Metabase and the User Interface
4/8/2010
The following table shows the user interface elements supported by the metabase. It includes the data types supported by the metabase and any specific semantics supported by the data type. Semantics are used to further describe the type of data used in the setting. For example, a string control can further be defined as a phone number field. The settings control panel will display the setting using an edit control that has text entry restrictions appropriate to a phone number.
Note
When a Configuration Service Provider is created, the characteristic XML element's type attribute and parm XML element name attribute must not use asterisks (*).
| Data Type | Semantic Type | Supported Options | Visual Representation |
|---|---|---|---|
date |
None |
None |
Date edit control with a long date format. |
date |
short-date_time |
None |
Date edit control with a short date format. |
time |
None |
None |
Time edit control with seconds. |
time |
short-date_time |
None |
Time edit control without seconds. |
boolean |
N/A |
None |
Checkbox. |
integer |
None |
None |
An edit control into which the user can only enter an integer value. |
integer |
None |
A string of the format:"red=2;blue=3;green=4" |
A spinner control that displays the values red, blue, and green to the user. The user's choice is always passed down in the value as the corresponding integer value. |
integer |
Level |
None |
A progress bar control. The value must be between 0 and 100. |
string |
None |
None |
A standard edit control in multipress mode. |
string |
N/A |
A string of the format: "red;green;blue" |
A spinner control that displays the values red, blue, and green to the user. The user's choice is passed down simply as the string selected in the UI. |
string |
N/A |
A string of the format:"Happy Song=happy.wav;Soft Melody=sm.mid;annoyng Beep=beep.wav" |
A spinner control that displays the values on the left-hand side of each equal sign to the user. The user's choice is passed down in the value as the corresponding string for the right-hand side (in this case, the filename). |
string |
None |
An edit control suitable for entering e-mail addresses. |
|
string |
text |
None |
An expandable edit control in predictive text entry mode. |
string |
url |
None |
An edit control suitable for entering a URL. |
string |
phone-number |
None |
An edit control suitable for entering a phone number. |
string |
alphanumeric-password |
None |
An edit control for entering an alphanumeric password. The contents are hidden from display using asterisks. |
string |
numeric-password |
None |
An edit control for entering a numeric password. The contents are hidden from display using asterisks. |
string |
label |
None |
A static read-only label. |
string |
link |
None |
A read-only control that indicates to the user that it is actionable. |