FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to rendering user interfaces and in particular to rendering user interfaces for communications devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Communications devices, such as, for example mobile telephones and PDAs incorporate display screens of increasing size and resolution. Given the limitations in processing power of these devices it is desirable to provide users with an attractive user interface that facilitates the use of the device and provides a fast response to user inputs. For some devices, such as mobile telephones, there is significant interest in providing user interfaces that can be readily and easily updated by the user and/or the network operator so that content for updating user interfaces can be deployed to users. Known approaches tend to either lack the required flexibility or require significant and undesirable levels of processing power.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of rendering a user interface for a device, the method comprising the steps of providing a plurality of actors, each of the plurality of actors being associated with a user interface element and comprising one or more attributes defining the respective actor; providing a renderer to receive one or more attributes from one or more of the plurality of actors and rendering the user interface in accordance with the received attributes.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a data carrier comprising computer executable code for performing the above-described method.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a device comprising: a user interface, the user interface comprising one or more user interface elements; a plurality of actors, each of the plurality of actors being associated with a user interface element and comprising one or more attributes; and a renderer, the renderer being configured, in use, to interpret the attributes associated with one or more of the plurality of actors and to render the user interface accordingly.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a schematic depiction of a system incorporating the present invention;
FIG. 2 depicts in greater detail the structure and operation of server 100;
FIG. 3 shows a schematic depiction of the software 400 for the mobile devices 300;
FIG. 4 shows a schematic depiction of the content toolset 200; and
FIG. 5 shows a schematic depiction of a device that comprises a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention will now be described by way of illustration only and with respect to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 shows a schematic depiction of a system comprising server 100, content toolset 200, mobile devices 300, operational support systems (OSSs) 700, content feeds 500 and user interface (UI) sources 600. In use, the server 100 communicates content data and UI data to the mobile devices 300, 301, . . . , each of which comprise software package 400. The server 100 interfaces with OSSs 700, with the OSSs being those conventionally used to operate mobile networks, for example billing, account management, etc. The server 100 further interfaces with the content toolset 200: the content toolset receives data from UI sources 600, 601, . . . , and packages the UI data such that the server can transmit the packaged UI data to the software packages 400 comprised within the mobile devices 300. The server receives data. from a plurality of content feeds, and this data is processed and packaged such that it can be sent to the software packages 400 or so that the mobile devices 300 can access the data using the software package 400.
The system can be envisaged as being divided into three separate domains: operator domain 50 comprises the systems and equipment operated by the mobile network operator (MNO); user domain 60 comprises a plurality of mobile devices and third-party domain 70 comprises the content feeds and UI feeds that may be controlled or operated by a number of different entities.
FIG. 2 depicts in greater detail the structure and operation of server 100. Server 100 comprises publishing component 110 and content server component 150. Publishing component comprises database 111, import queue 112, content toolset interface 113, user interface 114 & catalogue 115. In operation, the publishing component receives content from the content toolset at the content toolset interface. The content is presented in the form of a parcel 210a, 210b, etc, (see below) comprising one or more Trigs and one or more Triglets. A trig is a user interface for a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone and a triglet is a data file that can be used to extend or alter a trig. If a parcel comprises more than one trig then one of the Trigs may be a master trig from which the other Trigs are derived.
FIG. 3 shows a schematic depiction of the software 400 for the mobile devices 300, which comprises a mark-up language renderer 410, update manager 420, network communication agent 425, resource manager 430, virtual file system 435, actor manager 440, a plurality of actors 445a, 445, . . . , native UI renderer 450, support manager 460, trig manager 465 and mark-up language parser 470.
The software may operate using TrigML, which is an XML application and that mark-up language renderer 410 renders the TrigXML code for display on the mobile device 300. The mark-up language renderer also uses the TrigML Parser to parse TrigML resources, display content on the device screen and controlling the replacement and viewing of content on the handset. The native UI renderer is used to display UI components that can be displayed without the use of TrigML, and for displaying error messages.
The software 400 is provisioned and installed in a device specific manner. Similarly, software upgrades are handled in a device specific manner. The software may be provisioned in a more limited format, as a self-contained application that renders its built in content only: i.e. the software is provisioned with a built-in trig but additional trigs cannot be added later. The supplied trig may be upgraded over the air.
The trig manager 465 presents an interface to the resource manager 430 and the mark-up language renderer. It is responsible for trig management in general. This includes: persisting knowledge of the trig in use, changing the current trig, selection of a trig on start-up, selection of a further trig as a fall back for a corrupt trig, maintaining the set of installed trigs, identifying where a particular trig is installed to the resource manager and reading the update channel definitions of a trig and configuring the update manager appropriately.
The resource manager provides an abstraction of the persistent store on device, i.e. storing the files as real files, or as records in a database. The resource manager presents a file system interface to the mark-up language renderer and the update manager. It is responsible for handling file path logic, distinguishing between real resource files and actor attributes, mapping trig-relative paths onto absolute paths, interfacing with the trig manager and providing a modification interface to the update manager.
