NAME

Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory - Makes building complex GUI's easy

SYNOPSIS

      #-- Refer to http://www.exit1.org/ for 
      #-- a comprehensive online documentation.

      #-- Read Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Intro

      use Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory;

      my $context  = Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Context->new;
  
      $context->add_object (
        name   => "worksheet",
        object => My::Worksheet->new,
      );
  
      # derived from Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Layout
      my $layouter = My::Layout->new;

      # derived from Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Rules
      my $rule_checker = My::Rules->new;

      my $ff = Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory->new (
        context      => $context,
        layouter     => $layouter,
        rule_checker => $rule_checker,
        content      => [
          Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Window->new (
            title   => "Worksheet Editor",
            content => [
              Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Form->new (
                title   => "Main data",
                content => [
                  Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Entry->new (
                    label => "Worksheet title",
                    attr  => "worksheet.title",
                    tip   => "Title of this worksheet",
                  ),
                  #-- More widgets...
                ],
              ),
              Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory->DialogButtons->new,
            ],
          ),
        ],
      );

      $ff->open;
      $ff->update;
  
      Gtk2->main;

ABSTRACT

With Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory you can build a GUI which consistently represents the data of your application.

DESCRIPTION

This is a framework which tries to make building complex GUI's easy, by offering these two main features:

• Consistent looking GUI without the need to code resp. tune each widget by hand. Instead you declare the structure of your GUI, connect it to the data of your program (which should be a well defined set of objects) and control how this structure is transformed into a specific layout in a very generic way.
• Automatically keep widget and object states in sync (in both directions), even with complex data structures with a lot of internal dependencies, object nesting etc.

This manpage describes the facilities of Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory objects which are only a small part of the whole framework. To get a full introduction and overview of how this framework works refer to Gtk2::Ex::FormFactory::Intro.

AUTHORS

Jörn Reder <joern at zyn dot de>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2004-2006 by Jörn Reder.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Library General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.