/gh-web-ui

Package for building web-based User Interfaces (UI) in Rhino Grasshopper.

Primary LanguageC#GNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Grasshopper Web UI

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Prototype for building a Grasshopper interface using native web components.

Development

  1. Clone locally
  2. Re-link and restore dependencies
  3. Build (everything shoudl copy to the Grasshopper/Libraries location)
  4. Open the ServeInterface.gh

Usage

Build/Use

If you need/want to make modifications/contributions to this package, please refer to the Development section above.

If you just want to use the package, please refer to the Releases section of GitHub. From there, download the latest release, unzip the file, and paste the contents into %appdata%\Grasshopper\Libraries.

Hard-Coded UI

The simplest way to use this package is as a dedicated input-receiver by supplying a hard-coded HTML file. This would allow you to read user inputs, but not add any information to the interface. It would require that you or someone else on your team has basic web-coding skills, as they're needed to write the interface. Samples of these kinds of interfaces can be found in the Web UI folder.

After building the .gha from source, you can open the Grasshopper File ServeInterface.gh for testing of this workflow.

Links Image
Vue.js UI - ServeInterface.gh Vue.js UI
Bootstrap HTML UI - ServeInterface.gh Bootstrap UI
Vanilla HTML UI - SampleScriptHardcoded.gh Vanilla HTML UI

Grasshopper-Created UI

This method of using the package is closer to the familiar Grasshopper UI paradigm, as established by Andrew Heumann in Human UI. The goal is that the user can use Grasshopper to build a fully-functional HTML-based interface without needing to write any kind of textual code. This is still a Work-In-Progress and will remain that way for quite some time as there are very many elements that must be supported.

Grasshopper Definition Image
Custom GH UI Custom GH UI
Advanced Custom GH UI Custom GH UI

Support Map

Currently, the following UI (HTML) input components are supported in the specified contexts:

Component Read Value from HTML Create in GH Set Value from GH Output Set Label/Props from GH Output
Slider Yes Yes Yes No
Button Yes Yes No (Simulate Click) No
Text Input Yes Yes Yes No
Radio Button Yes Yes Yes No
Check Box Yes Yes Yes No
Color Yes Yes Yes No
Date Yes Yes Yes No
Time Yes Yes Yes No
Week Yes No TBD No
File Maybe No Maybe No
Text Label N/A Yes Yes N/A

Tentative Roadmap

Abstract

Human UI from Andrew Heumann has been a powerful force in the industry over the last X years - it helps us share and democratize computational know-how and deliver it to our colleagues who may not be as techincally inclined. I think it's time for the next step in this journey. With the web becoming the standard for app development, interaction design, and so much more - I think it makes sense to use it as the backbone for the project.

Roadmap

  • Ensure a Chromium-based execution environment.
  • Read values from the DOM.
  • Account for most common input-type items that may be in the DOM/needed by users.
  • Add elements/outputs to the DOM.
  • Create components to build an interface/DOM using Grasshopper only (no web dev knowledge).

Known Issues

Credits

Enormous thanks to everyone who has contributed in any way! I've tried to include everyone here, but I may have missed someone. If that's the case, I apologize :) - please reach out anytime.