docs/tech/tn0014.txt

   1                       XRC resources format specification
   2                       ==================================
   3
   4                          !!!!! NOT YET FINISHED !!!!!
   5
   6 0. Introduction
   7 ===============
   8
   9 This note describes the file format used for storing XRC resources that are
  10 used by wxXmlResource class. It is probably only useful for those implementing
  11 dialog editors with XRC support.
  12
  13 If you only want to use the resources, you can choose from a number of editors:
  14   a) wxDesigner (http://www.roebling.de)
  15   b) XRCed (wxPython/tools)
  16   c) DialogBlocks (wxPython/tools)
  17
  18 and others listed on the Resources section of the wxWidgets web
  19 site.
  20
  21 The XRC format is based on XML 1.0 (please consult W3C's specification). There
  22 is no DTD available since it is not possible to fully describe the format with
  23 the limited expressive power of DTDs.
  24
  25
  26 Note: see also http://ldaptool.sourceforge.net/XRCGuide/XRCGuideSingle/
  27
  28
  29
  30 1. Terminology
  31 ==============
  32
  33 The usual XML terminology applies. In particular, we shall use the terms
  34 NODE, PROPERTY and VALUE in the XML sense:
  35
  36     <node property1="value1" property2="value2">...</node>
  37
  38 The term ATTRIBUTE is specific to XRC and refers to a subnode
  39 of an <object> or <object_ref> node that is itself not <object> or <object_ref>.
  40 In the example below, <pos>, <label> and <style> are attributes, while neither
  41 <resource> nor either of <object>s is:
  42
  43     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8">
  44     <resource xmlns="http://www.wxwidgets.org/wxxrc" version="2.5.3.0">
  45         <object class="wxPanel">
  46             <style>wxSUNKEN_BORDER</style>             <!-- attr -->
  47             <object class="wxStaticText">
  48                 <label>A label</label>                 <!-- attr -->
  49                 <pos>10,10</pos>                       <!-- attr -->
  50             </object>
  51         </object>
  52     </resource>
  53
  54 ATTRIBUTE VALUE is the content of all text elements within attribute tag. In the
  55 above example, "wxSUNKEN_BORDER", "A label" and "10,10" are attribute values.
  56 ATTRIBUTE TYPE defines what attribute values are valid for given attribute (you
  57 can think of it as attribute value syntax definition).
  58
  59
  60
  61 2. Elementary description
  62 =========================
  63
  64 XRC resource file is a well-formed XML 1.0 document. All elements of XRC file
  65 are from the http://www.wxwidgets.org/wxxrc namespace.
  66
  67 The root node of XRC document must be <resource>. The <resource> node has
  68 optional "version" property. Default version  (in absence of the version
  69 property) is "0.0.0.0". The version consists of four integers separated by
  70 periods. Version of XRC format changes only if there was an incompatible
  71 change introduced (i.e. either the library cannot understand old resource
  72 files or older versions of the library wouldn't understand the new format).
  73 The first three integers are major, minor and release number of the wxWidgets
  74 release when the change was introduced, the last one is revision number and
  75 is 0 for the first incompatible change in given wxWidgets release, 1 for
  76 the second etc.
  77
  78 Differences between versions are described within this document in paragraphs
  79 entitled "Version Note".
  80
  81 The <resource> node contains namespace declaration, too:
  82
  83     <resource xmlns="http://www.wxwidgets.org/wxxrc" version="2.5.3.0">
  84
  85 The <resource> node is only allowed to have <object> and <object_ref>
  86 subnodes, all of which must have the "name" property.
  87
  88 The <object> node represents a single object (GUI element) and it usually maps
  89 directly to a wxWidgets class instance. It has the properties: "name", "class"
  90 and "subclass". "class" must always be present, it tells XRC what wxWidgets
  91 object should be created in this place. The other two are optional.  "name" is
  92 ID used to identify the object. It is the value passed to the XRCID() macro and
  93 is also used to construct wxWindow's id and name attributes and must be unique
  94 among all children of the nearest container object (wxDialog, wxFrame,
  95 wxPanel, wxNotebook) upside from the object in XML nodes hierarchy (two distinct
  96 containers may contain objects with same "name", though). "subclass" is
  97 optional name of class whose constructor will be called instead of the
  98 constructor for "class". Subclass must be available in the program that loads
  99 the resource, must be derived from "class" and must be registered within
 100 wxWidgets' RTTI system.
