Creating a pop-up window

Somebody else (I've forgotten who) needed to do this as well. Your two options are to use showOverlay(), but as you say it may not be all there yet. The second option is to create a new screen with a transparent background with your popup in it. This is probably easier to do and more reliable. You can use the same class for every popup, and change the message/buttons in it. If I get time later I'll put something together for you about it.

Jolaf, I don't think it will be possible to do what you want with a screen then. Do you want something like toast popping up with notifications? It's going to be fairly complex to do in MAUI. The way I would approach it is probably to create a new Screen class (inheriting from the old one) which also has the code to handle the popup. Then use this class as the base for all of your screens. Let me think about it.

Also try to create Screen Layout with 3x3 dimension. then use central cell as popup.
I do not know if it is able to add Widget into layout to desired position, but you may create an empty widget just to fill layout placeholders that you wish to be transparent.

Hello Everyone,

I have a button on screen that downloads file from the internet. I want to show a screen when the download starts and hide it when the download finishes.
i created a screen and i show in when i click the button that starts the download and it shows i try to go back using APPCONTROLLER->back(); but the previous page doesnot show
here is the class i use for downloading the file.

DownloadXML::~DownloadXML()
{
}
void DownloadXML::dl(String& url, String& storeName)
{

	mStoreName=storeName;
	mUrl=url;
	Downloader* idl = new Downloader();
	idl->addDownloadListener(this);
	MAHandle docResource = maCreatePlaceholder();
	idl-> beginDownloading(mUrl.c_str(), docResource);

}

void DownloadXML::finishedDownloading(Downloader *dl, MAHandle data)
{
	StoreHandler::saveToStore(mStoreName.c_str(),data);
	lprintfln("finish download");
	APPCONTROLLER->back();// nothing happens
	}

How are you showing the DownloadXML screen? If you're not using APPCONTROLLER->show() then you won't be able to use ->back()

I use it in another screen called MenuScreen that has a button that downloads xml file and saves it to a store and then calls
APPCONTROLLER->show("PopUpScreen") and here the PopUpScreen opens . What I do after that is calling APPCONTROLLER->back() in the function finishedDownloading() in DownloadXML class the function works fine and lprintfln("finish download"); output the text , but APPCONTROLLER->back() does nothing.

You're going to have to add some debug in back() to list through the history - you need to find what it thinks is the previous screen and what it is trying to show.

Hello Sam,
I found somthing strange while testing. First on the PointeRrelese event in POPUP screen I call APPCONTROLLER->back(), and I removed APPCONTROLLER->back() that is called when the download is finished, so when I click on the POPUP page I go back to the MainMenu page. But when APPCONTROLLER->back() is called after the download is finished nothing happens, besides when I click on the POPUP screen the the pointerrelese event does nothing.
Another thing. I found in my code that the lines of code after the download command are executed before the download is finished:
below is the code I use when I click on the download button

                               
                                APPCONTROLLER->show("UpdatingScrn");
		String dllinke="xml link";
		String storee="a.xml";
		DownloadXML* ud=new DownloadXML();
		ud->dl(dllinke,storee);//download starts here
		lprintfln("finish download");// this text is printed before the download starts
		APPCONTROLLER->back();

Yeah, the download is asynchronous - it runs in the background and you can carry on doing whatever you were doing until its finished. I can't remember how the version you've got there works, but the new version (coming soon folks) calls back to the requesting class when their download has finished.

Hello Sam,
I checked the back function again and the values of the previous screen and the next screen is set right, but the problem happens in the ScreenTransition class in the function below as when APPCONTROLLER->back() is called after the download is finished, (gScreen !=0) is = true and return in called. But normally the function continues the execution of the below line of codes. I just wanna know what gScreen represents??

 void ScreenTransition::makeTransition(MAUI::Screen* fromScreen, MAUI::Screen* toScreen, int direction, int duration, TransitionType type)
       {
          if (gScreen != 
          {
        	  lprintfln("will return");
            return;
          }
          lprintfln("will cont");
          gScreen = new MAUI::Screen();
          gWidget = new ScreenTransition();
          gScreen->setMain(gWidget);
          gWidget->fromMainWidget = fromScreen->getMain();
          gWidget->toScreen = toScreen;
          gWidget->toMainWidget = toScreen->getMain();
          gWidget->direction = direction;
          gWidget->duration = duration;
          gWidget->start_time = maGetMilliSecondCount();
          gWidget->updateAlpha(gWidget->start_time);
          currentType = type;

          // This will tell the widget to fix stuff before being drawn
          gWidget->toMainWidget->update();

          gScreen->show();
          MAUtil::Environment::getEnvironment().addTimer(gWidget, 20, -1);
       }

gScreen is a new instance of Screen which is only in existence for the transition. It displays the two main widgets (from the two screens it is animating), and it is destroyed at the end of the transition.

but when i out put the value of gscreen when I call APPController->back(), on the popup screen it gives me big number of digits 76227 for example thats why it enters this if statment

if (gScreen != 0 )
{
lprintfln("will return");
return;
}
,, while it always outputs 0 when back() is called on other screens. Besides, I could not figure out where it gets that dummy number

Hey Sam,
Might the problem happen from calling APPCONTROLLER->back() from another class other than the class of the screen shown??

No, APPCONTROLLER is a macro which gets the singleton instance of the AppController class. This means that you can call it from anywhere.

Hey Sam am still stuck in the same problem as APPCONTROLLER->back() does not work in the case mentioned before. Do u mind if i send you the project ??

