Office 2007 Ribbon Bar and Icons in LabVIEW

[battler.]

Pathetic 😄

[battler.]

Is anyone else interested in using the Windows Ribbon with their LabVIEW applications?  Has it been done?

Battler.

[RavensFan]

I would say the answers are No and No.

Or at least Not Likely, and Probably Not.

[battler.]

I'd say that you are wrong.

If you're not interested then don't respond.  Why even read it?  Nothing better to do?

[battler.]

For anyone who is interested refer to:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338202.aspx

[RavensFan]

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battler. wrote:

I'd say that you are wrong.

If you're not interested then don't respond.  Why even read it?  Nothing better to do?

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That's your opinion.  If I'm wrong, then how come no one has responded saying they agree with you.  You seemed to be begging for a response so I gave you one.

Next time I'll just remember S_mercurio's warnings given here.  I'd still like to know what you consider pathetic up in reply #11.  I can only assume you were referring to your attitude.

[SimonH]

I've used ribbons in C#/WPF applications but haven't had a need for them in any of my LabVIEW applications.  Depending on your application, a Ribbon may be more trouble than it is worth.  This is an excerpt from Microsoft's own ribbon usage guidelines:

 

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Program type

• What type of program are you designing? The program type is a good indicator of the appropriateness of a ribbon. Ribbons work well for document creation and authoring programs, as well as document viewers and browsers. Ribbons might work for other types of programs, but other forms of command presentation may be more appropriate. Generally, lightweight programs should have a lightweight command presentation. (For a list of program types, see the Program Command Patterns.)

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If you are serious about adding a ribbon to LabVIEW then you will need to do some more background research.  

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battler. wrote:

For anyone who is interested refer to:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338202.aspx

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That document refers to adding custom tabs to existing Office applications (for Office plugins that you develop) which is a good deal easier than creating your own ribbon.  If you are looking to add ribbon capability to your own applications you can get a preview version of the WPF Ribbon from Microsoft here provided you accept their license and adhere to their UI guidelines (generally a good idea for usabilities sake).  There are also many commercially available ribbon controls such as the Actipro Ribbon.

Any of these .NET controls can be used in LabVIEW but you will need to be familiar with their programming model.  Tasks that are doable in XAML with the right editor become a little more complicated when you try to do them with purely function calls. 

I'm guessing it would be quicker and easier to get 80% of the same effect using a tab control to contain all your controls and formatting your tab control to make it more "ribbon-like".

~Simon 

[battler.]

As you can see the Original posting received a couple of "Kudos" so there are people interested.

I don't know what your problem is.  I'm just trying to get a job done here, that's all.

[battler.]

Thanks Simon for the reponse.

It does sound like a lot of work and I will do some further research and get back to this posting.

[rolfk]

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battler. wrote:

As you can see the Original posting received a couple of "Kudos" so there are people interested.

I don't know what your problem is.  I'm just trying to get a job done here, that's all.

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The problem is that you came here with a bit of an attitude of I know it all and want you guys to show me how this and this and this and this is done and please send me a ready made solution or otherwise I declare LabVIEW useless. Not a very good entry into a technical discussion forum! And when someone tells you that your initial assumption is wrong or even how it could be done but that is likely more trouble than it's worth, you tend to get personal or show simply a somewhat rude behaviour. This is THE problem!

You are the person asking for advice and wanting help and in most cultures around the globe it is quite usual to be polite and friendly when being in such a position.

And about the kudos for the original post. There are always people who think a particular idea has to be good when it comes from Microsoft. And some come here and claim LabVIEW to be useless and inferior when not supporting such an idea out of the box. And when being told that if they want to do it they can try to do it in some way they get angry that they have to do some work and in this particular case would have to do a lot of work and it would be most probably a very painful thing to develop and also maintain.

Rolf Kalbermatter