The Resource Manager is also responsible for ensuring the integrity of the resources stored in the persistent store, especially in the face of unpredictable interruptions such as loss of device power. The Resource Manager has no knowledge of the trig currently used. Its interface is thread safe (as it may be used by both the Update Manager and the Renderer from different threads.
The Update Manager handles the reception and application of Trigs and Triglets. The Update Manager presents an interface to the Renderer and the trig Manager and is responsible for: the initiation of manual updates when instructed to by the Renderer; controlling and implementing the automatic update channel when so configured by the trig manager; indicating the progress of a manual update and recovering an Update following unexpected loss of network connection and/or device power. The update packet format may be defined as a binary serialisation of an XML schema.
The Support Manager provides an interface for other components to report the occurrence of an event or error. Depending on the severity of the error, the Support Manager will log the event and/or put up an error message popup
XML is a convenient data formatting language that is used to define the update packet format as well as TrigML content. For bandwidth and storage efficiency reasons, text XML is serialised into a binary representation. Both update packets and TrigML fragments are parsed by the same component, the mark-up language parser. Any further use of XML in the software must use the binary XML encoding and therefore re-use the parser.
The Actor Manager 440 looks after the set of actors 445 present in the software. It is used by: the renderer when content is sending events to an actor; actors that want to notify that an attribute value has changed and actors that want to emit an event (see below).
The software may comprises a multi-threaded application running a minimum of two threads, with more possible depending on how many and what sort of actors are included. The software runs mostly in one thread, referred to as the main thread. The main thread is used to run the renderer which communicates synchronously with other components. Actors always have a synchronous interface to the Renderer. If an actor requires additional threads for its functionality, then it is the responsibility of the Actor to manage the inter-thread communication. A light messaging framework may be used to avoid unnecessary code duplication where many actors require inter-thread communication. It will be understood that it is also possible to implement the software using a single threaded operation.
In addition to the main thread, the update manager runs a network thread. The network thread is used to download update packets and is separate from the main thread to allow the renderer to continue unaffected until the packet has arrived. The Update Manager is responsible for handling inter-thread messaging such that the Update Manager communicates synchronously with the Renderer and Resource Manager when applying the changes defined in an Update Packet.
The memory allocation strategy of the software is platform specific. On MIDP platforms, the software simply uses the system heap and garbage collector for all its memory requirements. Garbage collection is forced whenever a content replacement event occurs in an attempt to keep the garbage collection predictable and not suffer unexpected pauses in operation. It is assumed that any memory allocation might fail, in which case the software will delete all its references to objects, garbage collect, and restart—assuming that the software has already successfully started up and rendered the first page.
On C++-based platforms, a mixture of pre-allocation and on-demand allocation will be made from the system heap. All memory required for start-up is allocated on-demand during start-up, with any failures here causing the exit (with message if possible) of the software. Following successful start-up, memory needed for rendering the content document model is pre-allocated. Provided content is authored to use less than a defined limit, it is guaranteed to render. Additional use is made of RAM for various caches needed for fast operation of the software. Where memory conditions are low, these caches will be released resulting in slow rendering performance from the software.
Errors that are severe enough to disrupt the normal operation of the software must result in a pop-up dialog box. The dialog box contains one of a small number of internationalised error messages (internationalised versions of these strings may be compiled into the software at build-time with the version of an error string to display being determined by the relevant language setting on the device). To keep the number of messages to a minimum, only a few generic problems are covered.
To allow for support situations, error dialogs also display an error code as a 4-digit (16-bit) hex string. Each error code is associated with a description text that can be used by support staff to determine the nature of a problem with the software. Errors that occur in the software and that are not severe enough to halt its operation may be logged by the Support Manager component. The Support Manager can be queried by the user typing special key sequences. The Support Manager can also supply its error log to a server via an HTTP GET or POST method.
The Renderer receives information regarding the key press. If there is no behaviour configured at build time for a key, it is sent as a TrigML content event to the current focus element. The content event is then handled as defined by TrigML's normal event processing logic.
For example, if a key is pressed down, a ‘keypress’ event is delivered to the Renderer with a parameter set to they relevant key. When the key is released, a ‘!keypress’ event is delivered to the Renderer. If a key is held down for a extended period of time, a ‘longkeypress’ event is delivered to the renderer. On release, both a ‘!longkeypress’ and a ‘!keypress’ event are delivered to the Renderer.
Whenever the software is started, it executes the following actions:
-
- Check for, and continue with, interrupted Update processing;
- Check for, and process, Updates residing in the file system (either pre-provisioned, or installed to the file system by some other means);
- If known, start the current trig (which may be the last run trig);
- If a current trig is not set, a trig that has been flagged as a ‘default’ trig can be started.
