Revision as of 08:18, 30 November 2012

This article demonstrates how to create some basic UI components, including menus, toolbars, buttons, progress bars, checkboxes, etc., in both Qt and WP7.

Introduction

This article shows how to create some of the basic UI components in both Qt and WP7. It is intended primarily for developers who are familiar with Qt and want to start learning Windows Phone 7.

The UI elements that we demonstrate in Qt are TextBox, ProgressBar, Button, RadioButton, CheckBox, MenuBar. Once we are done with each component in Qt we show how to create the same UI elements for Windows Phone 7 using XAML.

• 

  Qt UI Components

• 

  WP7 UI Components

Implementation

Application Menu Bar

Qt Project

This is the ToolBar in Qt with ToolButton which provides a different style of appearance compared to a normal Button.

// tool bar
    ToolBar {
         anchors.bottom: parent.bottom
         tools: ToolBarLayout {
             ToolButton {
                 iconSource: "toolbar-back"
                  onClicked: pageStack.depth <= 1 ? Qt.quit() : pageStack.pop()
             }
             ToolButton {
                 iconSource: "toolbar-search"
                 onClicked: mainText.text ="Search"
             }
             ToolButton {
                 iconSource: "toolbar-refresh"
                 onClicked: mainText.text = "Refresh "
             }
             ToolButton {
                 iconSource: "toolbar-menu"
                 onClicked: (myMenu.status == DialogStatus.Closed) ? myMenu.open() : myMenu.close()
             }
         }
     }

WP7 project

The XAML code below provides an Application Bar that has four icon buttons using ApplicationBarIconButton Element.

<!--Sample code showing usage of ApplicationBar-->
    <phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>
        <shell:ApplicationBar IsVisible="True" IsMenuEnabled="True">
            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton x:Name="BackButton" IconUri="/Images/appbar.back.rest.png" Text="Back" Click="BackButton_Click" />
            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton x:Name="SearchButton" IconUri="/Images/appbar.feature.search.rest.png" Text="Search" Click="SearchButton_Click"  />
            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton x:Name="RefreshButton" IconUri="/Images/appbar.refresh.rest.png" Text="Refresh" Click="RefreshButton_Click"/>
            <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton x:Name="FavButton" IconUri="/Images/appbar.favs.rest.png" Text="favourite" Click="FavButton_Click"/>
        </shell:ApplicationBar>
    </phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>

Application Menu Item

In addition to the icons in the Menu Bar we can also add text-based menu items. These menu items are displayed in a list view.

Qt Project

This is the Menu Item that has been added to the Application Menu Bar, which can be used for accessing particular function.

    //menu items
    Menu {
        id: myMenu
        visualParent: pageStack
        MenuLayout {
            MenuItem
            {
                text: qsTr("Menu1")
                onClicked: mainText.text = "Menu1 is Clicked"
            }
            MenuItem{
                text:qsTr("Menu2")
                 onClicked: mainText.text = "Menu2 is Clicked"
            }
            MenuItem{
                text:qsTr("Menu3")
                platformSubItemIndicator: true
                onClicked: subMenu.open()
            }
        }
    }
    // sub menu
    ContextMenu {
        id: subMenu
        MenuLayout {
            MenuItem {
                text: "Red"
                onClicked: mainText.text = "Red is Clicked"
            }
            MenuItem {
                text: "Green"
                onClicked: mainText.text = "Green is Clicked"
            }
            MenuItem {
                text: "Blue"
                onClicked:mainText.text = "Blue is Clicked"
            }
        }
    }

WP7 project

The below WP7 code in XAML creates three menu items in the menu bar.

<!--Sample code showing usage of ApplicationBar-->
    <phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>
            <shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>
                <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem x:Name="Menu1" Text="Menu 1" Click="Menu1_Click"/>
                <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem x:Name="Menu2" Text="Menu 2" Click="Menu2_Click"/>
                <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem x:Name="Menu3" Text="Menu 3" Click="Menu3_Click"/> 
            </shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems>
     </phone:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar>

Note: Here to show the difference between the code structure, I have put the Menu Bar and Menu Item code seperately, but both these codes are combined together and interrelated in the project source code

Text Field

Text file is used to get text from user input.When user clicks on the text filed area, virtual keyboard pops up and allows user to edit text on it. This is a single line of editable plain text.

Qt project

// text box
    TextField {
        anchors.top:statusBar.bottom
        anchors.left: parent.left
        anchors.right: parent.right
        id:textField
        width: 160
         placeholderText: "Enter Text Here"
        validator: IntValidator{bottom: 0; top: 100}
    }

WP7 project

<TextBox Height="72" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="39,26,0,0" Name="textBox1" Text="Enter Text Here" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="381" />

Progress Bar

The progress bar that we have used in the section are indeterminate progress bar (they show that progress is occurring, but not how much is complete/remaining).

Qt project

ProgressBar {
        anchors.top:textField.bottom
        anchors.left: parent.left
        anchors.right: parent.right
         id: progressBar
         indeterminate: true
         visible: simpletimer.running
     }

WP7 project

<ProgressBar Height="5" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="29,121,0,0" Name="progressBar1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="391" />

Button

We will create a button with text inside. On click of the button we will call the event handler to perform some task.

Qt project

   //button
     Button {
                 id: button
                 anchors.top: progressBar.bottom
                 anchors.left: parent.left
                 anchors.right: parent.right
                 text: "Signals"
                 onPlatformReleased: {
                     mainText.text =  "Button Released"
                 }
                 onClicked: {
                     mainText.text =  "Button Clicked"
                 }
                 onPlatformPressAndHold: {
                     mainText.text ="Button Press and Hold"
                 }
             }

WP7 project

<Button Content="Button" Height="72" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="29,152,0,0" Name="button1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="391" Click="button1_Click" />

Radio Button

Lets create a RadioButton with a line of Text. When user select the radio button we catch the event and process it.

Qt project

    // radio button
    Row {
        anchors.top:button.bottom
        id: radioButton
       anchors.left: parent.left
        RadioButton {
            id: button1
            text: "Radio Button"
            checked:  false
            onClicked: if(checked) {mainText.text = "Radio Checked"} else {mainText.text ="Radio Un-Checked"}
        }
    }

WP7 project

<RadioButton Content="RadioButton" Height="72" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="29,251,0,0" Name="radioButton1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Checked="radioButton1_Checked"/>

Check Box

CheckBox returns whether the box is checked or not, and the events are handled.

Qt project

//CheckBox
    CheckBox {
        anchors.top: button.bottom
        anchors.right: parent.right
         id: checkBox
         text: "Check Box "
         checked: false
         onClicked: if(checked) {mainText.text ="Check Box Checked"} else {mainText.text = "Check Box Un-Checked"}
     }

WP7 project

  <CheckBox Content="CheckBox" Height="72" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="255,251,0,0" Name="checkBox1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Checked="checkBox1_Checked" Unchecked="checkBox1_Unchecked" />

Text Block

This is a constant block of text, that has no option to edit by user input. In our case we display the selected control name in this Text Box.

Qt project

Text {
        id:mainText
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        text: qsTr("Hello world!")
        color: platformStyle.colorNormalLight
        font.pixelSize: 20
    }

WP7 projet

   <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="hello world !" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>

Note: When user clicks on any of the UI Control, we catch the event and display the name of the control in the Text Box.

Source Code

• The full source code for Qt example is available here: File:UIComponentQt.zip
• The full source code for WP7 example is available here: File:UIComponentWP7.zip