 101
 102 Finally, an optional "insert_at" property may be present. Currently only the
 103 values "begin" and "end" are supported, meaning to insert the object in the
 104 beginning of the parent node objects list or to append it at the end (which is
 105 the default if this property is absent).
 106
 107 Example:
 108
 109     <object name="MyList1" class="wxListCtrl" subclass="MyListCtrlClass">
 110         ...
 111     </object>
 112
 113 <object> node may have arbitrary child nodes. What child nodes and their
 114 semantics are class-dependent and are defined later in this document. The user
 115 is allowed to register new object handlers within XRC and extend it to accept
 116 new <object> classes (and therefore different <object>'s child nodes).
 117
 118 <object_ref> node is identical to <object>, except that it does _not_ have
 119 "class" property and has additional required property "ref". Its concept is
 120 similar to Unix symlinks: value of the "ref" property is equal to the value of
 121 "name" property of some existing node (called referred node) in the resources
 122 (not necessary top-level).  Referred node's "class" property and all subnodes
 123 are copied in place of the referee <object_ref> node which is then processed as
 124 regular <object> node. If the <object_ref> node itself has child nodes, then
 125 these nodes _override_ any nodes from the referred node.
 126
 127 Example:
 128
 129     <object name="foo" class="wxTextCtrl">
 130         <value>hello</value>
 131         <size>100,-1d</size>
 132     </object>
 133     <object_ref name="bar" ref="foo">
 134         <value>bar</value>               <!-- override! -->
 135     </object_ref>
 136
 137 is identical to:
 138
 139     <object name="foo" class="wxTextCtrl">
 140         <value>hello</value>
 141         <size>100,-1d</size>
 142     </object>
 143     <object name="bar" class="wxTextCtrl">
 144         <value>bar</value>
 145         <size>100,-1d</size>
 146     </object>
 147
 148
 149
 150 3. Common attribute types
 151 =========================
 152
 153 There are several attribute types (see section 1. Terminology) that are common
 154 to many attributes of different classes:
 155
 156 String
 157 ------
 158 Any text. Some characters have special interpretation and are translated
 159 by XRC parser according to this table:
 160     "_"    -> "&"  ('&' is used to underline e.g. menu items in wxWidgets)
 161     "__"   -> "_"
 162     "\n"   -> line break (C character '\n')
 163     "\r"   -> carriage return (C character '\r')
 164     "\t"   -> tab (C character '\t')
 165     "\\"   -> "\"
 166               (introduced in version 2.5.3.0, not done in earlier versions)
 167
 168 Version Note:
 169     '$' was used instead of '_' prior to version 2.3.0.1.
 170
 171
 172 I18nString
 173 ----------
 174 Like String, but the value is translated to native language using wxLocale
 175 at runtime (unless it was disabled by not passing wxXRC_USE_LOCALE flag to
 176 wxXmlResource constructor). Used for strings that are "visible" in the GUI.
 177
 178
 179 UnsignedInteger
 180 ---------------
 181 This is obvious. Only digits 0-9 may be present and there must be at least
 182 one digit.
 183
 184
 185 Integer
 186 -------
 187 Like UnsignedInteger but may be prefixed with '-' (ints less than zero).
 188
 189
 190 Position
 191 --------
 192 Specifies (window's) position in 2D space. Syntax is <integer>,<integer>[d]
 193 where <integer> is valid value of Integer type.
 194
 195
 196 Size
 197 ----
 198 Syntax is same as Position's syntax, but the values are interpreted as window
 199 size (wxSize type) and not position (wxPosition type).
 200
 201
 202 Style[wxSomeClass]
 203 ------------------
 204 List of style flags that can be passed to wxSomeClass' constructor. Flags are
 205 written in same way as in C++ code (e.g. "wxSUNKEN_BORDER",
 206 "wxHW_SCROLLBAR_NEVER") and are delimited with any combination of whitespaces
 207 and '|'. Possible flags are class-dependent and are not described in this
 208 technote. Please refer to wxWidgets manual for all styles that given class can
 209 accept; if XRC does not accept a flag listed in wxWidgets documentation, it is
 210 a bug.
 211
 212
 213 Bitmap
 214 ------
 215 Attribute value is interpreted as filename (either absolute or relative to
 216 the location of XRC resource file). In addition, attribute node may have
 217 "stock_id" and "stock_client" properties. Their values may be any of wxArtID (or
 218 wxArtClient respectively) values as used by wxArtProvider (because the user may
 219 define own constants, effectively any string is legal here). Examples are
 220 "wxART_FILE_OPEN" (id) or "wxART_MENU" (client).