OK. Zip (not rar!) and email it to me at samuel.pickard AT mosync.com

Also (important!) do not zip up the Output and FinalOutput folders - I just need the source code.

I'm also out this afternoon, so I won't be able to look at it until tomorrow morning.

ok Sam I will send it to you
thank you

OK, I'm going to need some instructions. I've copied the xml files to the stores (as if they had downloaded), and I can browse through your XML, but I've not got a popup menu anywhere and the back button appears to work fine. What do I need to press?

At the main menu screen at the softkeybar there is update, when you click it downloading should start and APPCONTROL->show("Updatinscreen") opens the updating screen (In DownloadXML.cpp) and when the download finish APPCONTROL->back() is called to get back to menu, but the screen doesnot get back to the menu, all in the DownloadXML.cpp. this process works when the download of xml happens using the download listeners as I am using a url onn local network to download the xml files, so i donot know if you will be able to test the download effect.

OK.  I have some questions.  This is from MenuScreen.cpp

			evtLink="http://10.0.0.71/msamir/a.xml";
			comLink ="http://10.0.0.71/msamir/temp.xml";
			evtStore="a.xml";
			comStore="temp.xml";
			DownloadXML* evtDld=new DownloadXML(evtLink,evtStore);
			DownloadXML* comDld=new DownloadXML(comLink,comStore);
			int size=(int)mScreens.size();
			APPCONTROLLER->deleteScreen(size);
			mScreens.clear();

1.  The DownloadXML class calls APPCONTROLLER->back(), but you've got *two* DownloadXML classes - do you want to go back two screens?

2.  You are creating new instances of DownloadXML here - where are they being deleted?  If you don't call delete evtDld and delete comDld then you can't have their memory back.

3. At the bottom of this code, you are deleting the current screen.  How can the transition show the parts of this screen it needs to if you've deleted it?

I think your problems are related to at least items 1 and 3.

1st point, I tried it using only 1 download and I had the same problem, besides I modified the appcontroller class to show only the page once and thats by checking the previous stored page, so i donot think thats the problem.

2nd point, yeah i still donot know where to delete those items as the destructor is called only when the application exits, i tried to use delete after the download finishes but i get errors. (hope to get help with that)

3rd point , if you mean these lines of code
APPCONTROLLER->deleteScreen(size);
mScreens.clear();
I think they have nothing to do with the problem as i had the problem before adding them. besides, I added deleteScreen(size) function in the APPCONTROL class as it only checks if Rssindex pages found and deletes them and mScreens.clear(); is a map that contains indexes for RSSindex screen. I added them coz i wanted to delete the RSSindex screens i have when i do the update, so to be built again with the new data, besides i tested them and they work fine, but u can comment them if you want to.

Another thing i want to add, if u comment the APPCONTROLLER->back() called in finished download and used the one in pointer listener by clicking on the screen that appears, it goes back normally. But if you donot comment it and tried to click on the screen the pointersevent doesnt listen.

Right, I'm emailing you your project back, but the problem is definitely that you're using two DownloadXML, each of which shows the Updating screen and then calls back.

The history is a list of screens in reverse order that they've been shown. It won't add to the history any screen which is already at the top of the stack, or else your use will press a back button and get the same screen they were looking at, which doesn't make any sense.

I changed it to just do one download and everything works perfectly. I know your next question is 'how do I do two downloads then?', and the answer is to refactor your download code. You need to think about the separation of concerns in your design.  Fundamentally, the problem isn't with the APPCONTROLLER->back() function, becuase we don't want a user to move back and be faced with the same screen, but with the design of DownloadXML, which has two concerns, managing a download and updating the UI.  Separate these resposibilities out, and make each class responsible for one clearly defined task.  I can help you with this if you need it.

First I want to thank you for your effort.
but did it works fine only when you did one download without changing anything, coz i remember i tried that many times and i got the same problem. Besides even with two download why the APPCONTROLLER->back() works fine in the pointerlistener event??!!.

About the separaction of concerns that is really a problem with me dowing 2 download and i wanted a better design for that, so for sure i need some help with it.

Another thing there is a problem with the kineticlistbox movement is it ok to discuss it in this forume??

Finally I really want to thank you for your effort and time, and am waing to get the project to see how the problem is fixed

No problem. There are a *lot* of problems with KineticListBox - it is a widget which was knocked up in a hurry by someone on the forum, and isn't an *official* MoSync widget or anything. I've got a new version ready for release soon, but it requires a whole new UI library (instead of MAUI). I've enclosed my most recent MAUI version (from Feb 2011) which probably has a lot of bug fixes in, so try that first.

Also, if you change topic, can you create a new thread? We seem to have moved a long way from popup boxes.

I raised that issue in a thred before here is the link for the thread
http://www.mosync.com/node/6662

Hello Sam,

I still have the same problem with APPCONTROLLER->back()
would that be the emulator's or mosync's problem??

Sorry to bump an old thread, but has anyone found a solution to this?

Ahh, which problem are you referring to? KineticListBox? If so, you either need to use the NativeUI ListView control, or replace MAUI with the AppMancer AMUI library and use the ListBox widget in that. APPCONTROLLER hasn't been developed for a long time. It has been replaced by several different classes in AppMancer - ScreenWarehouse, StackScreen and a few others.

No, sorry. I am referring to a "toast" like window, once I have more than two screens I can't seem to make a third. :/

Well, I can make the third, it's code runs, but it won't display unless I hide the second window