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X-Designer is pre-configured with the Motif widget set and can be extended to support widgets from any other Xt toolkit in addition to the default set. Widgets added to X-Designer are called user-defined widgets. They appear in the X-Designer widget palette and users can create them, set their resources and generate code for designs that include them.

Starting with X-Designer 5 you get full access to composite user-defined widgets, and you can configure which abstract children of a widget are made available to users.

X-Designer 7 requires that you have the Motif 2 version of a widget set before you try and integrate it into X-Designer. Earlier versions of X-Designer require that you use the Motif 1.2 version of the widgets. However you use the same version of the integration files regardless of the version of Motif you are using.

X-Designer comes with a utility, xdconfig, which helps you provide the information X-Designer needs to support user-defined widgets. You specify which widgets you want to use and provide information about any nonstandard resource types defined by the widgets. xdconfig generates two C files that serve as a bridge between X-Designer and the user-defined widgets.

After generating the xdconfig files, you build a new version of X-Designer from the following components:

• The X-Designer object file, xdesigner.o
• Object files or archive libraries containing the added widgets
• The code file generated by xdconfig
• The config file generated by xdconfig
• Bitmap files for widget icons (optional)
• Pixmap files for widget icons (optional)
• Handwritten code files containing any auxiliary functions (optional)

To help you get started, X-Designer is distributed with configuration files for a number of widget sets as described below.

User-Defined Widget Integration Files

The very latest copies of these files can be downloaded using anonymous ftp from the directory pub/user_widgets on IST's ftp site, ftp.ist-inc.com.

In order to ensure that you are prompted to save the file, you may have to do the following:

• Internet Explorer - right click on the file name and then select 'Save link as'
• Netscape Navigator - hold down the Shift key when you click on the file name

All these kits are included with releases of X-Designer, except as follows:

Release 7.1 (including 7.1.8) of X-Designer needs the following updated sets:

Quest's XRT widgets  - updated June 18, 2004

Release 7.0 of X-Designer needs the following updated sets:

Quest's XRT widgets  - updated June 18, 2004

INT widgets  - updated April 11, 2002

XmGraph  - added February 8, 2001

Release 5.5 of X-Designer needs the following updated sets:

Quest's XRT widgets  - updated June 18, 2004

Bell Corp's XBae widgets  - updated August 6, 2001

Motif 2.1 widgets  - updated December 15, 2000

INT widgets  - updated April 11, 2002

HistoPlot  - updated February 8, 2001

XmGraph  - added February 8, 2001

XmHTML  - updated May 11, 2001

See the note below for important information about XRT.

The integration files are only guaranteed to work with xdconfig from X-Designer 5.0 or later. If you have an X-Designer 5, you are advised to make sure you have at least 5.0.3 because of problems with third party abstract widget handling code in earlier releases.

If for any reason you require a kit which must work with an earlier version of X-Designer please contact support@ist-inc.com who will endeavour to make available a kit compatable with your version. The XRT kit has special instructions about X-Designer 4.6 - see the file README in the kit.

You should transfer the relevant compressed tar archive file to your system, into /tmp for example, change directory to $XDROOT/user_widgets and then, for example:

uncompress -c /tmp/Athena.tar.Z | tar -xvfp -

The files will be placed in the directory Athena, replacing any of the same name that are already there.
Obviously, similarly for other sets.

The Makefiles in these sets are for Solaris 2, so if you are running on a different platform you will have to change the Makefile accordingly - just change which lines are commented out.

Widget Integration Kits

If you are using Netscape Navigator you may have to hold down the Shift key when you click on the widget set name in order to ensure that you are prompted to save the file.

Athena widgets  from X11R5 and X11R6.4

Free widgets, part of the standard X11 distribution.

Athena 3D widgets  Release 0.6B

Free widgets

Athena Plotter widgets  Release 6.0

Free widgets

CDE widgets  1.2

Supplied on platforms that have a CDE interface, usually in /usr/dt/libDtWidget.a. See the warning below.

EPak widget set  3.0

Free Widget Foundation widgets  4.6

Free widgets. See the Free Widget Foundation information page.

GLG  GLGbuilder 2.3: glgWrapperWidgetClass otherwise unversioned

HistoPlot  1.0

Free widgets for plotting and graphing

Ilog Views widgets  2.2

Real-time graph widgets - for more information see the ILOG Views product page.

INT widgets  3.5

Real-time graph widgets - for more information see the Interactive Network Technologies home page.

LOOX Widgets

High-performance real-time X graphic widgets in rendered 3D - for more information see LOOX Software's home page.

MesaGL Widgets  3.0

Public domain version of OpenGL - see MesaGL's web site.

Microline Widgets  3.01

A small set of useful widgets - they are the tab buttons and folder widgets you will find in Netscape Navigator. The UNIX version was built using a combination of X-Designer and integrated Microline widgets.

Miscellaneous Widgets

A number of miscellaneous widgets - each has its own integration kit file.

