Author Topic: is it possible to easily build a GUI mockup? (Read 18714 times)

kalos · « **on:** March 06, 2015, 02:11 PM »

hello

I want to make a GUI, mock GUI, not functional, but that it will look and feel like the real thing

I want basically a grey window (like a properties/preferences/options window)

the controls I need are these:
a text box with a drop down menu, where as you type text inside the text box, it will filter and display the matching entries of the already saved entries of the drop down menu
a + button next to it, which by clicking it, it will add the text you typed inside the above text box, as entry in the drop down menu

I need 5x5 of those, or maybe I can add/delete them (with relevant buttons) and move them inside the window as I like?

can you tell me please how to do it, or if you are wizard you can do it for me easily? it can be a web gui, a win8 gui, a program, whatever

the ability to easily assign macros would be highly appreciated! for example I want when I select a specific entry in the drop down menu, to display in a line below, 3 more of these text boxes with their own drop down menu entries

thanks!

wraith808 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 06, 2015, 03:24 PM »

http://blog.profitbr...ools-for-developers/

kalos · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2015, 03:50 PM »

I tried some, but none had the control I need: text box with autocomplete drop down menu

wraith808 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2015, 04:28 PM »

I tried some, but none had the control I need: text box with autocomplete drop down menu
-kalos (March 06, 2015, 03:50 PM)

I thought you wanted non-functional? If you want functional, you're going to have to do some work.

Ath · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.

firace · « **Reply #5 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:07 AM »

Something along the lines of this? (I did not implement everything because I'm running out of time now)

kalos · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:10 AM »

yes, something like this! how you created it?

Renegade · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:32 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

^ That's some good advice.

Something along the lines of this? (I did not implement everything because I'm running out of time now)

-firace (March 07, 2015, 07:07 AM)

yes, something like this! how you created it?
-kalos (March 07, 2015, 07:10 AM)

It looks like it was done in an IDE.

Try out Ath's recommendation.

In Visual Studio, just create a Windows Forms project then start dragging & dropping. It's really easy. (I've not used Delphi in almost 10 years now, but IIRC, it's about the same as VS.)

MilesAhead · « **Reply #8 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:41 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

Do you have a link for Free Rad Studio? I'm not having any luck finding the freebie.

Renegade · « **Reply #9 on:** March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

Do you have a link for Free Rad Studio? I'm not having any luck finding the freebie.
-MilesAhead (March 07, 2015, 07:41 AM)

I can only see a free trial.

If only a mockup is needed, then Eclipse is a good choice:

https://eclipse.org

Also, Monodevelop:

http://www.monodevelop.com

Use GTK# with that.

Xamarin Studio has a free version:

https://store.xamarin.com

Ath · « **Reply #10 on:** March 07, 2015, 10:01 AM »

I can only see a free trial.
-Renegade (March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM)

I think the last free Delphi IDE was for Delphi 6, and that's been quite a while. I was assuming that they'd have released another freebee, but they probably can't afford it

Maybe the FOSS Lazarus IDE is a viable alternative, but I haven't used that myself.

If only a mockup is needed, then Eclipse is a good choice:

https://eclipse.org
-Renegade (March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM)

Hm, I beg to disagree on that statement. Building a GUI using Eclipse has always been real close to a nightmare to me.

Unless you have a really good plug-in to suggest for that? (I've used the Swing-derivate WindowBuilder, and compared to VS2008 or later, or Delphi, that's a nightmare, IMHO)

Your other suggestions really make sense

wraith808 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 07, 2015, 10:36 AM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

Easily is a relative thing. Just wanted to make sure that's out there... because it's a big download to find out its too much for your skills, and too frustrating to bang out something quick when you aren't already versed.

kalos · « **Reply #12 on:** March 07, 2015, 02:19 PM »

I don't know how to download Visual Studio Express
I logged in with my microsoft account, but no link
is there a direct download link?

app103 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 07, 2015, 02:43 PM »

Download Visual Studio Express or a free version of Borland's RAD Studio and create your mockup with it. You can easily add functionality if needed, in your language of choice, VB, C# or Delphi.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 02:57 AM)

There is no more free version of RAD Studio, no more free Delphi, C#, or C++ Builder.

I would recommend Lazarus as a good free replacement tool.

kunkel321 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 07, 2015, 04:38 PM »

Maybe the VBA features in MS Word?

Edvard · « **Reply #15 on:** March 07, 2015, 10:19 PM »

CogTool has UI mockups and something called "predictive human performance modeling" which basically means it evaluates whether your design is going to be easy or difficult to use, according to some algorithms:
http://cogtool.com

Maybe the VBA features in MS Word?
-kunkel321 (March 07, 2015, 04:38 PM)

Using the "Form Controls" tool in OpenOffice and LibreOffice, you can place things like buttons, drop-down menus, listboxes, all kinds of standard GUI stuff, I wonder if you can do the same in Word?
https://help.libreof...Common/Form_Controls

There is no more free version of RAD Studio, no more free Delphi, C#, or C++ Builder.
I would recommend Lazarus as a good free replacement tool.
-app103 (March 07, 2015, 02:43 PM)

In the veign of using a RAD tool, I can second Lazarus. It's quite capable, cross-platform, and you don't need to write any code to make the widgets 'work' after compiling. Check boxes will check, buttons will click, menus will drop, etc.

