Area class is a super class for every other MUI class except windows and applications. It holds information about an objects current position, size and weight and manages frames, fonts and backgrounds. Additionally, area class handles the user input. By setting an objects MUIA_InputMode, you can make it behave like a button or like a toggle gadget. That's why MUI doesn't offer an extra button class. A button is simply a text object with a raised frame and a relverify input mode. Since especially group class is a subclass of area, you can create rather complex buttons consisting of many other display elements.
Attribute Ver ISG Type ----------------------------------- --- --- -------------------- MUIA_Background V4 IS. LONG MUIA_BottomEdge V4 ..G LONG MUIA_ContextMenu V11 ISG Object * MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger V11 ..G Object * MUIA_ControlChar V4 ISG char MUIA_CycleChain V11 ISG LONG MUIA_Disabled V4 ISG BOOL MUIA_Draggable V11 ISG BOOL MUIA_Dropable V11 ISG BOOL MUIA_ExportID V4 ISG ULONG (OBSOLETE) MUIA_FillArea V4 IS. BOOL MUIA_FixHeight V4 I.. LONG MUIA_FixHeightTxt V4 I.. STRPTR MUIA_FixWidth V4 I.. LONG MUIA_FixWidthTxt V4 I.. STRPTR MUIA_Font V4 I.G struct TextFont * MUIA_Frame V4 I.. LONG MUIA_FramePhantomHoriz V4 I.. BOOL MUIA_FrameTitle V4 I.. STRPTR MUIA_Height V4 ..G LONG MUIA_HorizDisappear V11 ISG LONG MUIA_HorizWeight V4 ISG WORD MUIA_InnerBottom V4 I.G LONG MUIA_InnerLeft V4 I.G LONG MUIA_InnerRight V4 I.G LONG MUIA_InnerTop V4 I.G LONG MUIA_InputMode V4 I.. LONG MUIA_LeftEdge V4 ..G LONG MUIA_MaxHeight V11 I.. LONG MUIA_MaxWidth V11 I.. LONG MUIA_Pressed V4 ..G BOOL MUIA_RightEdge V4 ..G LONG MUIA_Selected V4 ISG BOOL MUIA_ShortHelp V11 ISG STRPTR MUIA_ShowMe V4 ISG BOOL MUIA_ShowSelState V4 I.. BOOL MUIA_Timer V4 ..G LONG MUIA_TopEdge V4 ..G LONG MUIA_VertDisappear V11 ISG LONG MUIA_VertWeight V4 ISG WORD MUIA_Weight V4 I.. WORD MUIA_Width V4 ..G LONG MUIA_Window V4 ..G struct Window * MUIA_WindowObject V4 ..G Object *
Method Ver ----------------------------------- --- MUIM_AskMinMax V4 MUIM_CheckShortHelp V20 MUIM_Cleanup V4 MUIM_ContextMenuBuild V11 MUIM_ContextMenuChoice V11 MUIM_CreateBubble V18 MUIM_CreateShortHelp V11 MUIM_DeleteBubble V18 MUIM_DeleteShortHelp V11 MUIM_DragBegin V11 MUIM_DragDrop V11 MUIM_DragFinish V11 MUIM_DragQuery V11 MUIM_DragReport V11 MUIM_Draw V4 MUIM_DrawBackground V11 MUIM_HandleEvent V16 MUIM_HandleInput V4 MUIM_Hide V4 MUIM_Setup V4 MUIM_Show V4
NAME MUIA_Background -- (V4 ) [IS.], LONG FUNCTION Adjust the background for an object. Every MUI object has its own background setting. The background is displayed "behind" the actual object contents, e.g. behind a the text of a text object or behind the image of an image object. This attribute takes the same values as MUIA_Image_Spec, please refer to autodocs of image class for a complete description. An object without a specific background setting will inherit the pattern from its parent group. The default background for a window and many other background patterns are adjustable with the preferences program. Only a few MUII_xxxxxxx tags make sense as background. Important are: MUII_ButtonBack: You have to set this when you create a button gadget. Thus, your button will be displayed in the users preferred style. MUII_TextBack: Set this when you create a text object with a TextFrame, e.g. some kind of status line. Do *not* use MUII_TextBack for simple text without frame (e.g. gadget labels). MUII_BACKGROUND MUII_SHADOW MUII_SHINE MUII_FILL MUII_SHADOWBACK MUII_SHADOWFILL MUII_SHADOWSHINE MUII_FILLBACK MUII_FILLSHINE MUII_SHINEBACK MUII_SHINEBACK2: One of MUI's predefined pattern. These are not configurable by the user and will always look the same. Note: It is *important* that you test your programs with a fancy pattern configuration. With the default setting you won't notice any errors in your backgrounds.
