B4J Question [BANano] [SOLVED] How can I create documentation from layout files?

[Mashiane]

Ola

Assuming that I have this layout... From the look of things, this follows some kind of tree structure. We have 3 parent items, each with different children etc. e.c

Each element, has a name and an element type and from the property bag, one is able to pick up which properties were used, i.e. the ones that are banano specific.

For example, looking at this VBottomSheet component..

There are some boolean and string props that are checked / unchecked and some strings that are completed and some not.

I'm curious. If possible, as some form of an explainer documentation.

The third element with VToolBar2, produces

So to create this, the tree is like this..

VBottomSheet2
VBottomSheet2>VSheet2
VBottomSheet2>VSheet2>VToolBar2
VBottomSheet2>VSheet2>VToolBar2>VLabel4
VBottomSheet2>VSheet2>VToolBar2>VBtn4

Each of these items have properties in the property bag.

So my ultimate documentation could for example, reading the layout elements, get the schema in this type of parent child relationship and also reading the properties that are specified (leave false out / empty strings)

For example..
VBottomSheet2\FullScreen:True
VBottomSheet2\HideOverlay:True
VBottomSheet2\Inset:True

Etc, etc. I can then generate a document / tree structure based on this for my eBook.

Is it possible to get a tree structure like this from the b4j layout files either with b4j / banano?

Hopefully I have explained my thoughts well. Thanks in advance for your advise and help.

 

[MicroDrie]

The challenge in this is that the different elements all have different properties. In addition, it happens (certainly for the relatively new B4X image elements) that new and / or changes in both an element and its properties regularly occur.

In addition, a program can also have self-defined forms or add elements in runtime.

In short, proper and endless labor-intensive maintenance and therefore most likely never complete.

But if that doesn't stop you from developing and maintaining this for multiple platforms, you may find it useful to look at:

[B4X] [B4XPages] BCTextEngine parser: B4X Code Highlighter

This is an example of creating a custom parser for BBCodeView. It depends on BCTextEngine v1.61+ which allows setting the text runs directly instead of parsing the BBCode. The parser is compatible with B4A, B4J and B4i. Note that in B4J the text looks less clear with the dark theme due to the...

www.b4x.com

It is very telling that the great master writes:

It is an example. It doesn't support all of B4X programming language features

In short, don't let my considerations stop you. You can read the screen files and with a bit of luck you can find out how these are written based on very different tests. If you place each element as the only one on a screen, you can possibly go a long way on the basis of adding an element, filling in all the properties.

 

[MicroDrie]

Although not the same, but you may also find some useful clever ideas here:
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...localize-your-b4x-applications.68751/#content

 

[Mashiane]

1. Remembered there is a BAL2JSON convertors - fired that up and converted files to JSON
2. Then there is JSONTREE to see the structure of the converted file.

I want to read the custom properties from each CustomView element as depicted below:

Will be able to write code in B4J to parse and generate the report I need.

Ta!