A Special - GUIslice Builder(Raspberry pi/Arduino) on Raspberry Pi 4 for HMI/Scada Options

GUIslice Builder - a multi-platform HMI/SCADA software from my perspective, creating UI for Various embedded systems. 

Design your GUI with a drag & drop builder, then apply the same code to a wide range of displays, libraries and controllers with the cross-platform framework. 

This Java-based software works perfectly for an interactive home automation system with a touch screen on Raspberry pi also Arduino things gets interacted easily.

The cross-platform utility includes a graphical editor that enables drag & drop placement of UI elements. Once a GUI has been laid out, the Builder can then generate the functional GUIslice skeleton framework code, for both Arduino and LINUX targets.

The generated output code (.c, .ino) includes all of the necessary defines, UI storage elements, and initialization in addition to the placement of the UI elements. This should greatly improve the ease of creating a new GUI.

Features

• Round-trip edits, meaning that Builder-generated code is then edited by the user to add application code and then the GUI elements can be further edited within the Builder
• Cross-platform desktop application (based on Java) targeting:
  • Windows
  • Mac OS/X
  • LINUX
• Generation of Arduino & Raspberry Pi / LINUX targets
• Ability to import UI elements from sketches
• Arduino builds can target the arduino_min optimization, which minimizes SRAM utilization, placing most UI elements in FLASH
• Automatic generation of all major #defines, enumerations and initialization boilerplate code
• Automatic creation of basic button callback functions
• Support for fonts and images

Installation of GUIslice Builder on Raspberry Pi

Java Installation

The GUIslice Builder on LINUX requires Java to be installed on your system.

• If the Arduino IDE 1.8.7 is installed, then the Java 8 JRE should already be present
• Otherwise, please install Java 8 JRE

During installation, you will need to identify what directory has the Java 8 JRE.

Depending on whether you have already installed Java or the Arduino IDE, select one of the following three options.

Option A: If Arduino IDE already installed

For Arduino's IDE Java it is inside your current Arduino IDE directory for example:

• $HOME/arduino-1.8.7/java

Option B: If Arduino IDE not installed but java previously installed

If you are not using Arduino's Java but you have previously installed other versions of Java, then you can find the full set of installed versions by using this command:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Example output:

There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java      1101      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java      1101      manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1081      manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

After Identifying the correct location of java 8 or 1.8 you can enter the path during the run of install.sh script.

If you are using Arduino IDE's skip to LINUX GUIsliceBuilder SETUP.

Option C: If Arduino IDE not installed and no java previously installed

You can download Java 8 JRE by opening a terminal and using:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openjdk-r/ppa
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre

As we will need to find the exact path to the Java JRE, it may be possible to use the following command:

• sudo update-alternatives --config
• The above might report: There is only one alternative in link group java (providing /usr/bin/java): /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java
• In this example, the full path would be /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java
• An alternate approach that may work for some users is to run readlink -f $(which java)

GUIsliceBuilder Setup

GUIslice Builder binary location:

• In the latest GUIslice Builder repo Release Notes under Assets, you will find builder-linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz

  • Look for the highest version number

• Download and untar builder-linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz into your home directory, where X.Y.Z represents the latest version number

  • Open a terminal
  • cd $HOME
  • Download the builder-linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz using a web browser (see above), or use the equivalent wget command, for example: wget https://github.com/ImpulseAdventure/GUIslice/releases/download/v#.#.#/builder-linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
  • tar xvzf builder-linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz

• Enter the new GUIsliceBuilder folder

  • cd GUIsliceBuilder

• Run the installer and indicate where the Java 8 files are located.

  • ./install.sh
  • When the installer runs, it will prompt for the location of Java 8. IMPORTANT NOTE: you must enter the path (identified earlier), but not including the /bin/java at the end. For example, if the complete path is: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java, then please enter /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre

The GUIsliceBuilder should now be on your Desktop.

Launching the Builder

Clicking on the GUIslice icon on your Desktop will open the builder.

You can also run the builder by: ./GUIslice.sh