IBM TaskGuide

What is TaskGuide

IBM’s TaskGuide is a unique Java application that allows you to build a wizard using the TaskGuide viewer software and a text file with XML tags. The viewer is something like a web browser that renders a GUI screen from the XML tags in a text file. With this design, an organization could install the viewer software on client systems and the XML file on a server. The organization could then easily change the interface design without the need to redistribute software.

What are the implications of TaskGuide

The TaskGuide design suggests that it may be possible to build a generic GUI viewer that would enable a organization to develop all its GUI software. According the TaskGuide FAQ document, IBM plans to release a Window and OS/2 version of the TaskGuide viewer. This would allow an organization to develop cross platform applications that could run faster that Java.

What can you do with TaskGuide

According to the TaskGuide user guide you can define and show

• tabs on each panel,
• a table of contents list of all the panels in a wizard,
• hyperlinks,
• a help dialog window,
• buttons with specified labels and states (active, inactive and hidden),
• radio buttons, checkboxes, text boxes, single and multi-column list boxes, and drop down lists.

How does it works

The following XML file defines a wizard panel that contains a radio button group. If the "other" option is selected the user can enter a color name in the text box.

This code produces the following wizard panel.

   

You can download a personal use version of TaskGuide from the IBM AlphaWorks site