Extension user interface design

Hi all,
I'm looking into how Adobe can help developers make their extensions look better integrated with the Creative Suite.
Probably the most common request we've heard in the past is for an improved Creative Suite Flex theme SWC.
Do you have any further thoughts/feature requests in this area?
I would be particularly interested to know whether you use CSXSLibrary to get the host application's skin information. If you do, does the API provide sufficient information to customise your extension's appearance effectively? If not, is there anything you'd like to see changed in the API for it to be useful to you? Here are the classes currently available:
AppSkinInfo - accessible through CSXSInterface.getHostEnvironment()
AppReskinEvent - dispatched when a CS app changes its appearance.
All feedback much appreciated.
Thanks
David.

The intention is to make the preloader (that's the generic loading bar that displays for a few seconds when the panel first opens) for your extension to be completely invisible.
That will make it take the colour of the content behind it, which is the default panel colour for the application. You could also change the colour of the preloader, to match the eventual one of the panel, or you could create your own preloader SWF.
You can find more information on preloaders for Flex 3 at http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=app_container_4.html and a tutorial on creating your own at http://www.leebrimelow.com/?p=916
Best,
James
From: Adobe Forums <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Reply-To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 20:25:59 +0000
To: James Boag <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: Extension user interface design
Re: Extension user interface design
created by softsign<http://forums.adobe.com/people/softsign> in Creative Suite SDK - View the full discussion<http://forums.adobe.com/message/4114198#4114198

Similar Messages

CS5/CS4 GUI User Interface Design

I have always been very unimpressed with the user interface design on Adobe CS4. It's riddled with problems and changes that make no sense and offer no advantages.
For example, there is no longer a normal Windows title bar in many of the CS4 apps. This makes it much more difficult to maximize/restore applications since normally a Windows user could simply throw the mouse to the top edge of the screen and double click the title bar. In fact, doing this with CS4 apps has ZERO function (it doesn't do anything). One would think that by moving the menu commands to the top bar of the window chrome, Adobe would make these menus accessible from the top-most edge of the screen in order to increase usability. Unfortunately this is not so and clicking the top most edge of a maximized window does nothing.
Two other very important parts of an application user interface are the upper left and upper right corners. Normally when a Windows application is maximized, throwing your pointer to the upper right corner and clicking will close the application. Throwing the pointer to the upper left corner and clicking will reveal the application window menu. This happens in ALL applications... EXCEPT for Adobe CS4 programs. These two extremely important application window command locations have been completely disabled in Adobe CS4 apps. Clicking the upper most corner pixels in a maximized Adobe CS4 app does nothing.
Then there's the tabbed document window interface. If you float a document window and maximize that, normally you would expect it to become maximized within the application window as it should. Au contraire, in Adobe CS4, the document window maximizes itself ON TOP OF the application window, thus obscuring and disabling any access to the application window's tools/commands. I did report that as a bug during beta, but obviously it was ignored. Seems kind of obvious to me that the fact that a user could accidentally make the entire application completely unusable by maximizing a document window might be a problem.
It still alludes me as to why Adobe changed the CS4 user interface to something that breaks so many Windows UI conventions. Adobe CS3 was a practically perfect user interface design on Windows. It was very customizable, all of the normal Windows functions were properly in place.
What's the deal with the change?
I thought maybe the file menu was moved in place of the title bar in order to make more room for other UI elements, but it's actually pretty much the same size as the old file menu title bar combination in CS3.
With all these changes and with all the functionality losses, what exactly have we gained in the CS4 GUI? Seriously, I'm asking.
Anyway, I hope Adobe starts reading the Windows User Experience Guidelines (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511331.aspx) and brings CS5 back to the way a Windows application should behave. Proper theme adherence would be nice too.
Which brings me to Windows 7. I love love love the way Windows 7 groups application document previews in one taskbar icon and allows aero-peek for open windows. Adobe CS 4 obviously does not support this since it does not have normal document windows. I hope CS5 does because it is a great feature. I also hope Adobe CS5 implements the Windows 7 jumplists and maybe even a more touch/multi-touch friendly interface. I've become pretty good at processing photos in Bridge using the touchscreen, and it's very cool, but it could use some improvements.
For an example of great user interface design, has anyone tried Office 2010 on Windows 7 yet? http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090512/screencaps-office-2010-technical-preview-teched- 2009-keynote/
The faded transparent title bar and tabbed ribbon interface is absolutely gorgeous.