NAME MUIA_BottomEdge -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_TopEdge, MUIA_Width, MUIA_Height, MUIA_RightEdge, MUIA_LeftEdge
NAME MUIA_ContextMenu -- (V11) [ISG], Object * FUNCTION Specifies a context sensitive popup menu for the current object. For MUI, popup menus are nothing else but standard intuition menus, so you must specify a pointer to a MUI menustrip object (e.g. something returned from MUI_MakeObject(MUIO_MenustripNM,...)) here. Whenever the user hits the RMB and the mouse is above the parent object, MUI will present the popup menu instead of the windows menu. Note: MUI will *not* dispose the MUIA_ContextMenu object when the object is disposed. You must take care of the menustrip object yourself. This is because menustrip objects of MUIA_ContextMenu do not actually "belong" to their parent objects, it's just a "reference". You are allowed to use a single menustrip object as MUIA_ContextMenu for different objects of the same window. Do *not* share with objects in other windows or with the default menu of a window or an application! If the user selects an item, the object will receive a MUIM_ContextMenuChoice method containing the selected menuitem object. If you build your menustrip tree with MUI_MakeObject(MUIO_MenustripNM,...), you will find the nm_UserData of your menu entry in muiUserData(menuitem). If you have control over methods because you are a subclass, you can immediately take approriate actions when receiving MUIM_ContextMenuChoice. If you dont have a subclass or dont override MUIM_ContextMenuChoice, the method will finally reach area class and will set the attribute MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger to the appropriate menuitem object. This allows you to react on context menu selections by simple notification and eliminates the need of writing a subclass just for this purpose. Note: Subclasses are always the better solution! There is also a possibility to dynamically create popup menus on the fly. See MUIM_ContextMenuBuild for details. NOTES MUI uses the same tree-like technique as always (e.g. with drag&drop) to find out whichs context menu to use on a certain mouse position. This allows you to have a context menu for a group and different context menus for its children. The MUI preferences program makes use of that feature by allowing to control a single gadget or a whole page of gadgets with popup menus. SEE ALSO MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger, MUIM_ContextMenuChoice, MUIM_ContextMenuBuild
NAME MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger -- (V11) [..G], Object * FUNCTION Allows reacting on context menus with notificaton. When the MUIM_ContextMenuChoice method reaches area class because you did not override it in a subclass, it sets MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger to the received paremeter which is a pointer to the user-selected menuitem object. See MUIA_ContextMenu for details. SEE ALSO MUIA_ContextMenu, MUIM_ContextMenuChoice, MUIM_ContextMenuBuild
NAME MUIA_ControlChar -- (V4 ) [ISG], char FUNCTION Pressing the control char will have the same effect as pressing return if the object was active. This can be used to create old style key shortcuts. Note: Using an uppercase control char will force the user to press shift. SEE ALSO mui.h / KeyButton() macro
NAME MUIA_CycleChain -- (V11) [ISG], LONG FUNCTION MUI 3 introduces a new keyboard cycle chain system. All you have to do is to set MUIA_CycleChain to 1 for every object that you want to have in your chain, MUI does the rest automatically. The old MUIM_Window_SetCycleChain will continue to work but is considered obsolete. SEE ALSO Window.mui/MUIM_Window_SetCycleChain
NAME MUIA_Disabled -- (V4 ) [ISG], BOOL FUNCTION Disable or enable a gadget. Setting this attribute causes a gadget to become disabled, it gets a ghost pattern and doesn't respond to user input any longer. Disabled gadgets cannot be activated with the TAB key. Using MUIA_Disable on a group of objects will disable all objects within that group. EXAMPLE /* we have a radio button gadget with three */ /* entries, the third should enable a string gadget */ /* with additional parameters */ DoMethod(radio, MUIM_Notify, MUIA_Radio_Active, 0, string, 3, MUIM_Set, MUIA_Disabled, TRUE); DoMethod(radio, MUIM_Notify, MUIA_Radio_Active, 1, string, 3, MUIM_Set, MUIA_Disabled, TRUE); DoMethod(radio, MUIM_Notify, MUIA_Radio_Active, 2, string, 3, MUIM_Set, MUIA_Disabled, FALSE);
NAME MUIA_Draggable -- (V11) [ISG], BOOL FUNCTION Set this if you want the complete object to be dragable for D&D operations.
NAME MUIA_Dropable -- (V11) [ISG], BOOL FUNCTION Only objects with this attribute set to TRUE will be asked if they want to become an active Drag & Drop destination at all. Though this attribute defaults to TRUE, this doesnt mean that every object automatically aceppts D&D actions, because the MUIM_DragQuery method is answered FALSE when it arrives at area class. SEE ALSO MUIM_DragQuery
NAME MUIA_ExportID -- (V4 ) [ISG], ULONG (OBSOLETE) FUNCTION Objects with a non NULL MUIA_ExportID export their contents during MUIM_Application_Save and import them during MUIM_Application_Load. You have to use different ExportIDs for your objects! NOTE This attribute is renamed to MUIA_ObjectID since muimaster.library V12. SEE ALSO MUIM_Application_Save, MUIM_Application_Load
NAME MUIA_FillArea -- (V4 ) [IS.], BOOL FUNCTION Set this if you are a custom class and dont want area class to clear your background during the DoSuperMethod() in your draw method. Note that if you set this, your draw method is responsible for filling every pixel of your objects rectangle, otherwise some display trash will remain there.
