Example Shuffleboard 2019 Widgets

This repository is based on VorTX 3735 widget examples created by Nathan Leach. Below are instructions written by Nathan on how to use this code. More information can be found on his Github and YouTube channel. Github: https://github.com/nleach999/Vortx3735.Shuffleboard.2019.WidgetTutorial YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCewEfD5OdPqBZHH31FJtCTA

HOW-TO: Build, Debug, and Deploy Your Widget(s)

Building

You may still use the FRC 2019 VSCode IDE and build the code using the WPILib Command Palette. Steps:

1. Click the WPILib Command Palette button in the top right corner or press CTRL-SHIFT-P.
2. Type WPILib: Build Robot Code

Why would we be building Robot code? We aren't - this command simply invokes the build task set up by Gradle.

You may alternately use the WPILib: Run a command in Gradle command:

1. Click the WPILib Command Palette button in the top right corner or press CTRL-SHIFT-P.
2. Type WPILib: Run a command in Gradle
3. Type build to execute the build task

Building only builds the project. It does not deploy the resulting jar where it can be picked up by Shuffleboard automatically.

Deploying

Deploying will copy the jar to the %USERPROFILE%/Shuffleboard/plugins (Windows) or ~/Shuffleboard/plugins (Linux/Mac) folder on the local machine. Shuffleboard will automatically make widgets in your jar available for use when it starts. Deploying is similar to building:

1. Click the WPILib Command Palette button in the top right corner or press CTRL-SHIFT-P.
2. Type WPILib: Run a command in Gradle
3. Type deployWidget to execute the deployment

Running the deployWidget task will automatically invoke the build task.

Debugging

Once the deployWidget Gradle task copies your jar for automatic loading by Shuffleboard, you can perform some debugging.

Non-Interactive Debugging

Using Java API methods to output text to STDOUT (i.e. System.out.println() or similar) will be captured in output log files. Every time Shuffleboard runs, a log file may be found at %USERPROFILE%/Shuffleboard (Windows) or ~/Shuffleboard (Linux/Mac).

Interactive Debugging

A tutorial about debugging in VSCode can be found here for those who are not familiar with interactive debugging. I have included the file .vscode/launch.json that will automatically launch Shuffleboard when selecting Debug->Start Debugging (or F5 as the keyboard shortcut). You can then set breakpoints, inspect variables, and do all sorts of other things that make debugging this way superior to the old-school log-to-stdout method.

Errors and Issues

During debugging, I noticed that some of the widget properties would cause the Shuffleboard to have an error when saving the layout. It appears to be related to the way the properties are persisted when saving the Shuffleboard layout. I noticed that providing the class explicitly to the API when setting up exported properties made things work better.

Example of BAD code:

propertyList.add(Group.of("Tick Lable Display"
		, Setting.of("Tick Label Orientation", _theGauge.tickLabelOrientationProperty())
		, Setting.of("Tick Label Color", _theGauge.tickLabelColorProperty(), Color.class)
		, Setting.of("Tick Lavel Location", _theGauge.tickLabelLocationProperty())
));

Example of GOOD code:

propertyList.add(Group.of("Tick Lable Display"
		, Setting.of("Tick Label Orientation", _theGauge.tickLabelOrientationProperty(), TickLabelOrientation.class)
		, Setting.of("Tick Label Color", _theGauge.tickLabelColorProperty(), Color.class)
		, Setting.of("Tick Lavel Location", _theGauge.tickLabelLocationProperty(), TickLabelLocation.class)
));