Cascades Development

[nicklas]

Hi,

I have several issues to do a "swipe down" menu as the BlackBerry native web browser :

- no ListView horizontal scroll => OK I wait the next Cascades release.

- animation aren't smooth

            animations: [
                TranslateTransition {
                    id: "showMenuAnimation"
                    toY: 0
                    duration: 1000 
                    
                    onEnded: {
                    }
                },
                TranslateTransition {
                    id: "hideMenuAnimation"
                    toY: -347
                    duration: 1000

                    onEnded: {
                    }
                }
            ]

            function onSwipeDown() {
                if (isVisible)
                    hideMenuAnimation.play();
                else
                    showMenuAnimation.play();
                isVisible = !isVisible;
            }

Nicolas

[smacmartin]

Are you testing on a device or on the simulator?

You may find on the simulator that the user experience is not as slick as on the device.

Stuart

[nicklas]

Of course, I'm testing on a bb10 device.

In fact, the translation is smooth but doesn't respect always the duration. Sometimes the translation is very quick !

I have an other issue. I can't set the default position out of the screen. I want to set positonY to "-350" (with a negative value). It doesn't work. However, after a translation the value is negative...

Nicolas

[blackqtcoder]

            animations: [
                TranslateTransition {
                    id: "showMenuAnimation"
                    fromY: -347        // NEW
                    toY: 0
                    duration: 1000 
                    easingCurve: "CircularIn" // NEW

                    onEnded: {
                    }
                },
                TranslateTransition {
                    id: "hideMenuAnimation"
                    fromY: 0      // NEW
                    toY: -347
                    duration: 1000
                    easingCurve: "CircularIn"   // NEW
                    onEnded: {
                    }
                }
            ]

[nicklas]

No difference. It's strange.

I test again later with new SDK and in release mode.

Nicolas

[alarsson]

Hi Nicklas,

If you are trying to create an application menu, similar to this:  we have actually added dedicated functionality for it in Beta 2. Check out the documentation here , look for the setMenu function. This is only available in C++ currently but will eventually be available in QML as well.

Here is some simple code that adds a couple of items to a menu. I've modified the "Starship settings" example:

StarshipSettingsApp::StarshipSettingsApp()
{
 //... some starship settings code here that i left out

  // create a couple of actions
  ActionItem *pAI1 =  ActionItem::create().title("Menu Item 1");
  ActionItem *pAI2 =  ActionItem::create().title("Menu Item 2");
  HelpActionItem *pHelpAI = HelpActionItem::create();
  SettingsActionItem *pSettingsAI = SettingsActionItem::create();

  // connect them to signal handlers
  connect(pAI1, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(generalTrigger()));
  connect(pAI2, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(generalTrigger()));
  connect(pHelpAI, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(helpTrigger()));
  connect(pSettingsAI, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(settingsTrigger()));

  // create a menu and add it to the application instance
   Menu *menu = Menu::create();
   menu->addAction(pAI1);
   menu->addAction(pAI2);
   menu->setHelpAction(pHelpAI);
   menu->setSettingsAction(pSettingsAI);

   Application::instance()->setMenu(menu);
  //... some more code i left out
}

// my signal handlers

void StarshipSettingsApp::generalTrigger ()
{
	qDebug("General app menu item");
}

void StarshipSettingsApp::helpTrigger ()
{
	qDebug("Help me!!");
}

void StarshipSettingsApp::settingsTrigger ()
{
	qDebug("Settings!!");
}

 Hope this helps!

Cheers

Anders

[vingilot]

Can this still be used if we primarily use QML? or should we just wait, I mean what additional steps would be needed to get it running if everything else is mostly QML

[alarsson]

No, I think you can using it right away. The swipe down menu is supposed to be used for static, global and quite rarely used application features, so setting them up when you start your application (as in my example) is usually what you'd want to do anyway.
What you can do from the signal handlers is to keep them simple in C++ and just notify your QML.
You can for example declare a couple of signals in your application class, one for each item in your application menu and send them off to your app in qml using a context object. This outlines the strategy:

StarshipSettingsApp.h

class StarshipSettingsApp : public QObject
{
...
 Q_SIGNAL void helpSettingsPressed ();
...
}

 StarshipSettingsApp.cpp

StarshipSettingsApp::StarshipSettingsApp()
{
...
  QmlDocument *qml = QmlDocument::create().load("main.qml");
  // expose this object as a context property
  qml->setContextProperty("_starshipApp", this);
...
}
...
void StarshipSettingsApp::helpTrigger ()
{
        // emit a signal that can be received in qml
	emit helpSettingsPressed();
}

 main.qml

Page {

...
  // somewhere in your qml, connect the signals
    onCreationCompleted: {
       _starshipApp.helpSettingsPressed.connect(onHelpSettingsPressed);
    }
    
  // handle the signal when the help button is pressed
    function onHelpSettingsPressed () {
        console.log("Success!!");
    }
}

 When you get the C++-code working, you can more or less stop caring about it and implement all your logic in QML.

[nicklas]

My menu works well with beta 2 except that I can't bind the swipeDown event

The signal isn't emit.

I hope that RIM will fix it in the next release !

My swipeDown menu seems to PlayBook menu ; so :

With and without menu

Nicolas

[smacmartin]

I reproduced your issue with the swipeDown signal.  In HelloCascades the following line:

    QObject::connect(&app, SIGNAL(swipeDown()), &mainApp, SLOT(swipeDownMenu()));

does not complain but I do not get the swipeDownMenu slot called.  I'll look further.

In the meantime, have a look at https://developer.blackberry.com/cascades/reference/bb__cascades__menu.html:

    Menu *menu = Menu::create()
        .addAction(ActionItem::create().title("Menu Item 1"))
        .addAction(ActionItem::create().title("Menu Item 2"))
        .help(HelpActionItem::create());
    Application::setMenu(menu);

Stuart