topic Re: Opening two submenus parallely in LabVIEW

Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:07:15 GMT

I am creating a UI application which have approx 10 different menus. Now I need that when user is working with one submenu then parallely he can open the other submenu belong to other menu.

When I was configuring event structure then I unchecked the Lock front panel setting but now I am only able to select the menu but not able to open any window, and as soon as current window exits then automatically my window selected previously opens up....

Thanks

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

RavensFan — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:38:45 GMT

Multiple menus don't sound like any user interface that I've ever heard of.

Can you mock up a screenshot of what it is you want to do?

Perhaps a tree control will let you do what you want.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 05:48:05 GMT

Yes it is in .net application. So I think this should be possible in labview application too.

Here is the snapshot.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Yamaeda — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:37:15 GMT

I think it's possible if you use the Menu selection? event, but you need to implement some floating menu instead of the standard one, thus basically popping up 2 floating dialogs.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:43:18 GMT

Can you please elobreate?

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

daveTW — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 09:08:27 GMT

Hello Ranjeet

what I don't understand is the reason of your UI design. A menu is intended to start an instruction to the program, e.g. to open a file-dialog or to start conversation with an external device. Additionally with little icons, like checkmarks, states according to these instructions can be shown.

When you want to open a menu to show something, like states or user information, and at the same time you want to open another menu to start some actions, the first menu can be replaced with some kind of indicator on the front panel, like a list, booleans or whatever.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

RavensFan — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:10:46 GMT

@Ranjeet_Singh wrote:

Yes it is in .net application. So I think this should be possible in labview application too.

Here is the snapshot.

Who made the .net application that can do this? Can you show it with both menus being open simultaneously?
I have never seen an application behave this way.

I think Dave's message explains well the standard use of a menu architecture.

Another question. If you click on the first menu and it pops up, then you click on the second menu and it pops up while the first remains up (whereas normal menus the first will go away), how do you ultimately get one or both menus to go away when you are done with them?

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Norbert_B — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:26:43 GMT

Do you have two mouse pointers to control these submenus? Are these controlled by a single mouse or do you use two (or more) mice?

Norbert

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 05:24:27 GMT

@daveTW wrote:

Hello Ranjeet

what I don't understand is the reason of your UI design. A menu is intended to start an instruction to the program, e.g. to open a file-dialog or to start conversation with an external device. Additionally with little icons, like checkmarks, states according to these instructions can be shown.

When you want to open a menu to show something, like states or user information, and at the same time you want to open another menu to start some actions, the first menu can be replaced with some kind of indicator on the front panel, like a list, booleans or whatever.

My menu is like this.

Config --> Configure the com port for communication (Obviously need to be done once)

Testing --> Testing will be done and hence pass fail and total number also will be maintained.

Report --> That will show the report by date and model wise in one day of any model.

Add --> Add parameter

Exit --> Exit my application.

Now in my between testing if user wants to view the report then my numbers will again start from 0. For this I have a soltion that before exit I can write to the database and retrieve it but this very lenthy procedure.

So if user is able to open testing and report vi simultanously then the data will not be lost.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 05:29:23 GMT

@RavensFan wrote:

Who made the .net application that can do this? Can you show it with both menus being open simultaneously?
I have never seen an application behave this way.

Another question. If you click on the first menu and it pops up, then you click on the second menu and it pops up while the first remains up (whereas normal menus the first will go away), how do you ultimately get one or both menus to go away when you are done with them?

Unfortunately my .net application devreloper doesnt know labview. There are application like this also.

What I need is when user selects the second menu then I dont want first menu to be close first. If it is minimised then no problem, if it remains up but minimised fine with me.

Re: Opening two submenus parallely

Ranjeet_Singh — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 05:28:13 GMT

@Norbert_B wrote:

Do you have two mouse pointers to control these submenus? Are these controlled by a single mouse or do you use two (or more) mice?

Norbert

I have single mouse pointer

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

RavensFan — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 16:42:32 GMT

@Ranjeet_Singh wrote:

@RavensFan wrote:

Who made the .NET application that can do this? Can you show it with both menus being open simultaneously?
I have never seen an application behave this way.

