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Text Box Controls

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:50 am
by amoore
It would be really useful to have pure VG text box controls within the application. I am looking at a new application and reviewing whether VG can be used. Having worked with VG for a previous project I really don't think it would be suitable without this feature.

Of course common controls can be embedded within a picture but this is not ideal because we need to rotate and translate the text that has been input on the screen.

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:02 am
by Frank Hileman
Hello Andrew,

Do you need to rotate the text box, or some text after it is entered?

Thanks,

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:04 am
by amoore
I need to let user type text into a text box just like the common control with all the wrapping functionality etc. I then need to be able to rotate the text box with the text within. I will also require searching functionality no matter if it is rotated or not. I am sure you can understand why I would not want to write this all from scratch. I have previously tried to write combo controls and list controls but it takes too much time and I ended up just embedding a common control within a picture. This sort of approach would not work for this new requirement.

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:32 am
by Frank Hileman
Hello Andrew,

It sounds like at some point, people need to edit the text, have a cursor etc, when the text is rotated right? It is not static. In this case yes you need a true vector text box. But in terms of usability, well I guess you are aware of the problems there.

Someone has created CustomElement text boxes, I am asking him for some advice.

Thanks,

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:00 am
by Frank Hileman
We are going to add a vector text box, but I cannot predict the schedule. So for now I can send you the name of someone who has done it already.

Thanks,

Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:22 am
by amoore
Yes the text needs to be edited in place whether it is rotated or not.

Thanks for the name. If this person is willing to share their code then I can review what they have done and see if it fits our requirements.

Of course having a vector text box and a basic set of controls for people to use would be really beneficial to your product. Generally I found it did everything I needed and I was quite satisfied embedding common controls in pictures. However some can be annoying such as the datetimepicker. You cannot change the color on the drop arrow even when tinkering with the windows code behind the control.

Thanks for the help and please keep up the great work.

Andrew

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 1:32 am
by J. Dunlap
Hi Andrew,
The textbox I created has all the features that a normal plain textbox has and then some, and would work with VG.net coordinate space features including rotation, scaling, etc. Unfortunately it was written for pay for a client and has tie-ins to the proprietary VG.net-based control framework I wrote for them (it uses themes, automatic layout, a special keyboard focus/input system, etc).

I plan to write and make publicly available a plain text box, and soon after, a rich text box, in the future that that don't use the proprietary framework, but at the moment I cannot afford to spend unpaid time on it. If you need something like that right away and are willing to pay to have it developed, I can write something fairly quickly.

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:04 am
by amoore
Hi J,

Thanks for he prompt reply. I am just reviewing technologies at this present time for an application that will hopefully be started next year. This feature though is a must and if nothing is available when the application is started then I am sure the company I work for could provide some compensation for your time.

I myself would have no problem paying for VG components. I really like the framework but with a lot of these applications spending time writing controls adds far too much overhead.

Andrew

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:59 am
by lazarus
I agree that a VG.NET native textbox would bevery useful... however it also opens up a can of worms, as you really need a whole control suite if you start developing in this direction.

My application has a need for textboxes, dropdown lists, checkboxes and radio buttons. At the moment, I'm just overlaying windows forms controls and this works ok. It does have some problems with overlap, as my application supports z-order and the windows forms controls are always on top of the canvas.

I have also been planning to write a library of controls for VG.NET, but haven't got around to it yet.

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:20 am
by J. Dunlap
Frank and I are working on completing the design for layout and focus support in VG.net. Once that's done and Frank has added that into the library (I don't know how long or short that will take), I will port my layout algorithms so that they work with the intrinsic layout support, and then will immediately start work on a control library. I will start out with simple controls like textboxes, buttons, progress bars, color pickers, and scrollbars, and then will do list, tree, grid, toolbar, calendar, menu, and other controls. All will have easy support for themeing and data binding, and the more complex controls will have support for item and view templates. I'll make these available in a commercial library. The target date for a first release is the middle of next year.