- Failing the presence of a default trig, the first valid trig by alphabetical order of name will be selected.
A trig is started by loading the defined resource name, start-up/default. The TrigML defined in start-up/default is parsed as the new contents for the content root node.
The first time a trig is run by the software following its installation, the trig is started by loading the resource name startup/firsttime. The software may record whether a trig has been run or not in a file located in the top level folder for that trig. Dependent on the platform used by the mobile device, the automatic start-up of the software may be set as a build-time configuration option. Furthermore, placing the software in the background following an auto-start may also be a build-time configuration option.
A launcher may appear to the user as an application icon and selecting it starts the software with a trig specified by that launcher (this trig may be indicated by a launcher icon and/or name). When using a launcher to start a trig, it is possible to specify an ‘entry point’ parameter. The parameter is a resource name of a file found in the ‘start-up’ folder. This file is not used if the trig has never been run before, in which case the file called ‘firsttime’ is used instead.
The software uses content resource files stored in a virtual file system on the device. The file system is described as virtual as it may not be implemented as a classical file-system, however, all references to resources are file paths as if stored in a hierarchical system of folders and files.
Details regarding the arrangement of the file-system for an embodiment of the present invention are given below in Appendix A. Furthermore, the software stores some or all of the following information: usage statistics; active user counts; TrigManager state; TrigML fragments & update channel definition (serialised as binary XML); PNG images; plain text, encoded as UTF-8 OTA and then stored in a platform specific encoding; other platform specific resources, e.g. ring tone files, background images, etc.
Files in the file system can be changed, either when an actor attribute value changes, or when a file is replaced by a triglet. When files in the /attrs directory change, the Renderer is immediately notified and the relevant branches of the content tree are updated and refreshed. When images and text resources are changed, the Renderer behaves as if the affected resources are immediately reloaded (either the whole content tree or just the affected branches may be refreshed). When TrigML fragments are changed, the Renderer behaves as if it is not notified and continues to display its current, possibly out of date, content. This is to avoid the software needing to persist <include> elements and the <load> history of the current content.
The software 400 is provisioned to mobile devices in a device specific method. One or more Trigs can be provisioned as part of the installation, for example, stored as an uncompressed update packet. On start-up, the packet can be expanded and installed to the file-system.
The Actors 445 are components that publish attribute values and handle and emit events. Actors communicate with the Renderer synchronously. If an actor needs asynchronous behaviour, then it is the responsibility of the actor to manage and communicate with a thread external to the main thread of the Renderer.
Actor attributes may be read as file references. Attributes are one of four types: a single simple value; a vector of simple values; a single structure of fields, each field having a simple value; or a vector of structures. Attributes may be referenced by an expression using an object member notation similar to many object-orientated programming languages:
-
- <image res=“signallevels/{protocol.signalstrength}”/>
When needed as a file, an attribute is accessed via the /attrs folder.
-
- <text res=“/attr/network/name”>
An Actor can be messaged by sending it an event with the <throw> element. Events emitted by actors can be delivered to the content tree as content events: these can be targeted at an element Id or ‘top’. The interface to an actor is defined by an Actor Interface Definition file. This is an XML document that defines the attributes, types, fieldnames, events-in and parameters, and events out. The set of actors is configurable at build-time for the software. Appendix B gives an exemplary listing of some actors that may be used, along with the associated functions or variables.
Updates comprise a new trig (a new or replacement UI) or a triglet (a modification to an existing trig) and may be regarded as modifications to the software file-system. The Update Manager to determine what needs changing in the file-system by reading a packet. Update Packets may be downloaded over the air by the software 400 using HTTP, or other suitable transport mechanisms, wrapped in a device-specific package format or pre-provisioned with the installation of the software itself.
Updates may be triggered by a number of means, which include
-
- the software checking for interrupted Update processing on start-up
- the software checking for pre-installed Update Packets on start-up
- automatically as configured by an Update Channel
- user initiation
- the device receiving a special SMS
In order to successfully render the user interface of a mobile device, the mark-up language must have the following qualities: concise page definitions, consistent layout rules, be implementable in a compact renderer, provide multiple layering and arbitrary overlapping content, event model, require the repaint of only the areas of the display that have to change between pages of the UI, include hooks to the platform for reading property values receiving events and sending events, extensible, and be graphically flexible.
TrigML provides these features and Appendix C gives an overview of the elements and attributes that provide the desired functionality.
It is desirable that the cost of re-branding UIs and producing a continual stream of updates is minimal. This is enabled by providing an efficient flow of information from the creative process through to the transmission of data to users.
A container, referred to as a parcel, is used for UIs, UI updates, and templates for 3rd party involvement. Parcels contain all the information necessary for a 3rd party to produce, test and deliver branded UIs and updates. FIG. 4 shows a schematic depiction of the content toolset 200, which comprises scripting environment 220, test and simulation environment 230 and maintenance environment 240
The parcel process comprise five processing stages:
1) The scripting environment 220 provides the means to design the template for one or more UIs and the update strategy for UIs based on that template.
