Difference between revisions of "HowTo:Configure Start Screen Content"

Revision as of 14:01, 16 March 2015

Introduction

The Dynamic Configurable start screen feature allows the UBIK^® user to tailor the buttons on the start screen according to the needs of the customer.

Setup

The first step is to configure the start screen data using an xml in order for UBIK^® to recognize the different tabs and buttons. The xml file, which must have the name css_config.xml, should be placed under SD_CARD/Android/data/APP_PACKAGE_NAME/files/UIConfigurations where

Parameter	Purpose
SD_CARD	represents the root of the external storage of a device
APP_PACKAGE_NAME	is the concatenation of "com.augmensys.ubik." and the application name, e.g. demo, manualtest, companyname etc.

After the folder is configured, the next step is to validate the XML configuration file against the schema using an online validator. A solution can be found at Online XML Schema Validator.

The following xml shows an example configuration (also can be downloaded as an xml file):

<StartScreenConfiguration>
<Tab caption="Content">
<ContentBrowserButton caption="Content Browser"/>
<ContentBrowserButton caption="Events" UBIK-UID="31aaa5c9-85dd-4243-9cf8-89d712d32405" iconPath="events.png"/>
</Tab>

<Tab caption="AR1">
<MapsButton/>
<POIViewButton caption="AR View"/>
<CustomIntentButton caption="Map of Linz" iconPath="linz.png">
<TargetURI>
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Linz/@48.295065,14.327405,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x47739595fa99854d:0x7c53292c577975c4
</TargetURI>
</CustomIntentButton>
<TargetMapsButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
</Tab>

<Tab caption="AR2">
<IDMarkerScanButton caption="ID Marker Scan"/>
<QRCodeScanButton caption="QR Code Scan"/>
<ConfigurableARButton caption="Configurable AR"/>
<ConfigurableImageMarkerButton caption="Configurable Image Marker"/>
<ARNavigationButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
<NavigationMapsButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
<DemoMapsButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
<RFIDScanButton caption="RFID Scan" />
</Tab>
</StartScreenConfiguration>

The config file has to be named css_config.xml.

Tab groups

The user can configure tab groups in the XML. They will be used as groupings for buttons.

Buttons

Buttons should be placed inside tab elements and can be parameterized. Buttons are configurable in terms of

Icon
Caption
Group/tab
Action + Parameters if needed

The icons are specified by their relative paths under SD_CARD/Android/data/APP_PACKAGE_NAME/files/UIConfigurations/CSSButtonIcons

The supported button types are as follows:

Content Browser Button
Content Browser Button For An Arbitrary Object
Custom Intent Button
Maps Button
Target Maps Button
ID Marker Scan Button
QR Code Scan Button
POI View Button
Configurable AR Button
Configurable Image Marker Button
Navigation Button
AR Navigation Button
UI Android CSS Buttons Demo Maps.jpg

Demo Maps Button
RFID Scan Button

Button	Purpose
Content Browser Button	Opens a content browser for displaying an object or the root if no object/uid is specified.
Custom Intent Button (using a customized intent URI or target class)	Launches a certain application for the specified Intent.
Maps Button	Opens UBIK^® map.
Target Maps Button	Opens UBIK^® map for a target object.
ID Marker Scan Button	Starts ID marker scanning.
QR Scan Button	Starts QR code scanning.
POI View Button	Opens UBIK^® POI view.
Configurable AR Button	Opens the ID marker 3D view.
Configurable Image Marker Button	Opens the markerless view.
AR Navigation POI View Button	Opens UBIK^® POI view with the AR navigation support.
AR Navigation Maps Button	Opens UBIK^® map for the specified object.Starts navigating to the specified object.
Demo Maps Button	Starts navigating to the specified object in demo app.
RFID Scan Button	Starts RFID scanning.

Configuration guidelines

The maximum number of tabs is 6. Once this limit is exceeded, the configuration is invalid and won't be shown.
The captions of tabs are optional. In case there's only one tab, the tab will be invisible.
The buttons should always be nested inside tabs. Otherwise, the configuration is also invalid.
Captions and icons of buttons are optional. Default values are used for the unspecified ones.
While configuring the custom intent button, one should always specify one and only one of the target class and the target URI. Otherwise, the button is invalid and an error will be shown.
The configuration of the UID parameter should always be specified for AR Navigation POI View Button, AR Navigation Maps Button, Demo Maps Button and Target Maps Button.

Results

The result is that the tabs and buttons configured in the XML file will be visible and open the right activity once they are clicked.

The following screenshots demonstrate the results of the example XML configuration.

After users log in, the buttons are enabled and colored. Upon being clicked, they should trigger different actions.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
        <NavigationMapsButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
        <DemoMapsButton caption="Flow Controller 213" UBIK-UID="2ccd91c0-9cee-42f3-9d1d-be745908457d"/>
+      <RFIDScanButton caption="RFID Scan" />
      </Tab>
    </StartScreenConfiguration>