wxShapeFramework for wxWidgets

• Author: Michal Bližňák, 2007
• e-mail: michal.bliznak@gmail.com
• www: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxsf

What is wxShapeFramework?

wxShapeFramework (wxSF) is a software library/framework based on wxWidgets which allows easy development of software applications manipulating with graphical objects (shapes) like various CASE tools, technological processes modeling tools, etc.

The library consists of several classes encapsulating so called 'Shape canvas' (visual GUI control used for management of included diagrams; it supports serialization/deserialization to XML files, clipboard and drag&drop operations with diagram's components, undo/redo operations, diagrams' export to BMP files, etc) and diagrams' components as well (basic rectangular and eliptic shapes, line and curve shape, polygonial shapes, static and in-place editable text, bitmap images, etc).

The shape framework (and shape canvas) allows to define 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 ability to interactively design diagrams composited of those shape objects.

More over, the library source code is based on wxWidgets GUI toolkit, so it is platform independent (as far as the appropriate wxWidgets port is available for the required target platform).

Requirements

• wxShapeFramework requires installed wxWidgets (www.wxwidgets.org) on the build system. Tested with version 3.1.x and 3.2.x on Ubuntu 22.04 and Linux (Manjaro) target platforms.
• Code::Blocks (www.codeblocks.org) IDE with MinGW C++ compiler or MS Visual Studio 2005/2008 Express are recommended for opening included workspace/project files but the library can be built from the command line as well.

Distribution content

folder	description
.\bin	Redistributable binary files needed for running of client applications using the wxSF's Dlls (contains basic wxWidgets library's dlls and C runtime libraries for both MINGW and MS VC++ 2008).
.\doc	wxSF doxygen documentation file (in CHM and HTML format).
.\include	wxSF headers files (needed for both hosting applications and library itself)
.\lib	Lib files (will be created after library/demo app build)
.\build	Premake build system for creation of various project/make files
.\samples	Sample and demo projects with commented source code.
.\src	Source code and project files of the wxSF library
changes.txt	Information about library version and release changes.

Build instructions

The library and included sample projects can be built with three different build systems included in a release package. Two of them are located in the ./build subdirectory and you can freely choose which one to use.

Premake build system

Premake build scripts and executables are suitable for creation of various IDE project files and GNU makefile as well. You can simply create Code::Blocks and MS VS 2005/2008 project files by invoking of the included batch scripts.

Installation - win32

When building on win32, go to the ./build subdirectory and simply type:

create_build_files.bat

There are few standard build configurations defined in the batch file and you can freely modify it or you can inkove the premake system directly as follows:

Examples of usage of the premake scripts

For Code::Blocks Workspace/Project files producing shared library with UNICODE support, using wxWidgets DLLs type:

premake\premake-win32.exe --target cb-gcc --unicode --with-wx-shared --shared

For MSVS 2005/2008 Workspace/Project files producing staticaly built library with UNICODE support and staticaly linked runtime and no built-in wchar type:

premake\premake-win32.exe --target vs2005 --unicode --static-runtime --no-builtin-wchar

For GNU makefile producing static library (static link of both wxWidgets libs and runtime) type:

premake\premake-win32.exe --target gnu --unicode --static-runtime

Installation - Unix

When building on Unix, go to the ./build subdirectory and simply type:

sh ./create_build_files.sh

or you can invoke the premake system as described in the Win32 installation section above.

Examples of usage of the premake scripts on Unix

For Code::Blocks Workspace/Project files producing shared library with UNICODE support, using non-debug wxWidgets DLLs type:

premake/premake-linux --target cb-gcc --shared --with-wx-shared --unicode --disable-wx-debug

For Code::Blocks Workspace/Project files producing staticaly built library with debugging and UNICODE support and staticaly linked runtime

premake/premake-linux --target cb-gcc --unicode

For GNU makefile producing static library (static link of wxWidgets (with debugging support) libs and runtime) type:

premake/premake-linux --target gnu --unicode

Note that all needed executables and scripts are included in the release package so you can use the premake build system immediately.

Bakefile build system

Installation - win32

When building on win32, you can use the makefiles generated by the bakefile build system located in the ./build folder using the WX_DIR, WX_DEBUG, WX_UNICODE, WX_SHARED and WX_MONOLITHIC options to match your wxWidgets build or you can re-create these makefiles by invoking

bakefile_gen

command from within the ./build directory (in this case the bakefile build system must be installed on your system).

Examples of usage of the prebuild makefiles

nmake -f makefile.vc WX_DIR=c:\path\to\my\wxWidgets WX_UNICODE=0/1 WX_DEBUG=0/1 WX_SHARED=0/1 WX_MONOLITHIC=0/1

make -f makefile.bcc WX_DIR=c:\path\to\my\wxWidgets WX_UNICODE=0/1 WX_DEBUG=0/1 WX_SHARED=0/1 WX_MONOLITHIC=0/1

mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc WX_DIR=c:\path\to\my\wxWidgets WX_UNICODE=0/1 WX_DEBUG=0/1 WX_SHARED=0/1 WX_MONOLITHIC=0/1

Note that all supplied command line parameters are optional. If some of them are missing then the default values stored in relevant makefile are used instead.

Installation - Unix

When building on a Linux/GNU-based system, go to the component installation folder and type:

./configure  
make
make install

to build against the default build of wxWidgets (the one listed as 'default' by wx-config --list). Type "./configure --help" for more info.

You can also clean all built/installed files by typing:

make clean
make uninstall

If you want to re-create the ./configure and Makefile scripts then you must have bakefile and autoconf system installed on your system. If all the prerequisities are present, go to the ./build subdirectory and type:

bakefile_gen
./acregen.sh

CMake build system

When building on a Linux/GNU-based system, go to the main installation folder and type:

cmake -S . -B release
cmake --build release

The commands will first create a ./release subdirectory, then build wxShapeFramework library and samples within the subdirectory. You can use a different subdirectory name other than release if preferred.

Sample projects' description:

./samples/wxSFSample1 - this sample project demostrates basic wxSF functionality. It shows how to create the diagram manager associated with the shape canvas, how to set their basic properties and define their behaviour. It also demostrates how to add simple shape to the canvas (manager). Events generated by the user or produced by the framework are handled via standar wx event system.

./samples/wxSFSample2 - this sample project demostrates basic wxSF functionality. It shows how to create the diagram manager associated with the shape canvas, how to set their basic properties and define their behaviour. It also demostrates how to add simple shape to the canvas (manager). Events generated by the user or produced by the framework are handled by virtual functions encapsulated by a class derived from the wxSFShapeCanvas base class.

./samples/wxSFSample3 - this sample project demostrates advanced wxSF functionality. It shows how to create the diagram manager associated with the shape canvas, how to set their basic properties and define their behaviour. It also demostrates how to add more complex composite shapes into diagram manager and how to serialize/deserialize the diagram to XML file. Events generated by the user or produced by the framework are handled via standar wx event system.

./samples/wxSFSample4 - this sample project demostrates how to use wxSFControlShape for managing of assigned GUI controls. The wxSFControlShape allows user to move and resize the GUI controls around the shape canvas. GUI events can be processed both by the shape canvas and the widget itself.

./samples/wxSFDemo - the most complex sample demonstrating lots of wxSF's functionality including complex diagram creation, the clipboard operations, undo/redo, serialization, graphics export, and more.