I have an application with tons of windows (frames and dialogs) made with wxWidgets XRC. I'm preparing to convert all generated screens to HTML to make an web version, before doing it I would like to know if someone knows a tool for doing so, convert XRC resource to a bunch of DIVs, INPUTs, CHECKBOXes, TABLEs, etc., so I don't need to reinvent the wheel :)
To the best of my knowledge, no such tool exists and, to be honest, I have trouble understanding how one could be written considering that:
wxWidgets layout model based on sizers is very different from the typical layout models used on the web, so you would need to find a way to reimplement it in CSS first.
wxWidgets provides a much richer set of widgets than standard HTML, so you would also need to have a JavaScript library implementing many of them.
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As a front-end designer converting designs (PSD, Sketch, AdobeXD, ..etc) to dynamic HTML pages manual. I'm using bootstrap framework with jQuery library.
When I started this job it took long time to convert the designs to html, after that the time decreased because the work becomes classic and it is routine. But every design is different and I start from the scratch using bootstrap component then adding my override CSS and JS.
I wondering if there is tools or ideas to improve my work and do things faster??
What I know is that I can create my own JS or CSS codes that I use
usually (common things). Then, I can include these files all projects
that I'm working on.
I need other tools and ideas to use.
There are different front end starter tools (boilerplate) which you may use as a basis and write you code on top of them each time.
Also consider remove bootstrap if you need everytime to override it, as you said.
It is better to have less dependencies for sure.
Also try to write your html/css as like you create page full of components, which are independent. Use CSS BEM methodology and try to make components as reausable as you can.
In that into mind you may create something like your own library / framework of most used common components between projects and just to include them everytime.
You may provide simple customization via CSS native variables or LESS/SASS ones with help of mixins.
Does anyone know if I can integrate GrapeJS into my own website so clients could build their own websites using it? IF anyone has done this, how easy is it and are there downsides?
This question is pretty open ended, but I'll take a shot at it.
The short answer is yes, you can use Grapesjs to allow clients to make their own sites; however, the details matter.
Grapesjs by default doesn't know anything about your stack, website structure, metadata, etc. You will need to either supply plugins or implement those features yourself. I've worked on a project for a company that used Grapesjs to implement single page apps and I'll include just some of the tweaks we had to manage.
Hiding certain layers that only confuse average users.
Hiding pretty much all of the styling, and using traits to allow people to pick from some predefined styles.
Take the html, css on store and generate the final html page, and store it in our static serving folder on the server.
Implement a wrapping "App" component that has traits for the different metadata we want users to control (open graph metadata, title, etc)
and those are just the big things, I'm sure I am forgetting several small ones.
For your application, you'll also need to implement a custom trait for links / buttons that allows you to link from one "page" to another. As well as, a way to allow a user to pick which page to work on.
The long answer is Yes, but Grapesjs is only the starting point.
Yes you can.
However it is not straightforward.
If you want to build a Drag Drop Editor like GrapeJS Demo, here is the Source Code - https://github.com/artf/grapesjs-preset-webpage
You can see an implementation at https://codegres.org/dragdrop
I plan on making an advance form system cms for company use. The options I found are WPF, winforms or to render it in HTML on an offline application.
I have varying level of experience with the first 2 but the third one I never came across until recently while researching this topic but (unless I'm poorly searching for it) I can not seem to find much info for it. I also need this system to dynamically create each form via code.
My question is for my situation, which would you choose and also explain a little more about HTML rendering method and how to create this type of system.
We aren't building your system so can't advise what you should do
Winforms
Pros
Classic structure so easy to pick up if you are familiar with classic desktop development
Cons
Rigid structure controls functions and appearance are closely coupled meaning doing anything none standard is difficult
WPF
Pros
Loosely Coupled function and appearance, this means that you can customise pretty much every element of the controls similar to CSS
High automation level, binding is built in as a fundamental function
Cons
very different to Classic structure as MVVM style is almost required, trying to do anything with out it is a very bad idea, meaning it can be hard to pick up
HTML
Pro
Easy to build for anyone familiar with Web development
Con
HTML is designed to be used online this means that any offline html system will require you to reinvent the wheel to circumvent the normal online behaviour (if you go down this route I would highly suggest an online intranet site rather than a offline system)
I'm looking to implement drag & drop in MSIE (must be, a bonus for other browsers, but just "nice to have").
I'm looking at a sort of drawing package - let's say flowcharts for example. The user can drag flowchart elements from a palette and position them in the browser. When complete, I will need to know the type and position of each element, probably some other data too.
Can this be done? If so, what's the most powerful technology to do so? HTML 5? Ajax? JS? Something else?
Short version: I would recommend JQuery UI (A javascript framework), this will make your life easier. As for other components, you are free to stack it up from server-side to client-side components depending on your needs and most of the times depending on your preferences.
[update] The long version: Personally, if I would start a useful website with a back-end, I would use Java as my PL of choice since I'm familiar with it, SQL for my persistence, and make it a Web 2.0 site, like what you want to achieve which is a rich internet application (drag and drop, dynamic content, etc). I would normally make use of Java (JSP, Servlets) but use Grails framework (Groovy, GSP, Groovlets), SQL DB (like MySQL, SqlLite, etc), Ajax, HTML, CSS, Javascript (JQuery as my JS framework). Eclipse would be my IDE to program and integrate all of these components.
