can we change the Color of the listbox scrollbar

[alsh3lan33]

is there any way to change the Color of the listbox scrollbar ?:huh

[Ulrich]

The appearance of the scrollbars of the ListBox, the RichText Object, and the Grid are always defined by the look and feel of your operating system. It seems that the only object you can skin individually is the Paragraph, the rest follows the current theme of your Windows - so no, you probably won't be able to change the color of just the scroll bar of the List Object, unless this can be done in some undocumented way.

You may, however, skin your application independently to the look and feel of your (or your customer's) Windows theme. You could use some skin (http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/windows/visualstyle/) made by somebody that uses colors matching your application better than the standard gray, or even make your own skin, if you are inclined to do so, and those scroll bars could "blend" better in your work.

You can find a compiled AMS7 application here (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/AMS7SkinningTest.exe) that you might find interesting (3.0 MB). This is just a test I made to see how the different objects available in AutoPlay react to eight different operating system skins, some with subthemes. You'll notice that the Paragraph doesn't change at all during skinning, because you can set the look of the scroll bar directly in AMS, and that the Radiobutton and Checkbox ignore the skin as well. Here is a screenshot:

http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080629-02.gif

Change the settings with the radiobuttons to see it in action.

Ulrich

[alsh3lan33]

thank's upeters

i download the application and i try it, the Paragraph doesn't change as you said .

thank's again

and if you can help me with some codes to make some skins to my project A favour from you :)

best wishes for you

[Ulrich]

Hello alsh3lan33,

unfortunately I can't give you an immediate solution for your situation, because this demonstration application I provided in my former post uses a commercial skinning ActiveX from Codejock (http://www.codejock.com/products/skinframework/). I communicate with this ActiveX using the free LuaCom plugin (http://www.icynorth.com/luacom/index.html).
If you get a license for the commercial software component, you will be able as well to include any kind of skin in your own work.

On the other hand, I am currently studying the possibility to build a plugin to provide this skinning functionality to AutoPlay Media Studio, if there is any interest for it in this community.

Ulrich

[pakapaka]

Hi Ulrich
If you plan to develop a skinning plugin for AMS then you can put me down as a customer. I noticed that AMS is very weak in this area and it kinda makes the applications look "old-fashioned".

One more thing, if you develop a capability to change the skin during runtime, this would be great as users could basically apply a theme by a simple mouse-click. This would open many more opportunities for the type of projects I do.
Yours
Pakapaka

[alsh3lan33]

thank's upeters

for this informations and i will try the ActiveX and i will wait for you'r skin plugin


thank's again :)

[Ulrich]

Ok, here it is - the first public version of my skinning action plugin. This version doesn't need LuaCom to work, and runs on Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista.

Get the plugin (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/Skin.zip), create a new folder named "Skin" under your Plugins\Actions of your AutoPlay Media Studio installation folder, and decompress the zip file there.

A help file is included in the zip, but it can be seen online (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/Skin_Help.htm) as well. For now there are only two methods, which are enough to skin the application. I will see if additional functions will be required.

A sample project can be downloaded here (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SkinPluginDemo.apz), or as compiled exe here (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SkinActionPlugin.exe). The sample is pretty simple:
Browse to the folder where skin files can be found (*.msstyles);
Select one skin in the left ListBox and the substyles (if available) will be displayed in the right ListBox;
Select a substyle and it will be immediately applied to the running application.

Here is a screenshot of the demo application:
http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080630-01.png

Skin files (*.msstyles) can be found at lots of different sites. Here (http://rapidshare.com/files/126213553/sample-skins.zip) you can find the skins included in the free evaluation version of StyleXP (http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php) (male edition) and a couple more. Of course if you use some third-party skin, you will have to clear with the author before distibuting his/her work with your application. Or you can build your own skin from scratch with a skin editor.

I haven't set up a web page for this plugin yet, but this won't take long.

