Why does my GUI look different?

The CIAO GUIs use the default GTK theme specified on each user's machine to determine how the GUI is displayed (e.g. gray background with selected items in blue). Your GUI may look different than the one shown in screenshots in this thread, but the functionality is the same.

The help file on guis has instructions on how to change the default theme.

Menu Entries

The generic format for menu entries is:

   <command name> [ # tip <tooltip>]
   <template>
   menu
   <command>

• <command name> - the name that appears in the menu entry.
• <tooltip> (optional) - the tool tip for the entry; this option may not work properly in ds9. A tool tip is the message that appears when the mouse hovers over the menu item for a short time.
• <template> - the file format for which the menu item is active (e.g. *, *.fits, *.txt).
• menu - specifies that the entry is a menu item. ds9 also allows a bind option, but it is not supported by the CIAO GUIs.
• <command> - the command to execute, including any supported macro expansions.

To illustrate, look at the first entry in the default ciao.ans file:

unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
# ciao.ans   - Analysis Menu Definition file for CIAO

Edit Parameter File #tip Parameter editor GUI (peg)
*
menu
peg "$entry(Parameter file name)" infile=$filename | $null

---

..cut..

This entry creates a menu item titled "Edit Parameter File" with the tool tip "Parameter editor GUI (peg)". This option is available for all filetypes (*). The command that is executed uses three macros: $entry(<text>), $filename, and $null; see the next section for an explanation of what the macros do.

The three dashes (---) after the entry create a separator in the menu; see the Submenus and Separators section.

The resulting menu item is first in the Analysis menu, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Expanded Analysis menu

[Version: full-size]

Figure 1: Expanded Analysis menu

Long menus do not automatically wrap. They must be manually split into smaller lists, e.g. the "A-C", "D", and "E-Z" tool menus.

Macros

When command-line macros are used in a menu entry, they are expanded before the command is executed. The following macros may be used in the analysis menu:

Submenus and Separators

There are two ways to add organization to the analysis menu: nested submenus and separators.

• Submenus

  Menu items may be places in submenus which can be nested up to ten deep. The menu format is:

  hmenu <name> [# tip <tooltip>] 
  
   ..(menu contents)..
  
  endhmenu
  

  • <name> - text to appear in the menu.
  • <tooltip> (optional) - text for the tool tip.

  Note that indentation is not important and that hmenu/endhmenu pairs can appear within a hmenu section. The ciao.ans file has several examples of this syntax in use:

  unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
  ..cut..
  
  # start "Tools" menu
    hmenu Tools - alphabetical # tip Complete list of CIAO tools
     hmenu A-C
        acis_detect_afterglow  # tip Identify and flag cosmic ray afterglows
        *.fits *.qp
        menu 
        peg acis_detect_afterglow infile=$filename | $null
  
        (rest of A-C tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
     hmenu D
        peg acis_detect_afterglow infile=$filename | $null
  
        (D tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
     hmenu E-Z
  
        (E-Z tools listed)
  
     endhmenu
    endhmenu
  # end "Tools" menu
  
  ..cut..
  

  Figure 1 shows the "Tools - alphabetical" menu and the three submenus - "A-C", "D", and "E-Z" - which were created with the syntax shown.

• Separators

  A separator is a dividing line in the menu. It is created by starting an empty line with three consecutive dashes (---):

  unix% more $ASCDS_INSTALL/bin/ciao.ans
  # ciao.ans   - Analysis Menu Definition file for CIAO
  
  Edit Parameter File #tip Parameter editor GUI (peg)
  *
  menu
  peg "$entry(Parameter file name)" infile=$filename | $null
  
  ---
  
  hmenu GUI Applications #tip Launch a GUI application  
     ds9  # tip Imaging GUI
  
  ..cut..
  

  A separator is created between the "Edit Parameter File" item and the "GUI Applications" menu, as shown in Figure 1.

Help

It is also possible to create menu items that bring up a help dialog box. The syntax is straightforward:

help <help label>
  <helptext>
endhelp

• help label - the label for the menu entry.
• helptext - the text to be displayed in the dialog box. The text can extend over multiple lines.

To create a help item for Timing Analysis:

help Timing Analysis (help)
  Before creating a phase-binned spectrum,
  be sure to barycenter correct the data.

  Tool to use: axbary
  Files needed: level 2 event; ephemeris
endhelp

When the item is selected (after the new my_ciao.ans file is loaded), the help text is displayed in a dialog box (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Viewing a help item

Figure 2: Viewing a help item

The "OK" button closes the help box.