ekkes Express Charts is an application to create charts on-the-fly and can be integrated into BlackBerry EXPRESS.
Here’s an Overview about the APP and HowTo download und use.
Easy Data Entry
One of the goals of my new app is to enhance productivity and always to have a Fast Lane.
That’s why I implemented the Easy Data Entry.
Starting the app you’ll get a list of all your saved chart data. The very first time this list will be empty and there’s a Dialog to let the user know about this:
If you want to use emoticons, don’t forget the property:
infoDialog.emoticonsEnabled = true
As next you can tell the app how many columns you want to enter:
From the Picker you can seelct between 2 and 9 Columns. Then tap on the ‘Go on’ Action.
Please notice that the Back Button in the ActionBar changed to Cancel to let you know that you can cancel this and gob back to the previous Page.
To overwrite teh default Back Button you can add this to your code:
paneProperties: NavigationPaneProperties { backButton: ActionItem { title: qsTr("Cancel") imageSource: "asset:///images/ic_cancel.png" onTriggered: { navigationPane.pop() } } }
Cascades makes it easy to create Objects dynamically and from the number you selected the next Page will display exactly the fields you need to enter your data:
there are 3 rows with Label, Value and optional Unit.
To create objects dynamically you have to attach the Component Definition – in this case describing the UI for one row:
attachedObjects: [ ComponentDefinition { id: dataRowComponent Container { id: dataContainer ...... your UI controls } // end data container }, // dataRowComponent ... ]
and from a simple loop create them dynamically:
function createColumns(){ var max = selectNumberColumnsContainer.columnCount for (var i = 0; i < max; i ++) { innerContainer.add(dataRowComponent.createObject()) } }
The keyboard comes up automatically, because the first field requests the focus.
titleText.requestFocus()
This is important if working with devices like Q5 / Q10: the user can immediately start to type. Without requesting the focus he/she has to tap on the field before typing.
Filling out all the fields from last field the keyboard automatically disappears so you can see it all and verify.
Before going on and customize or save the data you can directly control the generated chart clicking on the ‘Preview’ Button:
You can rotate to Landscape and if it looks ok capture the Chart and Save the Image or go back and customize.
There are some small things implemented to create a great UX, per ex.:
If coming from BlackBerry EXPRESS the ActionBar looks different:
Coming from another 3rdParty appliucation you’ll get this one:
Sending the Image back automatically closes the Page and returns to the calling application.
Have FUN with ekkes Express Charts 🙂