Section: 5.3.2 Example UI Manager

5.3.2 Example UI Manager

We're going to look at how to extend the Example user interfaces.

From a terminal window cd to the example apps directory:
cd /home/idv/idv/ucar/unidata/apps/example

View the idv.rbi file: less idv.rbi
and note the skin entry:

  <!--The different user interfaces available  -->
  <resources name="idv.resource.skin">
    <resource
       location="/ucar/unidata/apps/example/resources/skin.xml"
       label="Example>Example UI">
     <property name="view_class" value="ucar.unidata.idv.MapViewManager"/>
    </resource>
  </resources>

We're going to change the example skin.
- cd into the resources directory and bring up the skin.xml in an editor.
- We're going to add a label above the view. Change the following xml:
```
           <idv.view place="Center" class="${view_class}"/>
```
  To:
```
        <panel layout="border" place="Center">
           <label text="Example Skin" fontsize="24" place="North"/>
           <idv.view place="Center" class="${view_class}"/>
        </panel>
```
- Test this real quickly with the XmlUi: java ucar.unidata.ui.XmlUi skin.xml
- If it is correct then run the example idv: java ucar.unidata.apps.example.ExampleIdv

Note that this skin is not the default.

Go up a level to the example directory.

Edit the idv.rbi file and add the property line to the skin entry:

<property name="default" value="true"/>

e.g.:

    <resource
       location="/ucar/unidata/apps/example/resources/skin.xml"
       label="Example>Example UI">
     <property name="view_class" value="ucar.unidata.idv.MapViewManager"/>
     <property name="default" value="true"/>
    </resource>

Save the idv.rbi file and run the ExampleIdv again.
Note that there are still the system skins available.
- Go back to the example idv.rbi file and add a loadmore="false" to the resources tag:
```
<resources name="idv.resource.skin" loadmore="false">
```
- Run the ExampleIdv again. Note that there is only the example skin.

Now, one more thing. Lets write a little Java code.

Go to the example skin.rbi and change the label tag you added to be example.label:
```
<example.label text="Example Skin" place="North"/>
```
Bring up the ExampleUIManager.java in an editor.
Look for the doMakeIdvXmlUi method. Notice we create our own IdvXmlUi object. So far it does nothing.

Lets add some code that can handle this tag. e.g.:

public Component createComponent(Element node, String id) {
    String tagName = node.getTagName();
    if(tagName.equals("example.label")) {
        JLabel label = new JLabel(XmlUtil.getAttribute(node, XmlUi.ATTR_TEXT));
        label.setForeground(Color.red);
        return label;
     }
     return super.createComponent(node, id);
}

Compile and run the ExampleIdv

Clean up our changes. Remove the loadmore="false" attribute and the default property from the idv.rbi

One more thing, let's look at the ExampleUIManager again and see how we can skip this whole skin thing if needed.

Look at the method:

    public IdvWindow createNewWindow(List viewManagers, boolean notifyCollab,
                                     String title, String skinPath,
                                     Element skinRoot) {...}

This method is responsible for creating the GUI windows in the IDV.

Note the code in there that allows us to skip or not skip the skins:

        if(!testNewWindow)  {
            return super.createNewWindow(viewManagers, notifyCollab,title, skinPath, skinRoot);
        }

Unidata IDV Workshop for version 3.0u1 > Java Developer Topics > IDV User Interfaces