The pearltree site has an interesting interface. I would be interested in such an interface as a library (Java, Python, HTML5?) for an online editor.
The project uses Flex and states in this old blog post that HTML5 performs worse.
I am asking this question in the context of another question on math.stackexchange.com
You might want to try D3 JS http://d3js.org/
Here is an example using D3 and nodes, http://mbostock.github.io/d3/talk/20111116/force-collapsible.html
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I've been experimenting with using HTML as a structure for generating a help information area for a desktop program that I've finished writing and that seems to work ok, though I don't really like the way it is turning out and I began to wonder if perhaps there might be a better way to go about it. Perhaps a library that makes generating and linking content within Java a little easier in that context or some other means that I'm not aware of.
I did some Googling on the topic but found nothing specifically in reference to help menu / content creation.
Does anyone know of any libraries out there that would make it easier to create help info for end users?
Or, is there a "best practice" for doing this or any other method to that end?
Thank you,
Mike
What does Idea do?
Intellij is large java app that has decent help documentation. You could look and see how they did that, if that is something you wish to emulate. I think it is mostly good quality writing and organization rather than tool support, though I guess they use decent tooling too.
I did a quick check to see how idea create their doc. They write in markdown format. Here is the markdown style guide they use for creating the document, in generated html form and in markdown authoring form. A repository of docs used for one of their products is their open source sdk docs. The SDK docs project is an Idea project, so I guess they just use Idea for authoring. If it seems to be something that would help you, you could try cloning the project and generating documentation from it or contacting the project contributors for more info.
As far as tying the help content into your app, either you can display it in situ using a WebView or link to it externally using HostServices. You could study the help system used within Idea to see how they generally do that, e.g. help menus used, key commands responded to, icons used to link to the help system, etc.
Generally, the way it works is:
The document is written in markdown then processed and rendered to html.
The html documents have copious anchors throughout.
The help menu items link to the anchors directly.
Help menus and shortcut keys follow platform specific conventions and differ between Windows and Mac.
There is a single ? icon in dialogs which appears in a consistent place and it links to an anchor in the html for context sensitive help in the dialog.
The documentation itself is hosted on a website so it can be accessed independently of the application.
The app launches an external browser to view the help rather than using something like a WebView to show the help internally.
Additionally, Idea will use tooltips which show up on hover. Tooltips aren't used for every control or UI element, only certain ones. If there is a keyboard accelerator which can be used to trigger the control action, then there is a tooltip for it, and in the tooltip it lets you know what the keyboard shortcut to trigger it is.
The rendered HTML to which the app is linked is hosted at the jetbrains website.
Linking to HTML help
You could:
Link to your own hosted website, OR
Link to html files packaged with your app.
Both could be rendered by either WebView or a browser showing a document using HostServices, using the file: protocol to access html files packaged with your app or https: protocol for files hosted on your web server.
What does SceneBuilder do?
For a pure JavaFX application, SceneBuilder is quite large and complex. It has no reliance on internal help at all, just a single help menu item, accessible via an F1 shortcut. The help links to a website authored and hosted by Oracle (using the standard tool Oracle use for authoring most Java platform docs, which is likely a commercial tool). It is not as nicely integrated and context sensitive as the Idea example but it does demonstrate a simple approach to documenting an app via an external website.
So i am building an application on flex for a client and he asked me if i can provide him with a class diagram. I was wondering if there is a simple way to do it with a program (like visio or something) as done in java. Thanx
Grant Skinner's gModeler might be of interest.
Cited from the gModeler site:
gModeler is a free online UML diagramming and documentation tool,
targetted at developers working with ECMA 262 languages such as
FlashMX's Actionscript, and Javascript. In addition to it's
diagramming capabilities, it exports HTML documentation, FlashMX XML
documentation (for the Action Panel and Reference Panel) and stub code
(class code).
Does anybody know of a web based Rich Text Editor like TinyMCE or FCKEditor which supports realtime collaboration? I know of systems like EtherPad, but I'm interested in finding something I can embed into another application, rather than something that works standalone.
Ideally something open source, and works on the .NET platform would be great.