2) The maintenance environment 240 provides for rapid UI and update production in a well-controlled and guided environment that can be outsourced to content providers.
3) The maintenance environment 240 ‘pre-flight’ functionality allows the deployment administrator to check and tune the Uls and updates that they receive from 3rd parties.
4) The publishing component 110 provides management of UIs and updates at the deployment point, including the staging of new releases.
5) The publishing component 110 enables the automatic generation of updates from live content feeds.
Many different UIs can be derived from a common base. Typically the common base would implement most of the interface itself, and Trigs derived from it would implement small variations on it, such as branding. A Triglet can be derived from a Trig, and it can override any of the resources from the parent Trig that it chooses to (optionally it may introduce its own resources). Note that “resources” here also refers to TrigML, so the behaviour and layout of a Trig can be modified by a Triglet just as easily as it replacing a single image or piece of text.
A Parcel may comprise one or more base Trigs (i.e. a Trig that is not derived from any other trig), one or more multiple Trigs derived from a base Trig, a plurality of triglets derived from any of the trigs and a plurality of triglets derived from other triglets.
FIG. 5 shows a schematic depiction of a device 800 that comprises a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention. The device comprises a display 810 that displays the user interface 815 and user interface means 820, that enable the user to interact with the user interface 815. A processor 830 executes the software that is stored within one or more storage means 840 and there may be provided one or more wireless communication interfaces 850, to enable communication with other devices and/or communication networks. One or more batteries 860 may be received to power the device, which may also comprise interfaces to receive electrical power and/or communication cables.
The nature of these components and interfaces will depend upon the nature of the device. It will be understood that such a user interface can be implemented within a mobile or cellular telephone handset, but it is also applicable to other portable devices such as digital cameras, personal digital organisers, digital music players, GPS navigators, portable gaming consoles, etc. Furthermore, it is also applicable to other devices that comprise a user interface, such as laptop or desktop computers.
The user interface means may comprise a plurality of buttons, such as a numerical or alpha-numerical keyboard, or a touch screen or similar. One or more storage devices may comprise a form of non-volatile memory, such as a memory card, so that the stored data is not lost if power is lost. ROM storage means may be provided to store data which does not need updating or changing. Some RAM may be provided for temporary storage as the faster response times support the caching of frequently accessed data. The device may also accept user removable memory cards and optionally hard disk drives may be used as a storage means. The storage means used will be determined by balancing the different requirements of device size, power consumption, the volume of storage required, etc.
Such a device may be implemented in conjunction with virtually any wireless communications network, for example second generation digital mobile telephone networks (i.e. GSM, D-AMPS), so-called 2.5G networks (i.e. GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE), third generation WCDMA or CDMA-2000 networks and improvements to and derivatives of these and similar networks. Within buildings and campuses other technologies such as Bluetooth, IrDa or wireless LANs (whether based on radio or optical systems) may also be used. USB and/or FireWire connectivity may be supplied for data synchronisation with other devices and/or for battery charging.
Computer software for implementing the methods and/or for configuring a device as described above may be provided on data carriers such as floppy disks, CD-ROMS. DVDs, non-volatile memory cards, etc.
This application claims the benefit of UK Patent Application number 0403709.9, filed Feb. 19, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
APPENDIX A
For file paths beginning with a leading ‘/’:
/attrs Like the unix /proc directory,
stores actor attribute values
for reference by content when
the attribute is needed as a
file reference.
<actor> Each subdirectory of /attrs is
the actor name.
<attribute> Each attribute is accessed as a
node in the actor subdirectory
<field> If the attribute is a
structure, then the field name
specifies which structure
member to access.
<index> If the attribute is a vector
attribute, then the index
number specifies the index into
the vector of the desired
attribute.
<field> If the vector attribute is a
collection of structures, then
the field name again specifies
the structure member.
config Common folder in every trig to
store trig meta data.
channels Common folder to store the update
channel definitions.
<channel defs> Set of files defining the
collection of update channels for
the trig. Each file can define
one or more update channels.
start-up Common folder to store entry
points for the trig.
default Common TrigML file to store the
default entry point for the trig.
firsttime Common TrigML file to store the
TrigML for use the first time
this trig is run
<trigml files> Other named TrigML files can be
used as entry points if found in
the start-up folder.
constants This folder is not passed OTA and
is instead fully resolved at
content compile time.
<rest of content> trig content is organised in
trig-defined format under the
Trigs folder.
File paths without a leading ‘/’ are treated as relative to the current trig, i.e. every trig is stored in its own folder hierarchy rooted in a single folder.
