Month: September 2016

ABMaterial, B4J, B4JS, B4X, CSS, HTML5, Java, Javascript, Programming

B4J: Future steps for ABMaterial

evolution

As ABMaterial has grown to a production ready framework for WebApps using B4J, I recently started a poll on the B4X forum to find out what could be the next steps in its evolution.

I came up with 3 things to do. They would require about the same develop time, but it could be useful to see what the actual users of ABMaterial would like me to work on next.

The possible choices were:

1. ABMXPlay
This is the component you have seen some demos of and will be more for game developers. It still needs a lot of attention before it can be released.

2. B4JS
The Basic to Javascript transpiler is now in its very early stages. It is a tough one to write without finishing ABMXplay first, as the ABMXPlay component would be the first to really benefit from it. The B4J core functions have been covered, but big parts of all ABMComponents need to be refactored to start using B4JS.

3. ABMaterialAbstractDesigner
A full blown Abstract Visual Designer like the one in B4J. This is NOT a code generator but the real deal. Code generators may look nice at first sight, but  have a huge disadvantage: they go one way. ABMAbstractDesigner would work like the B4X ones: you create a layout, develop, change the layout, continue to develop and so on without losing what you have written in code. I’ll use the grid designer I’ve shown as a proof of concept in another post + the possibility to put ABMComponents on them. I’ve done some tests this weekend and it would work very similar as the other B4X tools.

4. Other (please specify)

The poll is now nearly ended and besides some interesting messages with excellent pointers, it was quite obvious from the beginning that the ABMaterialAbstractDesigner (will need a working title for this project, lets call it ABMAD for now…) would be the next part I’ll be working on. (Almost 75% in the poll at the time of writing).  This was also my preferred choice as one user did not really have the patience to wait for me and started to write some kind of code generator.  However, his limited knowledge of the ABMaterial framework has the potential of starting to reflect bad on ABMaterial itself so it is time for me to jump in.

Making ABMAD will happen in a couple of logical steps:

  1. Making the ABMaterial components ready for a designer.  This will ask for some (minor) changes to them so they can be serialized and expose their properties to the designer.
  2. Making a grid builder.  This is the biggest step new users have to overcome nowadays.
  3. Making a properties view for the components.
  4. Drag/Drop facilities to add components to specific cells
  5. Let the ABMaterial library communicate with the Designer output in a similar way as B4X does now.

This will not happen overnight, but the benefits for ABMaterial programmers will be substantial.  This will NOT be a simple code generator. ABMAD will work bidirectional.  And you’ll be able to make layouts in ABMAD and mix them with manually written code like you can do in B4X/ABMaterial now.

Note: To avoid future misunderstandings, the license of ABMaterial 2.0 will include the following statement:

4. YOU AGREE NOT TO DISTRIBUTE, FOR A FEE, AN APPLICATION USING THE LIBRARY THAT, AS ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE, IS DESIGNED TO BE AN AID IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOFTWARE FOR YOUR APPLICATION’S END USER. SUCH APPLICATION INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, A DEVELOPMENT IDE OR A B4J SOURCE CODE GENERATOR.

Let me explain. The philosophy of ABMaterial (and myself) is giving anyone the chance to easily build great WebApps without having to spend any money. One of the reasons I picked B4J was because it is free. Those who can spare something, donate to stimulate my continuation on the project and in so help giving other not so fortunate people an equal chance to grow. Any derived development tool or generator that uses ABMaterial must follow this philosophy so the tool must be available with 100% of its features for free (not even a ‘limited’ free version is acceptable).

This has no impact on whatever WebApp you make with ABMaterial, but is solely a protection against some ‘money-grubber’ who sees the potential of the ABMaterial framework and thinks of making some easy money using my engine by simply writing a layer above it. Just to be clear, ‘FEE’ here means ANY form of payment or compensation, donations included.

So now that this is out of the way, I think it’s time to step up to the drawing board and start to make some decisions on how ABMAD will look like.

Fun times ahead!

Alwaysbusy

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ABMaterial, B4J, B4X, CSS, HTML5, Java, Javascript, Programming

B4J: Creating your own components in ABMaterial

abmcustgauge

Although ABMaterial has already a lot of components build-in, sometimes you just need a specific one.  I had a question on the B4J forum from CGP who needed a Gauge component.

