Customizing Toolbars

[alolen]

I am trying to customize the UI for my users, and having trouble getting the right result. The default toolbars have some buttons that are useful for us, and other buttons that are less useful or have features we're not supporting.

I have been able to add new actions and build a toolbar from those actions, using the document type association dialogs, but I can't figure out how to add buttons from the default toolbars to my custom toolbars (preferred), or access default toolbars to edit them directly (less ideal).

Am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Radu]

Hi,

The Document Type Edit dialog can customize only the special toolbars and menu corresponding to your document type.

If you are willing to write a Java plugin for Oxygen:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/oxygen_sdk.htm ... er_Plugins

We have two types of sample plugins:

1) Startup - allows you to filter out actions from any Oxygen toolbar

2) Workspace Access - allows you to either remove or add actions to a certain toolbar.

Regards,
Radu

[alolen]

Radu,

Thanks for the quick reply. I will be looking into those plug-ins.

In the meantime, I am having a couple problems with toolbars just as they are.

One might be a bug. I am getting a random "MY ACTION" button on my custom toolbars, that isn't listed anywhere in the toolbar. If I delete the toolbar where it appears, it jumps to my next custom toolbar instead. It's very odd.

My other issue is a little more basic. I get my editor set up with toolbars and windows just the way I want them to be by default, but I can't figure out how to make my layout the default layout for all users. I don't want to use a fixed layout, because I want my users to be able to customize their layout further, but I want them to start from my pared down interface. I can't figure out which files contain my toolbar and window layout preferences, and where to put my version of the layout in our installation, so that the next time a user loads oXygen, they get my layout.

[Radu]

Hi,

One might be a bug. I am getting a random "MY ACTION" button on my custom toolbars, that isn't listed anywhere in the toolbar. If I delete the toolbar where it appears, it jumps to my next custom toolbar instead. It's very odd.

That's strange. So you are referring to the custom toolbar actions you built in the Document Type associated to your XML, right?
Do you have any plugin (OXYGEN_INSTALL_DIR/plugins) installed in Oxygen?

If not, maybe you could send us (support@oxygenxml.com) your .framework configuration file.

My other issue is a little more basic. I get my editor set up with toolbars and windows just the way I want them to be by default, but I can't figure out how to make my layout the default layout for all users. I don't want to use a fixed layout, because I want my users to be able to customize their layout further, but I want them to start from my pared down interface. I can't figure out which files contain my toolbar and window layout preferences, and where to put my version of the layout in our installation, so that the next time a user loads oXygen, they get my layout.

Basically Oxygen has a folder in the user preferences in which it stores all its settings.

If you look at this uninstall procedure:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... alone.html

Step (3) shows where the directory is located depending on the operating system.

If you look in that folder you will find some ".layout" files.
The file you are interested in should be called something like:

defaultLayout14.0.layout

and gets saved each time you close Oxygen which a certain layout of the views, then gets used each time Oxygen is opened (unless you are using a fixed layout).

Unfortunately there is no way to bundle such a layout file with an Oxygen installation, each user would have to copy it to his preferences directory. We'll consider adding a way to pack a default layout file with Oxygen.

Regards,
Radu

[Frank Ralf]

Hi,

I also want to create an additional toolbar for my customized Author Actions.

I had a look at the WorkspaceAccess sample plugin from the OxygenPluginsDevelopmentKit and read the PluginDeveloperGuide.pdf but cannot figure out how to achieve this. This looks a bit daunting for the not so Java savvy

Any more pointers are welcome.

TIA
Frank

[Radu]

Hi Frank,

You do not need to implement a plugin for this.
The Author toolbar specific for DITA can be customized by editing the DITA document type from the Oxygen Preferences->Document Type Association page:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... tings.html

In the Document Type Edit dialog there is an "Author" tab which contains a list of defined actions. You can add a new action to the list:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/ ... olbar.html

Then in the Toolbar tab a new toolbar can be added and to it you can add the custom actions.

The main difference between a framework (document type customization) and a plugin is outlined in this blog entry:

http://blog.oxygenxml.com/2013/11/the-o ... ugins.html

Regards,
Radu

[Frank Ralf]

Thanks for the quick reply, Radu!

Then in the Toolbar tab a new toolbar can be added and to it you can add the custom actions.

That's what I had read in the documentation but I don't find any "Add" button. Can it be that this is because I run oXygen in Author mode and not in Editor or Developer mode?

Cheers,
Frank

[Radu]

Hi Frank,

The available actions list used to create the toolbar has a special ID called action.toolbar which can be added to create a new toolbar.

I uploaded a screenshot:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/forum/files/addNewToolbar.png

Regards,
Radu

[Frank Ralf]

Many thanks! That was the missing link.

Frank