@Adam:
I agree with your comments! So well said!
And there are other issues, too -- by the color of the app window, you don't know if the window is active or inactive (focus or not in focus). Titles of panels which are inactive, are dark text over dark background -- hardly readable at all... And many more.
I really hope Adobe are listening...

How much do you get paid annually for this job User Interface Designer?

how much do you get paid annually for this job User Interface Designer?

Apple probably will not discuss salaries even for specific jobs other than with applicants. If you wish to discuss salaries, you'll most likely have to apply for a specific position and then get beyond the initial screening.
This issue has nothing to do with Apple Remote Desktop, the topic of this forum, by the way.
Regards.

Why hasn't Adobe navigation and user interface design improved as much as it could have over time?

I haven't tried CS6. I'm sure it's great based on what i've seen alone. But as a user of adobe products for a number of years, i have to noticed there are still a lot of stagnant,awkward, stiff, irriating, slowing down elements found in the navigation and user interface on cs3-cs5, that i'm sure could have been eliminated or improved on at least from 2005 or 2007 onwards. I find some of these things inexcusable and unprogressive from bad traits that defined 1980's and 1990's general computer navigation and so on.
CS5.5 has lessned this a bid bit and is more fluid in bits and pieces but for those using cs3-cs5 and in general, i find some things just horrid. As a graphic designer no one is supposed to admit the flaws or irrations of these programs. We must hail them as god, never critisize, and always adjust to new things which i think is a bit fascististic and silly
The way the tools, options are laid out can be improved to be quicker, and easier to find and use. Using your voice as a commanding system would be helpful as well.
A lot of cmds are too complex to remember, they can be simplier or resemble the name of the tool or option. Its makes a chore to follow this system and competition for the smart *** who memormized all the cmds.
The way in which you loose floating side boxes, and the amount of tools or names hidden in the bars sometimes seem random and its always a constant search to find them incase you forget where they are.
The inability to open cs4 or 5 files in cs3 is just beyond extremly annoying. Whey shouldn't you be able to open cs1 or 2 files or photoshop 9 files as well? Every five years work expires as well?
The layering system gets tricky and seems that a lot of things don't work when you normally move things. Its about going back, remembering and clicking on this or that, looking it up to make everything work. Sometimes which leaves you in a rut and wastes a good amount of time. You will always find this even after you've been using it for years.
The use of the fill paint/airbrushing, clone tool, lasso tool, pen tool, history being two steps back can be vastly improved to be much better to use
Masking and tools that have more complex features should find a way be automatically done or sampled. They can also have less complex steps and tha ability to be previewed, automatic or simpler ( in case you can't remember how to do something or aren't getting it)
A lot of the special effects, and blending modes are useless, outdated, super-ugly and don't resemble true darkroom effects ( such as polarization, and bas-relief for example) which they could much more vividly done. There also could be more options that are closer to repro cameras/CTP software for halftoning and more complex digital effects.
Having to press or get used to pressing muliple keys or clicks for the most basic things simultaneously can be reduced to be easier
Adjusting text, new documents, photos should have a smoother, quicker navigational experince where things a lot of room to be , clicked back, re-done, saved in the wrong place etc..
Indesign could use more shapes, include more features that illustrator has, and possibly even photoshop to save time.
There should be a way to remind you of features, complex things you've forgotten, other than history and daily usage/practice of the programs
The help should resemble more of "visual -learners" guide books with voice features.
There are a lot more
Regarding other things:
I think the price encorages more piracy and allows people to not have a concept of what is means to owning software.
The loss of a manual or lessening of them for certain programs is a loss because it's always useful to physical info you can flip through while looking at your program.
I think adobe should make entirely better products for professionals or people in the industry rather than spoonfeeding the same software to all.
They should also make less expensive add-ons like before for graphic software.
What do you adobe could have improved over time and if so what do you think they could have improved on?

