Is there any UWP "pattern" or maybe just some tips for a data entry form that is geared towards allowing the user to enter a series of numerical fields quickly/efficiently? We are creating a tablet-only app (so WUP may not have been the best choice, but due to circumstances beyond our control we're committed). There's one form where the user will enter 10-12 numerical values in rapid succession.
Our users will likely use an external keyboard. I'm a newbie, but am inheriting a fairly functional incomplete application to finish. We've been throwing around ideas like a number-pad keyboard which is locked visible somehow and/or maybe tabbing through the controls? Not sure if any of this is possible via UWP. Would appreciate any guidance or reference sites! I'm sure we're not the only ones working this problem...at least I hope not!
TIA!
You could use a TextBox with InputScope set to Number to display a numeric on screen keyboard. If your numbers are of known number of digits - you could automatically switch focus once a proper number of digits is entered. You could also provide +/- buttons if the numbers are small. The NumericUpDown control in WinRT XAML Toolkit has the +/- buttons and can also change values by sliding up/down or left/right on the entry box. Since we're talking about sliding - the platform's Slider control allows you to select values by sliding a slider.
Related
I'm writing a GUI in python, and using tkinter. I'm having trouble settling on an approach and need guidance.
Background: there's a server (not a webserver) that wants to present a lot of information to users, and let them edit some of it. It needs to send down information that a (relatvely) dumb python client uses to fill the window. Read only fields are Labels. The fields are generally single line Entry widgets, but some are multiline Text. There are some buttons, checkboxes and dropdowns. Asynchronously, the server can also update widgets, add them and remove them. In some cases, there are tables presented, to which the user needs to be able to add and remove rows.
The real problem is, the layout is dense and chaotic. The first row might contain 3 dropdown fields. The next might be 20 short Labels. The next might be a single long Entry field, and then I might want two tables (of different lengths) side by side,and then etc.. Based on user input of external factors, widgets, rows or entire tables might have to be dyamically added, or vanish.
I considered Grid, but it's unusable. A row with a single, long entry widgit in it, makes the first column wide and thereby pushes 12 of the 13 columns in the next row right off the window.
I considered Place, but this app will run on 3 different operating systems and users will be able to select their own fonts, so I'll never get the positions right. If there was some way to ask a widget how big it was, I'd happily use that to compute my own layouts in pixels, but it's apparently impossible to ask the size of a widget until AFTER it's been laid out by a geometry manager, which of course is too late.
So what I think I'm left with is Pack, where each row is its own frame, and some of those rows have tables (grids) in them. But I'm concerned that that means lots and lots of frames to render, and some of the users are on old, slow hardware. Plus... it looks just plain complex.
Am I missing a better way? Grid would be fine if I could convince it to stop trying to make columns line up. Place would be crunchy, but ok, if I could get the size of each widget in advance. Is placing within a lot of frames really the best I have?
Short answer, there's no better way; and the frame count isn't high enough to cause performance problems; so generating a frame per row is what works.
I'm trying to create an orbiting menu. For that it needs to follow the user around
but it also needs a follow threshold for the user to interact with every corner of it.
From a design perspective (Hololens, Hololens 2, MR,...) is it a good idea to have a floating menu?
Menu design in XR is a complex topic so maybe deserves its own question as suggested by Julia.
In short, we've seen mixed results in our user testing with floating menus. They "work" in the sense that the user can always access the menu even while walking around in experiences that cover large areas.
If your experience is confined to a smaller space, I'd recommend looking into another interaction paradigm, either using a wall, table or floor placed interaction menu.
If you do want to be able to roam freely, a floating menu may be the answer. You can then use a basic tagalong script or configure a solver (body lock) like in this example by Dong Yoon Park (under section Solver System): https://medium.com/#dongyoonpark/open-source-building-blocks-for-windows-mixed-reality-experiences-hololens-mixedrealitytoolkit-28a0a16ebb61
My PyQt application pulls data from third party API calls. The dataset returned usually contains in the neighborhood of hundreds of items. On occasion, the dataset returned contains in the tens of thousands of items. On those occasions, the interface is painfully slow to display - too slow to be useful.