Motif 2.1 Widgets

These are automatically included in X-Designer 7.

OpenGL Widgets  IRIX 6.2

See OpenGL's web site.

SI Widgets  1.32a

Small set of free widgets from a guy called Albrecht. A patched version is available, as is, from the pub/widgets directory on IST's ftp site

Quest's XRT widgets  Volumes 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17

Real-time graph widgets - available from IST. For more information contact IST or see IST's XRT page. See the note below for important information about XRT. Quest have taken over Sitraka, formerly KL Group.

Xbae Widgets  4.7

Bell Corp Matrix and Caption widgets. Free widgets, although you have to agree to various things.

Xcg Widgets  1.3

CompGen widget set - HTML, TabManager, and a few other widgets. Some cost, some are free.

Xew Widgets   4.0

Eurobridge widget set - video, net widgets. Free.

Xfe/Mozilla  1.0

A patched version of the widgets is available, as is, from the pub/widgets directory on IST's ftp site

Xg  1.4 (26 Feb, 1997)

A patched version of the widgets is available, as is, from the pub/widgets directory on IST's ftp site

Xirisw/Xgm  IRIX 6.2

Included with Silicon Graphics IRIX.

XmHTML  1.1.5

XmGraph

Graph Widget

Xmt Widgets  2.10

David Flanaghan widget set. Free, but you have to agree to various things.

Xraw  1.3.1

Free widgets. An Athena set with different look.

Xukc  Alpha 2

Note that it is only the files to enable the integration of the widgets into X-Designer that are provided; the actual widgets are not provided, except where specifically specified. Most of these widget sets are listed on motifdeveloper.com on the Widget Sets page.

The very latest copies of these integration files can be downloaded using anonymous ftp from the directory pub/user_widgets on IST's ftp site, ftp.ist-inc.com. Note that the Makefiles in these directories are set up for Solaris 2 - you will have to comment out the Solaris 2 parts and uncomment the parts for your operating environment, if different.

If you have versions of the widgets of later version than the above list, the kits provided should still work satisfactorily, although where the changes involve new widgets and non-standard resource types, you are advised to contact support@ist-inc.com before embarking on a reintegration because a poorly specified new widget description can render the X-Designer/Third Party binary unstable, or result in wrong code generation.

X-Designer 7 requires that you have the Motif 2 version of a widget set before you try and integrate it into X-Designer. Earlier versions of X-Designer require that you use the Motif 1.2 version of the widgets. However you use the same version of the integration files regardless of the version of Motif you are using.

There are some other odd widget set integration kits available at IST, including some merged kits for combinations of the above. Again, contact support@ist-inc.com if you have needs other than those listed.

A number of improvements have been made to the widget integration facilities in the latest releases of X-Designer to make it more robust. If you are not running this latest version of X-Designer and are having problems with Widget integration then we suggest that you upgrade. Please contact the sales desk of your X-Designer supplier for more information on how to get this. This upgrade will be free if you have a valid software support agreement or have only very recently purchased X-Designer.

Archives of various public domain widgets which have been debugged by IST primarily for use in conjunction with the integration kits and X-Designer are available from the pub/widgets directory on IST's ftp site. IST provides these as is and makes no guarantee or warranty about them.

If you have any questions please contact your supplier or email support@ist-inc.com or otherwise contact IST.

The full instructions for integrating widgets into X-Designer are in the X-Designer User's Guide. A quick reference guide is in the README file in $XDROOT/user_widgets.

Known Problems

Known problems with CDE Widgets

There are problems with some of the CDE widgets, when integrated into X-Designer, that can cause X-Designer to crash. Please report these problems to your CDE widget supplier.

Known problems with XRT integration

Use of "()"

XRT use "()" to represent list entry in some of their widgets. X-Designer uses "()" to show that the default value is to be used. Therefore if you enter data into an XRT widget that requires the format (1n,2n,3n...Xn) they will be ignored.

There is no workaround in the resource dialogs, but you can use a code prelude to explicitly set the resource that you are manipulating.

32/64 bit compatibility

XRT widgets come in both 32 and 64 bit versions - for example for XRT Vol 15 the 32 bit version of the widgets is on XRT Vol 15A and the 64 bit versions are on Vol 15B. If you are generating a 64 bit application you will need both versions of the XRT widgets.

Since X-Designer is a 32 bit application it must be integrated with the 32 bit version of the XRT widgets. This does not affect X-Designer's generated code in any way. You can still build a 64 bit application from the generated code as long as you have the correct Makefile configured in the Makefile Options dialog and the 64 bit version of the XRT widgets.

You can carry out the integration on a 64 bit machine, that is of no consequence. However you must perform the integration against the 32 bit version of the widgets.

To build a 64 bit application you must build the X-Designer generated code with the 64 bit version of the XRT widgets. Similarly to build a 32 bit application you must build the X-Designer generated code with the 32 bit version of the XRT widgets.