Hi Scott, We wouldn't need to modify the existing code base much other than decorating tasks (and sometimes their properties/attributes with attributes. The idea behind the design time attributes is not to create a tool inside the NAnt distribution itself, but rather support the development editors like NAntpad. Kinda like the way the component designer features in the .NET framework work in VS.NET and WebMatrix.
The design time tool would reflect over the task class libraries looking for classes decorated with the designer attribute. When a task is selected from a build file the type pointed to by the designer attribute is created and a method is invoked which returns a UI object which can be used to build the XML node. This creation method would have some contextual information passed to it like which OS/UI toolkit it needs to support. If the designer doesn't support that environment then the tool (e.g. NAntpad would gracefully downgrade to its basic capabilities. ---------------------------------------- - Mitch Denny - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.monash.net - +61 (414) 610141 - > -----Original Message----- > From: Scott Hernandez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 12:33 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [nant-dev] NAnt Designer Support > > I would be interested in this if it could be included without > altering the core code (much). What do you think the > nantdesigner would look like? > > What benefits would this really give? It sounds like an > interesting idea, but don't the vsnet addin, nantpad and > other tools supply this type of support already? Why go with > Designer stuff? > > I'm interested in hearing more... :) > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mitch Denny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 3:50 PM > Subject: [nant-dev] NAnt Designer Support > > > > Hi folks, > > > > I'm sure most of you are aware of NAntpad by Anthony Brown. > Well, his > > work has gotten me thinking about "designer" support in > NAnt and whether > > it would be feasible to try to do it in NAnt. > > > > We could define a "designer factory" which would spit out > the UI classes > > depending on what platform NAnt was being used on (since > WinForms isn't > > everywhere). You could hook up the designer factory to each task. > > > > > > [NAntDesigner(typeof(NAnt.Core.Tasks.Design.XmlPokeTaskDesigner)] > > public class XmlPokeTask : NAnt.Core.Task { > > ... > > } > > > > To get some level of reuse in the designers, the designer attributes > > could also be marked against individual properties. I see this being > > useful for things like a regular expression builder, XPath > expression > > builder and elephant in the living room example - file/directory > > browser. > > > > Reason: One of the most common complaints I hear about NAnt > is that its > > too hard to use, even though it oozes power and > flexibility. A lot of > > people run with Visual Build from Kinook (another fine > product), but I > > think some kind of designer support would give NAnt the edge. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek > Welcome to geek heaven. > http://thinkgeek.com/sf > _______________________________________________ > nant-developers mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers > ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ nant-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers
