The "UI Category" Attribute

Modeled dialog fields can be grouped by using the attribute "UI Category". The attribute can be found among the tool descriptor and filter type attributes. The group is visualized in the dialog by a frame around the dialog fields which has a label at the top. If several dialog fields share a UI category value, and are grouped within the frame.

By default a UI category has one column which means that all dialog fields of this category are placed underneath each other. Increasing the column number of a category results in dialog fields being displayed next to each other.

The syntax for the UI category attribute is:

Category Name/<number of columns>,<column span>/

The following syntax is also valid but deprecated:

Category Name{<number of columns>,<column span>}

Tip: You only need to specify the column number for the first parameter of the category.

Since the number of columns and the column span are optional attributes with the default value of "one" they do not need to be specified if not required (see the table below).

UI_Category value	Result
Field 1: Example Category Field 2: Example Category	A framed group with the label “Example Category” and one column. The two fields are displayed underneath each other.
Field 1: Example Category Field 2: Example Category Field 3: Another Category	Two framed groups with the labels “Example Category” and “Another Category” are created underneath each other. The first category contains two dialog fields while the second category only contains one field.
Field 1: Example Category/2/ Field 2: Example Category/2/ Field 3: Example Category/2/ Field 4: Example Category/2/	A framed group with the label “Example Category” and two columns. The four fields are displayed in two rows.
Field 1: Example Category/2,2/ Field 2: Example Category/2/ Field 3: Example Category/2/	A framed group with the label “Example Category” and two columns and rows. The first field fills up the first row (since it spans both columns) while the second row contains Field 2 and 3.
Field 1: (space character) Field 2: (space character)	One invisible category is created for each field. The visible effect is that the two fields use the full width of the dialog instead of being shifted behind the longest label of other dialog fields.