 221
 222 Any of "stock_id" or "stock_client" properties or the filename may be omitted.
 223 XRC determines the bitmap to use according to this algorithm:
 224   1. If there is non-empty "stock_id" property, query wxArtProvider for the
 225      bitmap (if there is no "stock_client", use default one, which is usually
 226      wxART_OTHER; exceptions are noted in class-specific sections below). If
 227      the query fails, continue to 2.
 228   2. Load the bitmap from the file in attribute value.
 229
 230
 231 Boolean
 232 -------
 233 Boolean value, either "0" (false) or "1" (true).
 234
 235
 236 Font
 237 ----
 238 Font value. A font can be described either in terms of its elementary
 239 properties, or it can be derived from one of system fonts. The font node
 240 may contain following subnodes (the table lists subnode name on the left and
 241 variable type as per the definitions above on the right side):
 242
 243 size            UnsignedInteger
 244 style           normal | italic | slant
 245 weight          normal | bold | light
 246 family          roman | script | decorative | swiss | modern | teletype
 247 underlined      Boolean
 248 face            comma-separated list of faces
 249 encoding        charset of the font (meaningless in Unicode build), as string
 250 sysfont         symbolic name of system standard font
 251                 (one of wxSYS_*_FONT constants)
 252 relativesize    Float, font size relative to choosen system font's size;
 253                 can only be used when 'sysfont' is used and when 'size' is not
 254                 used
 255
 256 All of them are optional, if they are missing, wxFont default is used.
 257
 258 Examples:
 259
 260     <font>
 261         <face>arial,helvetica</face>
 262         <size>12</size>
 263     </font>
 264
 265     <font>
 266         <sysfont>wxSYS_DEFAULT_GUI_FONT</sysfont>
 267         <weight>bold</weight>
 268         <relativesize>1.5</relativesize>
 269     </font>
 270
 271
 272 Colour
 273 ------
 274 A colour value is either explicit RGB value in the standard #rrggbb format
 275 where rr, gg and bb are hexadecimal case-insensitive values in the 00..FF
 276 range, or a symbolic name. Symbolic names are wxSYS_COLOUR_* constants defined
 277 by wxWidgets, written as strings.
 278
 279 Example:
 280
 281     <bg>wxSYS_COLOUR_SCROLLBAR</bg>
 282     <fg>#FF0000</fg>
 283
 284
 285
 286 4. Supported classes
 287 ====================
 288
 289 Attributes are listed in tables in the following format:
 290 attribute name             attribute type          default value, if any
 291                            [(optional remarks....................
 292                            ...................................)]
 293
 294 wxBitmap
 295 --------
 296 This is a special case, because it does not create a wxWindow instance but
 297 creates wxBitmap instead. Another exceptional thing is that it does not have
 298 any attributes. Instead, the node itself is interpreted as if it were attribute
 299 of type Bitmap.
 300
 301 Example: <object class="wxBitmap">bitmaps/foo.gif</object>
 302
 303
 304 wxIcon
 305 ------
 306 Identical to wxBitmap class, except that it creates wxIcon instead of wxBitmap.
 307
 308
 309 wxButton
 310 --------
 311 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 312 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 313 style                      Style[wxButton]
 314
 315 label                      I18nString
 316 default                    Boolean                 false
 317                            (Is the button default button?)
 318
 319
 320 wxCalendarCtrl
 321 --------------
 322 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 323 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 324 style                      Style[wxCalendarCtrl]
 325
 326
 327 wxCheckBox
 328 ----------
 329 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 330 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 331 style                      Style[wxCheckBox]
 332 checked                    Boolean                 false
 333
 334
 335 wxCheckList
 336 -----------
 337 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 338 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 339 style                      Style[wxCheckList]
 340 content                    (see below)             (empty)
 341
 342 Optional "content" attribute does not have attribute value. Instead,
 343 arbitrary number of <item> nodes may be rooted under it (the control
 344 is filled with strings contained in these nodes). Each <item>
 345 node must contain I18nString value and may have "checked" property
 346 with possible values "0" or "1" indicating the the item is initially
 347 checked.
 348
 349 Example:
 350 <object class="wxCheckList">
 351     <content>
 352       <item>One</item>
 353       <item checked="1">Two</item>
 354       <item checked="1">Three</item>
 355       <item>Four</item>
 356     </content>
 357 </object>
 358
 359
 360 wxDatePickerCtrl
 361 ----------------
 362 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 363 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 364 style                      Style[wxDatePickerCtrl]
 365
 366
 367 wxDialog
 368 --------
 369 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 370 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 371 style                      Style[wxDialog]         wxDEFAULT_DIALOG_STYLE
 372 title                      I18nString              ""
 373 icon                       Bitmap                  (empty)
 374 centered                   Boolean                 false
 375
 376 wxDialog may have children objects.