APPENDIX B
Trigplayer Attributes UpdateState
Actor Messages exit
predial_mode on/off
Events idle
Launch Actor Attributes
Messages browser url
SMS Number
message
Camera
Inbox
Profiles
missed_calls
dialer number
. . .
native_app app_id
url
Events
Install Actor Attributes
Messages ringtone resource_path
wallpaper resource_path
Events
Phone Actor Attributes Bluetooth
IrDA
Call
GPRS
UnreadSMS
UnreadVoiceMail
UnreadMsgs
BatteryLevel
SignalStrength
Messages
Events missed_call
message_arrived
voice_mail_arrived
APPENDIX C
<trigml>
<layer>
id
Visible Elements
common attributes
id x y w h bdcolor
bgcolor
hasfocus canfocus clip
raise
<group>
<grid>
rows cols rowsplit
colsplit
<griddata>
repeatover
rows cols rowsplit
colsplit
<gridlist>
initrow initcol
rows cols rowsplit
colsplit
<image>
res frames index
<tile>
res bdt bdb bdr bdl
<text>
res font size slant
weight align
color fxcolor multiline
<paintif>
res isvalid
<ticker>
repeatover
<batterylevel>
res frames
<signalstrength>
res frames
<phonestatus>
res include
<include>
res
<param>
name value valuefrom
Listener Elements
common attributes
when consume
<throw>
event target
<att>
name value valuefrom
<anim>
name duration repeat
persist startvalue
endvalue bounce
<load>
res target
<setvar>
name value valuefrom
System Events
entry
focus !focus
keypress[key]
!keypress[key]
longkeypress[key]
!longkeypress[key]
moreUpChanged[newValue]
moreDownChanged[newValue]
type: visible Class of element that can have
contains contained by a visible representation on
any listener any container the display. This section
describes attributes and
properties common to all
visible elements.
attributes type default
id string none The name or ID of this
element. This identifier is
used in the target attribute
of <throw> and <load>
elements. If the same ID is
used more than once, then the
last ID loaded is used.
x (modifiable) integer centre The x-coordinate of the frame
left of the element, relative to
centre the top-left corner of the
center parent element. If one of
right ‘left’, ‘centre’ or ‘right’,
the frame is suitably aligned
within parent element.
y (modifiable) integer centre The y-coordinate of the frame
top of the element, relative to
centre the top-left corner of the
center parent element. If one of
bottom ‘top’, ‘centre’ or ‘bottom’,
the frame is suitably aligned
within parent element.
w (modifiable) integer * * The width of the frame of the
element. If ‘*’, the frame
assumes the width of the
parent frame, or cell, if it
is in a grid.
h (modifiable) integer * * The height of the frame of the
element. If ‘*’, the frame
assumes the height of the
parent frame, or cell, if it
is in a grid.
bgcolour, bgcolor colour #00000000 The background fill colour of
(modifiable) (transparent) the element. If translucent
alpha values are not
supported, then the alpha
component will round down to
fully transparent.
bdcolour, bdcolor colour #00000000 The colour of the border for
(modifiable) (transparent) this element. The border is
drawn 1-pixel wide and just
inside the frame. The border
can be partially or fully
obscured by the child
contents. If translucent alpha
is not supported, then the
alpha component is rounded up
to full opacity.
clip boolean true If true, the painting of all
child contents of this element
will be clipped by the frame
of this element, i.e. children
cannot ‘spill’ outside the
frame.
If false, the painting of all
child contents will be clipped
by the clipping frame of the
parent element. clip = false
should be used with caution as
it slows down the renderer.
raise boolean false If true, the painting of this
(modifiable) element is painted last within
its <layer>. If more than one
element specifies raise = true,
then they are all painted
last, but in their normal
relative order.
If false, the painting of this
element is in the normal order -
that of painting elements in
the order parsed.
hasfocus boolean false If true, this element will be
given the initial focus for
the layer that it is in. If
more than one element
specifies hasfocus = true, then
the last within each layer to
do so is given the initial
focus. When loading new
content that contains an
element with hasfocus = true,
the focus is only given to
this element if the new
content is removing the
element that previously had
the focus.
canfocus boolean false If true, this element will be
given the focus when
navigating with the cursor
keys.
If false, this element will be
ignored when navigating with
the cursor keys.
(Note: This replaces: <att
when = focus/>)
<trigml> The root element of all TrigML
contains contained by documents. It does not have any
any element none visual appearance.
attributes type default
none
<layer> Full screen layer. Each layer
contains contained by manages its own focus. The
any visible _top highest layer with a non-null
any listener focus element gets keypresses
and events sent to _top.
attributes type default
id string none The name or ID of this element.
This identifier is used in the
target attribute of <throw> and
<load> elements. If the same ID
is used more than once, then the
last ID loaded is used.