NAME MUIA_FixHeight -- (V4 ) [I..], LONG FUNCTION Give your object a fixed pixel height. This tag is absolutely not needed in a general MUI application and only present for emergency situations. Please think twice before using it! EXAMPLE /* create an 8x8 pixel rectangle with FILLPEN */ RectangleObject, MUIA_FixWidth , 8, MUIA_FixHeight , 8, MUIA_Background, MUII_FILL, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_FixWidth, MUIA_FixWidthTxt, MUIA_FixHeightTxt
NAME MUIA_FixHeightTxt -- (V4 ) [I..], STRPTR FUNCTION Give your object a fixed pixel height. The height will match the height of the given string. This tag is absolutely not needed in a general MUI application and only present for emergency situations. Please think twice before using it! EXAMPLE /* create a fixed size rectangle with FILLPEN */ RectangleObject, MUIA_FixWidthTxt , "00:00:00", MUIA_FixHeightTxt, "\n\n", MUIA_Background , MUII_FILL, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_FixHeight, MUIA_FixWidth, MUIA_FixWidthTxt
NAME MUIA_FixWidth -- (V4 ) [I..], LONG FUNCTION Give your object a fixed pixel width. This tag is absolutely not needed in a general MUI application and only present for emergency situations. Please think twice before using it! EXAMPLE /* create an 8x8 pixel rectangle with FILLPEN */ RectangleObject, MUIA_FixWidth , 8, MUIA_FixHeight , 8, MUIA_Background, MUII_FILL, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_FixHeight, MUIA_FixWidthTxt, MUIA_FixHeightTxt
NAME MUIA_FixWidthTxt -- (V4 ) [I..], STRPTR FUNCTION Give your object a fixed pixel width. The width will match the width of the given string. This tag is absolutely not needed in a general MUI application and only present for emergency situations. Please think twice before using it! EXAMPLE /* create a fixed size rectangle with FILLPEN */ RectangleObject, MUIA_FixWidthTxt , "00:00:00", MUIA_FixHeightTxt, "\n\n", MUIA_Background , MUII_FILL, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_FixHeight, MUIA_FixWidth, MUIA_FixHeightTxt
NAME MUIA_Font -- (V4 ) [I.G], struct TextFont * SPECIAL INPUTS MUIV_Font_Inherit MUIV_Font_Normal MUIV_Font_List MUIV_Font_Tiny MUIV_Font_Fixed MUIV_Font_Title MUIV_Font_Big MUIV_Font_Button MUIV_Font_Slider MUIV_Font_Gauge FUNCTION Every MUI object can have its own font, just set it with this tag. Objects without an explicit font setting will inherit it from their parent group. You normally won't need to open a font yourself, just use one of the predefined values to get a font from the users preferences. EXAMPLE /* since the text contains tabs, */ /* use the fixed width font for displaying */ msgread = FloattextObject, MUIA_Font, MUIV_Font_Fixed, ..., End;
NAME MUIA_Frame -- (V4 ) [I..], LONG SPECIAL INPUTS MUIV_Frame_None MUIV_Frame_Button MUIV_Frame_ImageButton MUIV_Frame_Text MUIV_Frame_String MUIV_Frame_ReadList MUIV_Frame_InputList MUIV_Frame_Prop MUIV_Frame_Gauge MUIV_Frame_Group MUIV_Frame_PopUp MUIV_Frame_Virtual MUIV_Frame_Slider MUIV_Frame_SliderKnob MUIV_Frame_GaugeInner MUIV_Frame_Count FUNCTION Define a frame for the current object. Since area class is a superclass for all elements in a window, you can assign frames to every object you wish. You don't adjust the style of your frame directly, instead you only specify a type: MUIV_Frame_Button for standard buttons with text in it. MUIV_Frame_ImageButton for small buttons with images, e.g. the arrows of a scrollbar. MUIV_Frame_Text for a text field, e.g. a status line display. MUIV_Frame_String for a string gadget. MUIV_Frame_ReadList for a read only list. MUIV_Frame_InputList for a list that handles input (has a cursor). MUIV_Frame_Prop for proportional gadgets. MUIV_Frame_Group for groups. How the frame is going to look is adjustable via the preferences program. Four spacing values belong to each frame that tell MUI how many pixels should be left free between the frame and its contents. These spacing values are also user adjustable as long as you don't override them with one of MUIA_InnerLeft, MUIA_InnerRight, MUIA_InnerTop, or MUIA_InnerBottom. Starting with version 20 of muimaster.library, you can also pass a pointer to a struct MUI_FrameSpec as MUIA_Frame. This allows the use of customized frames adjustable with the Frameadjust.mui custom class. Note that the pointer to the passed MUI_FrameSpec must remain valid until you overwrite MUIA_Frame with something different or dispose the object. A good place to keep the MUI_FrameSpec is the instance data of your custom class. Do not pass such pointers if your muimaster.library is version 19 or below! NOTE The first object in a window (MUIA_Window_RootObject) may *not* have a frame. If you need this you will have to create a dummy group with just one child. EXAMPLE strobj = StringObject, MUIA_Frame, MUIV_Frame_String, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_InnerLeft, MUIA_InnerRight, MUIA_InnerTop, MUIA_InnerBottom
NAME MUIA_FramePhantomHoriz -- (V4 ) [I..], BOOL FUNCTION Setting this to TRUE causes the specified frame to be a horizontal phantom frame. The frame will not appear but its vertical components (frame height, inner top and inner bottom spacing) will be used to calculate positions and dimensions (horizontal components are treated as 0). This is extremely useful for a correct labeling of objects. You would e.g. label a string gadget by using a text object with a phantom string frame. Thus, the label text will be always on the same vertical position as the string gadget text, no matter what spacing values the user configured. SEE ALSO Label() macros in "mui.h".
