a try using the latest build...

http://code.google.com/javadevtools/dow ... -beta.html

[domfe]

Nice work! The latest build shows my property correctly.

Many thanks.