<group> visible, container Generic container of other
elements. Can be used as a plain
contains contained by rectangle.
any visible any container
any listener
attributes type default
all attributes in
type: visible
<grid> visible, container Container element that arranges
its children in a grid. <grid>
contains contained by is purely for layout. Use
any visible any container <gridlist> or <griddata> for
any listener focus management. Each child is
placed in its cell, with that
cell forming its parent frame -
i.e. children that leave w/h as
‘*’ will be the size of their
cell.
attributes type default
rows integer none The number of rows in the grid.
Cannot be zero. If rows is
supplied and cols is not, then
the grid is filled column by
column.
cols integer none The number of columns in the
grid. Cannot be zero. If cols
is supplied and rows is not,
then the grid is filled row by
row. If both rows and cols are
supplied, then the grid is also
filled row by row.
rowsplit list of * The heights of each row. If
semi- fewer values are supplied than
colon there are rows, the last value
separated is repeated for each extra row.
integers All rows that have * for a
or *s rowsplit share the available
space.
colsplit same as * The column width equivalent of
rowsplit rowsplit.
all attributes in Note that clip applies to the
type: visible whole grid, not each cell in
the grid.
<gridlist> visible, container Container element that arranges
its children in a grid. It is
contains contained by also a Focus Manager in that it
any visible any container moves an active cell around the
any listener grid, scrolling the grid if the
grid is bigger than the frame of
this element. Note that both
rows and rowsplit, and cols and
colsplit, must be supplied to
achieve a grid that is larger
than the w/h of this element.
attributes type default
initrow integer O The initial row of the active
cell. Count from zero. See
initcol below.
initcol integer O The initial column of the active
cell. Count from zero. The first
time the gridlist gets focus,
this is the cell that is in turn
given focus. The hasfocus
attribute overrides initrow and
initcol.
all attributes in
<grid>
all attributes in Note that clip is always true
type: visible for a gridlist.
<griddata> visible, container Container element that treats
its single child, or single
contains contained by rows-worth of children, as a
any visible any container template for the rest of the
any listener cells in the grid. If the
special variable $$ appears in
the definition of the child
template, then it is replaced
with the current scroll
position in the set of values
defined by the repeatover
attribute. Only the number of
children that fit in the grid
are used, with the value of $$
being scrolled as focus is
moved up and down the grid.
attributes type default
repeatover resource No Specifies the set of values to
path default. use for the $$ variable in the
Must be child elements. If the
supplied. resource path is a folder,
then the list of resources
found in that folder are used
(in numeric order) for the set
of values for $$. If the
resource path is a file, then
the file is treated as an
index file that specifies a
list of values for $$.
all attributes
in
<grid>
all attributes
in
type: visible
<image> visible Draws an image.
contains contained by
any listener any container
attributes type default
res (modifiable) resource none The resource path of the PNG
path file. Image is a transparent
blank if res is not suppplied.
frames integer 1 The number of frames (side by
side images) in the PNG file.
The image width is therefore
the real PNG width divided by
the number of frames.
index (modifiable) integer 1 The frame number (counting from
1) to display.
all attributes in The default for w/h is to
type: visible shrink to fit the supplied
image. If the image is not
found, then w/h default as
normal. If w/h are supplied,
the image is aligned to the top
left corner.
<tile> visible Draws a tiled image. If borders
are also supplied, the image is
contains contained by tiled by preserving corners and
any listener any container edges, tiling these lengthways
as necessary.
attributes type default
res (modifiable) resource none The resource path of the PNG
path file. The tile is transparent
blank if the res is not
supplied.
bdt integer 0 The thickness of the top
border. If zero, the tiling has
no top edge tile.
bdl integer 0 The thickness of the left
border. If zero, the tiling has
no left edge tile.
bdr integer 0 The thickness of the right
border. If zero, the tiling has
no right edge tile.
bdb integer 0 The thickness of the bottom
border. If zero, the tiling has
no bottom edge tile.
all attributes in
type: visible
<text> visible Draws a text string. Text
can be single or multiline,
contains contained by scrollable or not, editable
any listener any container or not. Text is drawn with
device specific fonts.
attributes type default
res (modifiable) resource none The resource path of the
path text string to display
(initially if editable). A
transparent blank is drawn
if not supplied.
font fixed serif Device specific font.
serif
sansserif
system
size small small Device specific size. Should
medium map to 9pt, 12pt and 18pt
large respectively.
weight plain plain Device specific weight for
bold the font.
slant plain plain Device specific weight for
italic the font.
align left left The horizontal alignment of
centre the text string inside the
center frame of the text box. There
right is no vertical alignment
control, use the y attribute
to control the text box
position instead.
color, colour colour #ff000O00 The colour of the text. If
(modifiable) (black) translucent alpha is not
supported, the alpha
component is rounded up to
full opacity.
fxcolor, fxcolour colour #00000000 The colour of the text
(modifiable) effect. The default text
effect is a glow background.
multiline boolean false If false, the string is
drawn on a single line. The
width of this element will
default to the length
required to exactly fit the
string.
If true, the string will be
drawn on multiple lines. The
width will default to be the
same as the parent element.