Ulrich

[Dermot]

Wow! that is fantastic, just what I needed for a project. Excellent work.

[ShadowUK]

What's up with it being a trial?

[Ulrich]

What's up with it being a trial?

Hello, thank you for your interest. You can use the plugin in your development environment for 5 days for your testing. During this period it works without any limitations - you get just an annoying popup everytime the plugin is initialized by AMS. If you think that you will keep the plugin and use it in your projects, you can unlock the component following the instructions on my web page (http://www.mindquake.com.br/ams-skin.php).

Ulrich

[Waldo]

Ulrich,
I do much of my work at my home desktop computer, but I also have a laptop computer when I go to a customer site. I use the laptop for sales calls and also when finishing a project on a customer site.

My question is whether I will need two "codes" one for each computer to ensure that the skinning action plugin will work [especially at a customer site when I may need to update the AMS application and re-compile it]. Thanks.

[Ulrich]

Hello Waldo,

if you use the same username (Windows user account) on both computers, the same code should work. But if this doesn't apply to you, I can still give you a second code without any additional payment. This mechanism is in place only to avoid that somebody gets one code and gives it away to everybody else - I am sure that it won't make me rich at all.

Ulrich

[Waldo]

Ulrich,
They are different...I will secure the requested information for both computers and will make the donation in the next day or so. Thank you! ;)

[ShadowUK]

I'll pay you in lua. :3

Sorry, I can't buy it then. I'll invest in Codejock instead.

[RizlaUK]

IMO, useing registerd user and computer name is a bad system, if windows reinstalld computername changes

i have a dev machine, a games machine and a machine setup for the misses and kids, i have AMS installed on all 3, a plugin that i can only use on 1 is no good to me.

[Ulrich]

IMO, useing registerd user and computer name is a bad system, if windows reinstalld computername changes
i have a dev machine, a games machine and a machine setup for the misses and kids, i have AMS installed on all 3, a plugin that i can only use on 1 is no good to me.

Of course, if you reinstall Windows, and give a new name to your computer, the computer name most certainly will change. But if you keep the name, the former license will continue working normally. If you have different names for your user accounts, as well as different computer names, then one license file won't work - but, as I already answered before, I give out more than one license file if necessary. There is really no reason to nitpick on the license mechanism.

If you think that this system is bad, than you haven't used any professional software development yet. If have two licenses for Compuware DevPartner for Visual C/C++, and they are linked to the network adapter and HD serial number. Another software I work with uses information from the DVD/CD unit, HD and and CPU serials - talk about annoyance when changing/upgrading computers or just updating the firmware of the DVD drive. :)

Ulrich

[alsh3lan33]

HI upeters

when i put ComboBox to the project
ComboBox Dropdown list No Change

pic

http://o9o9.net/up/get-7-2008-4jtflcsg.jpg

[Ulrich]

Yes, you are correct. Interesting, the child window isn't skinned even when targeting explicitly the hWnd of the ComboBox, but the parent is skinned correctly. :huh
There are some objects that can't be skinned correctly at the moment, and this seems to be one of them. The RadioButton and CheckBox are other examples, until there are "skinnable" replacements.

Ulrich

[RizlaUK]

If you think that this system is bad, than you haven't used any professional software development yet. If have two licenses for Compuware DevPartner for Visual C/C++, and they are linked to the network adapter and HD serial number.

Another software I work with uses information from the DVD/CD unit, HD and and CPU serials - talk about annoyance when changing/upgrading computers or just updating the firmware of the DVD drive.

thats why i say its a bad system, anything that uses system variables that are easy for the user to change is IMO a bad system,

it maybe used in many dev addons/apps but it dosent change the fact that its not very user freindly and its a bit *win 95*, im not nit picking, its was more of a request to change the system.

