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Usage of IMessageManager [message #472349] Fri, 29 February 2008 04:40 Go to next message
Velganesh Subramanian is currently offline Velganesh SubramanianFriend
Messages: 69
Registered: July 2009
Member
Hi,

I have a multipage editor (derived from FormEditor) with one page
(IFormPage). I divided the page into two using TableWrapLayout. The left
side has couple of text and combo controls and the right has a table
viewer with popular Add, Remove buttons. I have a 'Save' button on the
workbench toolbar to save contents of the form.

I am trying to use the MessageManager capability of Forms 3.3 to throw the
messages. To begin with, I added an error message using
page.mananged_form.getMessageManager(). The error message is displayed
properly.

Here is the issue.
Though the table viewer has both scroll bars, after an item is added it
and message is added to MessageManager through my save button, the viewer
gets resized and the scroll bar disappears. This further leads to resize
of the left and right composites. I thought this is because of layout and
layoutData of my controls but all are clear. When there is an entry in
table viewer but message is not added to MessageManager (addMessage call
is commented in Save action), there is no resize.

http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/platform-ua/proposals/forms/e nhancements-3.3/index.html
article doesn't talk about anything specific to FormEditor vs.
SharedHeaderFormEditor. Is there a particular usage?

I think it is not possible to give a one line solution. Can you tell where
I need to debug? My save action doesn't call resize of any of the
controls. Thanks.
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #472352 is a reply to message #472349] Fri, 29 February 2008 07:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Velganesh Subramanian is currently offline Velganesh SubramanianFriend
Messages: 69
Registered: July 2009
Member
Addition:

I have used makeColumnsAsEqualWidth as true when I am splitting the form's
body into two. But the resulting composite do not have equal width when
tree viewer is used. When the same section in left is repeated (different
instance) for right side too, the columns are equal. I am lost here.
Please help.
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #472355 is a reply to message #472349] Fri, 29 February 2008 15:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Eric Rizzo is currently offline Eric RizzoFriend
Messages: 3070
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
Vel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a multipage editor (derived from FormEditor) with one page
> (IFormPage). I divided the page into two using TableWrapLayout. The left
> side has couple of text and combo controls and the right has a table
> viewer with popular Add, Remove buttons. I have a 'Save' button on the
> workbench toolbar to save contents of the form.
>
> I am trying to use the MessageManager capability of Forms 3.3 to throw
> the messages. To begin with, I added an error message using
> page.mananged_form.getMessageManager(). The error message is displayed
> properly.
>
> Here is the issue.
> Though the table viewer has both scroll bars, after an item is added it
> and message is added to MessageManager through my save button, the
> viewer gets resized and the scroll bar disappears. This further leads to
> resize of the left and right composites. I thought this is because of
> layout and layoutData of my controls but all are clear. When there is an
> entry in table viewer but message is not added to MessageManager
> (addMessage call is commented in Save action), there is no resize.

I've run into this several times. The first thing to understand is that
adding/removing messages causes a re-layout of the entire page - that is
why you only see this when messages are added/removed. I bet that if you
put collapsible sections on your page you would see the same behavior
when you collapse/expand them (section expand/collapse triggers a
re-layout, too).
So when the page is re-layout-ed, what happens is that one of the
composites that contains the table (or its parent(s)) is using the
table's preferred size to calculate the layout. The table's preferred
will generally be large enough to render all of its contents without
scrolling, so when one of the parent layouts asks, that is what it gets.
The fix I use is to put the table inside a GridLayout (or other layout
that allows specification of a widthHint) and then set the table's
widthHint to 1. As long as the table is also set to fill/grab, it will
stretch to fill available space; but the widthHint of 1 forces its
preferred size to never cause the parent to grow.

When I do this, by the way, I also include a comment in the code where
th widthHint is set so that anyone reading the code later (including
myself) understands why this seemingly silly setting is there.

