Section author: Jonathon Love

User-interface definition (`.u.yaml` files)

Overview

The UI YAML is pretty straight forward. It follows a tree structure that defines the child/parent relationship between the controls. The top level or root control is the first thing that is described by the UI YAML.

Properties

Property	Description	Form
`name`	The name of the analysis.	Unique string
`title`	Sets the title to be displayed at the top of the option panel.	string
`jus`	Defines the syntax version used by the u.yaml file.	string of form ‘number.number’
`stage`	Sets the stage display filter.	0 - Released 1 - In development 2 - Proposed
`compilerMode`	Sets the compiler interaction mode.	enum: tame, aggressive
`children`	Sets the child control definitions.	Array of valid control definitions.

Example

name:  descriptives
title: Descriptives
jus:   '2.0'
stage: 0
compilerMode: tame
children:
      #array of child definitions

Further Detail

The root control is a ParentControl and as the name suggests serves as a parent to child controls. All parent controls contain the property children which defines an array of control definitions to be embedded. All UI design happens within the children node of the root control. Control definitions are added here in the form we design.

When controls are added to the root control they are added in a list form, from top to bottom of the options panel.

Controls

There are many different controls that can be used within the jamovi options UI panel. Each control has been designed for a specific option type(s). For example, a CheckBox is designed around a Bool option type, where as a ComboBox displays and writes data to a List option. jamovi provides a solid array of basic controls to cover all the current option types. Controls will continue to be developed as jamovi grows but the current list covers most use cases.

When adding child controls to any ParentControl, at the very least the type property needs to be specified (as well as the minimum requirements for that control).

name:  descriptives
title: Descriptives
jus:   '2.0'
stage: 0
compilerMode: tame
children:
  - type: LayoutBox
    margin: large
    children:
    - type: Label
      label: jamovi is great?
    - type: Label
      label: Of cause it is!

Now we can add, move or adjust any control to meet our needs. Here is a list of controls that can make that possible:

User-interface definition (.u.yaml files)