EDIT:

i had to color the background of a combo in PB, it was a pain as the combo is drawn in 2 windows, the main combo window and its child (the dropdown box), i had to subclass the combo window and set new properties for the dropdown box.

dunno if its any help, but worth a shot

[gabrielfenwich]

Would it be possible for you to share some more information on the first project that you Displayed uPeters?
Or even an .apz without the codejock's control you are feeling especially generous ad they have demos to play with.
Thank-you for your time and effort on both projects.
Gabby

[Ulrich]

Hello Gabby,

here is the original project I posted, using LuaCom and the ActiveX component. The ActiveX control is not included (I don't have a trial version here), and there is no skin file - just the source for AutoPlay to see how it was done. Enjoy.

Ulrich

[karimo]

HI upeters

when i put ComboBox to the project
ComboBox Dropdown list No Change

pic

http://o9o9.net/up/get-7-2008-4jtflcsg.jpg

The problem that you used the files found in the course or folder in Arabic
Do not use the names of volumes in Arabic in the program :o
You can see on this post (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bramjnet.com%2Fvb3%2F showpost.php%3Fp%3D2647878%26postcount%3D354&hl=fr&ie=UTF8&sl=ar&tl=en)

المشكلة أنك استعملت ملفات موجودة في مسار أو مجلد باللغة العربية
لا تستعمل أسماء مجلدات باللغة العربية في البرنامج
يمكنك الإطلاع على هذا الموضوع (http://www.bramjnet.com/vb3/showpost.php?p=2647878&postcount=354)

[Ulrich]

Hello,

I have some news I would like to share. I was able to make my first skinnable CheckBox. See the screenshot below:

http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080702-01.png

The "New" CheckBox was created with my new object currently in development. The "Normal" Checkbox was created with the CheckBox object shipped with AutoPlay. Note that the "New" obeys the skin applied to the application, while the "Normal" keeps the look of the current operating system (which may be skinned).

I have still to work through the dialogs, events, scripting, etc. I am still several days away from any public release - which will be free for everybody interested, but will certainly be most useful for those who are going to use the skinning plugin. (I thought you would like that, ShadowUK. :))

Once I worked my way through the CheckBox, I'll tackle the RadioButton, and then the ComboBox. In the meantime, comments are welcome. :lol

Ulrich

[ShadowUK]

Hello,

I have some news I would like to share. I was able to make my first skinnable CheckBox. See the screenshot below:

http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080702-01.png

The "New" CheckBox was created with my new object currently in development. The "Normal" Checkbox was created with the CheckBox object shipped with AutoPlay. Note that the "New" obeys the skin applied to the application, while the "Normal" keeps the look of the current operating system (which may be skinned).

I have still to work through the dialogs, events, scripting, etc. I am still several days away from any public release - which will be free for everybody interested, but will certainly be most useful for those who are going to use the skinning plugin. (I thought you would like that, ShadowUK. :))

Once I worked my way through the CheckBox, I'll tackle the RadioButton, and then the ComboBox. In the meantime, comments are welcome. :lol

Ulrich

I fainted when reading this, If you release this for free I will SCREEEEEEAM! :D

[RizlaUK]

upeters,

hey, thats really good, grweat work, not even the codejock ocx skins the AMS check and radio buttons.

dose your checkbox work with the codejock ocx or can it only be skinned with your plugin?

and again, plz do not take offence to my first comments here, my only concern is once purchased, six months down the line i need a new code cos i reinstalled windows or upgraded something but you are not contactable,

i dont mind with a big company cos they aint going nowhere, but if we can not contact you for a new code and have a project that just need to get finished, what happens then ?, you can say you will always be available but the fact is...you wont, things will come up, work, your own projects, holladays, sickness, there will always be something that takes the loyal AMS user away from the forums for a while.

originaly, i had not intended to use this as like i say i already use codejock, but if you can provide me with a skinable check and radio button in AMS then i will use it for sure, but please reconsider your licencing system

[Ulrich]

dose your checkbox work with the codejock ocx or can it only be skinned with your plugin?