You have this wishform to suggest improvements to Adobe products:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
and the Creative Suites forums are here:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/creativesuites
This specific forum is only for discussions on the forums themselves, so you are not very likely to get any change by posting your comments here.

Graphic Designer / User-Interface Engineer Job Opening

Title:
Graphic Designer/User-Interface Engineer
Job Qualifications:
- Must be an innovative Graphic Designer/User-Interface
Engineer
- Minimum 4 years experience developing web-based user
interfaces
- Expert knowledge of Adobe graphic design applications such
as Flash, Photoshop, and Illustrator or alike products
- Experience with Adobe Flex and ActionScript3
- Has a proven track record designing and documenting
high-quality user interface designs for web-based applications
- Possesses a strong visual design sense and general design
principles
- Has some background in object-oriented design and
programming
- Able to work effectively from a remote home office
- Has excellent interpersonal and communication skills and
collaborates well in person, online, or on the phone
Job Description:
This position offers an opportunity to work on high-end
graphical design projects building rich Internet applications for
Fortune 500 client companies in industries like financial services,
software and consumer products. As a User-Interface Engineer, you
will be expected to:
• contribute strong leadership through all phases of
development including functional requirements development, UI
design and documentation
• analyze and establish functional requirements and
specifications using feedback from clients and other developers
• apply your visual creativity and functional
experience to design elegant and responsive web user interfaces
with Adobe Flash (Flex expertise desired)
• support other developers to ensure successful
implementation of the designs
• create appropriate documentation during development
Candidates will be expected to provide a portfolio of their
graphical design work in zip files or URL links for review.
- Can be based anywhere in the U.S.
- Up to 25 percent travel time required
- Work on-site and from home
- 3 to 6 month engagement with potential for perm placement
If you are looking for a new exciting opportunity, please
reply with your resume attached to [email protected]. Thank
you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Kevin Bakhmutsky

Kevin,
Are you only looking for a Graphic Designer or do you have
other openings that could be filled by a Flex person with a J2EE
background?

Best way to create user interfaces

Hello Everyone,
So far my work with sap NetWeaver development was on the background processes but now i need to create some user interfaces, i read there are more than one way to do this like jsp, HTMLB , WebDynpro , and some others i think.
Can you give me some advises (and guides if it's possible) about what can i use?
The user interfaces must have the same look and feel as the SAP modules. I need to include some uploadcontrols, table views with sorting and paging features, buttons, list box, options buttons, check buttons, etc.
Also i need to send emails on demand and a task scheduler to send remaining by email.
Is there a user interface designer like dreamweaver or something like that to create user interfaces?
Hope you have some time to help me.
Regards.

Webdynpro java is best solution in userinterface devlopment
check the below links.
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/40239f38-a94a-2b10-c583-9b89187c3856
Send Email in webdynpro for java
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/91/9c2226df76f64fa7783dcaa4534395/frameset.htm
SDN RSS Feeds spider using WAS Timeout Service
webdynpro sample tutorials
Now it is located under the link https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/documents/a1-8-4/web%20dynpro%20sample%20applications%20and%20tutorials.htm.
Koti Reddy