Cheers
Matt
There are
beweevee, using .NET, but it is not open source.
collabedit
While there are several all in one solutions they often tend to be a bit lacking in features. I believe this to be because building a great editor and a great collaboration infrastructure are both very difficult and require different skill sets. It's very hard to do both very well. On the other hand if you find one that meets your needs it might be the simplest approach. ProseMirror comes to mind as a good example that does it pretty well.
I prefer to take a great editor with a great API and pair it up with some real time collaboration technology. Currently Quill and CKEditor 5 are great editors that have sufficient API's to enable real time collaboration. Both of them were built with collaboration in mind. You can pair them up with a realtime back end like the Google Drive Realtime API by Google or Convergence offered by Convergence Labs (full disclosure, I am a founder at Convergence Labs). Or if you are looking for an open source alternative you can look at Together JS or ShareDB.
For a fully javascript based solution try etherpad!
There is a .NET Client example on HTTP API and a page on other examples
Also refer this jQuery demo that can be embedded into your existing solution on the .NET Platform
I'm building a Bridge game.
The main page, where you play the game, boast some 200 controls, like buttons that represents the 52 cards, 26 others for won / lost tricks, plenty of text fields... You name it, total some 200.
Actually its been already built and runs under Winforms model, but with the unavoidable question of implementing .NET 4.0 onto user's machine that must run Windows, and installing the software.
Hence I'm considering creating an ASP version (no PHP please, since I'm fluent in VB, and ignorant in C, Java, PHP and the likes).
Is that a "real" option or am I dreaming?
Will it run smoothly for users with a 2MB DSL connection?
Oh, by the way, no MVC please, I'm too old for that sort of sh...t :->
Can it be done? Sure.
The problem for you might be that to do it effectivly you will need to use HTML, CSS, Javascript and the like.
What most likely would be a good idea for you here would be to go the route of Silverlight. It will give you a more rich UI experience and will allow you to code in VB entirely.
I don't see using ASP.BET directly as a good option here. To make it look smooth, you would have to use javascript heavily. I thing you would be better off with Flash.
If you prefer to use pure HTML/Javascript/CSS you can create rich Web UI's by modifying the Document's Object Model (DOM). With little knowledge of Javascript and the usage of some library like: scriptaculus, prototype, sarissa, jquery, you can get rich interfaces. You should take a look at some of these libraries mainly scriptaculus because the set of animations it provides. Another javascript library made for game development is gameQuery.
With that many controls on an ASP.NET page your view state will be gigantic. If you plan on only serving up a couple of games at once then it shouldn't be a problem but you have to actually start thinking about bandwidth with that large of a viewstate. You would be better off with a DOM/jQuery type interface which displayed static images for the cards. All interaction can be handled client side and validated with a server side call.
This might be the perfect opportunity to learn javascript :). Remember each language you learn is another tool in your toolbox. The engineer with the most tools usually wins :).
I am new to this term JavaFX Script, just want to know more on the use of JavaFX Scripts.
thanks you.
JavaFX is a RIA framework, which is something similar to Silverlight and Flash. just check out the JavaFx and will get an idea about what exactly is,.
Well, being as Oracle issued an 'end of life' statement pronouncing javafx 1.3 (and javafx script) dead come September 20, I would say that 'javafx script is of no use whatsoever, except perhaps for dealing with some legacy code'.
That's what I would say if I took your question literally and wanted to be a smart ass. Java fx script was a UI language that went along with javafx 1.3, suns original javafx user interface multimedia oriented development kit. It had its own scripting language interoperable with java.
This, many believed (mysself included) was a terrifically stupid move on suns part. We wanted to code in java and didn't want to have to dick around with some stupid scripting language. Oracle answered our prayers with JavaFX 2.0. It is to put it simply, the user interface toolkit that replaces the old standard, Swing. It's more than that -- it's based on it's own graphics engine Prism, so it pretty much replaces all of the old java multimedia classes, AWT, SWING, GRAPHICS 2D, etc. etc. And you can write it in pure Java code.
It's also correct, as the user above pointed out, that it's a flash competitor. Basically it's an SDK for producing rich cllient interfaces for the web or for the desktop... maybe even for mobile platforms but I'm not sure there.
Hope this helps -- if you want to learn more I suggest Apress publishings Pro JavaFX 2.0 Best book avbailable on Javafx 2.0 ( actually one of only two in print to date, but still damn well written)
It's supposed to be a Flash compete.