Examples of use

1. Interface changed at run time

If you have ever created a user interface at run time, you know that it is not so easy. You have to calculate the position of controls on the screen, strictly specify in the code how they interact, check the screen resolution to ensure everything will be visible and keep in mind that the interface must be not only functional, but also look harmonious. Besides, it takes quite a lot of work to introduce changes in the code that creates a user interface.

XI allows you to solve the problem of a dynamically created user interface much more easily:

No need to worry about the position of controls. You create the structure and XI does all the rest – places interface elements, creates dependencies between them and ensures that everything is positioned congruously.
It is much easier to introduce changes in the logical structure of an application. What can be easier than editing a few lines in a dynamically created XML source?

2. Plug-ins.

If you use plug-ins in your applications, you know that it often happens that some plug-in needs some special settings. In this case, the plug-in usually creates its own modal dialog box where the necessary parameters are specified.

XI allows you to implement another scheme. The plug-in passes the XML source and data to the main application and the latter builds the user interface according to them. The application passes data changed by the user back to the plug-in that uses it in its work.

As a result, XI allows you to get a number of advantages over the traditional approach:

The interface of the program looks as a whole. There are no extra dialog boxes, everything is integrated into the main program.
The plug-in does not contain the code for creating the user interface. It allows you reduce the size of the plug-in (in case of Delphi, it can save up to 500-600 KB) and also to focus on the plug-in functionality without having to take care of the user interface.

3. Self-editing database

Download demo

A database usually consists of records that should be edited. And in case there is a need to edit different data sets, you have to create a user interface for each data set. XI can make the task considerably easier. Let your database contain not only data, but also XML-based schemes for editing them. Voila! You have taught the database how to edit itself.

4. Configuration dialog boxes

Any program has a set of options and a configuration dialog box allowing users to change these options. Besides, some options are added when you continue developing your application, some of them disappear. And you have to edit the configuration dialog box in this case. If there are just a few options, it is easy. But if there are a lot of them, the task gets complicated and it can take a lot of time to redesign the dialog box. Besides, some applications have several sets of options, e.g. for new users and for advanced users. That is, the task gets twice as big.

With XI, everything is much easier:

To add an option, you add a line to the XML source. To remove an option, you remove a line from the XML source. That's all.
To create different sets of options, you just create two different XML.