Requirements:
- KivyMD is API unstable as of now, it's best to use either the version I've used on my computer (
1.0.0.dev0), or main branch. A lot of bugs are fixed in themain, so, unless something's broken, install from source, not from PyPI:pip3 install https://github.com/kivymd/KivyMD/archive/master.zip - I've used a native filepicker instead of Kivy's (because kivy's picker is horrible).
pip3 install plyeris required for it to work
Launch:
python3 main.py should work. XML files for testing are located in the ./examples folder.
What can be improved:
- A separate type for sending records between controller and view
- A more sophisticated error handling system, especially for XML parser (with SAX error handler). Seemed to increase the complexity of passing the error to the view a lot, so I've made a generic error message instead, because I was near the deadline on the assignment... Eh.
- A better way to call the app's controller (
pyright's complaining right now) - Binding data from the model directly to the view (buggy on KivyMD, see below)
- Fix the pagination (not my fault, see kivymd/KivyMD#1242)
- More coherent UI: input field validators, correct sizes for the dropdown menu, action bar based on the MD guidelines, better default window size, accent colors. Honestly, I tried to create a beautiful GUI. Now I couldn't care less. By the time I've finished this project I was (and still am) hoping I won't touch Kivy or KivyMD ever again - here are some of the reasons why:
- GUI is very slow (maybe OpenGL on macOS is to blame, but generally GUI is very unresponsive)
- Lack of updated and/or full docs
- incoherent UI elements, lack of some basic widget variations. Generally you have to write a lot of boilerplate, even for basic widgets (such as dropdown input)
- Touch emulation creates excessive input lag
- KivyMD's binding system is very unstable, I had to rely on callback functions and lambdas instead.
- The layout system is intuitive, but the position customization options are not - it was a hell to figure out how to position elements correctly.
- The DSL of Kivy (.kv) is nice, but .css would've been nicer.
Preview:
Main window:
Insert dialog:
Search dialog flow:
Delete records notification:
