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[WSG21] Daily study group on creating custom user interfaces

POSTED BY: Abrita Chakravarty
87 Replies
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Gerald Dorfman
Gerald Dorfman
Posted 4 years ago

Rohit, Thanks. Gerry
POSTED BY: Gerald Dorfman
Gerald Dorfman
Gerald Dorfman
Posted 4 years ago
POSTED BY: Gerald Dorfman
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 4 years ago

Hi Gerald,

You were close.

Manipulate[
 Grid[
  {{Style["a = " <> ToString@a, 20]},
   {ContourPlot3D[x^2 + y^2 + a z^3 == 1, {x, -2, 2}, {y, -2, 2}, {z, -2, 2}, 
     Mesh -> None, 
     ImageSize -> Medium]}
   }],
 {{a, -2, Style["a", 16]}, -2, 2}]

Also increased the size of the label for the control.
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
POSTED BY: Pål Lillevold
POSTED BY: John Burgers

I'm having trouble finding further information on the use of "callKernel" in the Wolfram documentation. I'm hoping someone can direct me to further my understanding or provide an explanation so that I understand more how it functions in examples such as in Session 13 Tip and Tricks for Effective UI design example of a Button disabled until computation finishes ...

DynamicModule[{enabled = True},
 Button["Print",
  enabled = False;
  Pause[2]; Print[TimeObject[]];
  enabled = True;
  ,
  Method -> "Queued",
  Enabled -> Dynamic[callKernel; enabled]
  ]
 ]
POSTED BY: John Burgers

TimeConstrained seems not to work when implemented in the Button functionality.

  • Correctly understood?
  • Is there a work around?

Thank you in advance and best regards Pål L
POSTED BY: Pål Lillevold

Hello Pål,

It seems that TimeConstrained is supported only for queued evaluations. So this one works:

Button["TestTimeConstrained", 
 x = TimeConstrained[Do[i^2, {i, 10000000}], 1]; Print[x], 
 Method -> "Queued"]

-- Jayanta
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Thank you so much, Vincent!
POSTED BY: Pål Lillevold
Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Posted 5 years ago

This course exceeded my expectations. Thanks to everyone who worked to make it a success. Great job!
POSTED BY: Tom Blanton
POSTED BY: Andreas Rudolph

Hi,

When the following code: checkboxBarTest = CheckboxBar[{i, 0, 20, 2}, {i, 0, 20, 2}] is deployed to a CDF, the CDF when opened responds with an undesired "Enable Dynamics" confirmation request.

How can this be avoided?

Thank you in advance and best regards

Attachments:
checkboxBarTest.cdf
checkboxBarTest.nb
POSTED BY: Pål Lillevold

Hi, there, you can try go to preference dialog, at the security tab, under notebook security, edit trusted directories, put your cdf under one of these trusted directories, then open the cdf files again, the enable dynamic will disappear. this is the simplest way to do it as a Mathematica user,

here are the two technical links on this topic: stackexchange newsgrouparchive
POSTED BY: vincent feng
Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Tom Blanton

I took a screenshot of each my quiz test at the final parts, I passed three this Friday. This course is fantastic on making new experience for the user. A lot of coverage, I will review the relevant materials once I have spare times.

Thanks.
POSTED BY: vincent feng

Hi Tom,

As long as you see a passing score after hitting "Get Results", your score has been sent to a Databin for review by the Wolfram U team. Quiz scores will be reviewed the week of Oct. 4th and certificates sent shortly thereafter. If you do not receive your certificate, please send an email to wolfram-u@wolfram.com, we can pull the data and double check at that time.

POSTED BY: Cassidy Hinkle

Was a recording made of today's (Fri, 24 Sep) presentation?
POSTED BY: Matthew Heaney
Doug Beveridge
Doug Beveridge
Posted 5 years ago

can somebody please confirm if recording was made?
POSTED BY: Doug Beveridge

Hi Doug, All the sessions from the series have been publish for review. You can go to the series landing page and choose which you'd like to review. You'll be taken to the session page and can hit the play button to begin watching. Please let us know if you have further questions.

POSTED BY: Cassidy Hinkle

Week 3 Recap, Live UI Development and Mini Projects Solutions is not available.
POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
Gerald Dorfman
Gerald Dorfman
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Gerald Dorfman

We will be distributing the solutions to the projects in Session 14.
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

Hi Gerald,

I see a couple of typos. Dyanmic[input] should be Dynamic[input], and BaseStyle -> BackGround -> White should be BaseStyle -> Background -> White
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

Attendees in the daily study group had asked about the palette used to delete outputs during presentation. DeleteAllOutputPalette is now present in the Wolfram Function Repository. https://resources.wolframcloud.com/FunctionRepository/resources/DeleteAllOutputPalette/
POSTED BY: Kunal Khadke

I experiment with PaneSelector command with a toy example which works as expected: i.e.

DynamicModule[
 {x = 1},
 Column[{
   SetterBar[Dynamic[x], {"Don't press this", 1, 2, 100, "Hi there"}],
   PaneSelector[{"Don't press this" -> "I said DONT PRESS !!!", 
     1 -> "One", 2 -> "Two", 100 -> "You Pressed One Hundred", 
     "Hi there" -> "What is your name ?"}, Dynamic[x]]
   }]

However when I wrap the Speak function around the text to hear the message it is played directly once and is not executed when pressing the tab.

DynamicModule[
 {x = 1},
 Column[{
   SetterBar[Dynamic[x], {"Don't press this", 1, 2, 100, "Hi there"}],
   PaneSelector[{"Don't press this" -> Speak["I said DONT PRESS !!!"],
      1 -> "One", 2 -> "Two", 100 -> "You Pressed One Hundred", 
     "Hi there" -> "What is your name ?"}, Dynamic[x]]
   }]
 ]
 ]

What is going on here ?
POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

PaneSelector evaluates its arguments before the selector is rendered, they are not re-evaluated when a selection is made. e.g. the random values do not change

DynamicModule[{x = 1}, 
 Column[{SetterBar[Dynamic[x], {"Don't press this", 1, 2, 100, "Hi there"}], 
   PaneSelector[{"Don't press this" -> "I said DONT PRESS !!!", 
     1 -> RandomInteger[10], 2 -> RandomReal[], 100 -> "You Pressed One Hundred", 
     "Hi there" -> "What is your name ?"}, Dynamic[x]]}]]
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

Thank you for your comment. So there is no chance to play the sound each time I select the setter bar and not at the begining.

POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian

Use the second argument of Dynamic:

DynamicModule[{x = 1},
 Column[
  {
   SetterBar[
    Dynamic[x, 
     If[# == "Don't press this", Speak["I said DONT PRESS !!!"]; 
       x = #, x = #] &],
    {"Don't press this", 1, 2, 100, "Hi there"}],
   PaneSelector[
    {"Don't press this" -> "", 1 -> "One", 2 -> "Two", 
     100 -> "You Pressed One Hundred", 
     "Hi there" -> "What is your name ?"}, Dynamic[x]
    ]
   }
  ]
 ]
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Question: Today you pointed out that ImageSize -> Automatic helps speed up slow interfaces. Could you please explain why?
POSTED BY: Zbigniew Kabala
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Thank you everyone for your continued and enthusiastic participation in this week's sessions.

Now that we have covered the fundamental concepts of UI development and looked at various UI examples, in the next week we will focus on best practices and various general tips and tricks.

We will start with various deployment practices, then move on to a host of tips & tricks for speeding up interfaces, making our interfaces aesthetically pleasing, improving the user experience, and more.

Looking forward to your active participation in the next week!