Hope this helps,
Eric
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #472358 is a reply to message #472355] Sat, 01 March 2008 16:14 Go to previous message
Velganesh Subramanian is currently offline Velganesh SubramanianFriend
Messages: 69
Registered: July 2009
Member
I sincerely appreciate your explanation Eric. Though I have not developed
an enterprise application in RCP, I have developed few tools that is being
used by my team to automate certain mundane tasks - moving files,
generating metrics, etc.

I wanted to get rid of the problem as the screen looks ugly because of
this resize event. I tried several possibilities and added widthHint as 10
for the table control; voila! it gave the result. I also have a comment
marked as 'IMPORTANT & CONFUSION' to let my team know that it is crucial
for the world not to break by itself.

Layout of controls have been a mystery always.

Thanks again.
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #609961 is a reply to message #472349] Fri, 29 February 2008 07:07 Go to previous message
Velganesh Subramanian is currently offline Velganesh SubramanianFriend
Messages: 69
Registered: July 2009
Member
Addition:

I have used makeColumnsAsEqualWidth as true when I am splitting the form's
body into two. But the resulting composite do not have equal width when
tree viewer is used. When the same section in left is repeated (different
instance) for right side too, the columns are equal. I am lost here.
Please help.
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #609963 is a reply to message #472349] Fri, 29 February 2008 15:41 Go to previous message
Eric Rizzo is currently offline Eric RizzoFriend
Messages: 3070
Registered: July 2009
Senior Member
Vel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a multipage editor (derived from FormEditor) with one page
> (IFormPage). I divided the page into two using TableWrapLayout. The left
> side has couple of text and combo controls and the right has a table
> viewer with popular Add, Remove buttons. I have a 'Save' button on the
> workbench toolbar to save contents of the form.
>
> I am trying to use the MessageManager capability of Forms 3.3 to throw
> the messages. To begin with, I added an error message using
> page.mananged_form.getMessageManager(). The error message is displayed
> properly.
>
> Here is the issue.
> Though the table viewer has both scroll bars, after an item is added it
> and message is added to MessageManager through my save button, the
> viewer gets resized and the scroll bar disappears. This further leads to
> resize of the left and right composites. I thought this is because of
> layout and layoutData of my controls but all are clear. When there is an
> entry in table viewer but message is not added to MessageManager
> (addMessage call is commented in Save action), there is no resize.

I've run into this several times. The first thing to understand is that
adding/removing messages causes a re-layout of the entire page - that is
why you only see this when messages are added/removed. I bet that if you
put collapsible sections on your page you would see the same behavior
when you collapse/expand them (section expand/collapse triggers a
re-layout, too).
So when the page is re-layout-ed, what happens is that one of the
composites that contains the table (or its parent(s)) is using the
table's preferred size to calculate the layout. The table's preferred
will generally be large enough to render all of its contents without
scrolling, so when one of the parent layouts asks, that is what it gets.
The fix I use is to put the table inside a GridLayout (or other layout
that allows specification of a widthHint) and then set the table's
widthHint to 1. As long as the table is also set to fill/grab, it will
stretch to fill available space; but the widthHint of 1 forces its
preferred size to never cause the parent to grow.

When I do this, by the way, I also include a comment in the code where
th widthHint is set so that anyone reading the code later (including
myself) understands why this seemingly silly setting is there.

Hope this helps,
Eric
Re: Usage of IMessageManager [message #609966 is a reply to message #472355] Sat, 01 March 2008 16:14 Go to previous message
Velganesh Subramanian is currently offline Velganesh SubramanianFriend
Messages: 69
Registered: July 2009
Member
I sincerely appreciate your explanation Eric. Though I have not developed
an enterprise application in RCP, I have developed few tools that is being
used by my team to automate certain mundane tasks - moving files,
generating metrics, etc.

I wanted to get rid of the problem as the screen looks ugly because of
this resize event. I tried several possibilities and added widthHint as 10
for the table control; voila! it gave the result. I also have a comment
marked as 'IMPORTANT & CONFUSION' to let my team know that it is crucial
for the world not to break by itself.

Layout of controls have been a mystery always.

Thanks again.
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