The height will default to
the height required to
exactly fit the number of
lines for the string.
scrollable boolean false If true, the view of the
string can be scrolled
(horizontally for single
line, vertically for
multiline) when this element
has the focus. Focus is
released when the end or
beginning of the string is
reached, or if a cursor key
is pressed in the non-
scrolling direction.
editable resource None If supplied, this element is
path to an editable text box. Text
writable editing is drawn in a device
resource specific way, and may
involve pressing select to
activate text editing. The
edited value of the string
is stored in the resource
path supplied by this
attribute.
all attributes in
type: visible
<throw> listener Throws an event. Events can be
sent to other parts of the
contains contained by content tree or to an actor.
<param> any visible
attributes type default
when event none The event to listen for. If a
name and parameter value is supplied in
optional square brackets [ ], then this
parameter will only trigger when the
value event with that parameter value
is received. E.g.:
when=”keypress[_select]”
triggers on the keypress event
when the parameter value is
‘_select’
event event none The name of the event to throw.
name If this is an Actor event, it
will automatically be sent to
the relevant Actor, regardless
of the specified target. Use
square brackets to specify an
anonymous parameter value to
accompany this event. Use
<param> children to specify
named parameters for this
event.
If the event is the ‘focus’
event, then this will cause the
focus to move to the target
element (within the layer of
the target element).
target element _top The element ID of the element
ID to send this event to. If not
supplied then _top is used. If
the event is an Actor event,
this attribute is ignored.
consume boolean false If true, the event propagation
will stop at this element. No
further listeners will trigger
on the incoming event after
this element.
<att> listener Modifies an attribute of its
parent visible when switched
contains contained by on. <att> is switched on by the
any visible event specified in the when
attribute. It is switched off
by the ‘!’ version of the
event. If several <att>s modify
the same parent attribute, the
last <att> that is switched on
wins.
attributes type default
when event none The event to listen for. If a
name and parameter value is supplied in
optional square brackets [ ], then this
parameter will only switch on when the
value event with that parameter value
is received. E.g.:
when=”keypress[_select]”
triggers on the keypress event
when the parameter value is
‘_select’
name attribute none The name of the attribute in
name the parent visible to modify.
The attribute must be
modifiable as indicated in the
attribute boxes in this spec.
value same as none The new value for the named
attribute attribute of the parent
being visible.
modified Use the @-symbol to reference
the value of a named parameter
of the incoming event.
consume boolean false If true, the event propagation
will stop at this element. No
further listeners will trigger
on the incoming event after
this element.
<anim> listener Continuously modifies an
attribute of its parent
contains contained by visible while switched on.
any visible The animation is started by
the event, and restarted
every time the event arrives
subsequently. The
modification (whereever the
animation has got to) is
switched off when the ‘!’
version of the event arrives.
attributes type default
when event name none The event to listen for. If a
and optional parameter value is supplied
parameter in square brackets [ ], then
value this will only switch on when
the event with that parameter
value is received. E.g.:
when=”keypress[_select]”
triggers on the keypress
event when the parameter
value is ‘_select’
name attribute none The name of the attribute in
name the parent visible to modify.
The attribute must be
modifiable as indicated in
the attribute boxes in this
spec.
startvalue same as none The value to use at the start
attribute of the animation. If not
being supplied, the current value
modified is used. The current value
depends on all previous
listener elements that modify
the same attribute and the
value specified by the parent
visible itself.
endvalue same as none The value to use at the end
attribute of the animation. This value
being is reached at the time
modified specified by the duration
attribute. If not supplied,
the current value of the
attribute is used in the same
way as startvalue above.
duration integer 300 The length of time taken to
number of animate the named attribute
milliseconds from startvalue to endvalue
once. Note this is not the
total duraction of the
animation which can be
calculated by multiplying the
number of repeats by this
duration.
repeat integer- 0 The number of times to repeat
1 = forever the animation after the first
time through, i.e. setting it
to 1 will result in the
animation being played twice.
bounce boolean false If true, the animation will
play backwards on alternate
repeats.
persist boolean depends . . . If true, the animation will
hold the endvalue as the
modification until switched
off by the ‘!’ event.
If false, the animation will
revert to the startvalue at
the end of the animation and
hold that value until the
animation is switched off.
The default depends whether
the event is a normal event
or a ‘!’ version of an event.
If the event is normal, the
default is true. If the event
is a ‘!’ event, the default
is false.
consume boolean false If true, the event
propagation will stop at this
element. No further listeners
will trigger on the incoming
event after this element.
<load> listener Loads some new content into the
supplied target element.
contains contained by
<param> any visible
attributes type default
when event none The event to listen for. If a
name and parameter value is supplied in
optional square brackets [ ], then this
parameter will only trigger when the
value event with that parameter value
is received. E.g.:
when=”keypress[_select]”
triggers on the keypress event
when the parameter value is
‘_select’
res resource none The resource path of the trigml
path file to load.
target element _top The element ID to replace the
ID children of.
consume boolean false If true, the event propagation
will stop at this element. No
further listeners will trigger
on the incoming event after
this element.
