PhAB's Environment

This chapter describes PhAB's environment in more detail, and how you can customize it.

It includes:

the menubar
the speedbar
the widget bar
the Control Panel
setting preferences
getting help
exiting PhAB

Menubar

Across the top of PhAB's workspace you'll see the following menubar:

PhAB menu bar

PhAB's menubar.

The menus include:

File: Commands for creating, opening, saving, and closing applications, (described in the Working with Applications chapter), and for exiting PhAB.
Edit: Commands for editing widgets, including cutting, copying, pasting, transferring, grouping, and aligning. These commands also appear on the speedbar, and are described in the Creating Widgets in PhAB chapter.
View: Commands for displaying the clipboard and Control Panel.
Options: Allows you to set PhAB preferences, as described in the section "Customizing your PhAB environment."
Application: Commands dealing with the application as a whole (described in the Working with Applications chapter), and its modules (described in the Working with Modules chapter).
Window: Commands that manipulate PhAB's windows.
Help: Access to online Help information, described in the section "Help."

Speedbar

The speedbar gives you quick access to the Edit menu's commands:

PhAB speedbar

PhAB's speedbar.

To find out what a button is for, pause the pointer over it. A help balloon will appear. For more information, see the Creating Widgets in PhAB chapter.

You can turn PhAB's speedbar into a floating window and drag it anywhere onscreen. The speedbar will return to its default position the next time you start PhAB.

Detaching the speedbar

To detach the speedbar from its default position:

Point to a blank area of the speedbar.
Press the mouse button and drag the bar to where you want it.

Reattaching the speedbar

To reattach the speedbar, drag it back close to its original position. If the speedbar doesn't reattach when you release the mouse, try to position it more precisely.

Hiding the speedbar

If you don't want to use the speedbar, you can turn it off in the Preference Settings dialog. For more information, see "Customizing your PhAB environment" in this chapter.

Widget bar

At the left side of the PhAB window you'll see the widget bar. This bar lets you add widgets to your application.

PhAB widget bar

PhAB's widget bar.

To find out what widget a button represents:

Pause the pointer over it-a help balloon will appear.
Or
See the Widgets at a Glance appendix.

For information on using specific widget classes, see the Photon Widget Reference.

Modes (create vs select)

The widget bar has two modes:

select mode-lets you select existing widgets and modules in the work area
create mode-lets you create new widgets

Determining the mode

To find out which mode you're in:

look at the widget bar-If the arrow icon at the top is pushed in, you're in select mode. If any other icon button is pushed in, you're in create mode.
look at the pointer-If the pointer is a single-headed arrow when you move it into the work area, you're in select mode. If the pointer is anything else, you're in create mode.

To switch to create mode, click on any widget icon in the widget bar. You can now create one or more instances of that widget. For more information, see "Creating a widget" in the Creating Widgets in PhAB chapter.

Switching to select mode

To switch from create mode to select mode, do one of the following:

Click on the arrow icon at the top of widget bar.
Or
Click the right mouse button in a module.

By default, PhAB returns to select mode as soon as you've created a widget.

Customizing the widget bar

Here's how to customize the widget bar so it displays only the widgets you need:

From the Options menu, choose the Customize Widget Bar item. PhAB displays the following dialog:

Customizing the widget bar.
On the left, you'll see a list of widget palettes. Each palette groups together similar widgets or widgets within a specific library. To view any palette, click on its entry in the list.
On the right, you'll see the widgets available for the currently selected palette. Any widget icon that's pushed in is already included in the widget bar.
Each widget icon is a toggle: simply click on an icon to add or remove that widget from the widget bar.
After customizing the widget palette, click on Done. PhAB immediately applies your new selections to the widget bar.

The widget palette is saved to disk, so any changes you make will be in effect the next time you run PhAB.

PhAB saves changes to the widget bar on a per-user basis rather than by application.

Control Panel

PhAB's Control Panel displays information about the currently selected widgets. The Control Panel is displayed by default in PhAB, and you can move it anywhere you like. If you close the control panel, you can reopen it by choosing the Control Panel item from the View menu. If this doesn't make it appear, choose Arrange Modules from the Window menu, and PhAB will cascade all open modules and pull the Control Panel back into the PhAB work area.

The control panel looks like this:

PhAB's Control Panel

Anatomy of PhAB's control panel.

It includes the following:

Widget class

The class of the selected widget.

Next and previous buttons

Let you navigate sequentially through widgets in the current module. These buttons also let you select multiple widgets or select widgets within a group. For more info, see the "Selecting widgets" section in the Creating Widgets in PhAB chapter.

Instance name

Lets you enter a unique instance name for the widget.

After entering an instance name, press Enter.

For more info, see the section on "Instance names" in the Creating Widgets in PhAB chapter.

