It uses web sockets and lets you create, control, and update elements on your GUI through multiple devices like phones and tablets.
ESPUI uses simple Arduino-style syntax for creating a solid, functioning user interface without too much boilerplate code.
So if you either don't know how or just don't want to waste time: this is your simple solution user interface without the need of internet connectivity or any additional servers.
I completely rewrote the EasyUI Library created by ayushsharma82 [Here](https://github.com/ayushsharma82/)
Now it uses ESPAsyncWebserver and is mainly to be used with the ESP32 Processor.
For Windows: Download the [Repository](https://github.com/s00500/ESPUI/archive/master.zip) and extract the .zip in Documents>Arduino>Libraries>{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
For Linux: Download the [Repository](https://github.com/s00500/ESPUI/archive/master.zip) and extract the .zip in Sketchbook/Libraries/{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
For macOs: Download the [Repository](https://github.com/s00500/ESPUI/archive/master.zip) and extract the .zip in ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/{Place "ESPUI" folder Here}
Download the [Repository](https://github.com/s00500/ESPUI/archive/master.zip), Go to Sketch>Include Library>Add .zip Library> Select the Downloaded .zip File.
Congratulations, you are done, from now on you just need to to this again when there is a library update, or when you want to use another chip :-)
Now you can upload your normal sketch, when you do not call the `ESPUI.prepareFileSystem()` function the compiler will strip out all the unnecessary that is already saved in the chip's filesystem and you have more programm memory to work with.
To do this download and install me-no-devs wonderful [ESP32 sketch data uploader](https://github.com/me-no-dev/arduino-esp32fs-plugin) or for ESP8266 [ESP8266 sketch data uploader](https://github.com/esp8266/arduino-esp8266fs-plugin)
ESPUI's frontend is based on [Skeleton CSS](http://getskeleton.com/) and jQuery-like lightweight [zepto.js](https://zeptojs.com/) for Handling Click Events Etc. The communication between the *ESP32* and the client browser works using web sockets.
ESPUI does not need network access and can be used in standalone access point mode.
All assets are loaded from the internal SPIFFS filesystem of the ESP32.
In the arduino setup() routine the interface can be customised by adding UI Elements. This is done by calling the corresponding library methods on the Library object ESPUI. Eg: `ESPUI.button(“button”, &myCallback);` creates a button in the interface that calls the “myCallback” function when changed. All buttons and items call their callback whenever there is a state change from them. This means the button will call the callback when it is pressed and also again when it is released. To separate different events an integer number with the event name is passed to the callback function that can be handled in a `switch(){}case{}` statement. Here is an overview of the currently implemented different elements of the UI library:
Switches sync their state on all connected devices. This means when you change their value they change visibly on all tablets or computers that currently display the interface. They also have two types of events: one for turning on and one for turning off.
Button pads come in two flavours: with or without a center button. They are very useful for con-trolling all kinds of movements of vehicles or also of course our walking robots. They use a single callback per pad and have 8 or 10 different event types to differentiate the button actions.
Labels are a nice tool to get information from the robot to the user interface. This can be done to show states, values of sensors and configuration parameters. To send data from the code use `ESP.print(labelId, “Text”);` . Labels get a name on creation and a initial value. The name is not changeable once the UI initialised.
The Slider can be used to slide through a value from 1 to 100. Slides provide realtime data, are touch compatible and can be used to for example control a Servo. The current value is shown while the slider is dragged in a little bubble over the handle.
After all the elements are configured you can use `ESPUI.begin(“Some Title”);` to start the UI interface. (Or `ESPUI.beginSPIFFS(“Some Title”);` respectively) Make sure you setup a working network connection or AccesPoint **before** (See example). The web interface can then be used from multiple devices at once and also shows an connection status in the top bar.
All changes to the client side files can be made in the examples/gui/data directory. Using the file uploader thin can be used for development. After this you have to compress them and then you can gzip them. I wrote a little useful jsfiddle for this, [CHECK IT OUT](https://jsfiddle.net/s00500/yvLbhuuv/)