<include> Inlines the specified trigml
contains contained by file. The trigml in the file is
<param> any element treated as if it had been
originally declared in place of
this <include> element.
attributes type default
res resource none The resource path of the trigml
path file to include.
<param> Supplies a parameter name and
contains contained by value to a <load>, <include> or
<load> <throw> element.
<include>
<throw>
attributes type default
name parameter none The name of the parameter.
name The $-symbol is used to
reference the parameter when
used in a <load> or <include>.
The @-symbol is used to
reference the parameter when
used with an event.
value value none The value of the parameter.
valuefrom resource none The resource path of a file to
path read the contents of to obtain
the value of this parameter.
<setvar> listener Sets a variable. The variable can
only used when loading new content.
contains contained by If <setvar> triggers on the ‘entry’
<param> any visible event, the variable cannot be used
until the next <load> tag is used.
attributes type default
when event none The event to listen for. If a
name and parameter value is supplied in
optional square brackets [ ], then this will
parameter only trigger when the event with
value that parameter value is received.
E.g.: when=”keypress[_select]”
triggers on the keypress event when
the parameter value is ‘_select’
name variable none The name of the variable.
name
value value none The value to put in the variable.
The variable can be referenced with
the $-symbol in subsequent <load>
actions.
consume boolean false If true, the event propagation will
stop at this element. No further
listeners will trigger on the
incoming event after this element.
<paintif> container, visible Only paints its contents if the
specified resource exists or the
contains contained by path is valid. The contents are
any visible any element still in the tree, and still respond
any listener to events, however, none of the
contents are painted if the
condition is not met. <paintif> can
be used in place of group.
attributes type default
res resource none The resource path to test for the
path existence of.
isvalid resource none The resource path to test the
path validity (as a resource path) of.
Note this will not actually check if
the file exists, merely whether or
not the path is a valid path. This
is useful for testing whether $$ is
in range or not.
<ticker> visible Scrolls a series of items onto,
then off, the frame of this
contains contained by element. The visible child element
any listener any container of <ticker> is used as a template
any one for each item. Each item is
visible scrolled on from below the element
up into a centre-left-aligned
position. The item is then paused
before scrolling it off to the
left. Use the $$ variable in the
template to vary the item on each
scroll past. The list is restarted
at the top when the last item has
been scrolled past.
attributes type default
repeatover resource No Specifies the set of values to use
path default. for the $$ variable in the child
Must be elements. If the resource path is
supplied. a folder, then the list of
resources found in that folder are
used (in numeric order) for the
set of values for $$. If the
resource path is a file, then the
file is treated as an index file
that specifies a list of values
for $$.
all
attributes in
type: visible
<batterylevel> visible Draws the battery level using the
supplied image as a multi-framed
contains contained by image. The current value of the
any listener any container battery level is mapped onto the
proportional frame number.
attributes type default
res (modifiabl resource none The resource path of the PNG file
path that holds all the states of the
battery level.
frames integer 1 The number of frames (side by side
images) in the PNG file. The image
width is therefore the real PNG
width divided by the number of
frames. The frame that is
displayed depends on the current
battery level.
all attributes The default for w/h is to shrink
in to fit the supplied image. If the
type: visible image is not found, then w/h
default as normal. If w/h are
supplied, the image is aligned to
the top left corner.
<signalstrength> visible Draws the signal strength level
using the supplied image as a
contains contained by multi-framed image. The current
any listener any container value of the signal strength level
is mapped onto the proportional
frame number.
attributes type default
res (modifiabl resource none The resource path of the PNG file
path that holds all the states of the
signal strength level.
frames integer 1 The number of frames (side by side
images) in the PNG file. The image
width is therefore the real PNG
width divided by the number of
frames. The frame that is
displayed depends on the current
signal strength level.
all attributes The default for w/h is to shrink
in to fit the supplied image. If the
type: visible image is not found, then w/h
default as normal. If w/h are
supplied, the image is aligned to
the top left corner.
<phonestatus> visible Draws a row of phone status
icons. The icons are packed
contains contained by together, and are drawn, left to
any listener any container right, in the order specified in
the include attribute. Use a
blank image in order to reserve
a space for an icon that is
currently not visible.
attributes type default
res (modifiabl resource none The root folder for the
path collection of icon images. For
each capability specified by the
include attribute, this element
will look for a folder of the
same name. Within that folder,
this element will look for an
image with a name equal to the
current value of that
capability.
include list of none The names the status icons to
semi-colon display. Each name is a
separated capability and should have a
capability folder under the root folder
names specified by the res attribute.
all attributes
in
type: visible
indicates data missing or illegible when filed
