Dynamic Button Control:Beta test demo

[clueless]

Hi, this is a BetaTest of the Dynamic Button Control that will work with buttons made with bmp Images.The final version will work with png's with added alpha layer (transparency) as well as contain many more features.


Full free copy?
The main plugin is still in development and will eventually be for sale .If anyone would like to produce an example project using / demonstrating the DBC using this demo ill give away free copy's of the final version to the 5 best examples posted. These examples will then be packaged along with the final version along with credits and links to the programers who produced them.
note:Please provide extensive commenting in your code for functions / methods concerning the DBC.

[clueless]

lol.. that did have the wrong licence agreement . fixed now

[RizlaUK]

i get these errors when i peview the example

"429 there was an problem opening the button file, Activex component cant create object" and "there was no xml file in the button file, bla filepath" for each button

i dident change a thing,

[clueless]

Thanks.. I forgot a Dll that needs registering.

[Dermot]

Seems to work well although there is a delay when resizing. Nice idea but personally I don't resize buttons at runtime. I like to get them just how I want at design time. If this was a standalone tool for resizing existing button files then I think it would be awesone. Then anytime I need a different size of a particular button. I open the tool, select the button file, enter my new width and height and it produces a new button file. Now that would be something I would buy. Seeing as it is an exe, this should be doable and to me makes way more sense.

One thing you would need to watch when resizing at runtime is, it is writing files which will not work on Vista if your app is installed in Program Files and UAC is on. Another good reason to make it a design time tool instead of a runtime one.

[RizlaUK]

If this was a standalone tool for resizing existing button files then I think it would be awesone.

i agree, and you have the base for the app already there

i havent had a chance to look at it (again) yet but will do later, but i would seriously think about Dermots suggestion as that is certanly a design time tool i could use

[clueless]

Thanks guys that is a most excellent idea and wont be difficult to setup at all.:yes

The main idea behind the DBC is to have a system that can resize buttons during runtime possibly multiple times. Just like the the buttons at the bottom of an explorer/firefox page change to an average size when a new page is opened up.

The resize at runtime does a search of all the objects on the page and then initializes them before resizing them. It may be faster to do this manually. The delay could be down to the way i force the button to reload by setting its Properties.ButtonFile. Im pretty sure the DBC completes the operation in a 10 th of a second or less, though i could be wrong.

One thing you would need to watch when resizing at runtime is, it is writing files which will not work on Vista if your app is installed in Program Files and UAC is on.

- The files get written to the temp folder that AMS creates while the program is running, would that still be a problem?

[Dermot]

Thanks guys that is a most excellent idea and wont be difficult to setup at all

That would be a huge time saver and it would ensure that all the buttons look consistent no matter what size they are.

- The files get written to the temp folder that AMS creates while the program is running, would that still be a problem?

They are only in the Temp folder if it is a web exe. If you build your app to a folder then they are in that folder. AMS has no need to extract anything to the Temp folder. So if you install your app to Program Files, then that is where it would be writing files at runtime. Unless of course you are writing the files to the Temp folder regardless.

[clueless]

Unless of course you are writing the files to the Temp folder regardless.

- seems like the only safe option to me.

[clueless]

Standalone Button resizing tool

Thanks to Dermot for the suggestion the standalone version of the button resizing tool is well underway







Im tempted to keep going and make a full button editor but that would delay the whole project a bit so i think ill save that for version 2

Would anyone be interested in animating buttons? I think its possible using the timer to call a program to generate make a new button with a different image on call.But im not sure what the frame rate would be like, it would depend on how quickly and smoothly i could get AMS to reload the new button each time.