Processing 1.0 - Processing Discourse - getting user input before draw runs

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Index › Programming Questions & Help › Syntax Questions › getting user input before draw runs

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getting user input before draw runs (Read 1665 times)

jimgiles

getting user input before draw runs
Jan 8^th, 2010, 8:56am

I'm new to Processing, so this may be a stupid question. I'm writing a program that creates an animated line graph from a CSV file. I want the user to be able to define certain things, such as the length of the axes, before the data is plotted. Ideally, I want to create a GUI that allows the user to control these parameters.

Any thoughts on how I should structure the program? I've already written code that plots the data, but I can't see how I can insert the GUI code inside the same draw function. I want the GUI to be active before the plotting begins, and then to disappear. It's as if I need two draw functions. Is there a way of achieving something like that?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

jim

blindfish

Re: getting user input before draw runs
Reply #1 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 10:08am

Code:

boolean settingsComplete;  // defaults to false

void setup() {
  size(400,300);
}

void draw() {
  // (!settingsComplete) is equivalent to (settingsComplete == false)
  if(!settingsComplete) {
    // Draw the GUI
    // Presumably you'll have a control to determine when all settings have been set:
    if(okButtonPressed){
      settingsComplete = true;
    }
  }
  
  // if settingsComplete then draw...
  else {
    // plot data...
    // You could obviously add a control to switch 'settingsComplete' back to false and return to the GUI...
  }
}

Where is the what if the what is in why?

liudr

Re: getting user input before draw runs
Reply #2 - Jan 8^th, 2010, 12:01pm

Jim,

You can put the GUI inside setup(). You're welcome to use the following code, which I took from a program I'm working on. The GUI comes up, gets your input, vanishes, all before draw().

Are there a lot of people named Giles? I believe there's another id Giles on this forum. Cheers.

import javax.swing.*;
Object[] possibilities = {"60 FPS", "50 FPS", "40 FPS", "30 FPS", "15 FPS"};

void setup()
{
size(400, 300,P2D);
String s = (String)JOptionPane.showInputDialog(
frame,
"Please choose frame rate for image capture:",
"Choose frame rate",
JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE,
null,
possibilities,
"60 FPS");
}

void draw()
{}

jimgiles YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 9	Re: getting user input before draw runs Reply #3 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 2:28am blindfish -- many thanks! I think that should do it. Obvious now I see it liudr -- I don't quite understand your solution. I thought that the screen was only updated when draw is running? And, yes, there's are a lot of Giles folk out there. Common as muck

PhiLho

Re: getting user input before draw runs
Reply #4 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 3:03am

JOptionPane is Swing, which is OK to use here because the screen update thread isn't started yet (I think). It will pop out a dialog box, outside of the sketch's surface. It is suited to small, simple dialogs/options, and you can chain these pop ups if you have several things to ask. Not the best interface, but OK for simple stuff.

liudr

Re: getting user input before draw runs
Reply #5 - Jan 9^th, 2010, 12:03pm

Yes, it is a popup dialog box. It is also independent from draw. Unless you want your user to see something drawn on the canvas before they make their choices, you can just use this. It gives a user a list to choose from, which is stored in possibilities, and the default value is 60 FPS.

If you want a user to give you a value, say 3.5, use this instead
String user_input=javax.swing.JOptionPane.showInputDialog(frame,"Auto tracking parameters",preset);

where preset is the default value that you should assign, to 5 for instance. Just give it a try.

romank YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 7	Re: getting user input before draw runs Reply #6 - Jan 13^th, 2010, 12:16pm Hey, If you do not want your gui to always be visible you can activate it at certain mouse position and hide when mouse leaves the area If parameters are changed through your GUI then update the plot area

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