The control can be skinned with the OCX. My plugin uses source code from the MFC/C++ version of this library, so what works with the plugin has to work with the OCX as well. The advantage of the plugin is that it is much smaller than the OCX, and doesn't need to be registered (I am talking about the regsvr32.exe here), so it won't cause conflicts with other software which might be using the same library.

and again, plz do not take offence to my first comments here, my only concern is once purchased, six months down the line i need a new code cos i reinstalled windows or upgraded something but you are not contactable,

No offense taken at all.

originaly, i had not intended to use this as like i say i already use codejock, but if you can provide me with a skinable check and radio button in AMS then i will use it for sure, but please reconsider your licencing system

So you have a copy of the Codejock controls? May I ask how you used the control with AMS? I tried to use it with LuaCom (as shown in my first message in this thread), but I was unable to call the licensing function successfully, as documented by Codejock. So I had to use the workaround (using a text license file), shown in the project I attached here in my reply to gabrielfenwich, but which can't be used if the project is deployed on read-only media. How did you manage to do unlock the component in AMS?

As for the licensing method, how would you do it? Unfortunately some reasonable control has to be in place, otherwise the work could be available on the internet quickly "for free", and this wouldn't be fair. I am all ears to suggestions.


Ulrich

[Ulrich]

Here is the first public release of the WinCheckBox object.

Things that should work:

Caption font name and size can be set through font selection dialog
Caption text can set as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
Events: On Click, On Right-Click, On Enter, On Leave
Scripting: GetChecked(), SetChecked(), GetText(), SetText()


Things that don't work yet:

You can't set the checkbox as initially checked (during the creation)
You can't set the foreground/background colors
Further scripting has to be implemented, like IsEnabled()/SetEnabled(), IsVisible()/SetVisible(), etc.
Caption on the left of the checkbox
I have yet to inform AMS about the font chosen so it can be correctly bundled into the application
Proper documentation (help file)
anything else I forgot to mention


If somebody could give me hint how to set the color of the text on the control, please let me know. I manage to do this without problems in MFC, but inside AMS it doesn't work at all so far. So if somebody figured this out already, please let me know. Unfortunately I am getting static from the IR support to my questions.

http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080707-07.png

To install the plugin, decompress the files in a folder named "WinCheckBox" under the "Plugins\Objects" folder of your AMS installation. Updates will be posted when ready, there is still work to do...
Any comments would be welcome.

Ulrich

[Dermot]

Here is the first public release of the WinCheckBox object.

Things that should work:

Caption font name and size can be set through font selection dialog
Caption text can set as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
Events: On Click, On Right-Click, On Enter, On Leave
Scripting: GetChecked(), SetChecked(), GetText(), SetText()


Things that don't work yet:

You can't set the checkbox as initially checked (during the creation)
You can't set the foreground/background colors
Further scripting has to be implemented, like IsEnabled()/SetEnabled(), IsVisible()/SetVisible(), etc.
Caption on the left of the checkbox
I have yet to inform AMS about the font chosen so it can be correctly bundled into the application
Proper documentation (help file)
anything else I forgot to mention


If somebody could give me hint how to set the color of the text on the control, please let me know. I manage to do this without problems in MFC, but inside AMS it doesn't work at all so far. So if somebody figured this out already, please let me know. Unfortunately I am getting static from the IR support to my questions.

http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080707-07.png

To install the plugin, decompress the files in a folder named "WinCheckBox" under the "Plugins\Objects" folder of your AMS installation. Updates will be posted when ready, there is still work to do...
Any comments would be welcome.

Ulrich

Just tried it out and if you resize the window, it disappears. I remember this happen when beta testing AMS 7 when they added the checkbox.

[Ulrich]

Just tried it out and if you resize the window, it disappears. I remember this happen when beta testing AMS 7 when they added the checkbox.