Mode buttons

Let you switch between the control panel's modes:

Resources-view and edit resources
Callbacks-view and edit callbacks
Module Tree-display the widget family hierarchy of the current module
Module Links-display a list of module links so you can see how a module is connected to the rest of the application

Resources mode

Resources mode displays a list of resources for the selected widget. Here's an example:

Resources mode

Resources mode for the control panel.

To edit any displayed resource, click on it. For more information, see the Editing Resources and Callbacks in PhAB chapter.

By default, the Control Panel displays resource labels descriptively. If you pause the pointer over a resource, the header manifest is displayed in a popup balloon.

To have the labels displayed as the actual header manifests (convenient when writing code), open the Preferences dialog and change the setting in the Resource Names field. To open this dialog, choose the Preferences item from the Options menu. Now if you pause the pointer over a resource, the popup balloon displays the descriptive label.

The control panel doesn't display all the resources for a widget. PhAB sets Pt_ARG_AREA, Pt_ARG_DIM, and Pt_ARG_POS automatically when you move or resize a widget. Some other resources are too complex to edit in PhAB.

Callbacks mode

Callbacks mode displays a list of callback resources for the selected widget. You can use this mode only when you've selected a single widget. Here's an example:

Callbacks mode

Callbacks mode for the control panel.

The left side of the list indicates the callback type. The right side displays:

"None" if there are no callbacks
the callback type and name if there's one callback
the number of callbacks if there's more than one

To create a callback or to edit an existing one, click on the appropriate resource (for example, Pt_CB_ACTIVATE).

Module Tree mode

Module Tree mode displays a hierarchical tree of the widgets in the current module. Here's an example:

Module Tree mode

Module Tree mode for the control panel.

This mode makes it easy to:

see the parent/child relationships of the module's widgets
select a widget inside a group
find a widget by name
select a widget hidden underneath another widget.

To select a widget from the tree, click on the widget's name.

Module Links mode

Module Links mode displays a list of all link callbacks both to and from the current module. As you can see from the following example, the callbacks are displayed in a two-line format:

Module Links mode

Module Links mode for the control panel.

To do this:	Click on the:
Select a widget	Instance name (e.g. `base_file`) in line 1
Edit a widget callback	Appropriate callback type (e.g. Arm) in line 2

Customizing your PhAB environment

To customize PhAB to your preferences:

Choose Preferences from the Options menu. You'll see the Preference Settings dialog:

Setting PhAB preferences.
Click on the button that represents the kind of settings you wish to change: General, Colors, or Dragging.
When you're finished, click on Done.

General preferences

You can set the following general preferences:

Speedbar: Lets you specify whether the speedbar is displayed or hidden. The speedbar is always displayed when PhAB starts up.
Other Module Display: Lets you choose how "other" modules are displayed. If you prefer to see a sample of what an "other" module will look like, choose Sample. If you'd rather see the module's resource values, choose Resource List.
Resource Names: By default, the Control Panel displays resource labels descriptively. This field lets you display the labels as the actual header manifests, which you may find helpful when writing code. Note, however, that manifests are long and take up more screen space.
If you pause the pointer over a resource, the label not displayed in the control panel is displayed in a popup balloon.
Icon Descriptions: By default, when you leave the pointer on any icon, descriptive text pops up in a balloon. To disable this feature, click on None.
Edit Command: Lets you specify the editor to use with the Build & Run dialog.
View Command: Lets you specify the file viewer to use with the Build & Run dialog.
Print Command: Lets you specify the print command used to print a selected file (in the Build & Run dialog, for example).

Color preferences

You can set the following color preferences:

Resize Handle Non-Resizable Handle: If you choose a window background that makes it difficult to see resize handles, use these options to customize the color. (If you select a widget and the resize handles appear in the nonresize color, the widget can't be resized.)
Control Panel: Lets you change the background color of the Control Panel.

Dragging preferences

You can set the following dragging preferences:

Widget Module: Drag widgets and modules as outlines rather than as full objects.
Drag Damping Factor: The amount you must drag a widget or module before it moves. This factor helps avoid the annoyance of moving a widget when you really mean to select it.

Help

There are several forms of help available in PhAB:

Online documentation-To access the online docs for PhAB, bring up the Help menu and choose a topic.
Context-sensitive help-To get help on a part of PhAB's user interface, click on the question mark button, then click on the item in question. The Helpviewer will display the information on the selected item.
Balloon help-To find out what a button in the widget bar or speedbar is for, pause the pointer over it. A descriptive balloon will appear.
PhAB's version number-To find out which version number of PhAB you're running, open the Help menu and choose the About PhAB item.

Exiting PhAB

To exit PhAB, do one of the following:

Choose Exit from the File menu.
Press Ctrl -X .
Click on PhAB's window menu button (top-left corner) and choose Close.
Double-click on the window menu button.