Thread: [Asunit-users] Adding custom Class Templates for XUL UI

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Hey Guys,

How would you go about adding custom Class Templates for the XUL UI?

Cheers
Matt

That's a great question Matt.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to catch that!

Unfortunately, we had to make some tradeoffs in the XUL UI in terms of
simplicity vs. features. As a result, the templates in the XUL UI are
definitely *not* as simple as they were in the Flash mxp.

If you're really itching to get in there, you'll have to know quite a bit
about XUL and certainly JavaScript.

The entities that you'll be touching are as follows:
build.sh
AsUnit.xul
script/CreateClass.js
script/tokens/TokenFactory.js
script/tokens/*

Essentially, we have broken up a class definition into it's constituent
peices and created a JavaScript class to represent each of them. The
TokenFactory should help make this somewhat more clear.

As far as naming conventions go, we have no prefix for AS2 entities, and AS=
3
prefix any AS3 entities. If you're adding another template, it would
probably be wise to prefix your new classes with an appropriate name. Check
out the AS3 implementations as your custom classes can simply "extend" the
original AS2 classes.

Once your template files have been created and the TokenFactory has been
updated, you'll need to:
1) Update the AsUnit.xul file (about line 96) to add your new template to
the Template Combo Box
2) Update the CreateClass.js onTemplateChanged method (about line 194) if
you want certain interface elements to enable/disable based on your
implementation. You can usually just add the "value" parameter from the
AsUnit combo box for whichever language you're writing the template for.
3) Check the top of the build.sh script for targets that only exist on my
machine, update them and run it using a bash shell (like cygwin if you're o=
n
windows)

Sorry for how much of a pain this is, but this was a major tradeoff in
response to more robust choices and features...

I'm sure there is a way to make this more flexible, we just haven't investe=
d
the time yet. If others feel that a more flexible template system would be =
a
high priority please let us know...

Thanks,

Luke Bayes
www.asunit.org <http://www.asunit.org>

Hey Luke,

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a go when I get 5 min's.

It would be great if a future build could support registering a custom
template without modifying the source. Perhaps an xml config file???

Cheers
Matt

On 11/18/05, Luke Bayes <lb...@gm...> wrote:
> That's a great question Matt.
>
>  I was wondering how long it would take for someone to catch that!
>
>  Unfortunately, we had to make some tradeoffs in the XUL UI in terms of
> simplicity vs. features. As a result, the templates in the XUL UI are
> definitely *not* as simple as they were in the Flash mxp.
>
>  If you're really itching to get in there, you'll have to know quite a bi=
t
> about XUL and certainly JavaScript.
>
>  The entities that you'll be touching are as follows:
>  build.sh
>  AsUnit.xul
>  script/CreateClass.js
>  script/tokens/TokenFactory.js
>  script/tokens/*
>
>  Essentially, we have broken up a class definition into it's constituent
> peices and created a JavaScript class to represent each of them. The
> TokenFactory should help make this somewhat more clear.
>
>  As far as naming conventions go, we have no prefix for AS2 entities, and
> AS3 prefix any AS3 entities. If you're adding another template, it would
> probably be wise to prefix your new classes with an appropriate name. Che=
ck
> out the AS3 implementations as your custom classes can simply "extend" th=
e
> original AS2 classes.
>
>  Once your template files have been created and the TokenFactory has been
> updated, you'll need to:
>  1) Update the AsUnit.xul file (about line 96) to add your new template t=
o
> the Template Combo Box
>  2) Update the CreateClass.js onTemplateChanged method (about line 194) i=
f
> you want certain interface elements to enable/disable based on your
> implementation. You can usually just add the "value" parameter from the
> AsUnit combo box for whichever language you're writing the template for.
>  3) Check the top of the build.sh script for targets that only exist on m=
y
> machine, update them and run it using a bash shell (like cygwin if you're=
 on
> windows)
>
>  Sorry for how much of a pain this is, but this was a major tradeoff in
> response to more robust choices and features...
>
>  I'm sure there is a way to make this more flexible, we just haven't
> invested the time yet. If others feel that a more flexible template syste=
m
> would be a high priority please let us know...
>
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Luke Bayes
>  www.asunit.org
>
>

Hey Matt,

I definitely agree... The config file or some such enhancement would
probably be much better!

I was originally thinking that the "templates" area would allow you to
simply "add custom" and then browse to a directory where your custom
templates reside. This is probably "doable", but I have no idea if it will
make it to the top of the priority list.

Does anyone else have strong feelings about support for custom templates?

Right now, the template functionality is pretty "extensible", but it's not
easy. The biggest problem is that we added a bunch of features to the XUL u=
i
that make template creation really really tricky. They have an exponential
number of possible configurations. That's why we wrote them in JavaScript
instead of the more simple regex search/replace that was in earlier builds.

Let me know if the process is too unapproachable...

Thanks,

Luke Bayes
www.asunit.org <http://www.asunit.org>

Thread: [Asunit-users] Adding custom Class Templates for XUL UI

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