I'm considering some menu buttons which have text on top of a designed 
graphic. The graphic could be non-rectangular - for example the right 
hand side could have its outline in the shape of an arrow to indicate 
that it leads to something else. Or I may want to make shapes in a 
particular form that is well suited to a particular industry.

Has anyone done anything like this before, or have some suggestions?

I have Topdown and Express++ libraries.

Another way of doing this which is a bit more cumbersome and 
inconvenient, if possible, is to have a customised graphic with text 
already for each button on it.

Cheers

Phil Jackson

Look at my active text code

http://gogalthorp.com/splash

Jim


On 05/09/2011 08:10 PM, Philip Jackson wrote:
> I'm considering some menu buttons which have text on top of a designed
> graphic. The graphic could be non-rectangular - for example the right
> hand side could have its outline in the shape of an arrow to indicate
> that it leads to something else. Or I may want to make shapes in a
> particular form that is well suited to a particular industry.
>
> Has anyone done anything like this before, or have some suggestions?
>
> I have Topdown and Express++ libraries.
>
> Another way of doing this which is a bit more cumbersome and
> inconvenient, if possible, is to have a customised graphic with text
> already for each button on it.
>
> Cheers
>
> Phil Jackson

Hi Jim

I recompiled your source code and got it working.

It was interesting that you had this all working 7 years ago.

It might be useful in some other areas maybe as I would still like to 
persevere with something that doesn't have a 4-sided border.

Is there such a thing as a graphic object that is mouse sensitive, for 
example a bitmap that I could use effectively as a button?

Cheers

Phil Jackson


On 5/10/2011 2:17 PM, James Loughner wrote:
> Look at my active text code
>
> http://gogalthorp.com/splash
>
> Jim
>
>
> On 05/09/2011 08:10 PM, Philip Jackson wrote:
>> I'm considering some menu buttons which have text on top of a designed
>> graphic. The graphic could be non-rectangular - for example the right
>> hand side could have its outline in the shape of an arrow to indicate
>> that it leads to something else. Or I may want to make shapes in a
>> particular form that is well suited to a particular industry.
>>
>> Has anyone done anything like this before, or have some suggestions?
>>
>> I have Topdown and Express++ libraries.
>>
>> Another way of doing this which is a bit more cumbersome and
>> inconvenient, if possible, is to have a customised graphic with text
>> already for each button on it.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Phil Jackson
>

I just use a transparent static to hold the text you can replace the 
text with a graphic with a bit of work. But all things in Windows are 
windows and windows are rectangles.

Remember bitmaps are also rectangles.

I guess you could use graphic primitives. But you would need a method to 
determine if the mouse in the interior or the exterior. So basically you 
would be building a button totally from scratch and I'm not sure how the 
events would be handled. But you would still draw it on a static which 
is a rectangle.

Jim


On 05/10/2011 12:10 AM, Philip Jackson wrote:
> Hi Jim
>
> I recompiled your source code and got it working.
>
> It was interesting that you had this all working 7 years ago.
>
> It might be useful in some other areas maybe as I would still like to
> persevere with something that doesn't have a 4-sided border.
>
> Is there such a thing as a graphic object that is mouse sensitive, for
> example a bitmap that I could use effectively as a button?
>
> Cheers
>
> Phil Jackson
>
>
> On 5/10/2011 2:17 PM, James Loughner wrote:
>> Look at my active text code
>>
>> http://gogalthorp.com/splash
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>> On 05/09/2011 08:10 PM, Philip Jackson wrote:
>>> I'm considering some menu buttons which have text on top of a designed
>>> graphic. The graphic could be non-rectangular - for example the right
>>> hand side could have its outline in the shape of an arrow to indicate
>>> that it leads to something else. Or I may want to make shapes in a
>>> particular form that is well suited to a particular industry.
>>>
>>> Has anyone done anything like this before, or have some suggestions?
>>>
>>> I have Topdown and Express++ libraries.
>>>
>>> Another way of doing this which is a bit more cumbersome and
>>> inconvenient, if possible, is to have a customised graphic with text
>>> already for each button on it.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Phil Jackson
>>
>

Hi Jim

I understand the rectangular need for Windows although it is interesting 
that in Browsers you can have round buttons for example.

I think the simplest way of doing this is to have an invisible Static 
with the colour same as the background and no text, and a graphic (with 
the text as part of it) that although may have an irregular outline, 
fits inside that rectangle.

I'll do some experimentation and see what I can produce.

Cheers

Phil Jackson

hi,

> that in Browsers you can have round buttons for example.
>
> I think the simplest way of doing this

use Ownerdraw with GraEdge() to get "round" Buttons etc.

greetings by OHR
Jimmy

Hi Jimmy

I have it all worked out without having to use OwnerDraw and it is 
really very very simple.

