Overview
Dialog Designer is an IDE packaged
with the Custom
dialog activity. It provides developers a graphical interface to easily
design custom dialogs to be used within a task and helps to create a more
effective, user-friendly environment, tailored to their specific needs.
With Dialog Designer, you can
create your own input forms, organize related tools in separate windows,
add buttons directly to a view or layout and link what's displayed in
a dialog directly to your data. It encompasses
a modern dockable interface design similar to Visual Studio or Eclipse
and supports a large number of controls. Each control has properties that
you can view or edit from within the property grid, including control
name, position, size and behavior. Controls also have events you can bind
to your own script functions.
During construction, custom
dialog definition is stored into an XML file. When you save the dialog,
the Dialog Designer creates another XML file containing all the commands
needed to create the dialog and all of its controls. When you are finished
designing your custom dialog, the generated XML files are ready to be
included into any task.
Dialog Designer's toolbar comprises buttons, controls and other
elements intended to provide fast access to the most commonly used
design tools, such as height, width and alignment controls. Most of
these functions are also available through the menu system. The specific
functions required to use each control vary depending on the operation
currently being performed. Available toolbar buttons are displayed
below.
Dialog Designer can be invoked directly from the properties of the
Custom Dialog activity. Developers have the option to create a new
layout or edit an existing layout embedded within the task (.AML)
file or previously saved to an external (.XML) file.
To Create/Edit a Custom Layout
- From the General
properties of the Custom Dialog activity, select from one of two
options contained in the Location
of layout parameter (step 1 displayed below):
- Layout
is embedded in task file - If creating a new custom
dialog, selecting this option will save the layout definition
as code embedded directly within the current task (.aml) file.
If editing an existing custom dialog, selecting this option
allows changes to be made to the layout embedded within the
current task file.
- Layout
is located in an external file - If creating a new
custom dialog, selecting this option saves the layout definition
to a .XML file located externally. If editing an existing
custom dialog, selecting this option allows changes to be
made to an existing layout previously saved to an external
.XML file.
- Press the Edit
Layout button to open the Dialog Designer interface (step
2 displayed below).
- Add controls to the Design Grid by choosing
them from the Toolbox. This can be done a few ways:
- Drag the desired control from the Toolbox
onto a specific location on the Design Grid.
- Select (highlight) the desired control
from the Toolbox then click a specific area on the Control
Grid in which to place the control.
- Edit a control's properties by selecting
them from the Properties panel and performing desired modifications.
- To save changes, select File> Update or
press the Save icon
located on the toolbar.
Two things can happen depending on whether
the layout is saved to an external file or embedded in the task:
- If the layout location is set to
external file, a Save
As dialog opens allowing you to select the file name
and location of the external XML file.
- If the layout is set to be embedded
in the task, this procedure will automatically insert the
proper code onto the task (AML) file.
-
To close
the Dialog Designer, select File
> Close.