So let’s build one! CGP had found a very nice library JustGage that would allow him to get the Gauge he wanted. Its value had to be updateable from within B4J, and this was a bit tricky. It looked like we have to be a bit creative because this javascript library did not connect its parent tag with the created JustGage.

We will have to keep track of the JustGage variable ourselves by adding a script tag in the build:

Sub ABMComp_Build(internalID As String) As String
  Return $"<div id="${internalID}"></div><script>var _${internalID};</script>"$
End Sub

The rest of the code is straight forward and we can just follow the javascript instructions and add them in our relative events.

An ABMaterial custom component has 4 important events:

ABMComp_Build(): This is where we have to add the html tag (anchor) for the new component.  In this particular case we also have to add a <script> tag that will hold our justGage variable.  We can then later use this variable to update the Gauge chart.

ABMComp_FirstRun(): Here we can add a script that will run, well, at first run. In most cases, this is where we add the libraries javascript initialization code. The B4J $””$ Smartstrings are in methods like this particulary handy. Use them!

ABMComp_Refresh(): The place where we can adjust properties of the javascript component.  Like for this component, we’ll adjust the value of the gauge.

ABMComp_CleanUp(): An event that is raised when the component is removed.  Could be useful to do some cleanup in the html of set javascript variables to null.

Here is the complete B4J code for our customGauge component:

Sub Class_Globals
   Public ABMComp As ABMCustomComponent
  Public myValue As Int
  Public myLabel As String
End Sub

'Initializes the object. You can add parameters to this method if needed.
Public Sub Initialize(InternalPage As ABMPage, ID As String, value As Int, name As String)
  ABMComp.Initialize("ABMComp", Me, InternalPage, ID)
  myValue = value
  myLabel = name
End Sub

Sub ABMComp_Build(internalID As String) As String
  Return $"<div id="${internalID}"></div><script>var _${internalID};</script>"$
End Sub

' Is useful to run some initalisation script.
Sub ABMComp_FirstRun(InternalPage As ABMPage, internalID As String)
  Dim script As String = $"_${internalID} = new JustGage({
  id: "${internalID}",
  value: ${myValue},
  Min: 0,
  Max: 100,
  relativeGaugeSize: true,
  title: "${myLabel}"
  });"$

  InternalPage.ws.Eval(script, Array As Object(ABMComp.ID))
  ' flush not needed, it's done in the refresh method in the lib
End Sub

' runs when a refresh is called
Sub ABMComp_Refresh(InternalPage As ABMPage, internalID As String)
  Dim script As String = $"_${internalID}.refresh(${myValue});"$
  InternalPage.ws.Eval(script, Null)
End Sub

' do the stuff needed when the object is removed
Sub ABMComp_CleanUp(InternalPage As ABMPage, internalID As String)

End Sub

Now, how do we use our new component in our B4J ABMaterial WebApp?

First, we’ll need to make our custGauge a global variable on the page:

Sub Class_Globals
  Dim custGauge As CustomGauge
  ...

Next, we add the justGauge libraries in the BuildPage().  We’ve placed them in \www\js\custom folder so we can add:

Sub BuildPage()
  ...
  page.AddExtraJavaScriptFile("custom/justgage.js")
  page.AddExtraJavaScriptFile("custom/raphael-2.1.4.min.js")
  ...

In the ConnectPage, we’ll create the actual Gauge and we add a button so we can change its value:

Sub ConnectPage()
  ...
  custGauge.Initialize(page, "custGauge", 25, "Test")
  page.Cell(7,1).AddComponent(custGauge.ABMComp)

  Dim custGaugebtn1 As ABMButton
  custGaugebtn1.InitializeRaised(page, "custGaugebtn1", "", "", "BUTTON", "")
   page.Cell(7,1).AddComponent(custGaugebtn1)
   ...

And finally we add out button code to adjust the value of the Gauge:

Sub custGaugebtn1_Clicked(Target As String)
   custGauge.myValue = Rnd(10,100)
   custGauge.ABMComp.Refresh
End Sub

And just like that, it looks like a fun new component we’ve got in B4J ABMaterial!

Until next time,

Alwaysbusy

Click here to Donation and support ABMaterial