I'm currently designing a GUI using JavaFX and SceneBulder.
I would like it be composed of several windows, each of which can be hidden, resized, deleted, etc.... in much the same way that is posible in Final Cut Pro 7.
For example: http://www.squarebox.com/legacy/xfer_fcp7.png
I have read various posts and articles (e.g. Angela Caicedo's article for Oracle) about creating apps with multiple windows but none of them seem to address displaying several windows simultaneously and enabling the contents of these separate windows to communicate with each other.
I have read a post which suggests just creating several stages (and therefore windows) in the start method of the main Class. I am tempted to go down this route but am suspicious as it seems crude and I get the sense that this might lead to problems later down the line with regards to getting each window to interact.
Any help or recommendations with regards to design would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
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I'm new to the world of C# automation so apologies if this is obvious. My colleagues and I work frequently within an app written in Java, and I'm looking to automate some of the tasks. However, I can't seem to identify any of the elements (various menus, textboxes, etc.) within the Java windows using the tools I'm aware of (Inspect and Spy++). Nothing within the main "window" of the app shows up in Inspect (just the title bar and its' children).
I've gotten the automation working by using P/Invoke SendInput commands to click on the various parts of the window I need to click on (based on x/y coordinates) and enter text as if it's coming from the keyboard. However, this seems a bit ... fiddly. I'd feel better using this if I could formalize element names instead of just sending mouseclick instructions via code, is there a way to do this? For example with something like the Windows.Automation library when I don't have the element IDs?
TestStack.White framework written in C# should help you. It's based on UI Automation API and should see any lightweight controls like WPF ones.
I'm not sure if this question is entirely appropriate for SO but it seemed to work better here than in SuperUser so apologies if its in the wrong place. Happy to move it if so.
I'm trying to figure out how I'd automate the input of data into a system that didn't accept data uploads, but rather used forms put up on a screen. Use cases are e.g. where an enterprise wide system does accept uploads but the user lacks admin rights to fill in data she is required to populate, or with very old and specialized legacy systems where the functionality just doesn't exist and a serial input-review-rollback-commit cycle is enforced.
I'm not a programmer by trade so this is partly thought experiment but also to answer a question that has arisen at a business that I'm involved in.
I'm reasonably familiar with python and java if libraries for keyboard emulation exist but would be happy interpreting a pseudo code response too.
Responses that point to existing providers of such functionality that is embeddable or that tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree also gratefully accepted.
Once again apologies as I know this isnt intuitively the best spot for this. Please do point me to a better location if you know of one.
Thanks
Possible solutions exist but they're all pretty bad
Is it a desktop application or a web application? If it's a web application you can use ghost.py to automate the interaction and submission of new records/entries. This work will be a glorious bundle of fun for the lucky code jockey who draws the short straw.
If it's a desktop application, it will be a great deal more difficult. Is it on Windows? Linux? MacOSX? Is the software written in Java? Using the Swing toolkit? AWT? SWT?
If it is a native Windows application you might be able to use Autohotkey to automate desktop interaction. This can be as basic as automatic clicks in pre-recorded parts of the screen, automating TAB keypresses to move around the input cells and reading input text from a data file and writing that out into the input cells. This will be even more entertaining than the web-solution mentioned earlier: truly the necessary ingredients for an authentic war story worthy of the annals of internet lore.
This is likely to be a lot of intricate work, error-prone, and subject to failure in the future if the UI of the software is changed; and such changes are very likely. It would be a lot easier to help if you could add more detail to the question.
Before embarking down this road, if I were you I would beg and plead with the software vendor to either provide me with an upload API; I would even offer to pay the vendor to upload my data for me. I cannot imagine either of the solutions I mentioned will be any cheaper, unless the work time of your developers has no value.
Good luck.
I am interested in knowing Debugging setup that'll allow a programmer to be most productive. Assuming knowledge about debugging in general.
I am mainly interested in knowing how and where you place different windows like the variables window, code window, the stack. Also possibly the relative size of different windows.
I'd prefer if there are screenshots attached and a description of why the setup works for you or one that is efficient.
I mainly use Eclipse and Netbeans.
