[Qgis-developer] printing branch ready for testing

[Marco Hugentobler]

Hi Tim,

Good. I'm going to move the files into the corresponding dirs before merging 
the branch to trunk.

Regards,
Marco

Am Donnerstag 21 August 2008 07:42:23 schrieb Tim Sutton:
> Hi Marco
>
> 2008/8/20 Hugentobler  Marco <marco.hugentobler at karto.baug.ethz.ch>:
> > Hi Tim,
> >
> > I think most of the composer classes are reusable for plugins. Is your
> > idea for the new quickprint plugin that it automatically places the items
> > on the composer and user interacts with composer gui or that it directly
> > prints to a pdf or similar format? I think both would be possible with
> > the new composer code:
>
> Yes my idea is that the layout is created programmatically based on a
> template (e.g. legend to the left, map to the right, scale underneath)
> and the user merely clicks a button and a selects a few options (in
> current implemnetation map title and page size). The user would not
> interact with QgsComposer at all. I had planned to create a number of
> layout templates the user can choose from (for one day in the future).
>
> > A plugin could create an instance of QgsComposition (that is a subclass
> > of QGraphicsScene now). Then the plugin adds items programatically to the
> > scene (e.g. QgsComposerMap, QgsComposerScaleBar, ...). Those items are
> > separated from the configuration widgets now, so can be used also by
> > plugins or even non-gui related code.
> >
> > Then the plugin configures a paint device and a QPainter and calls
> > QGraphicsScene::render to draw the map.
> >
> > I think that even QgsComposer and QgsComposerView could be moved to gui
> > such that plugins can use the composer gui.
> >
> > So I suggest to move the following classes to core/composer:
> >
> > QgsComposition
> > QgsComposerMap
> > QgsComposerPicture
> > QgsComposerLabel
> > QgsComposerScaleBar
> > QgsComposerLegend
> >
> > and QgsComposer and QgsComposerView would go to gui.
>
> Right this is exactly what I had in mind with my previous post. In
> addition I will try to build some unit tests for the parts that live
> in core...
>
> > In the QgisInterface class, there could be a method that returns a
> > pointer to the composer of the current instance such that plugins could
> > add their own buttons/item types.
> >
> >
> > But I must admit that I'm not familiar with the quickprint code and maybe
> > there are some technical problems I didn't consider.
>
> Well I would probably rip out most of it and replace as much as
> possible with calls to code in core/composer and or gui/composer. The
> key thing for now is to get the non interactive bits into core or gui
> (and probably build SIP files for them too so pythonistas can play too
>
> :-).
>
> Best regards
>
> Tim
>
> > Regards,
> > Marco
> >
> >
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: Tim Sutton [mailto:tim at linfiniti.com]
> > Gesendet: Mi 20.08.2008 23:16
> > An: Hugentobler  Marco
> > Cc: John C. Tull; qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> > Betreff: Re: [Qgis-developer] printing branch ready for testing
> >
> > Hi Marco
> >
> > One thing I also wanted to ask - some time ago on this list we
> > discussed the mapcomposer overhaul and one of the ideas was to provide
> > a separate library component (to go into gui lib) and then a part in
> > app that makes use of this and handles user interaction. Is this still
> > possible? I would like to update the quickprint plugin to use your new
> > composer code but from basic looking through your changes I dont see a
> > way to do this without refactoring composer stuff. Failing that I will
> > probably try to repair it or remove it or disable it (since it has
> > been broken since render context stuff came into trunk I think). I
> > think there is still a strong usecase for having something like
> > quickprint where users basically press a button and get a print ready
> > map, so in an ideal world I'd like to not remove it. Do you have any
> > thoughts on the matter?
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > 2008/8/20 Hugentobler  Marco <marco.hugentobler at karto.baug.ethz.ch>:
> >> Hi John,
> >>
> >> I'm going to give it a try tomorrow on the old G4 in my office.
> >>
> >>>Is it possible, or planned, to be able to move map items to the
> >>>forward or backward? In other words, to be able to arrange map items
> >>>to bring them to the front of another item (drawn on top) or to place
> >>>them back in the draw queue. I hope that makes sense.
> >>
> >> Yes, this is one thing that I plan to implement before feature freeze.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Marco
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> >> Von: John C. Tull im Auftrag von John C. Tull
> >> Gesendet: Mi 20.08.2008 19:55
> >> An: Hugentobler  Marco
> >> Cc: qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> >> Betreff: Re: [Qgis-developer] printing branch ready for testing
> >>
> >> On Aug 16, 2008, at 8:31 AM, Hugentobler Marco wrote:
> >>> Hi qgis devs,
> >>>
> >>> The printcomposer branch is ready for testing now. The branch is
> >>> available with svn:
> >>>
> >>> svn co https://svn.osgeo.org/qgis/branches/advanced_printing_branch
> >>>
> >>> I'm going to compile windows binaries next week so that it is also
> >>> possible to test for non-developers. The plan is to merge the
> >>> printing branch to trunk prior to feature freeze for 1.0 (25. August).
> >>>
> >>> Regards,
> >>> Marco
> >>
> >> Marco,
> >>
> >> Is it possible, or planned, to be able to move map items to the
> >> forward or backward? In other words, to be able to arrange map items
> >> to bring them to the front of another item (drawn on top) or to place
> >> them back in the draw queue. I hope that makes sense.
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
> >
> > --
> > Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release Manager)
> > ==============================================
> > Visit http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
> >  * QGIS programming services
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> >  * FOSS Consulting Services
> > Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
> > ==============================================



-- 
Dr. Marco Hugentobler
Institute of Cartography
ETH Zurich
Technical Advisor QGIS Project Steering Committee