Experienced Front end Qt wallet developers, help me please!

[DatWallet]

Hi! I am trying my hand at wallet design but i have do not have much experience. One part in particular is giving me headaches. All the .ui files in /Forms are nice and easy to edit with qt creator but i am having trouble with the main wallet framework.

For example i want to change the toolbar with overview etc. so that instead of being horizontal at the top it is vertical at the left hand side. These parts of the layout seem to be in bitcoingui.cpp but is there an easy way to change it and preview the changes like you can do with the .ui forms? Or do you have to change the .cpp, recompile, change the cpp, recompile each time you want to see the effects of the changes you have made? Would be grateful for any help and advice.

[klarki]

Describe your algorithm in more detail the action of.
You form converted to C ++? If yes, then you just have to compile.

[DatWallet]

Wish i could do pics. At the moment tabs look like this


|  Overview |  Send Coins  |  Receive Coins  |  


But I want to change them to this


------------------
     Overview
------------------
   Send Coins
------------------
 Receive Coins


All this seems to be defined in this file:
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.10/src/qt/bitcoingui.cpp#L236

But how is this file generated in the first place? Is the layout created in qt creator and then converted to c++, or is it just coded in c++ from scratch? Is there no way to edit or create this sort of file (.cpp) in the same way as .ui ones i.e. by dragging and dropping widgets in design mode? Thanks

[DatWallet]

Maybe i should try a different approach. Does anyone know of any members here who do wallet design?

[jwinterm]

I'm sure there are wallets with this vertical layout. Like this one for instance:
https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fs24.postimg.org%2F6shs9ays5%2FSchermafbeelding_2016_02_16_om_01_11_53.png&t=563&c=0qLwhPNVQ45p8w

Why not just look at their source and see what they're doing?

[billotronic]

yes ffs github is your friend. look for coins with the layout features your are looking for and compare code. the best way is learning by example.

[DatWallet]

Thanks guys, I've already been comparing source code my main question is about the software and techniques people use for that specific file bitcoingui.cpp.

Qt creator doesn't open a graphic preview where you can drag and drop the elements with it so I want to know how people are manipulating the layout in this file. Is there a way to do it graphically in Qt creator or is it done purely in code with people envisioning the changes mentally and then compiling periodically to check them? That seems a really inefficient way to program a layout but I am new so what do I know. Thanks