3rd gen User Interface

[This is a slightly toned down and otherwise amended version of a review I posted elsewhere earlier today.]
The new iPod was my first specialised MP3 player purchase, last night. Considering the allegedly superior User Interface design of Mac products, I’m not really that impressed.
Most of the music I listen to is classical, and the whole MP3 industry needs to sort out some fundamental naming problems for classical tracks. For a 2CD-box containing one Mahler symphony, I have two “Albums”, one for “GustavMahler; Symphonie No. 2; Abbado, Chicago SO”, the other for “Mah; Sym 2; Abbado, Chicago SO”.
First requirement: a relational database with a single ID for each composer, work, conductor, orchestra, etc. etc. Preferably with each work categorised as Symphony, String Quartet, Opera, etc. and the ability to have a number and/or name for each - so that “Manfred Symphony”, “Symphony No. 6″, and “Symphony No. 6 (’Pathetique’)” are all possible. Major benefit: only one person has to know how to spell “Shostakovich”. Ideally, each language gets its own versions of names for both people and works. I can amend the album titles in iTunes, but I have to do so once for each track (why, I have no idea - all tracks started with the same album title - what sort of lunatic would want to set different album titles per track?). Later loading up of a 4-disk boxed set of Beethoven quartets and a 2-CD of Verdi's Otello produced similar stupid title differences.
Second requirement: recognition of CDs 1 and 2 (and up...) as part of the same 'album'. I’m really looking forward to putting the Ring cycle on there.
Third requirement: a Work/Disc/track hierarchy, that deals with more than one work on the same CD and more than one CD for the same work. Then we can stop having those idiotic track titles like “Strauss (R), 4 Last Songs, Op. posth. - Im Abendrot” where everything except the song title is the same on 4 different tracks and there isn’t enough screen width to see the parts that are different. Oh, and then the addition of “Work” to the categories like “Album”, “Playlist” and so on.
The same kind of tripe is served up in Windows Media Player, but as I had to download a whole new 50 Mb app just to put CD tracks onto my iPod, Apple seem to have had the opportunity to do that “right thing” that you’re supposed to be experts at. Guys, you missed it!
Back in the user interface of the player itself, if I’m playing an album in that old fashioned “track 1, then track 2, then track 3″ way, I sometimes wonder what track’s coming up next. Finding out means MENU click, move down to Music, and select it, move to and select Albums. Now find the album that’s currently playing (for which you have to remember what it’s called - there’s nothing else to tell you which album is currently playing). Select it, find the little icon that shows which track is playing, and then read the line below. Then repeat most of this tedious operation backwards to return to where you were. Back in the stone age, you just picked up the record sleeve and looked. Even worse, someone at Apple decided to use a huge chunk of screen space for the album cover pic that I don’t bother downloading. “Next track: Ruhe, Meine Seele” - that’s all we need. Far more useful than a pic of a couple of quavers/eighth-notes.
The there's the joyous discovery that having not spotted the opportunity at some point in initial set-up, I'm stuck with that boring name "Owner's iPod" for the rest of the products life.

I apologise for that. Your conviction sounded so strong I thought it a shame to try to correct you.
To be a bit more helpful, you can select multiple tracks and set their album (along with various other properties) all at once. In the same way, you can set the "disc number" for the tracks so that multiple discs are seen as part of the same album.
You can also rename the iPod as you please (though I can't remember exactly how - try right-clicking/Cmd-clicking on the iPod's name), so you're not stuck with that silly name forever.

Book recommendation - user interface hardware

Hi all,
Could you please recommend me a book related to user interface design and hardware related knowlege? That will also be helpful.
Thanks
Need recommendation for hardware and software
Hi all,
I am doing a project related to current control.
The purpose is to keep the current at constant. So I measure the current and get the value; and send a analog signal to tell our machine to discharge or to charge in order to keep the current at constant. I need to write the program to give analog signal to machine based on the current input.
Also, the machine can communicate with user. User can monitor the machine operation statuse and current level, etc.
I want to use LabView to program, since it doesn't cost a lot of time. I saw there is LabView RT LabView FPGA, etc. I am confused whether all of these are just diffrent function for LabView or different software. Which one I should use?
For hardware, I have no idea what is compactible with LabVeiw. What I should use?
I am totally new to this. I'll appreciate a lot if anyone can give suggestions.
Thanks