Qt has QtDesigner for simply making forms with UI elements, it's not not available standalone anymore, but is part of the QtCreator IDE:
http://qt-project.or....8/qt4-designer.html
To get it, unfortunately you have to download the whole stack:
http://download.qt.i...leases/qt/5.0/5.0.2/

If you like GTK2's look, try Glade:
https://glade.gnome.org
http://ftp.gnome.org...ies/win32/glade/3.8/

...or the more minimal FLTK UI builder named Fluid: http://www.fltk.org/index.php
Sorry, can't find binary windows builds of it, but it is possible to compile for windows. Maybe I'll give it a shot later on my Windows VM.

firace · « **Reply #16 on:** March 08, 2015, 03:16 AM »

yes, something like this! how you created it?
-kalos (March 07, 2015, 07:10 AM)

I used SmartGUI Creator, as it was lying on my HD. However, it's abandonware and there are much better tools, as suggested in the other posts.

Renegade · « **Reply #17 on:** March 08, 2015, 09:01 AM »

If only a mockup is needed, then Eclipse is a good choice:

https://eclipse.org
-Renegade (March 07, 2015, 08:00 AM)
Hm, I beg to disagree on that statement. Building a GUI using Eclipse has always been real close to a nightmare to me.
-Ath (March 07, 2015, 10:01 AM)

Yeah... Eclipse is, well, Eclipse... But if you don't actually need to wire-up anything, and only need to create a visual, it's not that entirely miserable. Like, GTK gravity (and all that) is pretty bizarre when you first deal with it, but... it's just another way of dealing with a problem.

I'm sure that there are some people out there that would find Eclipse intuitive!

Ath · « **Reply #18 on:** March 08, 2015, 01:01 PM »

I'm sure that there are some people out there that would find Eclipse intuitive!
-Renegade (March 08, 2015, 09:01 AM)

Oh, don't get the impression that I don't like Eclipse: I prefer it over both Netbeans (a lot) and Visual Studio (any edition from VS2005 to VS2013), it's only the GUI-design part I resent, I'd probably use Delphi 7 for a mockup, and VS2010 for a real GUI-based application.

kalos · « **Reply #19 on:** March 08, 2015, 01:06 PM »

can't anyone do it for me and then help me modify it?

I tried 3-4 GUI creators without any luck

MilesAhead · « **Reply #20 on:** March 09, 2015, 09:10 AM »

can't anyone do it for me and then help me modify it?

I tried 3-4 GUI creators without any luck
-kalos (March 08, 2015, 01:06 PM)

You could try the one that comes with AutoIt3. If you install Scite4AutoIt3(and AutoIt3 of course) Koda Form Designer will be in the Tools menu. It may not have all the splitters and objects some others have. But for Buttons, Edit boxes etc.. it's easy to use.

https://www.autoitsc...pt-editor/downloads/
https://www.autoitsc...te/autoit/downloads/

Renegade · « **Reply #21 on:** March 09, 2015, 09:35 AM »

Check here:

http://www.codeproje...0&y=0&sbo=kw

That's most of what you have asked for in terms of functionality. The top result is exactly it.

kalos · « **Reply #22 on:** March 17, 2015, 08:06 AM »

Check here:

http://www.codeproje...0&y=0&sbo=kw

That's most of what you have asked for in terms of functionality. The top result is exactly it.
-Renegade (March 09, 2015, 09:35 AM)

yes, that's exactly what I need
but how do I integrate it in a GUI? even mock up GUI for display purposes

Shades · « **Reply #23 on:** March 17, 2015, 08:42 PM »

Simple mockups ain't that difficult to do. Long time ago I used TurboPHP to create something for a prospect. While that never took off, I did like TurboPHP. Mind you, this was around 2006 or so.

You can still find the binaries and installer on the Google Code site I linked to earlier. Fair warning though...in case you are interested, you should hurry with the download, because Google will be closing Google Code (I forgot when). The installer is slightly less than 8 MByte, so it should not take long. Doesn't look like there is much development going on though, the installer is from 2007. $:-\$

AbteriX · « **Reply #24 on:** March 18, 2015, 06:40 AM »

Rajats' SmartGUI Creator 4.0 for AutoHotkey,

e.g. at

http://www. softpedia.com/get/Programming/Other-Programming-Files/SmartGUI-Creator.shtml

Picture:
http://www. softpedia.com/get/Programming/Other-Programming-Files/SmartGUI-Creator.shtml#sgal_1