Smart Links Tool -- Dialog Mockups -- 11-12-2012

Smart Links Tool -- Dialog Mockup Two -- 11-13-2012
See prior design mockup / subsequent design mockup ... development planning doc.

This dialog is shown when two objects are selected on the workspace and the user selects the Smart Links operation. (See the Smart Links Tool requirements document).

Alternative header arrangement:

The initial order of the two selected objects (left side and right side) is generally based on the relative positions of the object icons in the workspace, as follows:

If the horizontal positions of the two object icons is approximately equal (e.g. within 10 pixels), the vertical positions are used: the upper object is placed on the left side of the dialog.
If the horizontal positions of the two object icons is sufficiently different, then the left-most object is placed on the left side of the dialog.
Possible exception: In the less common case of heterogeneous object types (e.g. power reservoirs and thermal objects), we may choose to hard-code the order of certain combinations (and disable the "swap" button), e.g. the thermal object always being on the rights side. This would be considered to avoid the necessity of configuring "double" entries in the link topology dictionary (or a workaround which would require more complex processing of the definitions in that dictionary).

The double-arrow (icon) button swaps the two objects (left side / right side). It will be disabled when there are any un-applied link "additions" or "removals", or if (for some reason based on object types) the reversed order is not supported. Swapping the two objects recomputes the "Link Set Group" combo box and the link treeview.

The combo box at the top of the dialog is the "Link Set Group" combo box. It is populated with each of the Link Set Groups in the link topology dictionary (i.e. collection of Link Sets sharing common object types, message selections, and link direction descriptor) matching the two objects. It will be disabled when there are any tentative (un-applied) link "additions" or "removals".

The Link treeview shows the possible links between the two objects from the currently selected Link Set Group, organized by Link Set (top level treeview items) PLUS other existing links between the two objects. A horizontal line in the "Link" column indicates the following:

Thin black line: An existing link.
Thick green line: A tentatively added link.
Thick red line: A tentatively removed link.

The Add Links and Remove Links buttons operate on the selected set of link items (row items). These tentatively add or remove a link (or cancel a tentatively removed or added link). The "proposed" changes are applied only if the user subsequently presses the "OK" or "Apply" button. Added links will then become "existing links" and removed links will become blank (i.e. the absence of a link). Each of these buttons are active only when at least one of the selected link items would be changed by the operation; so, clicking either of these buttons causes it to become disabled.

The "OK" button applies the link changes and dismisses the dialog.

The "Apply" button applies the link changes. The swap button and the Link Set Group combo box are re-enabled (if those controls are disabled only because of the existence of un-applied changes). This is enabled only when there are pending link "additions" or "removals". (So, clicking it causes it to become disabled).

The "Close" button dismisses the dialog. If there are any un-applied changes, a warning dialog is shown, allowing the user to abort the "close" operation to continue operating the Smart Links Tool dialog.

Qt4 UI Files for the images above:

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