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Home » U++ Library support » ArrayCtrl, HeaderCtrl & GridCtrl » How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size
How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15937] Mon, 19 May 2008 12:07 Go to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
Messages: 1401
Registered: September 2007
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Hi!

I need something like a vertical multirow list. So I thought about using a GridCtrl.

I need a fixed cell size and the column count must adjust itself depending on the size of the control. I have attached a test package that shows how I tried to do this. The problem is that after I resize the window, the width of the columns gets lost somehow. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,
Raul
  • Attachment: GridTest.rar
    (Size: 1.10KB, Downloaded 326 times)

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15938 is a reply to message #15937] Mon, 19 May 2008 12:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mrjt is currently offline  mrjt
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Do you mean something like a spreadsheet?

I don't know about GridCtrl, but you can do this in ArrayCtrl. In constructor:
	a.HeaderObject().Absolute();
	for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
		a.AddColumn("Test", 100);

Technically this doesn't add more columns as it grows, just adds a maximum and expanding the ctrl reveals them.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15939 is a reply to message #15938] Mon, 19 May 2008 12:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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mrjt wrote on Mon, 19 May 2008 13:23

Do you mean something like a spreadsheet?


No, not like a spreadsheet. For example, if at first I have 5 columns, and after resize 6 could fit, then I need the control to add a column and the first row to display the first 6 items, not just the first 5 as before the resize (and the rest of the rows to pick up the change, and also shift their items). I call this a vertical list Smile. Something like the way Toolbar expands and aligns items as you change the size of the window.

Anyway, I need to look into the difference between GridCtrl and ArrayCtrl. Believe it or not, I never needed anything else except ColumnList up until now.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15940 is a reply to message #15937] Mon, 19 May 2008 12:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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I've never adjusted column count in Layout method, maybe there are some problems with proper column width calculation in this special case. I'll check it today evening.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15941 is a reply to message #15939] Mon, 19 May 2008 12:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mrjt is currently offline  mrjt
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Quote:


No, not like a spreadsheet. For example, if at first I have 5 columns, and after resize 6 could fit, then I need the control to add a column and the first row to display the first 6 items, not just the first 5 as before the resize (and the rest of the rows to pick up the change, and also shift their items). I call this a vertical list Smile. Something like the way Toolbar expands and aligns items as you change the size of the window.

Well, I was picturing something like this:
index.php?t=getfile&id=1208&private=0
If you don't want to have to add all of column data at the start you could just detect when an unfilled column is being displayed and then fill it. Trying to add columns as the ctrl expands sounds a bit insane to me Smile, and you may get performace issues from all the layout code that gets executed.
  • Attachment: arrayctrl.png
    (Size: 12.95KB, Downloaded 1206 times)

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15942 is a reply to message #15941] Mon, 19 May 2008 14:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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Thank you very much for the suggestion! I tried something similar and came pretty close to something useful. But there were problems, because columns which were only partially visible needed to be invisible and trailing items also had to be void, without any cell decoration.

So I tried something related to what I said earlier:
Quote:

Something like the way Toolbar expands and aligns items as you change the size of the window.

So I went ahead and used a ToolBar! I used a custom style which still requires tweaking, but I looks and behaves like I wanted it to:

index.php?t=getfile&id=1209&private=0


I know that some time ago I started using ToolButton as a Button replacement, and now I'm using ToolBar as a grid. I swear, I'm not spending all my time trying to find new and perverse uses for widgets Razz!
  • Attachment: ToolBar.png
    (Size: 10.89KB, Downloaded 1160 times)

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15947 is a reply to message #15942] Mon, 19 May 2008 16:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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This was a fun little experiment with ToolBar. It seems that I have pushed this widget to it's limits. Besides the performance problems, there seem to be problems with the maximum number of items. I guess nobody tested ToolBar with over 13000 buttons in it.