Hi,
In terms of books specific to GUI design there was one written by David Ritter, LabVIEW GUI - Essential Techniques but I'm pretty sure it's out of print. A very good book to get started with LabVIEW is 'LabVIEW for Everyone', by Jeffrey Travis and Jim Kring. This is the one that I picked up when I was plunged into the deep end and had to start building applications in LabVIEW. I still use it now because it covers a bit of everything and is usually enough to point me in the correct direction even if it doesn't have all the answers.
In terms of your other questions, LabVIEW RT is a real-time version of LabVIEW normally used for things like CompactRIO or PXI chassis hardware. The FPGA add on is for programming FPGA's such as the backplane in the CompactRIO device. The big advantage of both of these is that they avoid the need to use WIndows, MacOS or Linux which when dealing with critical rig control or aquisition can be a big plus. The bad side is that the hardware is more expensive and there's an additional software cost. For a simple application such as yours these would be serious overkill unless they're highly critical.
For the applications I run I use the LabVIEW Developer suite coupled with National Instruments hardware and compile executables that run under Windows. This does mean that I have to add in code to cope with situations when Windows decides to crash, or do something odd, but reduces the cost significantly. In your case it appears you have a single station controlling a simple process so the world is your oyster. The lowest cost option would be LabVIEW basic version running on a PC using a USB DAQ - cheapest that can output analogue signals is a USB-6008 but these are quite limited in their capabilities. I tried to use the slightly higher spec version (USB-6009) to run a lashed up test rig for a short period and had lots of problems because I was using the digital ins, outs, counter, analogue ins and outs all at the same time - it appears you can use any one quite happily up tot he stated performance but it complains when you try to use all together.
If your budget permits then the USB-6211 is a better choice in my opinion. You can look up the specs and prices for your location at www.ni.com
If you're a student then you can get LabVIEW at a very much reduced cost.
Hope this helps.
Paul
Regards
Paul
CLD running LabVIEW 2012 32 & 64 bit on Windows 7 64 bit OS.

How to design the user interface for Indesign cs6 plugin ?

Designing user interface using custom c++ library(SDK) for pluging is very tedious work .so when I search the net than i found that we can do it using Adobe Creative Suite Extension Builder but i dont know how to use it to develop user interface for plugin and to how to enable event handling in this UI .I read lots of document regarding this on net but they all created lots of confusion in my mind so can anyone help me to know steps which i must follow to develop plugin using this or whatever technology (action script,java script etc)

If you want to develop Extensions using Creative Suite Extension builder then i think this is not the right forum for you. Please post your specific queries regarding this at the below mentioned link
http://forums.adobe.com/community/creativesuites/cs_sdk
To give a brief of how to develop UI using JS you can use ScriptUI to develop your UI, it is a fast and OS independent approach to UI development. The UI created using JS is native in look. You can refer the following link for some help on ScriptUI
http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/scriptui.html
I don't have much info regarding development in CS SDK, but i can point you to one more direction of dev called as hybrid plugins wherein the UI is created in CS SDK, and appropriate methods are exposed from the C++ plugin(enhancing the script object model) to be called up by the CS code for too and fro communication between these two modules of code.
Hope these pointer help you in getting started.
Thanks,
-Manan

Problem in designing user interface

Hi
I am new to weblogic workshop.Please guide me regarding designing user interface.I had tried form weblogic help but i wasn't able to do it .I am giving the whole form below .i need to finish it asap,please reply
" REQUESTOR INFORMATION(with black background)
Date Phone no
Requestor Name Phone NO
Alternate contact name
{all text boxes}
WEB APPLICATION INFORMATION(with black background)
Applicatiion name
Description
{text boxes}
environment A() b()
{check boxes}
INFORMATION OWNERS(with black background)
NAME TITLE
1
2
SSO GROUPS(black backgound)
some more fields)
SUBMIT BUTTON
{SHOW BUTTON}
the following fields are hidden ,they get showed only after i press SHOW BUTTON
RECEIVED BY
TICKET NUMBER(any random number generated)
COMPLETED BY
{all text boxes}
Looking forward for a favorable reponse from your side

