Chapter 5. Application UI Components

Constructing a basic user interface

The previous chapter focused on the basic architecture and functional operations common to all applications. This chapter builds on that to cover the fundamentals of user interface (UI) development.

The topics covered in this chapter are as follows :

• Controls ” Controls are rectangular areas of the screen that can display information and/or receive user input. This chapter shows you how to write both simple and compound controls.

• Skins ” Skins allow the user to dynamically apply a new look and feel to the UI of a Series 60 2.x application. This section shows the APIs used to ensure that your applications support skins where appropriate.

• Event Handling ” Series 60 is a graphical, event-driven environment. Applications receive notification of events from various system servers and update themselves accordingly . This section shows the APIs used to handle different kinds of events.

• Resource Files ” Resource files allow UI elements, such as controls and user-visible strings, to be defined separately from source code and easily localized. This section covers the syntax and structure of Series 60 resource files, plus the APIs required to access them in C++ code.

• Menus ” Menus are standard UI elements that allow a user to select and execute commands within an application. This section covers the use of menus, submenus, and context-sensitive menus, showing how they can be constructed from resources and modified dynamically.

• Panes ” The Series 60 screen is made up of a number of areas known as panes, each with its own specific purpose. Many of these can be modified dynamically by an application. This section details the layout and purpose of each pane and describes how to programmatically control their behavior.

The following example applications are used in this chapter to illustrate the features introduced:

• Controls ” A simple application that defines both a simple and a compound control.

• SimpleMenu ” An application with a simple menu, illustrating basic menu resources.

• ContextMenu ” An application with a context-sensitive menu.

• StatusPane ” Shows you how to dynamically alter the contents of the status pane in your application.

• TitlePane ” Demonstrates the APIs for dynamically changing the title pane contents.

• NavigationPane ” Demonstrates the APIs for dynamically changing the contents of the navigation pane.

By the end of this chapter, you will understand the features and APIs required to construct a basic application user interface. However, Series 60 provides you with a large number of standard controls that can be used to quickly develop a more sophisticated UI, with a consistent Series 60 look and feel. These standard controls are covered in detail in Chapters 6, 7 and 8.