Example Shuffleboard 2019 Widgets

This repository contains the example FRC 2018 Shuffleboard widgets from my VorTX 3735 Shuffleboard 2018 Widget examples that have been ported to work with the FRC 2019 toolset.

The original examples used Maven under Eclipse. These new examples build using Gradle under the FRC 2019 Visual Studio Code toolset.

Coding examples from the original videos still mostly apply except where noted:

Video: FRC Shuffleboard 2018 Widget Tutorial #1 from VorTX 3735 - Basic Widget Creation

Skip chapters 1 & 2 about setting up the Maven project in Eclipse. Chapter 3 starts at 9:35. You can add classes in Visual Studio Code by adding files corresponding to your namespace in a directory tree under src/main/java/.

Video: FRC Shuffleboard 2018 Widget Tutorial #2 from VorTX 3735 - Simple Data Binding

The discussion at about 20:00 regarding using AbstractWidget.exportProperties to allow widget properties to appear in the "Properties" window no longer applies. The method AbstractWidget.exportProperties no longer exists in the 2019 API. I have implemented an example of the replacement method in MyMapBoundWidget.getSettings and MyDataBoundWidget.getSettings that allows you to categorize properties into groups.

Video: FRC Shuffleboard 2018 Widget Tutorial #3 from VorTX 3735 - Map Data Binding

This is a bit more advanced data binding tutorial for binding grouped data values to a control. Most of this video should still apply.

HOW-TO: Use this as a template for your team's Shuffleboard Widget(s)

You can use this project as a quick start for your own Shuffleboard widget(s) by:

1. Forking a copy of this repository
2. Replace the source files under src/main/java and src/test/java with your own files.
3. Edit settings.gradle to make the library name of the jar that will contain your widgets.

I would encourage you to look at gradle.build to tune the dependencies to better fit the needs of your widget project. Obviously everyone will not use the Han Solo gauge library, so that can be removed.

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)
));

Other Projects of Interest

Some of my other projects related to FRC may be of use as examples.

Shuffleboard Status Indicators

Animated status indicators for indicating changes in numeric ranges. A good sample of a "complete" Shuffleboard widget library.

Continuous Integration with Docker and AWS

Detailed instructions about how to use a Docker Container with AWS CodeBuild to build your robot code every time a code change is pushed to GitHub. If the build breaks, it can send a notification to your team's Slack channel.

Binding Button Combinations to Robot Commands

Experimental code for using joystick button combinations to execute robot commands.