Maverick
It is not possible to post the codes for your requirement.Also you have not mentioned whether you want to use this web app for portal application or simple web application which will be running on weblogic server.
If you are using portal application
the JSPs will be the part of JPF(Java Page Flow)
If you are using web application
You have to create jsp in weblogic workshop.
You can use weblogic workshop help to do that
Also you can find help on www.edocs.bea.com
Regards
Bishnu

Forms 10g Design Rich User Interface

Dear All,
i would link to design rich user interface in forms 10g.
for example : the button shape is circle , not only
rectangle.
Is it possible to do that in forms 10g or import some java object from third party tools.
best regards
borisys

Borisys,
the concept of Pluggable Java Comnponents (PJC) allows you that. PJC only change the UI of a component without affecting its functionality.
The Forms demos that are available on otn.oracle.com/products/forms contain enhanced buttons in teh form of mouse over effects.
Frank

Designing web user interface

Hi experts,
can anybody tell me something about designing web user interface, like some of the key considerations? I did not successfully find it on our forum.
Thanks.

hi Joey,
do you mean web template ?
check
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/749a4622-0a01-0010-36bf-b6b30a2a3a22
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/docs?rid=/webcontent/uuid/a8cd1f71-0a01-0010-4783-f119b6132d25 [original link is broken]
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/1a/456a3badc1b315e10000000a114084/frameset.htm
hope this helps.

Controlling user interface settings on LiveCycle Designer ES4

How can you control the user interface settings on LiveCycle Designer ES4?

The problem you descibe has nothing to do with the PDF security settings.
If you have added scripts in the fields calculate event or set their access property to readOnly or protected you won't be able to change a fields value.
Ypu can check the current access setting in the Object palette under the Value tab.

'Design Patterns' for Application User Interfaces

I'm currently trying to unstick an architectural mess centred around a relatively simple user interface. The problem is thus:
The application has a number of toolbar buttons and menus, some of which require a specific frame or class of frame to be enabled. Some conditions are quite simple, others more complicated.
(Without going into any more detail, it should be possible to appreciate that this is a fairly common problem.)
For this application, I've created a large listener that accepts events from all over the program, converting them into state changes for UI controls. It feels messy, and (although it isn't finished) I suspect it'll be rather fragile.
JBuilder 4 does it by constant querying of application state - but this results in excessive CPU usage and apparant lag.
TogetherJ does it for menus by checking state immediately before showing the menu. This seemed like a good plan, but it's unsuitable for the Action/Button/MenuItem lashup I like to use.
My question is this:
In your opinion, how should an application be structured to reliably maintain the correct UI state at all times?

Check out the mediator pattern. It is pretty close to what you are describing, maybe the details you dig up on it will give you some new ideas?

User interface threads

Ok let's say you're writing a user interface and nothing involves
special-resources like a daqcard so there's no constraints on using things
at once. These are some kind of stupid questions and ideas but I'm really
not sure how to write a quality app with user interface at the moment.
My current design is bad, it is a mainVI which checks the menu and
frontpanel buttons, decides which operation or calculation (if any) is
selected, and sends that to a case structure to perform the operation.
This is sloooow but the most common way in examples that I've seen. The
major problem is that while processing the interface isn't checked and
therefore mouseclicks might be lost. Let's say the processing takes like
500ms on average, that is kind of slow between user-interface querys so it
would feel unresponsive in the mean time.
So here's my three ideas so far, I'd love some comments on what will be FAST
and what would be worthwhile to spend my time on:
1. Leave the app as-is, latch the booleans. However you can't latch
mouse-clicks on a picture indicator that I knew of. I emailed NI before
about this and they just suggested adjusting execution priorities. Anybody
else messed around with this? Probably the worst option, but would take zero
programming.
2. Divorce the user interface and the processing. Create two parallel
while-loops in the same VI, one checks the buttons/menu on the front panel
the other processes the request or calculation. Let's say on average UI
checking takes 1.2ms and processing takes about 500ms. Also in this case is
the watch icon still really my best option (since checking buttons/menu only
takes like 1.5ms on average) for not wasting time repeatedly checking when
there's no input and dividing up cputime accordingly? Seems like there'd be
some overhead in switching back and forth repeatedly.
3. Going all-out and changing to somewhat of an object structure. That way
the UI could create a new "execution" refnum, maintain some list of created
objects, process, return values, destroy any object, so everything could be
going on in parallel. That way one slow calculation won't bog down the rest
of the things the UI requests. The idea is far too abstract to me at this
point, but on a single CPU w98 system is it even worth my thinking about
such a structure? I get the feeling I'd see zero performance change between
the two, in fact maybe worse from any labview thread overhead!
Thanks for any comments. I have seen DAQ intensive apps discussed often, but
don't usually catch much on large user interface apps.
-joey

