TcMenu Designer Turbo - a web based TcMenu designer

[davetcc]

Actually, you can think of this more like an Initialiser, as you don't really need to round trip in the way you used to with this new version, for most 32 bit boards you can generate code using fluent menu builder.

TcMenu Library 4.5 is needed for using Fluent API or All-In-One mode.

Direct designer link: https://designer.thecoderscorner.com
Documentation: https://www.thecoderscorner.com/products/apps/tcmenu-designer/

I know there will potentially be questions from long term users, and I'm happy to answer them here, but I strongly recommend you try the new solution, it uses the same generator behind the scenes that you're already running with no local install.

[davetcc]

I've now fixed a couple of blockers around generating fluent API menus in the web based TcMenu Designer Turbo.

NOTE Using All-In-One or Fluent API mode requires at least TcMenu Library 4.5.x

Based on this I now have an ESP32S3 board with TFT and an MKR1300 with u8g2 OLED working with fluent menus. Here is an example of fluent menu code:

void buildMenu(TcMenuBuilder& builder) {
    builder.usingDynamicEEPROMStorage()
        .analogBuilder(MENU_VOLUME_ID, "Volume", DONT_SAVE, NoMenuFlags, 0, nullptr)
            .offset(0).divisor(1).step(1).maxValue(100).unit("%").endItem()
        .enumItem(MENU_CHANNEL_ID, "Channel", DONT_SAVE, ChannelEnumEntries, 4, NoMenuFlags, 0, nullptr)
        .boolItem(MENU_MUTE_ID, "Mute", DONT_SAVE, NAMING_ON_OFF, NoMenuFlags, false, nullptr)
        .boolItem(MENU_DIRECT_ID, "Direct", DONT_SAVE, NAMING_ON_OFF, NoMenuFlags, false, nullptr)
        .subMenu(MENU_STATUS_ID, "Status", NoMenuFlags, nullptr)
            .enumItem(MENU_AMP_STATE_ID, "Amp State", DONT_SAVE, AmpStateEnumEntries, 5, NoMenuFlags, 0, nullptr)
            .analogBuilder(MENU_LEFT_LEVEL_ID, "Left Level", DONT_SAVE, NoMenuFlags, 0, nullptr)
                .offset(-2000).divisor(100).step(1).maxValue(3000).unit("dB").endItem()
            .analogBuilder(MENU_RIGHT_LEVEL_ID, "Right Level", DONT_SAVE, NoMenuFlags, 0, nullptr)
                .offset(-2000).divisor(100).step(1).maxValue(3000).unit("dB").endItem()
            .endSub();
}

[davetcc]

Turbo 4.5.4 is now live, it has a number of small fixes to bring it even further in line with desktop, and also creates helpful accessor methods for dynamic menu structures.

We've now run about 30% of the examples through the web designer, with good results. The fixes were to fix minor compatibility issues with the desktop designer.

[davetcc]

The next version coming soon will provide 99% of what desktop designer did. It adds round trip support where browsers support local file API (Chrome and Edge). I.E. the ability to open a local directory and write back to it, it also fully supports i18n using resource bundles.

For those that prefer using designer like an initialiser (get an initial project and then manage it yourself), you can generate a menu project with fluent menu API, and use a new python script to handle i18n cleanly.

For the bitmap and font exporting/editing, I've broken this out from designer into a stand alone tool. The plan is along side nightly builds, to put this tool into the Windows and macOS stores because they don't change often.

I have to say myself, that this will be by far the best version of TcMenu Designer ever and needs zero install. Best of all, it's all open in this repository.

[davetcc]

This version is now live, it support round trip development mode, using browser local file system API (available in chrome and edge). I would now say the web version is now near feature parity with the desktop version.

In some ways it has now surpassed the desktop version, as that was inflexible and didn't allow for initializer mode.

Further, if you don't like relying on our internet version, the web designer is Apache+commons licenced so you can run the service yourself (but not publicly), it is effectively a spring-boot executable uber jar with a small amount of upfront configuration.