Sidebar Introduction

Sidebar overview

A sidebar is a replace or an alternative to toolbar. Normally it will docked in the right side of whole window. It can also be floated to other places by dragging the dock window title bar. A sidebar contains two parts: panel dock(right narrow window like a vertical table bar) and dock window(left side). Panel dock contains some buttons which is used to show/hide left related dock window. A button is expressed with a image which indicates the function of its related dock window. A dock window can be design for property, style, navigator, clip arts and so on. It contains a title bar and a panel. A panel can contains several sections such as text section and paragraph section. A section is divides two parts: section title bar and section page.

Sidebar UX design considerations
See Symphony Contribution UX Analysis for a user experience-oriented assessment of issues and opportunities with the dockable task pane.
http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/AOO_Symphony_UX_Migration/Merge_Analysis_-_Task_Pane

Sidebar code view

Sidebar implementation is mainly in sfx module. Related files or concept is as follows. The object down will be created by the object up.
For above picture, below concept are referred to:

For more details, refer to here: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Framework/Article/Implementation_of_the_Dispatch_API_In_SFX2

Sidebar creation process

This section will focus on sidebar creation process. It will take property dock window in spreadsheet as an example. Most of classes will be referred to. Besides, some key content out of creation process will be listed.

1. Child window and factory registration

When module(sc) is initialized, it will register all interfaces containing child window interface in corresponding SfxInterface through ScTabeViewShell. Child window factory will also be registered in application through ScPropertyDockWinWrapper(extends from basic SfxChildWindow). Later the factory will be used to created property child window.

2. Panel dock creation

The panel dock will always lies in the rightest of window and it cannot be moved. It will be used to show/hide dock window. So it will be created in the first. Here panel dock class is named SfxTabbarWin. From the code view picture, we can understand the process clearly. SfxFrame is a shell. Shell create panel dock window through SfxWorkWindow.

3. Dock(Child) window creation

(1) Define SID_PROPERTY_SIDEBAR_DLG

#define SID_PROPERTY_SIDEBAR_DLG(SID_SVX_START + 1100)

(2) Slot definition in sdi file

SID_PROPERTY_SIDEBAR_DLG

[

ExecMethod = ChildWindowExecute ;

StateMethod = ChildWindowState ;

]

(3) state method definition and implementation(also part of slot)

SfxBoolItem PropertyPanel SID_PROPERTY_SIDEBAR_DLG

[

/* flags: */

AutoUpdate = TRUE,

Cachable = Cachable,

FastCall = TRUE,

HasCoreId = FALSE,

HasDialog = FALSE,

ReadOnlyDoc = FALSE,

Toggle = FALSE,

Container = FALSE,

RecordAbsolute = FALSE,

RecordPerSet;

Synchron;

Readonly = FALSE,

/* config: */

AccelConfig = TRUE,

MenuConfig = TRUE,

StatusBarConfig = FALSE,

ToolBoxConfig = TRUE,

GroupId = GID_FORMAT;

]

Its implementation is in the common shell “SfxViewFrame: public SfxShell”

void                        ChildWindowExecute(SfxRequest&);

4. Property panel creation

Responsibility of PropertyPanel

• manage the life cycle of section control. AddSection(), RemoveSection(), ClearSections()
• layout each section(set each section's position and size).
• manage when to show or hide scrollbar, set size of the scroll window. Rearrange(), SetupScrollBars(), SetupVerticalScrollBar(), SetupHorizontalScrollBar(), scroll scrollBar, ScrollBarHandler()
• context switch, delegate the function to ContextSwitchHelper class
• maintain section state(expand/collapse) during context switch, delegate the function to ContextSwitchHelper class

Responsibility of ContextSwitchHelper

• store the relationship of context and sections. map<ContextID, vector<SectionID>> macontext2sections, InitCtxt2SectionInfos().
• store section infos. vector<PanelSectionInfo> maSectionInfos, InitSectionInfos().
• context switch. contextSwitch(ContextID)
• map<ContextID, SectioIDWithState> maDefaultStates, maContextStates;
• GetSectionState(), SetCurrentSectionState(), GetSectionDefaultState()

Key points

(1) Define SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT

#define SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT(SID_SVX_START + 1101)

(2) Use SfxControllerItem to create the relationship between SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT and SfxBindings and SfxDispatcher. This happens when property panel is creating

mpCtxItem(new SfxPropertyContextItem(SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT,*mpBindings,this))

5. Section creation with context sensitive

(1) Slot definition in sdi file

SfxUInt16Item PropertyContextId SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT

[

/* flags: */

AutoUpdate = TRUE,

Cachable = Cachable,

FastCall = TRUE,

HasCoreId = FALSE,

HasDialog = FALSE,

ReadOnlyDoc = FALSE,

Toggle = FALSE,

Container = FALSE,

RecordAbsolute = FALSE,

RecordPerSet;

Synchron;

Readonly = FALSE,

/* config: */

AccelConfig = TRUE,

MenuConfig = TRUE,

StatusBarConfig = FALSE,

ToolBoxConfig = TRUE,

GroupId = GID_FORMAT;

]

(2) state method definition and implementation(also part of slot)

SID_SVX_PROPERTY_CONTEXT

[

StateMethod = GetPropertyContextId ;

]//please pay attention that its interface is name Window.

Its implementation is in the common shell “SfxViewFrame: public SfxShell”

SAL_DLLPRIVATE void GetPropertyContextId( SfxItemSet &rSet );

(3) If context is changed, dispatcher will call binding's update_Impl. In it, SfxStateCache(pCache) will be got from bindings. And this state will be set. Then controller's stateChanged will be called. And property panel will switch context according to context id. Related sections will be added in panel. Below the first picture follows the first picture in "Dock(Child) window creation" part.