Another question. If you click on the first menu and it pops up, then you click on the second menu and it pops up while the first remains up (whereas normal menus the first will go away), how do you ultimately get one or both menus to go away when you are done with them?

Unfortunately my .NET application developer doesn't know LabVIEW. There are application like this also.

What I need is when user selects the second menu then I don't want first menu to be close first. If it is minimized then no problem, if it remains up but minimized fine with me.

It doesn't matter whether the .NET application developer knows LabVIEW. I'm just wondering what their application looks like when you use it. As I said simultaneous menus is something I've never seen and seems like it goes against any rules or recommendations about User Interface design. Post a screen shot from this .NET application that shows this.

Show some examples if you say they exist!

@Ranjeet_Singh wrote:

My menu is like this.

Config --> Configure the com port for communication (Obviously need to be done once)

Testing --> Testing will be done and hence pass fail and total number also will be maintained.

Report --> That will show the report by date and model wise in one day of any model.

Add --> Add parameter

Exit --> Exit my application.

Now in my between testing if user wants to view the report then my numbers will again start from 0. For this I have a solution that before exit I can write to the database and retrieve it but this very lengthy procedure.

So if user is able to open testing and report vi simultaneously then the data will not be lost.

I don't understand how a menu closing causes your report numbers to revert back to zero.

If you close your application and you want it to remember data from where it left off the next time you open it, then of course you are going to have to store that info in a file. It doesn't need to be a database.

If you are saying that going from your first menu to your second menu is causing you to lose data, then something is wrong with your LabVIEW code. You are not maintaining the data in your code properly between loop iterations.

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Ranjeet_Singh — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 02:32:29 GMT

When user goes from one menu to other then I dont want for that user to close the first window then go for second. He can go for second menu then first menu VI will be minimised.

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

RavensFan — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:07:04 GMT

And you still haven't shown an application that demonstrates this behavior.

Maybe you are using the wrong terminology. You say "menu", but perhaps you are talking about a window or some dialog box.

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Ranjeet_Singh — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:15:11 GMT

@RavensFan wrote:

And you still haven't shown an application that demonstrates this behavior.

Maybe you are using the wrong terminology. You say "menu", but perhaps you are talking about a window or some dialog box.

Yes you are right, I am talking about window

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Norbert_B — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 07:49:35 GMT

Can you post your current approach?

All we've seen up til now is a screenshot showing a menu....

Point is, as Ravens already made clear:

Browsing the menu as user normally does not trigger ANYTHING in the code. If the user CLICKS on a menu item, the code should perform some actions.

I assume now that you have one item opening an additional window. When the user again uses the same menu (primary window of the application), that sub-window should still be open even if the next menu item the user clicks on opens another window.

Is this use-case what you are talking about?

Why should anything in the menu (and its handling) deal with that "multiple window issue"?

Norbert

PS: My remark before was a joke. I have never consciously seen any OS having more than a single mouse pointer. Using several mice is possible, but they all control the same mouse pointer.

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

daveTW — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 09:02:02 GMT

I think, we are lost in misunderstanding common terminology. Everybody except Ranjeet means with a menu a "popup menu". In my practice sometimes costumers call a window with buttons to start different actions a menu.

So Ranjeet, it is now on you to exactly and completely explain, how your approach looks like to prevent us from further guessing, what you could mean.

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Yamaeda — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 09:04:49 GMT

@Ranjeet_Singh wrote:

Yes you are right, I am talking about window

Doesn't the window stay visible if you set it to Floating?

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Ranjeet_Singh — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:16:04 GMT

Here is my example

After exploring I realized that I am calling each VI using call by reference. So I need to call all of them asynchronously

Re: Opening two submenus in parallel

Ranjeet_Singh — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:17:50 GMT

@Yamaeda wrote:

Doesn't the window stay visible if you set it to Floating?

/Y

Yes window is visible but minimized after user clicks on other menu