DESCRIPTION
The module is used by the Visual Builder and "cfgmaint" programs, to maintain the Visual Builder widget palette. The installed widgets are displayed in main panel of the Visual Builder, and can be maintained by "cfgmaint".USAGE
The Visual Builder widget palette configuration is contained in two files - the system-wide "Prima::VB::Config" and the user "~/.prima/vbconfig". The user config file take the precedence when loaded by the Visual Builder. The module can select either configuration by assigning $systemWide boolean property.The widgets are grouped in pages, which are accessible by names.
New widgets can be added to the palette by calling "add_module" method, which accepts a perl module file as its first parameter. The module must conform to the VB-loadable format.
FORMAT
This section describes format of a module with VB-loadable widgets.The module must define a package with same name as the module. In the package, "class" sub must be declared, that returns an array or paired scalars, where each first item in a pair corresponds to the widget class and the second to a hash, that contains the class loading information, and must contain the following keys:
- class STRING
- Name of the VB-representation class, which represents the original widget class in the Visual Builder. This is usually a lightweight class, which does not contain all functionality of the original class, but is capable of visually reflecting changes to the class properties.
- icon PATH
- Sets an image file, where the class icon is contained. PATH provides an extended syntax for indicating a frame index, if the image file is multiframed: the frame index is appended to the path name with ":" character prefix, for example: "NewWidget::icons.gif:2".
- module STRING
- Sets the module name, that contains "class".
- page STRING
- Sets the default palette page where the widget is to be put. The current implementation of the Visual Builder provides four pages: "General,Additional,Sliders,Abstract". If the page is not present, new page is automatically created when the widget class is registered.
- RTModule STRING
- Sets the module name, that contains the original class.
The reader is urged to explore Prima::VB::examples::Widgety file, which contains an example class "Prima::SampleWidget", its VB-representation, and a property "lineRoundStyle" definition example.
API
Methods
- add_module FILE
- Reads FILE module and loads all VB-loadable widgets from it.
- classes
- Returns string declaration of all registered classes in format of "classes" registration procedure ( see ``FORMAT'' ).
- open_cfg
- Loads class and pages information from either a system-wide or a user configuration file. If succeeds, the information is stored in @pages and %classes variables ( the old information is lost ) and returns 1. If fails, returns 0 and string with the error explanation; @pages and %classes content is undefined.
- pages
- Returns array of page names
- read_cfg
- Reads information from both system-wide and user configuration files, and merges the information. If succeeds, returns 1. If fails, returns 0 and string with the error explanation.
- reset_cfg
- Erases all information about pages and classes.
- write_cfg
- Writes either the system-wide or the user configuration file. If $backup flag is set to 1, the old file renamed with ".bak" extension. If succeeds, returns 1. If fails, returns 0 and string with the error explanation.