[OpenLayers-Dev] Toolbar Status

[Cameron Shorter]

Apologies for my late response, I'm a bit behind on my emails.

Regarding the toolbar:

* I'm not sure if I've missed the boat for picking names, but I suggest 
using names already used by by HTML/Java/etc. This should reduce 
confusion for developers later. I'd be looking for the terms: Button, 
Checkbox, Radio.

* Regarding  setting button images and placement, it seems that a user 
would need to edit CSS? I've been tripped up on OL CSS before (ie, my 
lack of understanding of it). If you are using CSS, it would probably be 
wise to have a tutorial explaining how to use it.

* Is there an attribute like alignment="verticle/horizontal" that a user 
can set?


Christopher Schmidt wrote:
> As part of the development efforts on the vector branch, we've developed
> a toolbar functionality plan. I'm going to post some more on this, but
> we're coming down on the tail end of a ~14 hour hack session, so I'm
> just posting some of the results now.
>
> So:
>
>  http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vector-2.4/lib/OpenLayers/Control/Panel.js
>
> This panel implments a toolbar. A toolbar gathers a set of controls.
> Controls which can be put on a toolbar include any tools which include
> either:
>  * activate/deactivate -- Modal and 'toggle' tools will use this
>  * trigger -- 'buttons' (a la zoomToMaxExtent) will use this
>  
> We've already got modal tools working: The MouseToolbar code has been
> rewritten with this: 
>
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vector-2.4/examples/mousetoolbar.html
>
> You can see that the code is now only about a half dozen lines of real
> code:
>
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vector-2.4/lib/OpenLayers/Control/MouseToolbar.js
>
> If you look to the bottom of
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vector-2.4/theme/default/style.css
> you'll see where all images are defined. This means that by just editing
> CSS, you can change the position, size, and images of your toolbar.
>
> You can see this in action on
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vector-2.4/examples/panel.html , which
> overrides the CSS and displays images from different places, as well as
> using a blank div for one control (in this case, the zoombox). 
>
> This can be easily put into a seperate div: simply pass a {div:
> $('mydiv")} option into the constructor.
>
> I *think* this encapsulates much of the functionality that existing
> button bars have demonstrated. Controls continue to have their own div
> -- which can be placed inside the map or not -- and panels control the
> display of the items -- via CSS, which allows you to do funky things
> like 'hover', etc.
>
> (Some of this doesnt work in IE yet. I know.)
>
> So, the goal is to have 3 types of controls: 
>   * Button: A click triggers an action (like zoom in)
>   * Modal: Turns state on temporarily. Drawing tools  probably use
>     this.
>   * Toggles. Auto-pan might fall under this: when it's active, the map
>     responds. when it's not, it doesn't. 
>
> Do these fit all the needs address by buttons?    
>
> Regards,
>   


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Systems Architect, http://lisasoft.com.au
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5011
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254