Note: The MAUI Framework is currently in beta and should be considered unstable.
MAUI is dynamically linked, rapid development UI platform based on subpanels and implemented using JKI's SMOs.
Subpanels are oftentimes passed up for other UI elements such as tab controls due to their complexity involving reference management, insertion of VIs, ensuring that the VIs are running etc. However, they provide a very good way to show different views in a clean and organized fashion. Furthermore, they are extremely modular, allowing for subpanels in subpanels, as well as providing a consistent look across many different views that can be totally independent and decoupled from one another. Careful consideration of the pros and cons of subpanels led me to realize that much of the complexity can be abstracted away, providing a simplified interface for an owning application.
In addition to subpanels, another theme that I recognized across good software is dynamic linking of dependencies. Instead of having everything together in a single project or statically linked on the block diagram, subpanels, since they are independent VIs, can be loaded from disk at runtime. This has serious benefits for project management and working on projects in a team with a compiled, non-textual language (ie LabVIEW).
These two ideas combined provide the basis for the MAUI Framework. MAUI works by having a Main UI (MAUI-Template) that contains subpanels. During startup, the MAUI framework will automatically locate subpanels (Embedded-Template) either through configuration-based dependency injection or by searching a default subdirectory. This means that subpanels can be developed totally independent of one another and different systems can use the same main program and implement different features by implementing different subpanels.
The MAUI engine is the work horse of the MAUI Framework. It abstracts away the panel management side of things. This means that it is responsible for finding the subpanels, be it from a configuration file or from the default directory, as well as managing which VIs are in the subpanels, what values are greyed out in the ring controls used for selection, and placing the VIs in the subpanels in the first place.
It should be noted that the MAUI Engine is just one part of a larger framework that consists of the MAUI Engine, MAUI Template, Embedded Engine, and the Embedded Template.
In order to get started with the MAUI framework, only a working knowledge of the JKI SMO framework is needed. The easiest way is to use the JKI SMO editor to create an SMO from the MAUI.Basic Template. Once the template is created, you should have a folder of the same name as the template. The fastest way to get started is to create a subdirectory in this folder named Subpanels. Once the subdirectory is created and named, make at least two subpanels from the MAUI.SubPanel Template, having them saved to the aforementioned subdirectory you created. After saving all of the files in the project, you can go ahead and run the "TestLauncher.vi" of the MAUI class object. You should see two VIs embedded in the subpanels, and the corresponding ring controls displaying the class names of those subpanels.
- JKI State Machine Objects Framework
- JKI SMO Templates (Basic)
- JKI SMO Editor
- OpenG Application Control Library
- VI Hidden Gems Library
To be finished
The MAUI Framework, including the MAUI Engine, is maintained by LevyLab, a research group in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The MAUI Framework is distributed under the open source three clause BSD license providing everyone right to use and distribute both souce code and compiled versions of the MAUI Framework. See LICENSE file for details.