Re: Round 1 - dynamic swixml abilities..

rendering a snippet of xml to append to insert into a container... I 
think you want the
insert(Reader, Container) method in SwingEngine

swixml does not keep track of the ui it's built per se... It does keep 
track of the objects that have an ID though. there's a Hash of them in 
there so that you can retrieve them by id.  I *think* it just adds the 
listeners while it's still working with the object and once it's moved 
on to the next object (unless it's the next one is a  child or has an 
id) it forgets about it.

as for parsing the xml: it's jdom not xmlpull.

-Kate


On Dec 24, 2003, at 4:43 PM, [email protected] wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Ok, I have the UI plugin ready to go with using
> swixml.jar, an extension point for plugins to extend
> to get "basic" swixml usage and all is building and
> running.
>
> So a few things I would like to say regarding my
> framework, then some questions.
>
> First, I want the ability for an app to decide, via a
> config file or some othe means (not yet decided) if it
> is an MDI or SDI app. Because swixml has the ability
> to generate applet or swing code, I am hoping to see
> the ui framework I am working on to do both as well,
> so if this is possible in some manner, the application
> should be able to specify this as well.
>
> When the appshell main() is called, it should be able
> to read a "core" swixml xml file to build the
> "initial" layout, based on mdi/sdi, applet/swing, and
> so forth. The "core" layout is application definable
> via the swixml xml file, allowing each application
> using my framework to decide how they wish the app to
> look, as well as the core plugins to provide with it.
>
> Now here is where I am getting a little stuck. I need
> each plugin to be able to specify things like menu
> items, toolbar buttons, windows, etc. Is it possible
> to give swixml a "snippet" of xml so that it can
> render it within the already existing UI it has built?
> If not, if I have something like:
>
> <frame id="frame" title="Swixml - Action Sample"
> size="360,200">
>   <menubar id="mb">
>     <menu id="mu_file" text="File">
>       <menuitem text="New" icon="icons/user.gif"
> mnemonic="VK_N" Action="newAction" />
>       <menuitem text="Open" icon="icons/open.gif"
> mnemonic="VK_O" Action="openAction" />
>       <menuitem id="mi_save" text="Save"
> icon="icons/save.gif" mnemonic="VK_S"
> ActionCommand="AC_SAVE" />
>     </menu>
>   </menubar>
> </frame>
>
> So, let's assume the application provides its xml that
> it passes on to swixml to render. It adds action
> listeners, etc at some points. Now, plugin A wants to
> add a menu item to menu File, item = "Open". Does it
> also need to provide the full xml like above? Or can
> it simply provide something like <menuitem id=../> and
> the swixml will know that it already has built a
> frame, a menubar and knows to use it? Does swixml keep
> track of the UI it's built.. it must if it can
> programatically add action listeners and such after
> its rendered the UI.
>
> So, in a nutshell, I need to figure out how each
> plugin can add "small" pieces to the UI puzzle at
> runtime, as each plugin might be loaded long after the
> application has started.
>
> Also, I want to "control" the window creation within
> the scope of the application by using swixml. That is
> to say, my swixml plugin will get first crack at ALL
> plugins that wish to add UI elements by way of swixml
> xml files. I don't wish to parse them myself, but I do
> wish to avoid duplicate creations, such as if two
> plugins both have <menubar ..> tags, I obviously don't
> want two of the same menubars if they reference the
> same menubar. More so, I would like to possibly
> control the menubar in such a way that plugins might
> use <menubar..> and no matter what they enter, once
> the first menubar is created, that's it, no more can
> be added.
>
> Incidentally, how does swixml parse the xml? My plugin
> engine uses xmlpull which is extremely fast and very
> small, and thus my plugin engine is only 50K in size.
> With swixml being about 50K I am guessing it too uses
> xmlpull?
>
> Thanks. Look forward to resolving these issues and
> more soon!
>
>
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