Hello Dermot,

thank you for the feedback. Could you please explain what you did exactly? When I resize the object in the editor in design time it doesn't seem to disappear here. When I set the project window to be resizable, and change the window size at runtime, the two objects still stay on the screen. Maybe I am not doing the same as you did.

Ulrich

[Dermot]

I just dropped it on the page and set the project to resizable. When I preview and resize the window, the checkbox disappears.

[Ulrich]

I just dropped it on the page and set the project to resizable. When I preview and resize the window, the checkbox disappears.

Hi Dermot,

this is strange. I don't see this problem, in a blank non-skinned application, or when used together with my skin plugin. Could this be a driver problem? Do you remember if IR replied anything when you reported this during the beta?

If you are curious, here (http://rapidshare.com/files/128167688/skindemo.avi) is a short video (5.4 MB) showing the skinning plugin and new checkbox plugin in action. You need the free TSCC codec for this, which you can get here (http://download.techsmith.com/tscc/tscc.exe) if you don't already have it installed (170 kB).

Ulrich

[Dermot]

OK it only happens if the Auto-size boxes are all checked, left, right, top bottom. I was try to get it to stay in the lower right corner of the page.

[Ulrich]

Now I know what you mean, thanks. You are right, the object isn't handled correctly when AMS recalculates the screen coordinates.

My plugin is being developed based on the structure of the only sample for a object plugin provided in the SDK - the Slider v1.0.1.0. The current version shipped with AMS of this Slider plugin (1.0.2.0) shows the same error you reported, although the change log states "1.0.2.0: Fixed a bug that would cause problems in AMS70 when using the auto-resize options". To me this looks pretty much broken, as the slider still vanishes from the screen when I resize the dialog.

It would be really nice if IR could update and fix their sample code, as I said earlier today (http://www.indigorose.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24238). Without corrected and updated examples, it is almost impossible to develop plugins that truely interact with AMS.

Ulrich

[pakapaka]

Hi Ulrich
I think alot of people are watching this thread very carefully.
Correct me if I am wrong but I am assuming that once you have got everything debugged, we will be able to download a single project file with everything in it (including the checkboxes etc). ---assuming of course we made the donation fee.

It seems to me that this type of plugin should really be built-in to the AMS application....together with a nice little GUI to make it easy for non programmers to use.



pakapaka

[Ulrich]

Hi Ulrich
I think alot of people are watching this thread very carefully.
Correct me if I am wrong but I am assuming that once you have got everything debugged, we will be able to download a single project file with everything in it (including the checkboxes etc). ---assuming of course we made the donation fee.

Hi pakapaka, the skin plugin is actually available right now. I don't see any functions that could be added to it at the moment, that would be useful for AMS projects. It is an action plugin, so there is no real GUI needed for it to work. Actually, all it takes to have your AMS application skinned is one single line of code, so even a beginner should be able to accomplish this.

The problem with skinning currently is that several objects shipped with AMS don't obey the skin, while others do it perfectly. To get a consistent look of the application developed with AMS, somebody has to re-create the objects unless IR fixes them. These new components, like the WinCheckBox I am trying to set up currently, are not part of the skinning plugin, they will be available for free, and have to be placed in other folders of the AMS installation.

It seems to me that this type of plugin should really be built-in to the AMS application....together with a nice little GUI to make it easy for non programmers to use.

If Indigo Rose is planning to include skinning in the next version, please tell me, so I can stop pulling my hair out while trying to make the new object work as it should. :) If they include it, they would have to make their own objects (ListBox, RadioButton, CheckBox, etc.) compatible. My own WinCheckBox has a GUI (not sure if it is nice ;)), you can see it briefly in the video of my former post.

Ulrich

[ShadowUK]

any news on that free version?

[pakapaka]

Hi Ulrich.... just a minor question. Can I install the plugin on my desktop and on my laptop?

[Ulrich]

Yes, you can. If necessary, give out more than one license file.

