Customizing DIAdem front end

[salte]

To what degree can the DIAdem gui/front end be customized programatically?

Is it possible to hide/remove any button/menu item and add new custom made? If so, where would be a good place start (finding example code etc.)?

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi salte,

The menus are completely customizable via VBScript, and you can find detailed information on the 10 or so MenuItem...() functions in the DIAdem Help.

But if I were you I would start with this example:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niepd_web_display.display_epd4?p_guid=F8ABC9B4A0E06F0AE0340003BA7CCD71

Some of the icons can be affected by these same MenuItem...() functions.

Ask if you have further questions,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[salte]

Thanks a lot Brad, that was very helpful.

To take this a little further, i'm wondering if its possible to add my own panel/tab on the left hand side (in addition to the "Navigator", "View", "Analysis" etc)?

I don't want to replace the ones that are already there (allthough that can also be an option if it's the only possibility), just add a new one.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi salte,

That's an interesting request, but it's not something that DIAdem can do for you.  Since that puts us into the realm of a new feature request, what would you have liked to see in DIAdem once the custom panel icon was pressed?

Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[salte]

What i was hoping was possible was to create a new custom made (and simplyfied) user interface (by using the components already present in DIAdem).

With all its buttons and menus and panels DIAdem looks rather 'frightening' at first sight to users not very comfortable with computers. I'm developing a 'package' where analyzing and trending certaing data is one feature, and we'd like to use DIAdem for this purpose. But DIAdem contains a multitude of possibilities most of our customers would never need (or understand), so as an option to the users only interested in the basics we'd just like a simple user interface with as few as possible 'confusing' elements.

Don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but what i would like was simply the possibility to make a new panel tab where i could mix and match present components at will.

[Brad_Turpin]

Aha!

Then what you should look into is the SUDialog Editor in DIAdem.  SUDialogs (Scriptable User Dialogs) are user-defined dialogs like VB forms which you can customize and invoke from a DIAdem script to lead a user step by step through a series of predefined steps or choices.  While the VBScript and its SUDialog are running, the user does not have the option to use DIAdem, and you can either allow the user to see DIAdem or hide the DIAdem environment completely.

Ask if you need more information on this,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[salte]

Thanks again!

I'll look into that (and most probably come up with another plethoria of questions 🙂

[salte]

Ok, another question on this issue.

I've made a user dialog with a few options for printing/viewing some standard reports.

After a certain script has been run (for selection of pens/timespan etc) i'd like this dialog to be where the data portal normally is placed (replacing the data portal).

Is this possible?

[salte]

I other words I would like to:
*remove/hide the data portal
*dock my user dialog on the right hand side of the DIAdem main window
*view the report/view panel/window next to my user dialog

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi salte,

Well, you most certainly can programmatically set the Data Portal to visible or invisible with the variable "PtlShow".  And you can also set the desired location of your SUDialog with the Dialog.Left and Dialog.Top properties.  But there's no way to dock the SUDialog to the DIAdem environment, and there's also no way to have the SUDialog be non-modal like the Data Portal.  You can programmatically show VIEW or any other desired DIAdem panel with the "WndShow()" command, though.

Hope that helps,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments