_{Official ZPE/YASS documentation}UI

Provides the native user-interface API shared by ZPE and ZPEX. It creates windows, controls, layouts, menus, dialogs, charts, browser views, video views, and other native UI elements through the platform UI bridge.

Creating a window

Create a UI object, create a window, add controls, and then show the window. UI methods return native UI objects that can be configured with their own methods.

$ui = new UI()
$window = $ui->window("Example", 480, 320)
$button = $window->button("Continue")
$button->on(UI::Button::Action.click, () => $window->close())
$window->show()
$window->run()

UI functions

The top-level UI object provides availability and display helpers, including available(), is_dark_mode_enabled(), window(), screen_screenshot(), set_icon(), use_native(), browser(), video(), run(), and stop().

Windows, controls, and layouts

Windows support buttons, labels, images, browser and video controls, text fields, checkboxes, text areas, sliders, progress bars, separators, lists, spreadsheets, toggles, tab containers, charts, turtles, menus, dialogs, and file or directory choosers. Layout helpers include vertical, horizontal, grid, and constraint layouts.

Common control methods include enabled(), set_enabled(), visible(), set_visible(), focus(), set_tooltip(), style(), set_fill(), and cursor(). Specific controls expose their own value, text, selection, media, chart, or menu operations. Buttons use the pointer cursor by default.

Pages and media backgrounds (ZPE 1.14.11+)

A single native window can host multiple UIPage objects. Create a page with $window->page() and display it with $window->set_page($page). Controls belong to their page and are shown or hidden together, so page changes do not create additional operating-system windows.

Pages support mutually exclusive background images, videos and colours. Background videos fill the page, loop, remain muted and stop when another page becomes active. A window may also own background audio through background_audio(); it follows application focus and can be removed by passing null.

$home = $window->page()
$home->background_video("background.mp4")
$home->button("Open library")
$window->set_page($home)

Events and enumerations

Controls accept callbacks through on(). Use the static UI event values to avoid relying on literal strings.

$slider->on(UI::Slider::Action.change, &slider_changed)
$button->on(UI::Button::Action.mouseover, &button_hovered)

Use UI::CursorType.POINTER, UI::CursorType.DEFAULT or UI::CursorType.IBEAM with a control's cursor() method.

Object functions

• available [1.14.10+]

  Returns whether the native UI backend is available.

• is_dark_mode_enabled [1.14.10+]

  Returns whether the operating system is using dark mode.

• window [1.14.10+]

  Creates a native window.

• screenshot [1.14.10+]

  Captures the window content.

• set_icon [1.14.10+]

  Sets the application icon.

• use_native [1.14.10+]

  Enables or disables the native UI mode.

• browser [1.14.10+]

  The `browser` operation for the UI object.

• video [1.14.10+]

  The `video` operation for the UI object.

• run [1.14.10+]

  Runs the native UI event loop.

• stop [1.14.10+]

  Stops the native UI event loop.

Inner objects

• UIButton
• UIChart
• UICheckbox
• UIImage
• UILabel
• UILayout
• UIList
• UIMenu
• UIPage
• UIProgressBar
• UISeparator
• UISlider
• UISpreadsheet
• UITabContainer
• UITextArea
• UITextField
• UIToggle
• UITurtle
• UIVideo
• UIWebBrowser
• UIWindow