NAME MUIA_FrameTitle -- (V4 ) [I..], STRPTR FUNCTION This tag identifies a text string that will be displayed centered in the top line of a frame. This can become handy if you want to name groups of objects. You may not use MUIA_FrameTitle without defining a MUIA_Frame. EXAMPLE VGroup, MUIA_Frame , MUIV_Frame_Group, MUIA_FrameTitle, "Spacing", ... SEE ALSO MUIA_Frame
NAME MUIA_Height -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_TopEdge, MUIA_Width, MUIA_LeftEdge, MUIA_RightEdge, MUIA_BottomEdge
NAME MUIA_HorizDisappear -- (V11) [ISG], LONG FUNCTION Objects with a disappear level disappear automatically when their parent window gets too small to display them. Use this for things that make your GUI look nicer (e.g. Imagery) but are not absolutely necessary. By using disappearing objects, you can make nice GUIs which still work on crappy 640x200 screens. You can give horizontal or vertical disappear levels to objects which are used for horizontal or vertical layout calculations respectively. Objects with a small disappear level disappear before objects with a big disappear level. SEE ALSO MUIA_VertDisappear
NAME MUIA_HorizWeight -- (V4 ) [ISG], WORD FUNCTION Adjust the horizontal weight of an object. Usually you can simply use MUIA_Weight instead of this tag but in some two-dimensional groups it may become handy to have different horizontal and vertical weights. SEE ALSO MUIA_Weight
NAME MUIA_InnerBottom -- (V4 ) [I.G], LONG FUNCTION Adjust the space between an object and its frame. Usually you shouldn't use this tag since you will override the users preferred default setting. SEE ALSO MUIA_Frame
NAME MUIA_InnerLeft -- (V4 ) [I.G], LONG FUNCTION Adjust the space between an object and its frame. Usually you shouldn't use this tag since you will override the users preferred default setting. SEE ALSO MUIA_Frame
NAME MUIA_InnerRight -- (V4 ) [I.G], LONG FUNCTION Adjust the space between an object and its frame. Usually you shouldn't use this tag since you will override the users preferred default setting. SEE ALSO MUIA_Frame
NAME MUIA_InnerTop -- (V4 ) [I.G], LONG FUNCTION Adjust the space between an object and its frame. Usually you shouldn't use this tag since you will override the users preferred default setting. SEE ALSO MUIA_Frame
NAME MUIA_InputMode -- (V4 ) [I..], LONG SPECIAL INPUTS MUIV_InputMode_None MUIV_InputMode_RelVerify MUIV_InputMode_Immediate MUIV_InputMode_Toggle FUNCTION Adjust the input mode for an object. MUI has no distinct button class. Instead you can make every object (even groups) behave like a button by setting an input mode for them. Several input modes area available: MUIV_InputMode_None: No input, this is not a gadget. MUIV_InputMode_RelVerify: For buttons and similar stuff. MUIV_InputMode_Immediate: Used e.g. in a radio button object. MUIV_InputMode_Toggle: For things like checkmark gadgets. The input mode setting determines how a user action will trigger the attributes MUIA_Selected, MUIA_Pressed and MUIA_Timer. See their documentation for details. EXAMPLE /* A traditional button, just a text object with */ /* a button frame and a relverify input mode: */ okbutton = TextObject, MUIA_Frame , MUIV_Frame_Button, MUIA_InputMode , MUIV_InputMode_RelVerify, MUIA_Text_Contents, "OK", ... SEE ALSO MUIA_Selected, MUIA_Timer, MUIA_Pressed
NAME MUIA_LeftEdge -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_TopEdge, MUIA_Width, MUIA_Height, MUIA_RightEdge, MUIA_BottomEdge
NAME MUIA_MaxHeight -- (V11) [I..], LONG FUNCTION Specify a maximum height for an object (in pixels). SEE ALSO MUIA_MaxWidth, MUIA_FixWidth, MUIA_FixHeight
NAME MUIA_MaxWidth -- (V11) [I..], LONG FUNCTION Specify a maximum width for an object (in pixels). SEE ALSO MUIA_MaxHeight, MUIA_FixWidth, MUIA_FixHeight
NAME MUIA_Pressed -- (V4 ) [..G], BOOL FUNCTION Learn if a button is pressed (or released). The MUIA_Pressed attribute of a gadget is triggered by some user action, depending on the input mode: MUIV_InputMode_RelVerify: - set when lmb is pressed. - cleared when lmb is released and the mouse is still over the gadget (otherwise it will be cleared too, but without triggering a notification event). MUIV_InputMode_Immediate: - undefined, use MUIA_Selected for this. MUIV_InputMode_Toggle: - undefined, use MUIA_Selected for this. Waiting for MUIA_Pressed getting FALSE is the usual way to react on button gadgets. EXAMPLE DoMethod(btcancel,MUIM_Notify,MUIA_Pressed,FALSE, app,2,MUIM_Application_ReturnID,ID_CANCEL); SEE ALSO MUIA_Selected, MUIA_Timer, MUIA_ShowSelState, MUIA_InputMode
NAME MUIA_RightEdge -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_TopEdge, MUIA_Width, MUIA_Height, MUIA_LeftEdge, MUIA_BottomEdge
NAME MUIA_Selected -- (V4 ) [ISG], BOOL FUNCTION Get and set the selected state of a gadget. This attribute can be triggered by the user clicking on the gadget (or using the keyboard), depending on the input mode: MUIV_InputMode_RelVerify: - set when lmb is pressed. - cleared when lmb is released. - cleared when the gadget is selected and the mouse leaves the gadget box. - set when the mouse reenters the gadget box. MUIV_InputMode_Immediate: - set when lmb is pressed. MUIV_InputMode_Toggle: - toggled when lmb is pressed. Of course you may set this attribute yourself, e.g. to adjust the state of a checkmark gadget. A selected gadget will display its border reverse and get the configured MUII_SelectedBack background. This can be avoided using the MUIA_ShowSelState tag. SEE ALSO MUIA_Pressed, MUIA_Timer, MUIA_ShowSelState, MUIA_InputMode
