RCC and z-index a Dialog solution?

Hi,

If we use RCC, we almost completely lose the ability to have any control of
the z-index of the SVG in the shadowTree (since moving the source XML
element will change the XML model destroying the usefulness of seperating
content/structure)   However RCC dynamic components will often want to place
"dialog boxes" and similar above the other content, for example an html form
validator may want to inform the user that something is invalid. Something
people generally misuse alert (*) for currently.

I think we could create dialog boxes from RCC components by providing a
dialogTree attribute on the root svg element, which would have a
setDialogTree method (analgous to the setShadowTree) which could be used to
set a dialogFragment into the dialogTree element.  A dialogTree
documentFragment would always be rendered above of all other content - and
it could even be required to have an opaque background for simpler
rendering.

It may also be useful to provide a mechanism to lock/release the dialog tree
to provide some modality - it probably wouldn't need an actual formal
lock/release method, but simply a flag that users can set to indicate if
they expect the dialog to be modal, and perhaps an optional property on
setDialogTree which would fail if it was set.

Cheers,

Jim.

(*) I still have strong objections to alert being in the 1.2 spec, this will
hopefully be an alternative method to providing the same functionality.

Received on Monday, 25 August 2003 17:58:56 UTC