So it's back to serious business now. Does anybody think that either ArrayCtrl or GridCtrl could be made to looks like the picture in my previous post (without any change in their implementation)? If yes, I think the effort to reuse these classes is worth it. If not, then I need to implement a custom control. This is going to take some time because I don't like half-baked custom controls, so the result should be quite customizable, being able to handle tight layouts like in the picture and more loose and nested ones like in this example of the gnome Control Center: http://www.williambrownstreet.net/wordpress/wp-content/controlcenter.png

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15949 is a reply to message #15938] Mon, 19 May 2008 17:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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Please change your code to:
	grd.Ready(false);
	grd. Clear(true);
	for (int i = 0; i < w; i++)
		grd.AddColumn("Test", 105);
	grd.Ready(true);

Ready(false) tells grid to not refresh util ready flag will be set again. Normally for each addcolumn grid recalculated widths of columns.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15950 is a reply to message #15947] Mon, 19 May 2008 17:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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Gnome configuration panel if possible with GridCtrl. For group header you can join columns in row:
grid.AddRow("Look and Feel").JoinRow();

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15951 is a reply to message #15950] Mon, 19 May 2008 18:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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Thanks for the help! GridCtrl is a complex and feature rich control (even if a little daunting with it's shear amount of members), and after some experimenting I think I'll manage with it. Anyway congratulations for the nice design of the class. Using this I'm sure to save a few days work of producing a quality list control.

I have some questions still:
1. How do you hide the header?
2. How can I make it select only one cell on click and use left & right arrow keys for navigation?

PS:
Quote:

grid.AddRow("Look and Feel").JoinRow();


That doesn't seem to compile. Never mind though, I used JoinRow directly on the grid and it worked.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15952 is a reply to message #15947] Mon, 19 May 2008 18:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mrjt is currently offline  mrjt
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It seems to me that what you need is very similar to ColumnList, with only 2 (main) differences:
- items drawn left to right (not top to bottom)
- number of columns determined dynamically based on item width
so my suggestion would to modify that.

I've attached my quick and dirty attempt (it works quite well though). Use like a ColumnList, but you'll have to set ItemWidth to get sensible results when using a Display (default width is 50).
  • Attachment: RowList.zip
    (Size: 6.09KB, Downloaded 281 times)

[Updated on: Mon, 19 May 2008 18:09]

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15955 is a reply to message #15951] Mon, 19 May 2008 19:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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cbpporter wrote on Mon, 19 May 2008 12:04

Thanks for the help! GridCtrl is a complex and feature rich control (even if a little daunting with it's shear amount of members), and after some experimenting I think I'll manage with it. Anyway congratulations for the nice design of the class. Using this I'm sure to save a few days work of producing a quality list control.


Thanks. Of course partially class design is borrowed from ArrayCtrl. I think the main reason it's not widly used is lack of documentation. Fortunately this is gonna change soon.
Quote:


I have some questions still:
1. How do you hide the header?
2. How can I make it select only one cell on click and use left & right arrow keys for navigation?


1. Use HideRow(0) or Header(false) which I've just added Smile In both cases please use the newest version of gridctrl as I did some fixes needed to make your case work properly.
2. SelectRow(false);
Quote:


That doesn't seem to compile. Never mind though, I used JoinRow directly on the grid and it worked.


Yes, you're right. It should be grd.Add(..).JoinRow. AddRow returns reference to ItemRect so you are able to write something like this: grid.AddRow(..).Bg(Yellow).SetFont(Arial(7)) etc.
  • Attachment: GridCtrl.7z
    (Size: 73.28KB, Downloaded 275 times)

[Updated on: Mon, 19 May 2008 21:15]

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15963 is a reply to message #15952] Tue, 20 May 2008 02:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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mrjt wrote on Mon, 19 May 2008 19:09

It seems to me that what you need is very similar to ColumnList, with only 2 (main) differences:
- items drawn left to right (not top to bottom)
- number of columns determined dynamically based on item width
so my suggestion would to modify that.

I've attached my quick and dirty attempt (it works quite well though). Use like a ColumnList, but you'll have to set ItemWidth to get sensible results when using a Display (default width is 50).

