Base text direction

Diagrammer > Developing with design tools > Using the Dashboard Editor > Programming the Dashboard Editor > Base text direction

Base text direction

Explains how to handle base text direction in a dashboard programmatically.

Elements eligible for base text direction

Lists the text elements to which base text direction can be applied.

Setting base text direction programmatically

Describes how to handle base text direction programmatically at three different levels: the dashboard level, the background text elements level, and the symbol level.

Enabling dynamic change at run time

You can set base text direction dynamically to apply the same value for all text elements of the dashboard or to assign one specific base text direction value to a specific text element of the dashboard.

Elements eligible for base text direction

Base text direction is applicable to all text-related objects that are displayed in the dashboard, including:

Text elements directly placed on the dashboard background

Text elements that are part of symbols placed on the dashboard

Specifying base text direction for a specific level has the highest priority. Only when base text direction is defined on a specific level as DIRECTION_INHERITED is the value from a higher level used.

Level where base text direction is specified	Additional levels where specification applies	Comments
Dashboard	Symbols, background text elements	Top level
Background text element	Label of this text element
Symbol added to the dashboard	All text elements included in the symbol
Text element of symbol added to the dashboard	Label of this text element

Setting base text direction programmatically

At the dashboard level

You can set the default base text direction for the entire dashboard programmatically in the following way:

IlvDashboardDiagram dashboardObj = new IlvDashboardDiagram(context);

...

dashboardObj.setBaseTextDirection(IlvBidiUtil.LEFT_TO_RIGHT);

At the background text elements level

You can set a specific base text direction for any text element that is added directly on the dashboard background by using standard Java framework code. For example:

textObj.setBaseTextDirection(IlvBidiUtil.LEFT_TO_RIGHT);

At the symbol level

You can change the base text direction of a symbol programmatically if and only if its baseTextDirection property is mapped to the baseTextDirection style of the symbol’s top-level graphic element, as shown in the following figure:

Setting base text direction programmatically at the symbol level

If this is the case, then you can use the following code:

dashboardObj.setObjectProperty(symbolObj, "baseTextDirection", "Right-To-Left");

Enabling dynamic change at run time

Dynamically setting a consistent base text direction for all text elements

Setting any of the following base text direction values to elements of a dashboard (for example, text element directly placed on the dashboard background, text element of a symbol placed in the dashboard) is an explicit or static assignment:

Left To Right

Right To Left

Contextual

The only external factor that can affect these settings on a given element is a call to the Java API.

Setting base text direction to one of the following values means that base text direction can be affected by external influences at run time:

Inherited

For example, change of the base specification in the dashboard in which the text element is embedded affects the value of the base text direction of text elements in the dashboard.

Component Orientation

For example, change of GUI direction for the container in which the dashboard is embedded affects the base text direction of text elements in the dashboard.

By such a change at run time, you can dynamically affect the base text direction in a consistent way for all text elements contained in the dashboard.

For such a dynamic run time change, the following conditions must be satisfied:

No explicit value is assigned to the base text direction property of any object in the dashboard.

The API is used to change the value of base text direction at the highest level of graphic object; for example,

dashboardObj.setBaseTextDirection(IlvBidiUtil.RIGHT_TO_LEFT);

Dynamically assigning one specific base text direction value to a specific text element

You can dynamically assign one specific base text direction value to a specific text element directly added to the dashboard by using standard Java framework API (for example, setBaseTextDirection):

textObj.setBaseTextDirection(IlvBidiUtil.LEFT_TO_RIGHT);