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Overview | Basic Concepts | GUI Components | Architecture | How To Write An App |
Rhino provides some high-level GUI elements for displaying Tasks, collections of tasks, the status and relationships of Items operated on by those Tasks, and the results of those Tasks.
The following screen shots have been scaled to 50% of their actual size, and are links to full-size images. These examples are taken from the FailSafe 2.0 Cluster Manager GUI.
Windows:
Sub-components:
A Form is a single-page GUI for performing a Task. It contains a product-specific Task icon in the upper left corner, the Task title, and some introductory text describing the inputs the user is expected to type or choose. The Task-specific inputs themselves appear in the middle, with generic OK/Cancel/Help buttons at the bottom. All text in blue behaves like a hyperlink which launches glossary information in a separate small window.
The purpose of the Form interface is to make the entry of Task parameters simple and fast. It is suitable for Tasks of low complexity and a small number of parameters. Forms are the preferred interface when the typical users are knowledgeable and comfortable with the system being administered.
A Guide is a multi-page GUI containing explanatory text with a small set of labelled input components on each page. Like the Form, each page of the Guide contains a product-specific Task icon in the upper left corner, a title, and text describing the input expected of the user. The Task-specific inputs themselves appear in the middle, with generic Previous/Next/Cancel/Help buttons at the bottom. An "OK" button is presented when the user has navigated to the last page in the Guide. As in the Form, all text in blue behaves like a hyperlink which launches glossary information in a separate small window.
The purpose of the Guide interface is to provide step-by-step guidance on completing a complex task or a task with a large number of parameters. Guides are the preferred interface when the typical users are novices or not comfortable with the system being administered.
ResultView is a window which displays the results of a Task which has been successfully completed. (If the Task could not be performed, the user is given an error message describing the problem, and the Form or Guide remains open until the Task is successfully completed or explicitly cancelled.)
A ResultView contains a descriptive message, an icon representing the Item which was operated on (if applicable), and a TaskShelf showing the related Tasks which the user may want to launch next.
Task Manager is a front-end window that organizes and lists a product's Tasks for easy access.
The Task Manager groups the product's Tasks into pages based on the types of Items that the Tasks operate upon. The list of pages appears on the left side as a table of contents. The Overview and Search pages appear in all Rhino applications, but the content of the Overview page is application-specific. For the FailSafe 2.0 GUI, all metatasks are grouped into a sixth page called Guided Help.
Related: TaskManager API page, screen shot, How To Customize the TaskManager
MetaTask
A MetaTask is a sequence of tasks which guides the user in performing a higher-level operation. There are two kinds of MetaTasks: "Smart" MetaTasks and ...the other kind. (This section is not complete.)
RichText
RichText is a text component that can display a small subset of HTML,
including links. These links are most often used to bring up glossary
definitions in another small window, but they can also be used to launch
Tasks. Most of the Rhino components on this page contain one or more RichText
components.
TaskShelf
A TaskShelf is a list of Tasks relevant to whatever GUI component
contains the TaskShelf. The User can launch one of those Tasks by clicking on
the Task name or icon. The TaskShelf is often dynamic, which means it will
update the list of Tasks based on the state of the system.
ItemView
An ItemView is a window displaying all relevant information about an Item. The ItemView window displays simple key-value pairs at the top, application-specific contents in ItemTables in the middle, and a TaskShelf at the bottom. The Item's icon is shown at the top left, with the icon color indicating the Item's state.
Related: ItemView API page, screen shot, How to Write
an ItemView
ItemTable
An ItemTable shows information about all Items in a Category.
Related: How to Write
an ItemTable
TreeView
A TreeView displays Items that have a natural hierarchical relationship in an outline-style indented overview. Because it lets the user monitor the states of several Items at once, TreeView can be appropriate in a front-end monitoring window.
Related: The Rhino TreeViewPane Component