 377
 378
 379 wxFrame
 380 --------
 381 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 382 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 383 style                      Style[wxDialog]         wxDEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE
 384 title                      I18nString              ""
 385 icon                       Bitmap                  (empty)
 386 centered                   Boolean                 false
 387
 388 wxFrame may have children objects. There can be at most one wxToolBar,
 389 wxMenuBar and wxStatusBar children; objects of these types are automatically
 390 set as frame's tool-, menu- and statusbar respectively.
 391
 392
 393 wxMDIParentFrame
 394 ----------------
 395
 396 Supports same attributes and children nodes as wxFrame. Additionally, children
 397 may be of the wxMDIChildFrame type.
 398
 399
 400 wxMDIChildFrame
 401 ---------------
 402
 403 Supports same attributes and children nodes as wxFrame.
 404
 405
 406 wxRadioBox
 407 ----------
 408
 409 This control may have "dimension" (major dimension) and (initial) "selection"
 410 Integer subelements and a composite "content" element similar to wxCheckList.
 411 The only difference is that the "item" subelements can have an optional
 412 "tooltip=I18nString" attribute to specify the per-item tooltip.
 413
 414
 415 wxScrolledWindow
 416 ----------------
 417 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 418 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 419 style                      Style[wxScrolledWindow] wxHSCROLL | wxVSCROLL
 420
 421 wxScolledWindow may have children objects.
 422
 423
 424 wxSplitterWindow
 425 ----------------
 426 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 427 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 428 style                      Style[wxSplitterWindow] wxSP_3D
 429 sashpos                    Integer                 0
 430                            (Initial sash position)
 431 minsize                    Integer                 -1
 432                            (Minimal panel size)
 433 orientation                "horizontal"|"vertical" horizontal
 434
 435 wxSplitterWindow must have at least one and at most two children objects.
 436 If there's only one child object, it is passed to wxSplitterWindow::Initialize
 437 and the splitter is created unsplit. If there are two children, the
 438 splitter is created split, either horizontally or vertically depending
 439 on the value of "orientation" attribute.
 440
 441
 442 wxStatusBar
 443 -----------
 444 fields                     Integer number of fields
 445 widths                     Width1, Width2, Width3, ...
 446
 447
 448 wxToolBar
 449 ---------
 450 pos                        Position                -1,-1
 451 size                       Size                    -1,-1
 452 style                      Style[wxToolBar]        wxNO_BORDER|wxTB_HORIZONTAL
 453 bitmapsize                 Size                    -1,-1
 454                            (Size of contained bitmaps)
 455 margins                    Size                    -1,-1
 456 packing                    Integer                 -1
 457 separation                 Integer                 -1
 458 bg                         Background colour       None
 459 dontattachtoframe          Boolean                 False
 460
 461 wxToolBar node may have children <object> and <object_ref> nodes. Their class
 462 may be either "tool", "separator" or any wxWidgets class derived from
 463 wxControl. "tool" and "separator" are special pseudo-classes that may only
 464 appear within wxToolBar node. Their attributes are as follows:
 465
 466     separator
 467     ---------
 468     (doesn't have any attributes)
 469
 470     tool
 471     ----
 472     bitmap                 Bitmap
 473     bitmap2                Bitmap                  wxNullBitmap
 474     toggle                 Boolean                 0
 475     radio                  Boolean                 0
 476     disabled               Boolean                 0
 477     label                  I18nString              ""
 478     tooltip                I18nString              ""
 479     longhelp               I18nString              ""
 480     pos                    Position                -1,-1
 481
 482     Constraints:
 483       At most one of "toggle" and "radio" attributes may be 1.
 484       Attribute "pos" may not appear if "label" or "radio" attributes
 485       are used or if parent wxToolBar's style contains wxTB_TEXT.
 486
 487     Note:
 488       Use of "pos" attribute is strongly discouraged, it is deprecated
 489       usage of wxToolBar and it is not supported by MSW and GTK
 490       implementations.
 491
 492 Children objects are added to the toolbar using AddTool for "tool" class,
 493 AddSeparator for "separator" and AddControl for other classes.
 494
 495
 496
 497 5. More features
 498 ================
 499
 500 FIXME -- "platform" property handling
 501
 502
 503 === EOF ===
 504
 505 Version: $Id$