Thank you very much for using your free time to try this. You are right: I do need something like a ColumnList: actually I was using that before, but I need another draw order. It seems that the way such a list with multiple columns is drawn is confusing for a lot of people, so I had to disable the multiple column option, leaving it to a default of one. But because of the waste of space, I find myself in this situation...

I'll definitely try out you code and probably merge it into ColumnList if possible, seeing as U++ lacks a traditional list control with an optional "icons" layout (like CListCtrl from MFC).

But before that, since I already started with GridCtrl, I have to clear up some issues first.

I used this pretty ugly code to get the control to look and behave as I want it. By using Add variants I could only get a static number of items on a row, so I had to use Set:
void KanjiFlash::PopulateGrid()
{
	if (!curList)
		return;
	
	grdKanji.Clear();
	Vector<Kanji *> &v = *curList;
	int cx = 0, cy = 0;
	
	int w = grdKanji.GetSize().cx / CellHeight;
	int h = v.GetCount() / w;
	if (v.GetCount() * 1.0 / w != h)
		h++;
	
	//section 1
	//for (int i = 0 ; i < h; i++)
	//	grdKanji.AddRow("").AlignBottom().Height(CellHeight);
	for (int i = 0; i < v.GetCount(); i++)
	{
		const Kanji& kanji = *v[i];
		grdKanji.Set(cy, cx, kanji.Literal());
		cx++;
		if (cx >= w)
		{
			cx = 0; 
			cy++;
		}
	}
	
	//section 2
	//for (int i = 0 ; i < h; i++)
	//	grdKanji.GetRow(i).AlignBottom().Height(CellHeight);	
}

void KanjiFlash::Layout()
{
	int w = grdKanji.GetSize().cx / CellHeight;
	
	grdKanji.Ready(false);
	grdKanji.Clear(true);
	for (int i = 0; i < w; i++)
		grdKanji.AddColumn("", CellHeight);
	grdKanji.Ready(true);
	PopulateGrid();
}

This pretty much works, except some problems.

There are two sections of commented out code. I need to uncomment the first section If I want to adjust the look of each individual row. Here I get two problems:
1. The control doesn't seem to show the scrollbar correctly, and even if it shows it, sometimes the last row is scrolled only about to the middle. It seems that the Height statement is the culprit (CellHeight is 40 under my tests).
2. AlignBottom or any other align doesn't seem to work.

If I uncomment the second section (it doesn't mater if the first is commented or not), rows are drawn at incorrect positions, but react to mouse at correct coordinates.

Also on a side note, I couldn't find a GetRowCount, event though a GetColumnCount is present.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15964 is a reply to message #15963] Tue, 20 May 2008 08:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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Quote:


1. The control doesn't seem to show the scrollbar correctly, and even if it shows it, sometimes the last row is scrolled only about to the middle. It seems that the Height statement is the culprit (CellHeight is 40 under my tests).
2. AlignBottom or any other align doesn't seem to work.
If I uncomment the second section (it doesn't mater if the first is commented or not), rows are drawn at incorrect positions, but react to mouse at correct coordinates.


Ok, I'll check it (AlignBottom should work - maybe I broke sth..)
Quote:


Also on a side note, I couldn't find a GetRowCount, event though a GetColumnCount is present.


simply use GetCount(). Maybe I'll add GetRowCount alias too.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15965 is a reply to message #15964] Tue, 20 May 2008 09:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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Please do following corrections to your code:

in Layout()
	for (int i = 0; i < w; i++)
		grd.AddColumn("").AlignBottom();

and in PopulateGrid()
	//section 1
	for (int i = 0 ; i < h; i++)
		grd.AddRow(1, CellHeight);


Now everything should work. Height() is a only sytnax sugar. It dosn't couse grid refresh, rows heights recaluclation. However it can be confusign. I'll think about it. Align* for particualr row doesn't work now. I'll fix that in the next release.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15966 is a reply to message #15965] Tue, 20 May 2008 10:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mrjt is currently offline  mrjt
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Quote:

I do need something like a ColumnList: actually I was using that before, but I need another draw order. It seems that the way such a list with multiple columns is drawn is confusing for a lot of people, so I had to disable the multiple column option

I have exactly the same issue, I hate the way ColumnList works. My main issues:
- Lack of key/value support (every other list-style control supports it, why not ColumnList?)
- Bizarre scrolling. A columnized list should scroll sideways to show new columns, not the vertically one item at a time. I think this is the one that really confuses people.
- Difficult selection determination

Quote:

I'll definitely try out you code and probably merge it into ColumnList if possible, seeing as U++ lacks a traditional list control with an optional "icons" layout (like CListCtrl from MFC).

I would be surprised you could do this, the changes are too widespread and complete to be integrated as an addition feature without adding considerable bloat and complexity.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15968 is a reply to message #15966] Tue, 20 May 2008 11:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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mrjt wrote on Tue, 20 May 2008 04:49


I have exactly the same issue, I hate the way ColumnList works. My main issues:
- Lack of key/value support (every other list-style control supports it, why not ColumnList?)
- Bizarre scrolling. A columnized list should scroll sideways to show new columns, not the vertically one item at a time. I think this is the one that really confuses people.
- Difficult selection determination


I like scrolling in column list. It dosn't scroll columns but items in visible columns. This is a very good solution for long list (at least for me). You can adjust columns count by changing the width of just one column (I mean here it's easy to make more items visible without resizing the widget). Of course similar possibility could be implemented in classical approach.
What you need is arrayctrl/gridctrl which adjust columns count automaticaly for given list count. It can be easily done. However grid/array ctrl are heavy controls. I would suggest creating a new control (RowList e.g).

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15971 is a reply to message #15966] Tue, 20 May 2008 14:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cbpporter is currently offline  cbpporter
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Well I don't like the scrolling but I definitely appreciate how useful it is for list of a lot of items and I've gotten used to it. But if the user is unable to scroll and desperately tries to find an item on a different column only after a small scroll, that's a problem. Anyway, I'm OK with it in general, and in this case I'll use grid.

mrjt wrote on Tue, 20 May 2008 11:49


I would be surprised you could do this, the changes are too widespread and complete to be integrated as an addition feature without adding considerable bloat and complexity.

I did some diff's and the bloat wouldn't be that great, but the complexity would define telly take a hard hit. ColumnList is nice and light weight, and since it is called ColumnList, maybe it's not the best idea to merge the two? Then how about some testing, debugging if necessary, and maybe adding key/value support and including it in Bazaar?

I have one last question regarding GridCtrl: what does Item::Clickable do? It does not seem to do what I imagined. And can I set a cell so that it is not clickable/selectable. I need this only for tail cells.

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15972 is a reply to message #15971] Tue, 20 May 2008 14:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mrjt is currently offline  mrjt
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cbpporter wrote on Tue, 20 May 2008 13:18

I did some diff's and the bloat wouldn't be that great, but the complexity would define telly take a hard hit. ColumnList is nice and light weight, and since it is called ColumnList, maybe it's not the best idea to merge the two? Then how about some testing, debugging if necessary, and maybe adding key/value support and including it in Bazaar?

I agree. I've already started work on a list that does both row-ordering and column-ordering with (IMO) better scrolling. Like 'List View' and 'Icon View' in Explorer. It might take a little while as I'm developing it in the spare time I have while my major project compiles Smile

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Re: How to create a GridCtrl with fixed cell size [message #15973 is a reply to message #15971] Tue, 20 May 2008 15:33 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
unodgs is currently offline  unodgs
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Quote:

I have one last question regarding GridCtrl: what does Item::Clickable do? It does not seem to do what I imagined. And can I set a cell so that it is not clickable/selectable. I need this only for tail cells.

Clicakble means cell is clickable or not, i.e cell can or can't be selected. Could you post here your whole package so I could test it?

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