Ulrich

[Ulrich]

any news on that free version?

Oops, it seems that you misunderstood something. I am pretty sure that I never said that the skinning plugin would be free. I attached a project where I show how to use the ActiveX version of Codejock's SkinFramework control in a former post, for those who already own a version of that product, or wish to aquire a license for US$ 99 for the control (or maybe US$ 149 with one year of updates) from the publisher because they think that the US$ 18 I am asking for the plugin version is somehow unreasonable. I have heard that this project has already helped somebody who has the ActiveX.

What I said was that I am trying to build new object components which feature the same basic behaviour of the IR counterparts, but they will accept the skins applied to them, and that these object plugins, which complement my skinning plugin but may be used without it (or may be used with the ActiveX), would be given away for free. I hope that now I have cleared that up.

Ulrich

[alsh3lan33]

hi Ulrich

i thank you for your help

i used the ActiveX version of Codejock's SkinFramework and it works fine

and you can see the pic of my project ( tv show )

http://o9o9.net/up/s_thumbnailer-7-2008/ltr41u6d.JPG (http://o9o9.net/up/get-7-2008-ltr41u6d.JPG)

thank you again Ulrich :lol:lol

[Ulrich]

Nice! I have solved the mystery of the ComboBox as well, the dropdown is being skinned correctly using the plugin. Still stuck with the RadioButton though, as there is no reply from the staff.

Ulrich

[mz241508]

this looks very promising.

[alsh3lan33]

Iam Not Sure But I Think The Problem With The RadioButton To Be Not Skinned
Is Because the Constructive Way For The RadioButton In the AMS
OR Because The STYLE bUILT For The Skin .

[azmanar]

Hi,

Looking at this thread ....... i really missed a lot of things ...AMS.

[RizlaUK]

hey Ulrich, any devlopments on the radio?

[Ulrich]

Honestly, I am still stuck on the Checkbox, which yet doesn't work as it should. Only after having a working Checkbox, I will make the Radiobutton, as they are very similar.

Ulrich

[Samio]

Hi.
I Download SkinActionPlugin and set a skin to the my application.
But my wibdow skin is this shape.
What is my mistakes?
6923

[Samio]

Hi Friends.
I Make a Heavy Project with change Skin possible.
But Radio Button Object isn't Set when Skin changed.
I know this isn't Standard Win Object.
everybody can, Help me For make a Win Radio Button Object.
what is way for resolve this problem.

[Draygoes]

Can you provide me some example code on how to call the OCX object that you mentioned earler?
Thanks.

[sima]

Ok, here it is - the first public version of my skinning action plugin. This version doesn't need LuaCom to work, and runs on Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista.

Get the plugin (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/Skin.zip), create a new folder named "Skin" under your Plugins\Actions of your AutoPlay Media Studio installation folder, and decompress the zip file there.

A help file is included in the zip, but it can be seen online (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/Skin_Help.htm) as well. For now there are only two methods, which are enough to skin the application. I will see if additional functions will be required.

A sample project can be downloaded here (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SkinPluginDemo.apz), or as compiled exe here (http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SkinActionPlugin.exe). The sample is pretty simple:
Browse to the folder where skin files can be found (*.msstyles);
Select one skin in the left ListBox and the substyles (if available) will be displayed in the right ListBox;
Select a substyle and it will be immediately applied to the running application.

Here is a screenshot of the demo application:
http://www.mindquake.com.br/files/ams/SNAG-080630-01.png

Skin files (*.msstyles) can be found at lots of different sites. Here (http://rapidshare.com/files/126213553/sample-skins.zip) you can find the skins included in the free evaluation version of StyleXP (http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php) (male edition) and a couple more. Of course if you use some third-party skin, you will have to clear with the author before distibuting his/her work with your application. Or you can build your own skin from scratch with a skin editor.

I haven't set up a web page for this plugin yet, but this won't take long.

Ulrich

Hi your link is Is broken