Hi Joey
First check are you are not recalculating the values on ever iteration of the user interface loop but are you only recalculating
on any change in the user interface values.
Otherwise I would use idea No. 2 but with these changes.
1. Only check the whole user interface every 200-300ms, 1.5ms loop time will unnecessarily load the CPU.
2. Each user interaction could be given a string representation and then placed in a queue to wait for the calculation loop to
have time to process it.(So the user instructions are not lost)
3. Have separate loops for faster and slower calculations (or more) with each having their own queue.
4. The extension to the idea's of having separate loops, is to have each loop in a separate independently running VI (see
VIserver). Still use the queue's to pass the data. This method would allow the calculations and the user interface to run on
separate threads and also lets you alter the execution priority for each VI to fine tune the execution times.
Following these instructions you would produce a basic client-server architecture for your user interface, as long as the UI
doesn't require too many slow calculation results before continuing then this should work well.
If this is still not fast enough then, if you have used suggestion No.4, the calculations can be moved off the users computer to a
faster server (using VIserver) also assuming they are networked.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Tim S
Joseph Oravec wrote:
> Ok let's say you're writing a user interface and nothing involves
> special-resources like a daqcard so there's no constraints on using things
> at once. These are some kind of stupid questions and ideas but I'm really
> not sure how to write a quality app with user interface at the moment.
>
> My current design is bad, it is a mainVI which checks the menu and
> frontpanel buttons, decides which operation or calculation (if any) is
> selected, and sends that to a case structure to perform the operation.
>
> This is sloooow but the most common way in examples that I've seen. The
> major problem is that while processing the interface isn't checked and
> therefore mouseclicks might be lost. Let's say the processing takes like
> 500ms on average, that is kind of slow between user-interface querys so it
> would feel unresponsive in the mean time.
>
> So here's my three ideas so far, I'd love some comments on what will be FAST
> and what would be worthwhile to spend my time on:
>
> 1. Leave the app as-is, latch the booleans. However you can't latch
> mouse-clicks on a picture indicator that I knew of. I emailed NI before
> about this and they just suggested adjusting execution priorities. Anybody
> else messed around with this? Probably the worst option, but would take zero
> programming.
>
> 2. Divorce the user interface and the processing. Create two parallel
> while-loops in the same VI, one checks the buttons/menu on the front panel
> the other processes the request or calculation. Let's say on average UI
> checking takes 1.2ms and processing takes about 500ms. Also in this case is
> the watch icon still really my best option (since checking buttons/menu only
> takes like 1.5ms on average) for not wasting time repeatedly checking when
> there's no input and dividing up cputime accordingly? Seems like there'd be
> some overhead in switching back and forth repeatedly.
>
> 3. Going all-out and changing to somewhat of an object structure. That way
> the UI could create a new "execution" refnum, maintain some list of created
> objects, process, return values, destroy any object, so everything could be
> going on in parallel. That way one slow calculation won't bog down the rest
> of the things the UI requests. The idea is far too abstract to me at this
> point, but on a single CPU w98 system is it even worth my thinking about
> such a structure? I get the feeling I'd see zero performance change between
> the two, in fact maybe worse from any labview thread overhead!
>
> Thanks for any comments. I have seen DAQ intensive apps discussed often, but
> don't usually catch much on large user interface apps.
>
> -joey

Extension user interface design

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