NAME MUIA_ShortHelp -- (V11) [ISG], STRPTR FUNCTION Specify a string that is to be used as bubble help for this object. SEE ALSO MUIM_CreateShortHelp, MUIM_DeleteShortHelp, MUIM_CreateBubble, MUIM_DeleteBubble
NAME MUIA_ShowMe -- (V4 ) [ISG], BOOL FUNCTION Objects with this attribute set are not displayed. You can set MUIA_ShowMe at any time, causing objects to appear and to disappear immediately. A new layout is calculated whenever some objects are shown or hidden. When necessary, MUI will resize the parent window to make place for the new objects. NOTE Currently, MUI does a complete window refresh after showing/hiding objects. This behaviour might get improved in the future.
NAME MUIA_ShowSelState -- (V4 ) [I..], BOOL FUNCTION Normally a gadget will reverse its frame and display the configured MUII_SelectetBack background pattern in its selected state. For some objects (e.g. checkmarks) this is not recommended and can be supressed by setting MUIA_ShowSelState to FALSE. SEE ALSO MUIA_Selected
NAME MUIA_Timer -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION MUIA_Timer gets triggered when a relverify button is pressed and (after a little delay) increases every INTUITICK as long as the mouse remains over the gadget. This makes it possible to have buttons repeatedly cause some actions, just like the arrow gadgets of a scrollbar. EXAMPLE DoMethod(btmore,MUIM_Notify,MUIA_Timer,MUIV_EveryTime, app,2,MUIM_Application_ReturnID,ID_MORE); DoMethod(btless,MUIM_Notify,MUIA_Timer,MUIV_EveryTime, app,2,MUIM_Application_ReturnID,ID_LESS); SEE ALSO MUIA_Pressed, MUIA_Selected
NAME MUIA_TopEdge -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_LeftEdge, MUIA_Width, MUIA_Height, MUIA_RightEdge, MUIA_BottomEdge
NAME MUIA_VertDisappear -- (V11) [ISG], LONG FUNCTION Objects with a disappear level disappear automatically when their parent window gets too small to display them. Use this for things that make your GUI look nicer (e.g. Imagery) but are not absolutely necessary. By using disappearing objects, you can make nice GUIs which still work on crappy 640x200 screens. You can give horizontal or vertical disappear levels to objects which are used for horizontal or vertical layout calculations respectively. Objects with a small disappear level disappear before objects with a big disappear level. SEE ALSO MUIA_HorizDisappear
NAME MUIA_VertWeight -- (V4 ) [ISG], WORD FUNCTION Adjust the vertical weight of an object. Usually you can simply use MUIA_Weight instead of this tag but in some two-dimensional groups it may become handy to have different horizontal and vertical weights. SEE ALSO MUIA_Weight
NAME MUIA_Weight -- (V4 ) [I..], WORD FUNCTION This tag is a shorthand for MUIA_HorizWeight and MUIA_VertWeight, it sets both weights at once. The weight of an object determines how much room it will get during the layout process. Imagine you have a 100 pixel wide horizontal group with two string gadgets. Usually, each gadget will get half of the room and be 50 pixels wide. If you feel the left gadget is more important and should be bigger, you can give it a weight of 200 (and 100 for the right gadget). Because the left gadget is twice as "heavy" as the right gadget, it will become twice as big (about 66 pixel) as the right one (34 pixel). Of course giving weights only makes sense if the object is resizable. A MUIA_VertWeight for a (always fixed height) string gadget is useless. An object with a weight of 0 will always stay at its minimum size. By default, all objects have a weight of 100. EXAMPLE HGroup, StringGadget, MUIA_Weight, 50, End, StringGadget, MUIA_Weight, 100, End, StringGadget, MUIA_Weight, 200, End, End; SEE ALSO MUIA_HorizWeight, MUIA_VertWeight
NAME MUIA_Width -- (V4 ) [..G], LONG FUNCTION You can use this to read the current position and dimension of an object, if you e.g. need it to pop up some requester below. Of course, this attribute is only valid when the parent window of the object is currently open. SEE ALSO MUIA_TopEdge, MUIA_LeftEdge, MUIA_Height, MUIA_RightEdge, MUIA_BottomEdge
NAME MUIA_Window -- (V4 ) [..G], struct Window * FUNCTION This attribute can be used to get a pointer to the intuition window structure of the parent window ot the object. This pointer could e.g. be used in calls to asl.library. The result is only valid when the window is opened. SEE ALSO MUIA_Window_Window
NAME MUIA_WindowObject -- (V4 ) [..G], Object * FUNCTION You can obtain a pointer to the window object that some gadget belongs to by using this attribute. Useful mainly within callback hooks if you do not want to deal with global variables. SEE ALSO MUIA_ApplicationObject
NAME MUIM_AskMinMax (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_AskMinMax,struct MUI_MinMax *MinMaxInfo); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_CheckShortHelp (V20) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_CheckShortHelp,STRPTR help, LONG mx, LONG my); FUNCTION yet undocumented, complain in the beta mailing list :) INPUTS RESULT BUGS SEE ALSO
