Re: XUL Tag Plugins

Hi Blake,

It is possible to define custom tags with children.
Take a look at the jbeantable custom tag on the
luxor-contrib.sourceforge.net site.

cheers,

Denis

--- Blake Williams <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm not sure XBL is a valid solution for luxor
> because I don't know the  
> luxor code well enough to know if it fits the
> overall architecture. XBL  
> is like its own xul document, including scripts,
> with a single api to a  
> parent xul document. All components's api's in the
> xbl document are  
> represented as a single api. XBL components manifest
> themselves in the  
> parent document as a tag <MyComponent/>, but it can
> pass through child  
> components as well
> <MyComponent><image/><MyComponent>. I think there  
> are 2 aspects to xbl that may be useful in luxor:
> 
> 1) it is a way to add new component dynamically i.e.
> post compiling
> 2) It defines how to handle children
> 
> For example, if the element <PhoneField> can have a
> child component,  
> i.e. <image/>, then in the xbl document you can
> define where a child  
> can/should be rendered.
> 
> in xbl:
> <PhoneField>
> 	<children includes="image"/>
> 	<text/>
> </PhoneField>
> 
> in xul:
> <PhoneField>
> 	<image src="ok.gif"/>
> </PhoneField>
> 
> This would allow an image to be placed before the
> textbox, maybe  
> indicating a valid/invalid number. The reason for
> scripts in the xbl  
> document, is that you can define an accessor for
> PhoneField,  
> PhoneField.value which returns the value of the
> textbox's value,  
> without having to know the implementation of the
> PhoneField component  
> e.g.(an image and text component). This may be
> beyond the luxor  
> framework now or the future plans for luxor, but I
> thought it may be  
> useful background.
> 
> I don't think a full implementation of xbl is
> appropriate, but some  
> concepts, especially the idea of children may be
> appropriate. Compared  
> to the idea of having an object tag, using an xbl
> derivative may be  
> overly complicated, as the object tag is more
> straightforward, but I  
> thought it was worth mentioning. I could see in
> luxor, an xbl  
> derivative that could define new tags, but also
> assign a Java component  
> to be used to render that tag as specified in the
> xbl document, as well  
> as be able to wrap a set of predefined xul
> components to create new,  
> more complex components.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Blake
> 
> On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 05:48 PM, Gerald Bauer
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Sam,
> >
> >> I know about tagdef, and I have a DTD for
> Luxor-XUL,
> >> I don't know where
> >> I got it, or if I made it myself.  I thought it
> came
> >> with Luxor-XUL.
> >
> >   I put together a DTD for Luxor last December as
> far
> > as I remember and it's up on the luxor-contrib
> site.
> > However, it's only a snapshot and incomplete and
> it
> > also can't handle inline XHTML.
> >
> >> The problem with tagdef is that verifying it can
> be
> >> a problem.  If it
> >> were something closer to:
> >>
> >> <tagdef class=net.sf.something.PhoneField"
> >> name="phone"/>
> >> <tag type="phone" id="phone1" color="red" />
> >>
> >> , then you could verify it much easier.
> >>
> >> In any case, since Luxor-XUL is open source, I'm
> >> betting in a lot of
> >> cases, like the phoneField, most people would
> >> benefit from extending and
> >> sharing, but there is always going to be some
> >> component that only you
> >> need, and no one wants to make the whole library
> >> larger just for you. :)
> >>
> >> It's certainly something that probably should be
> >> thought out, but maybe
> >> the advantages of verification aren't as large as
> >> the work involved.
> >
> >   I agree that something needs to be done so you
> can
> > check if your XUL documents are valid. For now,
> > however, it's a low priority for me. Anyone who
> want's
> > to work on it is welcome.
> >
> >> I looked up the XBL spec on the W3C site.  It's
> >> pretty much your
> >> standard <!ELEMENT > <!ATTLIST > kind of tags.
> >> Embedding the entire DTD
> >> in the document would be silly, and I don't think
> >> there is a standard
> >> (at least I didn't see one) that covered
> augmenting
> >> a DTD with more tags
> >> when referencing an external DTD.
> >
> >    You might want to look into Relax Schemas,
> > especially the compact syntax. DTD are pretty much
> a
> > "legacy" and not a good choice for newer stuff.
> >
> >> Maybe I'll stop being so lazy and try to hack in
> the
> >> ability to do it
> >> this way as well, that way my verification
> scripts
> >> won't complain about
> >> tagdefs.  :)  I want to be able to give the GUI
> >> designers what they need
> >> to make a good GUI without bothering me to code
> it
> >> in Swing.  It would
> >> just make the entire process more effecient.
> >
> >   Again your contributions are welcome. I hope to
> get
> > Beta 9 out soon.
> >
> >> I am very impressed and appreciative of the fact
> >> that you considered
> >> WebStart when making this project though.  How do
> >> you plan on keeping it
> >> that way with SWT, or do you?  I've never heard
> of
> >> packaging native
> >> libraries in a Web Start application, so I would
> be
> >> interested in
> >> knowing how to do this.
> >
> >   Please, check the mailinglist archive for an
> answer.
> > For a start you might wonna read the IBM
> > developerworks article titled "Deploy an SWT
> > application using Java Web Start" @
> >
>
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-jws/
> >
> >   - Gerald
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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> > 01
> > _______________________________________________
> > luxor-xul-user mailing list
> > [email protected]
> >
>
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/luxor-xul-user
> 
=== message truncated ===


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|Denis Cardon, Tranquil I.T. Systems 
|10 rue du Docteur Bouchard, 49400 Saumur
|Tel: +33(0)2.41.67.56.99
|Web: http://www.tranquil-it-systems.fr
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