wxruby3-shapes

wxRuby3/Shapes - A wxRuby3 2D shapes and diagramming framework

Introduction

wxRuby3/Shapes (Wx::SF) is a pure Ruby software library/framework based on wxRuby3 which allows easy development of software applications manipulating graphical objects (shapes) like various CASE tools, technological processes modeling tools, etc. This library is a pure Ruby implementation based on the excellent wxShapeFramework C++ library based on wxWidgets.

The library consists of several classes encapsulating a so called 'Shape canvas' (visual GUI control used for management of diagrams) providing the following features:

• Create charts (diagrams) interactively in your wxRuby3 applications
• Serialize/deserialize charts to file or any io stream in multiple formats (currently supported formats are JSON, YAML and XML)
• Support for Clipboard operations (Cut/Paste) and Drag&Drop of diagram components (shapes)
• Support for Undo/Redo operations
• Support for alignment of diagram components.
• Support for printing of diagrams (including preview)
• Support for diagram export to bitmap (any supported type)
• Support for Thumbnail view of diagram
• A standard collection of diagram components
  • Shapes: basic rectangular, square, circle, ellipse, rounded rectangle, grid, flexible grid, horizontal box, vertical box, text, editable text, polygonal, diamond, bitmap
  • Lines: straight, curved, orthogonal, rounded orthogonal
  • Line arrows: solid, open, diamond, circle, cup, prong, square, crossbar, etc.
• Highly customizable and extendable

The shape framework (and shape canvas) allows to define the relationship between various shape types (for example which shape can be a child of another one, which shape types can be connected together by which connection type, how do various connections look like, etc) and provides an extensive set of events for customizing the interactive creation of diagrams.

More over, the library source code is pure Ruby based on wxRuby3 GUI toolkit, so it will run on any platform that supports Ruby and wxRuby3.

To install

The wxRuby3/Shapes project provides gems on RubyGems which can be installed with the standard gem install command line this:

gem install wxruby3-shapes

See INSTALL for more details.

To test

After installation run this:

wx-shapes test

To run a demonstration application

After installation run this:

wx-shapes sampler

See the output of wx-shapes --help for more options.

wxRuby3/Shapes licence

wxruby3/shapes is free and open-source. It is distributed under the liberal MIT licence which is compatible with both free and commercial development. See LICENSE for more details.

See the wxRuby3 project for more information concerning licensing of wxRuby3.

Required Credits and Attribution

Generally, neither wxRuby3 nor wxRuby3/Shapes require attribution, beyond retaining existing copyright notices. See here for more details and acknowledgements.

FAQ

What platforms and operating systems are supported in wxRuby3/Shapes?

All platforms supporting Ruby and wxRuby3. See the wxRuby3 project for more information

Where can I ask a question, or report a bug?

Use GitHUb Issues.

When asking a question, if something is not working as you expect, please provide a minimal, runnable sample of code that demonstrates the problem, and say what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Please also provide basic details of your platform, Ruby, wxRuby3/Shapes, wxRuby and wxWidgets version, and make a reasonable effort to find answers in the archive and documentation before posting. People are mostly happy to help, but it's too much to expect them to guess what you're trying to do, or try and debug 1,000 lines of your application. Very important also; do not use offensive language and be polite.

How can I learn to use wxRuby3/Shapes?

The wxRuby3/Shapes API has a lot of features and takes some time to learn. The wxRuby3/Shapes distribution comes with several samples which illustrate how to use many specific parts of the API. Good one's to start with are the basic samples (samples/sample1|2|3|4) which provide insights in various basic features. The samples also include a fairly advanced and complete diagramming demo application showcasing most of the features of wxRuby3/Shapes.

Complete (more or less) wxRuby3/Shapes API documentation should be part of any complete wxRuby3/Shapes build. This tends to focus on providing a reference of all available modules, classes ad methods and how to use specific classes and methods, rather than on how to construct an application overall. This documentation (for the latest release) is also available online here.

How does wxRuby3/Shapes compare to wxShapeFramework?

wxRuby3/Shapes is not a straight port of wxShapeFramework although much of the structure is maintained with the following major implementation differences:

• wxRuby3/Shapes implements a totally different serialization scheme in which none of the XML serializer code has been ported but instead relies on the FIRM gem for serialization support.
• Related to this the internal management of shape references has been changed as well as this was tightly linked to the serialization implementation.
• The API has been Ruby-fied with respect to constant names, method names and argument passing and return values.
• The ScaledDC class has been integrated with wxRuby3 and is not part of wxRuby3/Shapes.
• The implementation has been noticeably improved and extended compared to the wxShapeFramework implementation.

In addition many small tweaks, improvements and also bugfixes have been implemented as part of the port.

I am getting an error trying to install wxRuby3/Shapes

Please double-check the INSTALL documents, and search issue archives. If this doesn't help, please post your question using GitHub Issues.