NAME MUIM_Cleanup (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_Cleanup); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_ContextMenuBuild (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_ContextMenuBuild,LONG mx, LONG my); FUNCTION Allows dynamic creation of context menus. When MUI is about to show a new context menu, it does not simply use the MUIA_ContextMenu field of area class. Instead, it sends a MUIM_ContextMenuBuild to the object in question and uses the return value as the new menustrip object. When MUIM_ContextMenuBuild reaches area class, it just returns the contents of MUIA_ContextMenu so you needn't care about this method if you only have static, non-changing context menus. However, if your context menus depend on some internal states of your objects or on the mouse position within your objects, you have to have a subclass which overrides MUIM_ContextMenuBuild, creates a nice menustrip object and returns it. INPUTS mx - current x position of mouse my - current y position of mouse Since MUI does (unfortunately) not use relative coordinates at all, these two aren't relative either. RESULT You must return a pointer to a menustrip object or NULL if you failed to create one. NOTES MUI will never dispose the object you return. You must be take care of this yourself, e.g. by storing a pointer somewhere in your instance data and killing it on the next invocation of MUIM_ContextMenuBuild and on OM_DISPOSE. Even when overriding MUIM_ContextMenuBuild, you *must* set MUIA_ContextMenu of your object to something different from NULL. MUI will find out that your object actually has a popup menu by directly checking the contents of MUIA_ContextMenu in the instance data of area class due to speed reasons. SEE ALSO MUIA_ContextMenu, MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger, MUIM_ContextMenuChoice,
NAME MUIM_ContextMenuChoice (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_ContextMenuChoice,Object *item); FUNCTION Allows reacting on context menus in subclasses. See MUIA_ContextMenu for details. SEE ALSO MUIA_ContextMenuTrigger, MUIM_ContextMenuChoice, MUIM_ContextMenuBuild
NAME MUIM_CreateBubble (V18) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_CreateBubble,LONG x, LONG y, char *txt, ULONG flags); FUNCTION Together with MUIM_DeleteBubble, this method provides an interface for MUIs bubble mechanism. Applications can use bubbles for their own purpose, e.g. for indicating error conditions on certain gadgets. MUIM_CreateBubble creates a bubble at the specified coordinates with the specified (textual) contents. It returns a bubble "handle" that has to be passed to MUIM_DeleteBubble when the bubble shall disappear. There's no limitation on the number of bubbles, you can create lots of them at a time if you wish. Also, these custom bubbles are completely independant of MUI's bubble help system and won't disappear automatically when the mouse is moved. Note that bubbles will only show up when the object in question is visible. Otherwise MUIM_CreateBubble returns NULL. You are responsible for deleting the bubble *before* the object get's invisible. Good place to remove a custom bubble is e.g. the MUIM_Hide method of your object. INPUTS - x,y: window-relative coordinates of the bubble. - txt: custom text for the bubble. If you pass NULL here, MUI will query the object with MUIM_CreateShortHelp method for a text (like the automatic help system does). - flags: - MUIV_CreateBubble_DontHidePointer: prevents MUI from hiding the mouse pointer when displaying the help bubble. It is recommended that you always set this, unless your bubble is meant to disappear as soon as there is some user input. RESULT This method returns a pointer to a (black box) bubble handle or NULL on failure. You have to pass the bubble handle to MUIM_DeleteBubble if you want to delete the bubble later. SEE ALSO MUIM_DeleteBubble, MUIM_CreateShortHelp, MUIM_DeleteShortHelp, MUIA_ShortHelp
NAME MUIM_CreateShortHelp (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_CreateShortHelp,LONG mx, LONG my); FUNCTION Allows dynamic creation of help bubble texts. When MUI is about to show a help bubble, it does not simply use the MUIA_ShortHelp field of area class. Instead, it sends a MUIM_CreateShortHelp to the object in question and uses the return value as text for the bubble. When MUIM_CreateShortHelp reaches area class, it just returns the contents of MUIA_ShortHelp, so you needn't care about this method if you only have static, non-changing help bubbles. However, if your help bubble texts depend on some internal states of your objects or on the mouse position within your objects, you have to create a subclass which overrides MUIM_CreateShortHelp, creates a custom text string and returns it. You can dynamically allocate memory here. MUI will call the method MUIM_DeleteShortHelp after the bubble has disappeared to give you a chance to free this memory again. INPUTS mx - current x position of mouse my - current y position of mouse Since MUI does (unfortunately) not use relative coordinates at all, these two aren't relative either. RESULT You must return a pointer to a string or NULL if you failed to create one. MUI will not show any bubble at all if you return NULL, so you can use this to selectively supply bubble help only on certain areas of your object. NOTES This method is sent by MUI. Never send it yourself. MUI will not free the string you return. You must take care of this