[Paraview-developers] Help with advanced GUI for filter

[Ellon Paiva]

Utkarsh,

On 05/23/2016 04:27 PM, Utkarsh Ayachit wrote:
> Ellon,
>
>> How can I access the values set from on this widget in my filter class
>> (which is a subclass of vtkPolyDataAlgorithm, see files attached)? When I
>> was creating the interface using XML files only the changes were stored in
>> filter attributes through Set/Get methods, and thus accessible into
>> RequestData(), but I don't see how to do it from the widget I created now.
> Alas, I'll recommend going back to your previous approach of having
> everyting go through filter attributes with Get/Set methods and then
> add XML properties for all. That's indeed the way to go.

Ok. That's good to know: while I was waiting for an answer I 
reimplemented most of the interface using XML files. It's working more 
or less well, apart from a specific widget I'm still having problem with 
(see below). The attached MinimalExample2.tar.gz has the updated files.

> To create a
> custom widget for a group of properties, all you have to do is put a
> XML element like following in your proxy definition and then define a
> custom widget for that group
> (http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Properties_Panel#Property_Groups).
> Using panel_widget attribute on the group XML, you can tell which
> custom widget to create. See existing examples in ParaView, e.g.
> pqColorOpacityEditorWidget, it provides a nice demonstration of how
> you can use Qt properties and pqPropertyLinks to cleanly hookup UI
> items and several properties in the proxy. A simpler example is
> pqFontPropertyWidget.

Thanks for pointing out the files with the examples. I looked through 
them today but I still didn't see how I can properly "link" my widget 
with paraview. I'll dig more into it tomorrow. And thanks for pointing 
out the pqPropertyLinks class. Now I see what "AddPropertyLink" method does.

Meanwhile, let me explain more: with most of the interface defined only 
in the xml file, the problem is with an specific widget I have that *I 
think* I cannot implement using xml only. Basically, this widget allows 
the user to define a list of "filters", where each filter has some 
parameters. The user can have as much of them as they want, and the 
order of them matters. So, I think that to make this work, I'll need:

 1. A StringVectorProperty with the names of the filters. This should
    not be limited by size because as I said the user can have N of
    these. New items are always added in the end, and the selected item
    can be reordered with "Up" and "Down" buttons, or removed with
    "Remove" button;
    *Question*: How do I deal with StringVectorProperties of dynamic
    size? How can I remove and reorder them?
 2. A vector of of the same size of the filter name vector from 1) for
    each of the possible attribute of the filter that can be set.
    *Q*: How can I manage these vectors of dynamic size? Each
    individually like I should do in 1) or maybe I can use a "group"
    strategy, and create a "vector of a group" of attributes? (Don't
    know if ParaView supports this kind of structure)
 3. Create a descriptor that will exhibit show/hide attributes based on
    the current item being selected. I've programmed two descriptors
    being used in the attached minimal example, but not when the changes
    depends on a custom widget.
    *Q*: How can I access the current selected item of a QListWidget
    inside my custom widget from a descriptor? Maybe I'll need extra
    attributes (like current/old row and current selected filter name)
    that I'll have to keep synchronized or there's any easier way?


>> The Apply button in the interface is does not change to enabled state
>> automatically when changing the options in the widged. I tried to emit a
>> changeFinished() signal but it didn't enable the Apply button. How can I
>> achieve this behavior?
> Anytime the user changes the UI, just fire
> pqPropertyWidget::changeAvailable(). That should suffice in most
> cases. In cases rare cases, you have to fire changeAvailable() and
> changeFinished() separately, but we can ignore that until you run into
> it.

pqPropertyWidget::changeAvailable() was exactly what I was looking for! 
:) Thanks!


Best,

Ellon

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