We appreciate all the feedback that you have been giving (either positive or negative). These encourage us to continue to serve our user community, and do it even better in the future!!!
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Posted 5 years ago

Thanks, Jayanta. Very helpful. Looking forward to Session 10.
POSTED BY: Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Posted 5 years ago

I would like to develop UI's that clients can use with Wolfram Player. From the class yesterday it seems that DynamicModule could be used in this way. Is this correct?

ETA: I would like to keep my functions proprietary, i.e. the client would not be able to see the code.
POSTED BY: Tom Blanton
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

Hi Pål,

Something like this?

{x = c; PopupMenu[Dynamic[x], {a, b, c, d}], Dynamic[x]}
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

How to control the display of an initial value in PopupMenu? Thank you in advance!
POSTED BY: Pål Lillevold
Doug Beveridge
Doug Beveridge
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Doug Beveridge

After you downloaded/unpacked the course material you find it as "OutputDeleteUtility.wl" in folder "Supporting Files"
POSTED BY: Andreas Rudolph
jeremy kirton
jeremy kirton
Posted 5 years ago

I am trying, without much success, to set a local DynamicModule Variable (x) when a global variable (y) is changed :

y = 1 ;

DynamicModule[{x},
 Dynamic[y; Print["called"]; x=100, TrackedSymbols :> {y}]; 
 Dynamic@x,
 Initialization :> (x = 3*y)]

Where am I going wrong?
POSTED BY: jeremy kirton
Updating Name
Updating Name
Posted 5 years ago

Maybe try this

y = 1;
DynamicModule[{},
 Dynamic[x],
 Initialization :> (x := 3*y)]
POSTED BY: Updating Name
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago

I am trying to create UI with muted tones. The blue backgrounds for menu items in PopupMenu, SetterBar, RadioButton, etc., are much too strong. The Background option sets the background for the whole control, not the background for the labels, as I want.

I tried Jayanta's suggestion above using ControlsRendering->"Generic", but, at least for SetterBar on a Mac, it produces a control where you can't even tell what's selected. The Background option does successfully change the text label background, but the control itself is not usable.

How can I manage the background color on the menu labels?
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
POSTED BY: John Burgers

Yes, it is possible by using the third argument of Overlay.

Here is an example from the documentation (ref/Overlay#53834658):

Overlay[{Slider2D[], Graphics[{Opacity[.2], Disk[]}]}, All, 1]
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Thank-you, I saw that example but it wasn't immediately apparent how it works. One remaining question .. Does this mean that only one of the overlays can contain controls ?
POSTED BY: John Burgers

Yes it seems that the controls from only one layer can be activated. You can however use Row/Column/Grid in that layer for keeping multiple controls.
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Where should I put the Dynamic to control the appearence or not of the frame in this toy manipulate example:

Manipulate[
 x,
 {x, 0, 1},
 {{frmd, False}, {True, False}},
 Paneled -> frmd
 ]
POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Jayanta, thank you very much for the instructive reply.

POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
Raymond Low
Raymond Low
Posted 5 years ago

It would be better if you did NOT begin the session with some survey question that blocks the session from opening up on my computer. I am working on the computer while waiting for the session to begin and depending on the sound of the audio to let me know when the session has begun. That is the whole point of signing in early, and the survey question defeats that purpose.

POSTED BY: Raymond Low

Hi Raymond,

Sorry to hear you faced some issues with the webinar session today. We do use poll questions to allow our attendees to interactively respond during the study group. But they should not interfere with the webinar itself in anyway or prevent it from starting up. If you run into the issue again, please email us at wolfram-u@wolfram.com and we can try to troubleshoot it.

POSTED BY: Abrita Chakravarty

How would you set up two columns where the left column is text and the right column is Mathematica commands such as In/Out. This is format was used by S. Wolfram in his Mathematica Book 4th edition.
POSTED BY: Charles Glover
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

Hi Charles,

I think what you are looking for is an undocumented function MakeBilateral from the AuthorTools package. Check this thread on MSE.