Some people would prefer to use Python, others PHP, some .NET, Ruby on Rails, etc. Like what I said, it is very subjective. If you already have a field of expertise, then I suggest you stick with it, but if you are starting from scratch, it's basically a choice of the easiest learning curve for you because different Programming Languages can and will satisfy your needs.
For the front-end you have Flash, Applets / JavaFX, Javascript, etc. The problems with Flash, Applets or other embedded media are 1) heavy on resources 2) compatibility, but the clear advantage is that they are more robust because you can do so much more with these technologies in arguably a smaller amount of time. But if you want to use one of these, you have to seriously think about your target audience e.g. for Flash, iPad and iPhones cannot display them at all (except if you installed the unofficial "frash" which supports a bit of flash content).
I believe what you want to do is highly feasible even if you just use Javascript, and again, I will strongly recommend that you use a framework that can readily satisfy your needs (like drag and drop) so that 1) you'd worry less about cross-browser compatibilities, 2) you won't have to reimplement them and 3) fix many unexpected bugs along the way. But this is the general idea if you are developing a software, if the framework or library already exists, use it (just be extra careful with licensing though but this is another topic) :)
disclaimer: rum + coke = awesome
use javascript, that's all you should need to have drag n drop for elements. for example : http://flowchart.com/demo/
Summary for the impatient:
What I want to know is what you want to have in a new gui language. About the short answers mentioning $your_favorite_one; I assume you mean that, such a language should look like $your_favorite_one. These are not helpful. Resist the temptation.
I'm thinking on the user friendliness of XML based languages such as XHTML (or HTML, although not XML they are very similar), XUL, MXML and others ("others" in this context means that, I am aware of the existence of other languages and their implementations alternative to their original ones, and the purpose of the mentioning only these languages by name is, to give an idea of what I am talking about and I don't feel like mentioning any others and also, I see no point in trying to make a comprehensive list anyway.). I have some opinions about what features should such a language have;
The language should be "human writable" such that, an average developer should be able to code a good amount without constantly referring which tags have which properties, what is allowed inside what. XHTML/HTML is the best one in this regard.
There should be good collection of controls built-in for common tasks. XHTML/HTML just sucks here.
It should be able to be styled with css-like language (with respect to functionality). It should be easy to separate concerns about the structure and eye-candy. Layout algorithm of this combined whole should be simple and intuitive. Why the hell float removes the element from the layout? Why there is not a layout:not-included or something similar instead?
I know that I don't even mention very important design considerations like interaction with rendering engine and other general purpose languages, data binding, strict XML compliance (ability to define new tags? without namespaces?) but these are the points that I would like to ask what you consider important for such a language?
There will always be a tradeoff between ability and simplicity.
Personally I'm happy with the features of WPF (which uses XAML) for MS development. I dont find its complexity to be a barrier to developement at all.
However if your going to target your toolkit/language to a demographic that requires a higher degree of simplicity, you could possibly get away with leveraging an existing framework and provide the end user with a DSL specific to their needs.
Writing a new framework for the dev community as a whole is a mammoth undertaking though, and I suspect you will find that due to the wide range of features required that you will have to deal with a large degree of complexity at some point. Best of luck.
Most recent XML GUI language (not only for GUI actually) is called XAML. It has all that candies: styles, layout definition, objects initialization, etc. But it's a pain to write more or less large XAML files. Auto-completion helps but the core problem - forest of angle brackets - is not solved. Another problem with advanced XML-based GUI langs - they try to serve to several purposes at once, but XML syntax is not suitable for all situations. For example XAML supports data-binding, but why the hell I should write it in attribute string? It's first class feature and should have proper support.
IMO all modern XML-based langs suck terribly. Language intended for humans must not force it's users to write tons of brackets or do deep tags nesting. It must be user friendly, not computer friendly. My dream it to have GUI language with Python-like syntax.
In conclusion I want to say:
Dear XML-based langs authors, please be humane, don't create another language based on XML. Read some good book on Domain Specific Languages and please, don't make me type < and > symbols ever again.
You should have specified whether you mean web or rich client, but either way take a look at XAML/WPF. If you're anti-MS, then look at Moonlight, the Mono implementation of SilverLight.
I would like it to be easy to connect to any database, perform queries that return a recordset, and be able to parse and iterate easily said recordset to display its data in graphic controls, for example pie-charts, bar-charts, timeline charts (stock options like), node graphs with animation effects, all this at run time.
Easy mouse events catching, to implement any action on rollovers, mouseins, mouseouts, clicks, drag and drops, clipboard management, etc. A good infinite zooming capability would be great too.
I don't want to set a "datasource" that establishes a fixed connection between some column in my SQL query and some displayable element at design time, I want to perform any query that I want and show elements tied to any query field, anytime, in run time. I don't want to be only able to bind a datasource and displayable elements at design time.
css style capability for everything. Or something as simple and easy.
resize and layout taken care of automatically. Easy access to local files, to parse, play, display. Easy classes for image management, supporting transparency, resizing, etc. Basic and advanced classes for drawing in the screen: lineTo, rectangle, circle, animations. Even 3D.
Embedded fonts functionality. I don't want to worry about "will the user have this font installed?" Also I don't want to worry about DPI or screen resolutions.
Basic widgets: treeviews, etc.
A good designer. I don't want to add widgets writing the code. I want to place them visually in the screen.
Also, it would be good if it could connect to dlls made in C++ or COM objects in general.