Updating The Child Layout Of A Scrolllayout

[paolog]

I have a scrollLayout that contains a rowLayout that I want to modify dynamically.

When creating the UI, I create the scrollLayout and add a dummy rowLayout to it. Later in the program (and before the UI is displayed for the first time) I extract the rowLayout, delete it and create a new one, setting the scrollLayout to be its parent.

The problem I have is that the scrollLayout is displayed with no height, so I can't see its contents.

I can see the scrollLayout only if I do not add a child layout to it at all, neither when creating the UI nor when updating it.

Here are the relevant lines from my scripts:

//more UI creation snipped

setParent $toplevelUI;

global string $my\_frame;
string $my\_frame = `frameLayout`;	//flags snipped
	columnLayout;
		scrollLayout -horizontalScrollBarThickness 16 -verticalScrollBarThickness 16 -w 500 -h 200 my\_layout;
			rowLayout;	//temporary place-holder
			setParent ..;
		setParent ..;
	setParent ..;
setParent ..;
//more UI creation here

then, elsewhere in the code:

global string $my\_frame;

string $frame\_child[1] = `frameLayout -q -ca $my\_frame`;	//get children of list frame; child 0 is column layout
string $coll\_child[3] = `columnLayout -q -ca $frame\_child[0]`;		//get children of column layout; child 2 is scroll layout
string $scroll\_child[1] = `scrollLayout -q -ca $coll\_child[2]`;		//get children of scroll layout: child 0 is row layout

//delete any existing row layout, as this is about to be regenerated
if (`rowLayout -exists $scroll\_child[0]`)
	deleteUI $scroll\_child[0];

rowLayout -nc 3 -h 200 -parent $coll\_child[2];	//add new row layout to scroll layout (child of column layout)
	//controls added here
setParent ..;

I am using Maya 7.0.1 in Windows 2000.

Thanks for any help.

[paolog]

Aha, I think I've found the answer. Funnily enough, it's the same as the answer to my last question: MEL sucks (well, it was "MEL is crap" last time, but the sentiment is the same ).

I've switched to a scrollable tabLayout with hidden tabs and the content of the layout now appears.

[ewerybody]

hehe :]
mel is not that bad... I mean at least we talk about it. It must be worth it

to your topic: Yea even the Maya developers use tabLayouts to make a scrollable Layout. Its much more cool, behaves and looks better.

everything cool now? I'd like to help on UI stuff.

[paolog]

Thanks, ewerybody.

Yes, MEL is not that bad, true... it's just that when it is bad, it's horrid.

So my tabLayout is not working...

Here's what I am now doing. I initialise a tabLayout with dummy rowColumnLayout in it, making the tabLayout scrollable:

			tabLayout -tabsVisible 0 -scrollable 1 -h 200;
				rowColumnLayout;	//temporary place-holder
				setParent ..;
	 		setParent ..;

Later on, I delete the temporary rowColumnLayout and make a new one, ensuring that its parent is the tabLayout.

If I specify the height of the tabLayout when it is initialised, I don't get a scroll bar alongside the new rowColumnLayout (presumably because the contents at the time of specifying the height are just the empty rowColumnLayout, which doesn't require a scroll bar ). If I don't set the height of the tabLayout at initialisation but rather when I after creating the new rowColumnLayout, then the scroll bar is there, but the height is full height (in other words, you can see it all without scrolling instead of just the amount that fits into the specified height), way beyond what I asked for. If I set the height of the tabLayout just before creating the new rowColumnLayout, then I get no scroll bar and the rowColumnLayout is at full height again.

How can I get this to work? Do I need to delete and recreate the tabLayout as well?

Thanks.

PS: ewerybody - can I contact you individually about this?

[ewerybody]

ok we create a test window:

CODE
  {    // create a window with tabLayout and a childLayout
    window;
        tabLayout -tabsVisible 0 -scrollable 1 -h 200 myTabLayout;
             rowColumnLayout -numberOfColumns 2
                 -columnWidth 1 60
                 -columnWidth 2 80
                -bgc 1 0 0
                myrowColumnLayout;
                 button; button; button;
                 button; button; button;
                 button;
            setParent ..;
        setParent ..;
    showWindow;
}

and now we keep that open and update it:

CODE
{    // update the child of the tabLayout
    deleteUI myrowColumnLayout;

     rowColumnLayout -numberOfColumns 2
        -parent myTabLayout
        -columnWidth 1 80
        -columnWidth 2 40
        -bgc 0 1 0
        myrowColumnLayout;
        button; button; button;
        button; button; button;
        button; button; button;
}

works? :]

[paolog]

Yep, this works fine, in that it updates the contents of the layout, but that isn't the problem I'm having. It's that either I don't get a scroll bar, or I do but the tabLayout ignores the -h flag and comes out full height. Change -h 200 to -h 30 in your example and the tabLayout does not come out any smaller, and there is no scroll bar, irrespective of the specified height. Remove the -h, and you get a scroll bar. Maya seems to decide for itself how high the layout should be.

Paul

[ewerybody]

yea its dynamic. In this case, if the tabLayout is the only child of the window its always as big as the window. And there will only be a scrollbar if there is something to scroll. I found it to be cool this way.

You want the scrollbar always be visible?