To speed things up, I would like to load less of the data during the initial load. I would like to be able to populate the interface based on the scrollbar handle position. I would prefer that the scrollbar have the correct range as soon as the widget is displayed, but as the user scrolls, the data that they should be seeing is populated into the widget (a QTreeWidget in this case). This is to say that I'd rather the user didn't have to scroll to the bottom of the widget to load more data at the bottom & therefore change the range of the scroll bar.
I believe QSqlTable behaves this way out of the box, but because I'm not relying on sql queries (and because some of the columns' data is calculated by the GUI), I don't believe I can use that module. Is this possible with QTreeWidget and w/o direct sql calls?
There is built-in functionality for this in Qt model-view framework. See QAbstractItemModel.canFetchMore() and QAbstractItemModel.fetchMore() here
Oh, I've just realised you aren't using MVF but stand-alone QTreeWidget instead. If you are dealing with large data and require such a functionality, a switch to MVF may be a right thing to do.
Apologies if there is a thread for this already, I couldn't find one that I could get my teeth into.
Anyway, I'm new to WPF and want to create a custom control that will be a sort of graphic control. The graphic will always consist of a circle, containing a matrix of several squares (from several hundred to several thousand actually) The squares need to respond to mouse click and mouse over events (and ideally be possible to navigate/select via keyboard.) Each square will represent an object I've coded.
In the past I've used a grid control to display the coloured squares (with VCL in CBuilder) but I would like to make a graphical version. (Actually, another question I'd like to ask is, is there a WPF grid control where I can set the colours of individual cells?)
The question is, where to start? Do I start with a canvas and draw on it? Do I derive from an existing object? I'm just a little lacking on ideas on implementation so any pointers or advice you can offer will be greatly received.
BBz
First off I would suggest getting a decent handle on WPF and how it approaches the problem set. It is vastly different from previous .NET Desktop technologies such as WinForms. Once you have a decent understanding in regards to the separation of logic from UI and how WPF approaches the problem then you can dive in and begin making the right decisions based upon what you encounter.
The problem you mention can be solved in multiple ways. In regards to your question about making use of a Grid, that could be done as that is a layout type. It is vastly superior to the Canvas in terms of arranging your visual structure. The defined rows/columns are nothing more then containers which can hold varying UI objects. Therefore pushing a Rectangle into the Grid and coloring as desired would give you the effect you are looking for. This Rectangle could then become a custom control which would allow you to define varying properties on, as well as specific triggers for mouse overs, etc...
At a higher level you will want to encapsulate this logic as a UserControl which will also hold your custom control. Perhaps the UserControl contains the Grid which will make use of your custom control.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas around how to get started, however getting a better understanding of WPF will help you immensely in achieving your goal.
I work for a ticketing agency and we print out tickets on our own ticket printer. I have been straight coding the ticket designs and storing the templates in a database. If we need a new field adding to a ticket I manually add it and use the arcane co-ordinate system to estimate where the fields should go and how much the other fields need to move by to accomodate new info.
We always planned to make this system automate with a simple (I stress the word simple) graphical editor. Basically we don't forsee tickets changing radically in shape any time soon, we have one size of ticket and the ticket printer firmware is super simple because it's more of an industrial machine, it has about 10 fonts and some really basic sizing interactions.
I need to make this editor display a rectangle of the dimensions by pixel of the tickets (can even be actual size) and have a resizable grid which can toggle between superimposition and invisibility on top of the ticket rectangle and represented by dots rather than lines.
Then I want to be able to represent fields by drawing rectangles filled with the letter "x" that show the maximum size of the field (to prevent overlaps). These fields should be selectable, draggable and droppable in a snap to grid fashion.
I've worked out the maths of it but I have no idea how to draw rectangles and then draw grids in layers and then put further rectangles full of 'x'es on top of those. I also don't really know much about changing drawn positions in accordance with mouse events. It's simply not something I've ever had to do.
All the tutorials I've seen so far presume that you already know a lot about using the draw objects and are seeking to extend a basic knowledge of these things. I just need pointing in the direction of a good tutorial in manipulating floating objects in a picturebox in the first place.
Any ideas?
For those of you in need of a guide to this unusual (at least those of us with a BIS background) field I would heartily endorse:
https://web.archive.org/web/20141230145656/http://bobpowell.net/faqmain.aspx
I am now happily drawing graphical interfaces and getting them to respond to control inputs with not too much hassle.