yourself, e.g. by using static text or by freeing anything you allocated in the following MUIM_DeleteShortHelp method. Even when overriding MUIM_CreateShortHelp, you *must* set MUIA_ShortHelp of your object to something different from NULL. MUI will find out that your object actually has a bubble help by directly checking the contents of MUIA_ShortHelp in the instance data of area class due to speed reasons. EXAMPLE Suggested use is something like obj = NewObject(..., MUIA_ShortHelp, TRUE, ...); and then override these methods in obj's class. ULONG MUIM_CreateShortHelp(...) { STRPTR help; int mx = msg->mx; int my = msg->my; mx -= _mleft(obj); // make coordinates relative my -= _mtop(obj); // no bubble at all if mouse is in a 10 pixel // wide x-region at the edge of the object. if (mx < 10 || mx > _mwidth(obj)-10) return(NULL); // allocate space for bubble text if (!(help=AllocVec(300,MEMF_ANY))) return(NULL); // fill help string with some dynamic text sprintf(help,"Yahoo... very dynamic... %ld %ld",mx,my); return(help); } ULONG MUIM_DeleteShortHelp(...) { FreeVec(msg->help); return(0); } SEE ALSO MUIM_DeleteShortHelp, MUIM_CreateBubble, MUIM_DeleteBubble, MUIA_ShortHelp
NAME MUIM_DeleteBubble (V18) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DeleteBubble,APTR bubble); FUNCTION Together with MUIM_CreateBubble, this method provides an interface for MUIs bubble mechanism. Applications can use bubbles for their own purpose, e.g. for indicating error conditions on certain gadgets. MUIM_DeleteBubble deletes a bubble that was previously created with MUIM_CreateBubble. Not that bubbles have to be deleted before an object get's invisible! INPUTS - bubble: pointer to black box bubble handle as returned by MUIM_CreateBubble. RESULT The bubble will be removed. The return value is undefined. SEE ALSO MUIM_CreateBubble, MUIM_CreateShortHelp, MUIM_DeleteShortHelp
NAME MUIM_DeleteShortHelp (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DeleteShortHelp,STRPTR help); FUNCTION Delete the string that MUIM_CreateShortHelp might have allocated. MUI will call this method if you returned a custom text in MUIM_CreateShortHelp when the bubble has disappeared. You can free memory that you allocated for the dynamic bubble text here. INPUTS help - the STRPTR you previously returned in MUIM_CreateShortHelp. RESULT return NULL in every case. SEE ALSO MUIM_CreateShortHelp, MUIM_CreateBubble, MUIM_DeleteBubble, MUIA_ShortHelp
NAME MUIM_DragBegin (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DragBegin,Object *obj); FUNCTION Inform an object that it has become the active destination of a drag&drop action. An object will only receive this if it has responded positively to a previous MUIM_DragQuery. SEE ALSO MUIM_DragQuery, MUIM_DragFinish, MUIM_DragReport, MUIM_DragDrop
NAME MUIM_DragDrop (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DragDrop,Object *obj, LONG x, LONG y); FUNCTION Indicate that the user dropped something on the current object. SEE ALSO MUIM_DragBegin, MUIM_DragFinish, MUIM_DragReport, MUIM_DragQuery
NAME MUIM_DragFinish (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DragFinish,Object *obj); FUNCTION Indicate that an object is no longer the active destination object of a drag&drop action. SEE ALSO MUIM_DragQuery, MUIM_DragBegin, MUIM_DragReport, MUIM_DragDrop
NAME MUIM_DragQuery (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DragQuery,Object *obj); FUNCTION MUI offers complete drag & drop capabilities for every object. If enabled, the user is able to grab an object, drag it around and drop it on another object. Currently, D&D is limited to single applications, i.e. you cannot take an object from one program and drop it into another one. D&D between different windows of the same application, however, is fine. MUI controls the D&D actions with a set of five methods: MUIM_DragQuery, MUIM_DragBegin, MUIM_DragReport, MUIM_DragDrop and MUIM_DragFinish. Basically things work this way: Lets assume the user has taken an object (called the source object) and is now starting to drag it around. During dragging, MUI will find out which object is currently under the mouse pointer and if it found one, send it the MUIM_DragQuery method. An object that receives MUIM_DragQuery can now determine it it wishes to accept drops from the source object or not. If it responds positively, the object will become the current destination object. Due to the nature of MUIs layout system, a specific x,y pair of coordinates cannot be bound to a specific object immediately. Instead, the coordinates belong to a whole tree of objects, for example some cycle gadget, its parent group, the parent group of the parent group and so on until the tree reaches the windows root object. To allow complete groups of objects to participate in D&D business, the MUIM_DragQuery is first sent to the deepest nested object (the cycle gadget in the above example). If this one doesn't respond, MUI sends a MUIM_DragQuery to its parent group and so on until it either finds some object who accepts the drop or reaches the end of the tree. If there is an accepting object, it will become the current destination, if there isn't, no destination will be set. Objects becoming active destinations of a drag process learn about their current state by receiving a MUIM_DragBegin method. This method, when