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3. General Usage

This chapter describes the general usage of QWireless. It describes the GUI interface as well as the function provided by the program.

To fulfill the paltop GUI requirement the interface mainly consists out of a ToolBar and multi column listviews, which allow the system to present the information in a "overview" way. The listviews come with some toolbuttons itself. The main listviews are located on a central tabwidget, which has an overview page, a detail page and a info page.

3.1 Data structure and storage

QWireless reads a file qwireless.cfg out of its QWIRELESSCFG directory first, to define its configuration parameters. QWIRLESSCFG is an environment variable you have to export before starting QWireless (see Configuration).

The data directory contains the config file itself as well as the so called session files (*.wir) which contain the session specific information like wireless info location list, e.g.). Also a file last is found here, where qwireless memorizes the last session (file) you edited.

The file format is plain ascii with sections defining the different entries. The file contains all information belonging to the session including the different lists like infolist, x-y raster list.

3.2 File dialog

As QTopia does not include the class QFileDialog, I designed my own. It is easy to use and does not support all the rubbish of standard file dialogs.

The filedialog consists out of a listview to show the files (name, size and type). On top of that, it has a filter combobox (editable), where file filters can be entered or selected. The combobox will store the last 7 entered filters and the filter "*".

A lineedit to show the selected filename comes below. It shows the filename selected until it isn't a link or dir.

Another combobox (editable) is the directory combobox, where the directory can be entered or selected. The combobox will store the last 7 entered directories and the dir "/".

The OK toolbutton confirms the selection and closes the dialog, while the Cancel toolbutton only closes the dialog (without selecting a file).

The following figure shows the filedialog selecting a journey file.


In case of file->saveAs the file extension will (e.g. .qtr will be added automatically, if not done manually.

3.3 The toolbar

The following image shows the toolbar of QWireless. In the left area, the user finds the file buttons, in the middle some program buttons are arranged, while the right part shows the online help buttons.


The following list describes the functions behind the single buttons.

3.4 General listview handling

QWireless presents some of its data in listviews, which allow an overview presentation. A QWireless listview normally constist of the listview itself and some toolbuttons to work with the listview. This tool buttons are explained below.

Buttons are enabled only if usefull in the actual environment.

3.5 The tabview

The main tabview has 3 pages.

The first page

The first page shows the frequently updated wireless info, which defines the main parameters of a wireless network.

The second page

The second page shows the frequently updated wireless static info, which manily is used for information. The data is presented in a listview. Beside the session specific parameters, there is information about protocoll specific parameters (essid, e.g.), available frequencies and bitrates and the accesspointlist (editabel in the session menu).

Beside that information the dialog shows 3 buttons.

The third page

The third page shows the actually sampled location list. X,Y coordinates, bitrate, quality and accesspoint are shown in a listview. Single entries can be deleted using the delet button.

3.6 The session dialog

To be documented

3.7 The accesspoint dialog

To be documented

3.8 The setup dialog

To be documented


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