Most productive? That's going to vary greatly from person to person. You shouldn't focus on what works best for other people or details like precise window placement... figure out what works best for you with some trial and error.
For me, multiple monitors are important. I keep code and tools (Eclipse, SQL manager, etc) open on one, and use the other for the console and the running program (whatever it may be: website, windowed application, etc).
First you have to know how to use the debugger really well and then after that the placement of windows is just frivolous detail, for the most part. It will just fall into place without having to mimic other people's comfort level with the tools.
It sounds like you're looking for a static setup but likely you will show/hide windows depending on what you're debugging and size them to different situations. At least that's what I do. So I would post many screenshots and they'd all look different.
"I'd prefer if there are screenshots attached and a description of why the setup works for you. "
You're exactly right knowing it works for the other person.
In addition to what others have said, one thing that I do with respect to variable windows - Visual Studio gives you 4 different watch windows. I usually put them all into a single tabbed window, and each tab will represent a different programming context. For example, tab 1 will list variables that I usually need to look at when dealing with area A, tab 2 has variables for area B and so on.
Doing this, I find that the watch windows don't get over cluttered and I spend less time setting up variables
Is there a way using SWT to get a list of all processes currently running (similar to executing tasklist.exe/tlist.exe on Windows)? If so, is there sample code available?
Ideally this would be done programmatically only (no third party tools).
My app monitors the process list and needs to support Windows 2000/Server 2003/XP Home/XP Pro/Vista
Thanks in advance.
This does not seem to be possible using SWT or even Java for that matter is a poor fit across multiple platforms. I ended up using JNI to list the running tasks. This works across all OS that I required. I found a good working example at the address below that I integrated into my app. Has multiple features implemented such as listing processes, killing processes, finding if specific EXE is running, and more. Hope this helps someone in the future.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/java/jnisample.aspx
I am trying to make an application in which one component captures the screen of the user (for screen casting). I am aware that there are two options to achieve the same using a Java applet (please correct me if I am wrong). First is to use the java applet to take screen shots continuously and convert it into a video and upload it as a video file. And second is to create a java vnc server and record it as a .fbs file and play it using a player like: http://www.wizhelp.com/flashlight-vnc/index.html
I would like to know the best solution in terms of video quality, file size, cross-platform compatibility (windows and mac), firewall problems and finally ease of implementation.
I am very new to Java. Please tell me whats the best solution for my problem. Also, is it easy enough for me to program it on my own or should I get it developed via a freelancer. I have tons of programming experience (5+ years in LAMP) but none in Java.
Thank you very much.
I agree that this is pretty hard. I implemented those two solutions (VNC and onboard screen capture) plus a third (capture from an external VGA source via an Epiphan grabber) for a former employer. I had the best bandwidth-to-quality ratio with VNC, but I got higher framerate with VGA capture. In all three cases, I reduced the frames + capture times to PNGs and sequenced them in a QuickTime reference movie. Then I made flattened video (MPEG4 or SWF) of the results. In my case, I then synchronized the screen video with a DV stream.
In the end the technology worked (see a sample of the output) but our business model failed.
From what I know, the older versions of applet had security restrictions that may not allow for screen capture. Instead, a java application may be feasible.
Regarding the build-it-yourself vs the fire-a-coder, it depends on how you value your time compared to what you can find on a freelancer site.
I think you can find someone from India/Romania/Poland/Other countries that can make it for an affordable price
Given your Java knowledge and the difficulty of the task, have you considered taking an alternative approach? For example, how about a native VNC server for the end-user, which is just a small download and then they click "Run." And that native server is programmed to capture the screen and send it straight to your web server, which has a client like vnc2swf or other means of converting the VNC stream to a video or .fbs file? Does all that make sense?
Admittedly, without Java, you have to prepare one executable program per platform you want to support, however, I don't know. That still sounds easier to me. Consider Copilot.com. They are doing VNC but they still use small native apps for each platform.
Sorry but this seems the kind of job that requires a lot of experience. Even if you find code snippets all around the net to fix this and that, the overall result may be way worse than simply hiring an experienced Java programmer.