One of the comments in that thread

MakeBilateral is to make documents or parts of documents like the style of Wolfram's old printed "The Mathematica Book", with explanatory text alongside Input/Output cell pairs
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

Thanks - I'll check it out
POSTED BY: Charles Glover

Jayanta, Rohit, Many thanks for your help.

Jorge O
POSTED BY: Jorge O. Garcia L
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

Dear Friends, how can I obtain the same type of sliders and light gray color in the final graphic if I'm using the same code? Do I need to change some initial setting?

Many thanks.

Attachment

Attachments:
Sliders.png
POSTED BY: Jorge O. Garcia L

Yes by default the appearances are OS dependent. We can set a generic appearance which should be independent of the OS:

Style[Slider[Dynamic[x]], ControlsRendering -> "Generic"]
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Thank you for your reply. I think in the option inspector should be "somewhere" an option for the default FontSize to be set at 12 globally or for a notebook.

POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
POSTED BY: Artin Hatzikioseyian
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

I don't use Windows so I cannot help with the first issue. For the second one the styling can be changed e.g.

Manipulate[x, {x, 1, 3}, 
 LabelStyle -> Directive[Red, FontSize -> 24, FontFamily -> "Verdana"]]
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
Updating Name
Updating Name
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Updating Name

I agree that the documentation could be more clear on this regard. I am forwarding a request to our Technical Support department so that a suggestion report could be filed and the documentation/function could be improved in the future.

Note that we can always add our own code on top of the existing function for extending the set of features. Here is an example of a custom ActionMenu which I think is closer to what you need:

SetAttributes[myActionMenu, HoldRest];
myActionMenu[name_, list_] :=
 DynamicModule[{x = name},
  PopupMenu[
   Dynamic[
    x,
    (x = #; list[[Position[list[[All, 1]], x][[1, 1]], 2]]
      ) &], list[[All, 1]]
   ]
  ]

The following will behave like an ActionMenu, however the "name" or "7!" will be pre-selected in the menu:

myActionMenu["7!", {"4!" :> Print[4!], "7!" :> Print[7!], 
  "10!" :> Print[10!]}]

I should mention that I have not spent a lot of time in ensuring that the function is stable in different circumstances. The purpose was to give a hint for the solution.

Examples of such custom control objects can be found in the Wolfram Function Repository (I believe that Soumya had discussed during the presentation as well) - see e.g. StyledCheckboxBar.
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago

Thank you, Jayanta. I appreciate the example. I'm still learning what I can do without customization, but when I'm finally building something, I may also want to customize.
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

name is the first argument to ActionMenu. From the example under Options / Appearance

Table[ActionMenu[
  "Factorials", {"4!" :> Print[4!], "7!" :> Print[7!], "10!" :> Print[10!]}, 
  Appearance -> a], {a, {None, Automatic, "PopupMenu", "But]
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago

This example still doesn't answer my question, but I now see the problem is that the documentation is wrong (though some will probably argue that it's just highly misleading). The first argument, name is used in exactly the same way in all 4 Appearance options.

Based on the description of the Appearance option setting "PopupMenu"

display like a popup menu with initial value name

executing the following

ActionMenu[ "10!",
  {"4!" :> Print[4!], "7!" :> Print[7!], "10!" :> Print[10!]}, 
  Appearance -> "PopupMenu"]

should show a popup menu labeled 10!, such that I could click it and the menu choice 10! would be selected. But that's not what happens, the first choice, 4! is selected. This results in a very bad user experience because the menu label matches one of the choices, but the user still has to manually select that choice.