reaching area class, e.g. draws a special frame around the object to indicate the current state to the user. The opposite of MUIM_DragBegin is MUIM_DragFinish and will be sent as soon as the object stops being destination of the drag process, i.e. because the user aborted the drag or moved out of the bounding box. MUIM_DragFinish will also be sent after a successful drop, you can rely on receiving a MUIM_DragFinish if you received a MUIM_DragBegin before. Furthermore, only one object will be between MUIM_DragBegin and MUIM_DragFinish at any time. Active destination objects (between MUIM_DragBegin and MUIM_DragFinish) receive MUIM_DragReport methods as long as the user moves the mouse within the object. MUIM_DragReport contains the mouse coordinates, so the object can update its display according to the position of the source object. A listview would e.g. indicate the insert position to give the user an idea where the source would be inserted in case of a drop. All the methods mentioned above are just interim messages that help visualizing the drag process. When the user actually decides to drop its source object, the current destination object (if any) receives a MUIM_DragDrop method and can perform whatever operation it thinks is suited to handle a D&D action from the source object. You probably have noticed that D&D is controlled by methods. This means that you need to write subclasses if you intend to use it. However, you needn't implement all the above mentioned things to reach your goal. In fact, MUIM_DragQuery and MUIM_DragDrop are enough for almost all D&D invocations. Here's a little example of how MUI implements D&D between objects of Pendisplay class. These few lines allow the user to take any Pendisplay (or subclasses from Pendisplay like e.g. Poppen class) and drop it onto another one: ULONG mDragQuery(cl,obj,struct MUIP_DragQuery *msg) { char *spec; /* refuse to be dropped on ourself */ if (msg->obj==obj) return(MUIV_DragQuery_Refuse); /* if the source object offers the attribute */ /* we want, show that we would accept it. */ if (get(msg->obj,MUIA_Pendisplay_Spec,&spec)) return(MUIV_DragQuery_Accept); /* refuse otherwise */ return(MUIV_DragQuery_Refuse); } ULONG mDragDrop(cl,obj,struct MUIP_DragDrop *msg) { char *spec; /* copy the attribute from the source object */ get(msg->obj,MUIA_Pendisplay_Spec,&spec); set(obj,MUIA_Pendisplay_Spec,spec); return(0); } SEE ALSO MUIM_DragBegin, MUIM_DragFinish, MUIM_DragReport, MUIM_DragDrop
NAME MUIM_DragReport (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DragReport,Object *obj, LONG x, LONG y, LONG update); FUNCTION Interim messages from MOUSEMOVEs and INTUITICKs sent as long as an object is active destination of a drag&drop action. SEE ALSO MUIM_DragQuery, MUIM_DragFinish, MUIM_DragBegin, MUIM_DragDrop
NAME MUIM_Draw (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_Draw,ULONG flags); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_DrawBackground (V11) SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_DrawBackground,LONG left, LONG top, LONG width, LONG height, LONG xoffset, LONG yoffset, LONG flags); FUNCTION If you decided to use MUIA_FillArea, FALSE for your custom class, i.e. if you care about background rendering yourself, you can use this method to draw a specific part of your objects background with the defined MUIA_Background. INPUTS - left, top, right, bottom: rectangle to draw, be sure to add your objects _mleft and _mtop coordinates. - xoffset, yoffset: offset to use when background is a pattern. - flags: always set to 0 for now! RESULT The result value of this method is currently undefined. SEE ALSO MUIA_Background
NAME MUIM_HandleEvent (V16) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_HandleEvent,struct IntuiMessage *imsg, LONG muikey); FUNCTION This method is invoked whenever one of an event handlers trigger signals arrives. It's described in area class context but does not really belong here. INPUTS imsg - pointer to a struct IntuiMessage that caused the event. note well that this may be NULL in which case you simply not parse imsg. muikey - if the imsg translates to a predefined keystroke, this parameter holds the corresponding MUIKEY_XXXX value. Otherwise it will be MUIKEY_NONE. NOTES You must not rely on imsg being non-NULL, regardless whether muikey is set or unset. RESULT The result is a bitfield. Currently, only one bit is defined: - MUI_EventHandlerRC_Eat Set this if this event was for you and you want MUI to stop calling other event handlers in the chain. All other bits are reserved for future use and must be zero! SEE ALSO window.mui/MUIM_Window_AddEventHandler
NAME MUIM_HandleInput (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_HandleInput,struct IntuiMessage *imsg, LONG muikey); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_Hide (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_Hide); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_Setup (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_Setup,struct MUI_RenderInfo *RenderInfo); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
NAME MUIM_Show (V4 ) [For use within custom classes only] SYNOPSIS DoMethod(obj,MUIM_Show,struct LongRect *clip); FUNCTION see developer documentation.
© 1998, Stefan Stuntz | [MUI Homepage] [Autodoc Index] [Feedback] | Updated: 22-Feb-98 |