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[udig-devel] GeoWidgets update
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Hi developers,
Major changes are ongoing in GeoWidgets and I feel I should inform. So lets
start:
1. Widgets update
The first thing to say is that I had some time over the last three weeks and
have spent it partly on GeoWidgets. More specifically I have started to create
JFace preference pages for
(a) CRS selection
(b) styling
and fixed some bugs in existing (SWT)widgets.
The CRS selection page is a combination of the uDig concepts (list and WKT) and
my former property view. All three together should provide everything a user
needs: From a filterable list for starters, over a sophisticated widget for
selecting/building CRS without knowledge of WKT up to the WKT text field for
the guru.
Styling pages under way are a "Simple" page (somewhat similar to the one in
uDig) and a page for styling remote sensing images/coverags (channel selection,
stretch selection).
All these pages are "PreferencePage" (not PropertyPage!) based, so there is only
a dependency to JFace/SWT but not on any "higher" Eclipse plugins, which I
consider good for a set of widgets that should be usable outside Eclipse RCP.
Also some of the pages contain widgets that could be used separately in any SWT
app, outside any preference pages or such.
Speaking about being generic. I've developed a method so all these pages are
model-driven. That is, they do not know that they are interacting with, lets
say a GeoTools, GeoAPI or whatever style. This is not easiy, given that f.e.
different style implementation have different capabilities. The idea is that
the page contains the UI and allows the model to directly access the UI, f.e.
to set the values when the page is initiated (or to set some widgets invisible)
and to get the values from them when the user presses "OK".
No, this is not MFC and I am not yet sure the solution I have chosen is good.
But it seems to work as a start and it is slim and intuitive for RCP
developers. Plus it avoids the need to create a whole buch of interfaces for
each single page.
To Jody: You told me some time ago that you had something to contribute to
GeoWidgets. If it is related to the styling dialog (ColorBrewer?), now is a
good time. Pleas contact me with the details so I can make a judgement of the
steps involved for integrating it and can help you. Note the points below.
2. Major library refactoring
GeoWidgets is under a major structural redesign. It is interesting to see what
one has had for strange ideas, when looking at code after some months/years
from some distance ;-). Anyway, I've put the classes into four plugins now.
Package names, logging and some other things changed.
3. SVN
Due to the major redesign (see above) the current GeoWidgets SVN
(http://svn.geotools.org/geotools/trunk/spike/geowidgets/)
should be seen as outdated. If anyone has modified code please commit now and
tell me(!) so we can find a solution for integrating it into the modified
codebase.
As you probably have noticed, SourceForge is now supporting SVN. Therefore my
plan is to put the whole ScienceGIS stuff there as soon as I have brought it
into a more or less releasable state and have become with their SVN support.
My intend is to do the redesign and the switch to Sourceforge in one step.
(Don't ask me about a date yet. But it will likely not be before uDig1.1.).
4. Testbed
My Eclipse RCP knowledge has advanced quite a bit during the last month, which
enabled me to build an own CRCP Eclipse application, which now serves as a
testbed for most of the SWT-based GeoWidgets. However If uDIg adopted some of
the wizards ("in mid term"?) it would definitely not hurt to get feedback from
this side, since it would give me an idea how easy/difficult it is to deploy
them.
Oh, speaking of deploying: I don't have that much experience with the deployed
plugins, so I wonder if .jar files created from plugin projects can be used in
the same way as "normal" .jar libraries by external (non Eclipse-based)
programs. Or would I have to create two versions of GeoWidgets: one as plugins
and one as normal libraries?
Guess I shoud simply try this...
---
Matthias Basler
c9bama@xxxxxxxxxxx
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