The description implies, and I would expect, that the choice 10! should be preselected when the menu is clicked.
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults

Is it safe to try the quiz now? Is it grading correctly?
POSTED BY: James Choi

I am sorry, could someone post the link to the quiz? I can not find it on the group. Thank you and sorry for the added noise!
POSTED BY: Rui Alves
Gerald Dorfman
Gerald Dorfman
Posted 5 years ago

POSTED BY: Gerald Dorfman
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Avery Kramer
Avery Kramer
Posted 5 years ago

I know Jayanta mentioned how to abort the evaluation once it gets in a loop. I tried command + "." (Mac) but wasn't having much luck. I'm working on Exercise 3 on Dynamics II and have had to restart MMTA twice now.

Thanks in advance
POSTED BY: Avery Kramer

Thank you everyone for your enthusiastic participation in this week's sessions. I hope that you have been enjoying and finding the sessions helpful.

In this week, we covered some fundamental concepts of dynamics and Manipulate.

In the next week, we will discuss more about certain pragmatic concepts related to the development of User Interfaces and look at several User Interface examples.

Our apologies for few things here and there not working properly in the notebooks. We are making the corrections and will make an updated set of notebooks available to you at the end of the series.
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago

Today's quiz is a disaster. My answers to questions 2, 5, 9 and 10 are being ignored. I can change my answers to any of these and my score remains unchanged.
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Gerrie Shults
Posted 5 years ago
POSTED BY: Gerrie Shults

Any idea when the quiz is due? I don't see a due date listed in any of the materials. Thanks.
POSTED BY: Timothy Ewing
Rohit Namjoshi
Rohit Namjoshi
Posted 5 years ago

Hi Gerrie,

Yes, I agree, grading is messed up on questions 2, 5, 9, 10.
POSTED BY: Rohit Namjoshi

I have the same issue. In other study groups the due date came after the course was finished.So, it is probably not an issue in this regards.
POSTED BY: Andreas Rudolph

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to confirm Quiz 1 should be working as expected. Our apologies for the issues you faced with the quiz last week.

Also we'd like to request that you not post the link to the quizzes here in the public forum. We've created the quizzes specifically for our study group attendees. But we are happy to discuss any questions you may have about the quizzes, here.

Thank you, Abrita
POSTED BY: Abrita Chakravarty
Tom Blanton
Tom Blanton
Posted 5 years ago

On slide 10 of today's presentation, Session 3 - Dynamic Fundamentals I, a correction was made to the following expression:

Control objects:

stop = 1;

Dynamic[
 If[stop == 0,
  Button[Style["Start", 20], Background -> LightGreen, ImageSize -> {80, 40}],
  Button[Style["Stop", 20], Background -> LightRed, ImageSize -> {80, 40}]]
 ]

To make it work as intended, stop==1 and stop==0 were inserted, but I haven't been able to make the correction properly. Could you please help?
POSTED BY: Tom Blanton 
Dynamic[
 If[stop == 0,
  Button[Style["Start", 20], stop = 1, Background -> LightGreen, 
   ImageSize -> {80, 40}],
  Button[Style["Stop", 20], stop = 0, Background -> LightRed, 
   ImageSize -> {80, 40}]]
 ]
POSTED BY: Timothy Ewing

The approach suggested by Mr. Choi is correct.

The standalone version of the built-in LAB color palette can be seen using:

CellPrint[FrontEndResource["LABColorValueSelector"]]

This particular palette works by replacing the selection, and is thus hard to integrate with a Manipulate.

It is possible to emulate the built-in LAB color setter using top level code, but that would require some work.
POSTED BY: Jayanta Phadikar

Looking for something like this?

Manipulate[
 Graphics[{
   LABColor[lightness, a, b],
   Opacity[opac],
   Disk[]}],
 {lightness, 0, 1}, {{a, 0}, -1, 1},
 {{b, 0}, -1, 1}, {{opac, 1}, 0, 1}]
POSTED BY: James Choi

I am wondering is there a way to vary what type of color setter is presented to the user with the Manipulate function. For example, is it possible to use a LAB Color setter instead of the default color selector in the Manipulate function? enter image description here
POSTED BY: Peter Burbery
POSTED BY: Lou D'Andria
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