{"id":281,"date":"2008-06-16T23:59:58","date_gmt":"2008-06-16T23:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=281"},"modified":"2008-06-17T00:38:45","modified_gmt":"2008-06-17T00:38:45","slug":"tweaking-the-currentcost-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=281","title":{"rendered":"Tweaking the CurrentCost app"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tweaking<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent a bit of tonight tweaking last night’s CurrentCost app<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Not a lot to say about it, as it’s more or less the same as it was last night…<\/p>\n

Adding axes to the bar graph<\/strong>
\nThe most noticeable difference is that I worked out a way to add labels to the graphs. As I said last night, I’ve been learning to use WPF to draw the GUI, and starting to get my head around the approach to data binding – separate the data (in your C# objects) from the interface (specified in XAML). <\/p>\n

Last night, I started by creating a bar graph as a series of programmatically-generated Rectangles. I’ve now replaced this by specifying a DataTemplate for the bar graph control:<\/p>\n

<DataTemplate x:Key=\"template\">                        \r\n    <StackPanel Orientation=\"Horizontal\" VerticalAlignment=\"Bottom\">\r\n        <StackPanel Orientation=\"Vertical\" VerticalAlignment=\"Bottom\">\r\n            <Rectangle\r\n                Height=\"{Binding Path=Value}\"\r\n                Width=\"20\" \r\n                Fill=\"Green\" \r\n                MouseEnter=\"Rectangle_MouseEnter\" \r\n                MouseLeave=\"Rectangle_MouseLeave\" \/>\r\n            <Label Content=\"{Binding Path=Key}\" FontSize=\"8\" \/>\r\n        <\/StackPanel>\r\n        <Rectangle Width=\"1\" \/> <!-- spacing -->\r\n    <\/StackPanel>\r\n<\/DataTemplate><\/code><\/pre>\n
Instead of being a stand-alone Rectangle, each item in the data collection where I store CurrentCost data is represented by a Rectangle (with the height specified by the value from the CurrentCost reading), and a Label (with the text specified by the label from the CurrentCost reading). <\/p>\n
Then I use MouseEnter and MouseLeave events to change the colour and populate the text boxes at the top – rather than try to add vertical axes, if you hover over a bar on the graph, you can see the reading for that bar.<\/p>\n
The more I play with WPF, the more I’m starting to like it…<\/p>\n
CurrentCost history data<\/strong>
\nAdding the labels to the graph had the unexpected bonus of highlighting that I’d misunderstood the history data a bit. I’ve since gone back and fixed my code from last night<\/a>, and added a comment to explain how I think the hourly history works<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Time<\/strong>
\nI’ve got rid of the option to choose between the computer or CurrentCost meter as a time source, as it was fairly pointless. It’s the CurrentCost meter that’s collecting this data, so you kind of need it’s time to be accurate. <\/p>\n
I replaced it with a line of code that checks the timestamp from a reading when you get it – if it’s significantly different to the current time on your computer, you will get a prompt warning you and advising you to correct the clock on your CurrentCost meter. <\/p>\n
Surprisingly, mine was running 56 minutes slow. These things really lose time fast! \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
The updated version is available for download<\/a> if anyone wants to give it a try. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I spent a bit of tonight tweaking last night’s CurrentCost app. Not a lot to say about it, as it’s more or less the same as it was last night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[194,225],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code","tag-currentcost","tag-wpf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}