Missing layout options hGrab and vGrab

[srcnuzn]

According to the documentation about client-layouting there are the options hGrab and vGrab, but they seem to be missing in GLayoutOptions. Also, setting the options manually does not have any effect on my GCompartment.

For example, the labels in the following GCompartment within my node are not grabbing the vertical space but instead are compactly occupying the space in the center. Am I misunderstanding the option?

new GCompartmentBuilder()
    .layout(GConstants.Layout.VBOX)
    .layoutOptions(Map.of(
            GLayoutOptions.KEY_H_ALIGN, GConstants.HAlign.LEFT,
            GLayoutOptions.KEY_V_ALIGN, GConstants.VAlign.CENTER,
            "vGrab", true))
    .add(new GLabelBuilder().text("p12").build())
    .add(new GLabelBuilder().text("p1234").build())
    .add(new GLabelBuilder().text("p123456").build())
    .build()

[CamilleLetavernier]

Hi,

The vGrab/hGrab options affect the element on which they are defined. In this case, the compartment that contains all 3 labels, rather than individual labels.

Unfortunately, Labels do not support layout options, so you can't apply vGrab on them directly (This is what you'd need to get the expected result). As a workaround, you may try wrapping each label in their own compartment, and applying vGrab on these intermediate compartments. It makes the model a lot more verbose, but it should give the expected result.

[srcnuzn]

Hey,

I tried your suggestion and with the following code, the labels have a higher vertical distance, but unfortunately they are still not dynamically grabbing the whole vertically available space. Note, that it makes no difference whether or not I add the vGrab option.

new GCompartmentBuilder()
    .layout(GConstants.Layout.VBOX)
    .layoutOptions(Map.of(
            GLayoutOptions.KEY_H_ALIGN, GConstants.HAlign.LEFT,
            GLayoutOptions.KEY_V_ALIGN, GConstants.VAlign.CENTER,
            "vGrab", true)) // vGrab has no effect
    .add(getLabel("p12"))
    .add(getLabel("p1234"))
    .add(getLabel("p123456"))
    .build()

private GCompartment getLabel(final String text) {
    return new GCompartmentBuilder()
            .layout(GConstants.Layout.VBOX)
            .layoutOptions(Map.of("vGrab", true))  // vGrab has no effect
            .add(new GLabelBuilder().text(text).build())
            .build();
}

[rsoika]

Hi @srcnuzn , I have a very similar problem which seems to occur since I upgraded from 1.1.0-RC04 => 1.1.0-RC10. So in the moment I just wonder if you get your problem solved - and at least you are not alone ;-)
This is how it worked in the past in my project:

[rsoika]

Hi @CamilleLetavernier , I also believe we have a problem here. The example code from @srcnuzn, where he is wrapping all labels in a GCompartment and applying the Layout options to each, does not show the expected effect.
I run into this problem too since I updated to 1.1.0-RC10. For example now it is no longer possible to set the HAlign.RIGHT.
Can you please show an example code to demonstrate how to construct such an element?

[rsoika]

@srcnuzn, finally the only solution in my case to get it working correctly, was to use a GConstants.Layout.FREEFORM and placing the elements manually.
For this solution you also need to react active on the event ChangeBoundsOperation to recompute the position of your elements based on the new dimensions.

This is of course more work but you finally have much more control over the layout

[srcnuzn]

Thanks for the hint! I also thought about manually layouting the ports. I will give it a try and let you know whether or not I get it done as desired.

[tortmayr]

Thanks for raising this.
We also have received bug reports from other adopters that seem to be related to this problem. We have to investigate the
root cause and hopefully can provide a fix soon.
In the meantime I suggest to try to use the fix that @rsoika mentioned.

[rsoika]

Hi @tortmayr,
No with my new solution I observer a really strange behaviour caused by the FREEFORM layout. After I changed my Element impl each Time I move an element or change a route all Elements with the FREEFORM layout grow in its size a little bit. Look at this annimation:

If I switch back to VBOX layout the effect is gone:

Do you know about this effect?

[rsoika]

@tortmayr , I found out that the reason for the strange effect was simply that one of my child components (GNode) had a position of 1,1 and graps the width and height form the parent. And this leads to the effect that the parent increases its size in each render phase by 1 px. So you can ignore my concerns regarding the FREEFORM layout. So the whole thing was just a later consequence of switching from VBOX layout to FREEFORM. I need to refactor more parts of my impl....