External Layout Thought Bubble (RDMLX) UPDATED
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 3:53 pm
Fellow LongRangers,
Recently had an idea about how to externalise the screen logic from the application logic in my LongRange reusable parts. My goals where to be able to
* Remove 90% + of the commands in my reusable parts that deal with the look and feel (which generally take up most of the code)
* Increase the speed of developing/maintaining the look and feel
* Increase reusability of the look and feel elements
* Make it easier to switch layouts depending one need (i.e. phone & tablet), without having to either have different reusable parts or multiple if/then/else commands
Before developing this idea, I was using a reusable part to create my layouts. I posted http://longrange.lansa.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=75 this topic covering how I did it. The only issue I really found with this was still hard to change the look and feel because I was dealing with a compiled object. I was not able to just make a change and test. I had to compile first and then test.
So I created a reusable part that reads through a text file that contains the layout instructions (similar to RPG's new EZI example) and creates the LongRange property/value strings. The text file (see examples included) is arrange into three sections
<Form> - Everything here is a property of this form
<Grid> - This controls the grid layout of this form
<Fields name="XXX"> - This is a field to be added to the form with the following properties. Optionally the field can be placed into a different parent via parent="YYY"
The text files contents are transformed into LongRange instructions via a method I have called inflate. When you inflate you are able to specify the following
parent - which form or sub form do these instructions go into
index - used if this will be a repeating element, the name of the form has the index appended to it to ensure it is unique. The index is also accessible
via the %index% substitution marker.
parms - 01 - 10 values that can be passed into the layout and replace substitution markers such as %parm01%
Download and look at the examples I have created using this method, they should demonstrate the concept further. They should also show what I have found can be done thus far as I am still finding more things I can do each day. They also show how much code can be moved out a reusable part. Once out it can be reused, changed and enhanced much easier.
Remember this is just an idea I have had and it may or may not help you. I have posted it mainly to show there are many different ways in which you can build your LongRange applications. Not everything has to be in your RDMLX code.
Just note I have not tried to make this work in all situations (such as offline) yet but I believe it can be enhanced to do pretty much most things in time. Maybe you will have time to enhance it further.
Further Note : You will need RV16 and LongRange V 1.00.10
If you have any comments, queries or enhancements post them here.
UPDATED
The external layout builder has been updated to allow the following
* Add comment lines, they start with /*
* Ignore blank lines
* Allow external layout to be inflated into a popover, via the parameter intopopover (e.g. '/Form' creates '/Form.popover.type:Form')
* Basic error checking of layout and parameters usage, returned to the client app.
* Create items for Dropdowns via itemof attribute of <Fields>
Cheers
Greg Sippel
Professional Services Manager
LANSA Asia Pacific
Recently had an idea about how to externalise the screen logic from the application logic in my LongRange reusable parts. My goals where to be able to
* Remove 90% + of the commands in my reusable parts that deal with the look and feel (which generally take up most of the code)
* Increase the speed of developing/maintaining the look and feel
* Increase reusability of the look and feel elements
* Make it easier to switch layouts depending one need (i.e. phone & tablet), without having to either have different reusable parts or multiple if/then/else commands
Before developing this idea, I was using a reusable part to create my layouts. I posted http://longrange.lansa.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=75 this topic covering how I did it. The only issue I really found with this was still hard to change the look and feel because I was dealing with a compiled object. I was not able to just make a change and test. I had to compile first and then test.
So I created a reusable part that reads through a text file that contains the layout instructions (similar to RPG's new EZI example) and creates the LongRange property/value strings. The text file (see examples included) is arrange into three sections
<Form> - Everything here is a property of this form
<Grid> - This controls the grid layout of this form
<Fields name="XXX"> - This is a field to be added to the form with the following properties. Optionally the field can be placed into a different parent via parent="YYY"
The text files contents are transformed into LongRange instructions via a method I have called inflate. When you inflate you are able to specify the following
parent - which form or sub form do these instructions go into
index - used if this will be a repeating element, the name of the form has the index appended to it to ensure it is unique. The index is also accessible
via the %index% substitution marker.
parms - 01 - 10 values that can be passed into the layout and replace substitution markers such as %parm01%
Download and look at the examples I have created using this method, they should demonstrate the concept further. They should also show what I have found can be done thus far as I am still finding more things I can do each day. They also show how much code can be moved out a reusable part. Once out it can be reused, changed and enhanced much easier.
Remember this is just an idea I have had and it may or may not help you. I have posted it mainly to show there are many different ways in which you can build your LongRange applications. Not everything has to be in your RDMLX code.
Just note I have not tried to make this work in all situations (such as offline) yet but I believe it can be enhanced to do pretty much most things in time. Maybe you will have time to enhance it further.
Further Note : You will need RV16 and LongRange V 1.00.10
If you have any comments, queries or enhancements post them here.
UPDATED
The external layout builder has been updated to allow the following
* Add comment lines, they start with /*
* Ignore blank lines
* Allow external layout to be inflated into a popover, via the parameter intopopover (e.g. '/Form' creates '/Form.popover.type:Form')
* Basic error checking of layout and parameters usage, returned to the client app.
* Create items for Dropdowns via itemof attribute of <Fields>
Cheers
Greg Sippel
Professional Services Manager
LANSA Asia Pacific