Considerations; Do … Keep It Simple; Do … Remember There Are Differences; Do … Be Concerned With Background Color And Transparency - Crestron VisionTools Pro-e Software Manual

Design Notes

Considerations

The special design considerations are presented in a DOs and DON'Ts format. They are as follows.
DO ... Keep it Simple
Create a simple, but compact web page. Since web browsers display and refresh pages much slower than a touch
panel, web pages should be designed with simplicity and elegance in mind.
DO ... Remember There are Differences
There are design and runtime differences between touchpanel and browser projects. Remember the following.
DO ... Be Concerned with Background Color and Transparency
Match the background color of circular and elliptical objects with the page or object they are covering. There is no
concept of transparent buttons in a web project. If a panel project containing transparent buttons is converted to a
web project, these buttons are given a default face color and the object underneath the button does not appear.
DO ... Use Web-Acceptable Fonts
VT Pro-e provides support for Arial, Courier, Courier New, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, and Times New Roman in
browser projects. Crestron Transport fonts are not supported, but as shown in the examples, images can be used in
place of the font. The default browser project font is Arial.
DO ... Draw a Web Object Directly on a Page
Behavior of overlapping web objects in design mode is intricate. If overlapping web objects are necessary, a good
design practice that could guarantee proper operation is to create a new web object directly on a page and move it
over an existing web object. Also, keep in mind that once objects overlap, selection markers are not always visible
when selecting one of the web objects.
DO NOT ... Expect a Web Object Click Thru
Overlapping objects create a wonderful environment in run mode. This method, referred to as a click thru, has
been used in touchpanel projects for years. However, a button on a web page can not be activated if it is covered
by another object such as an image. It may be better to combine two overlapping objects on a web page to avoid
click-thru problems.
DO NOT ... Expect Similarities Among Web Browsers
Third party web browsers (i.e., Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator™) do not display web pages
the same way. Issues such as subpage positioning and control depth order are currently problems when viewed
with Navigator. Due to these issues, Crestron recommends Internet Explorer version 5.0. Keep in mind that web
pages work on all web browsers. Certain browsers handle web pages better than others.
DO NOT ... Assume Subpage Assertion
Subpages do not assert automatically with a join number of zero as they do for touchpanels. A design solution may
be to assign a join number to a subpage and have it asserted high at all times.
2 DOs and DON'Ts for Designing Web Pages (With VisionTools™ Pro-e)
Avoid clutter (non-functional object such as the border, text, or lines).
Combine many objects into one or use a single background image instead of many different ones. For
example, create a single button with graphic properties rather than an image that covers a button.
Combine many pages into a single page by making controls smaller and more closely spaced.
Two new objects, dials and marquees, are available only in a browser project.
The video object is only available on a touchpanel project. Video for a browser project will be available
at a future date.
A browser project permits additional analog gauge and slider properties.
Completely enable or disable unwanted objects on a web page. The practice of covering these objects
with subpages (as done in a touchpanel project) is ineffective with web pages because the subpage is
actually a window that can be moved.
Crestron VT Pro-e
Design Notes - DOC. 5850