The following uses TopDown but can be easily adapted to Express.

I'm using tdBmap() to create and show a Bitmap object.

I'm loading the Cargo with an array with the keyboard hotkey, and the 
resource numbers of the BitMap that signifies the button has been 
pressed and the original BitMap.

oTest := tdBmap(10, 50,,, oDlg, 2000)
oTest:Cargo := {'Z', 2001, 2000}

In my event loop, I am looking for the Left Click - when I get it, I 
check to see if the object is set up the way I have set it up. The 
following code shows this

IF nEvent = xbeM_LbClick
     IF ValType(OXBP) = 'O' .and. IsMemberVar(OXBP, 'CAPTION') .and. ; 
 Caption stores bitmap
          valType(oXbp:Cargo) = 'A' .and. len(OXBP:Cargo) = 3 
              Cargo identifier - could be more sophisticated if necessary
          oBmp := NIL
          oBmp := XbpBitMap():New():CREATE()
          oBmp:Load(NIL,OXBP:Cargo[2])
          oXbp:SetCaption(oBmp)
          Sleep(200)   shorten for live app

           now show original bitmap again
          oBmp := NIL
          oBmp := XbpBitMap():New():CREATE()
          oBmp:Load(NIL,OXBP:Cargo[3])
          oXbpP:SetCaption(oBmp)

So even Bitmap objects recognise the mouse after all.

One only finds simple solutions when one looks for them!

Cheers

Phil Jackson


On 5/11/2011 9:26 AM, AUGE_OHR wrote:
> hi,
>
>> that in Browsers you can have round buttons for example.
>>
>> I think the simplest way of doing this
>
> use Ownerdraw with GraEdge() to get "round" Buttons etc.
>
> greetings by OHR
> Jimmy
>
>

Phil,

>oXbpP:SetCaption(oBmp)

>So even Bitmap objects recognise the mouse after all.

No they don't. The XbpStatic() that you created (oXbp) will react to the 
mouse events -- and it will do this independently from its caption, which 
could be a text or a bitmap, or nothing at all.

And this XbpStatic() is still a rectangle, and will react to mouse events
on its entire surface area, so clicking outside of the bitmap, if that 
bitmap is smaller or irregular in appearance, will still give the same 
effect, so the static shouldn't be much different in size and shape to
its bitmap caption, or your button will appear to react to clicking "next 
to it".

In addition, I would place all this bitmap changing code into a class -- 
or at least into CallBacks of the XbpStatic() -- rather than cluttering 
up and blocking the event loop! You should never do extended operations
like this in the event loop -- especially a "Sleep(200)" in your event 
loop is very, very bad! It is obviously also bad in code that is called
from your event loop, such as CallBack code blocks or methods.

You could use "oXbp:LbClick := {|aPos, uNIL, obj| ChangeTheBitmap(obj)}" 
instead. But ":LbDown" and "LbUp" would work even better for simulating
the "push down" effect. And you wouldn't need to create an artificial 
time out (of 2 seconds or less).

Also, save both bitmaps in iVars of your class, rather than creating new
bitmaps every time the user clicks on the static -- especially when you 
never destroy them anywhere! Otherwise, every click will create two more 
bitmaps that use up memory and resources.

Andreas

Andreas Gehrs-Pahl
Absolute Software, LLC

phone: (989) 723-9927
email: Andreas.GP@Charter.net
       Andreas.Gehrs-Pahl@EJusticeSolutions.com
       Andreas@DDPSoftware.com
web:   http://www.Aerospace-History.net

Thanks Andreas

I'm not worried about the small difference between the graphic and the 
Static - that's something I'm going to live with. A user typically 
doesn't press click outside a button. Only if I use Mouseover will it be 
a problem.

I was doing this for an application that has a generic routine for 
handling menu only screens so the code only appears once.

I'll follow your advice about holding the bitmaps in variables though 
and see what I can do about the callbacks.

I'm going to have the text built into the bitmap so I don't need to 
worry about anything else.

Cheers

Phil Jackson


On 5/11/2011 11:30 PM, Andreas Gehrs-Pahl wrote:
> Phil,
>
>> oXbpP:SetCaption(oBmp)
>
>> So even Bitmap objects recognise the mouse after all.
>
> No they don't. The XbpStatic() that you created (oXbp) will react to the
> mouse events -- and it will do this independently from its caption, which
> could be a text or a bitmap, or nothing at all.
>
> And this XbpStatic() is still a rectangle, and will react to mouse events
> on its entire surface area, so clicking outside of the bitmap, if that
> bitmap is smaller or irregular in appearance, will still give the same
> effect, so the static shouldn't be much different in size and shape to
> its bitmap caption, or your button will appear to react to clicking "next
> to it".
>
> In addition, I would place all this bitmap changing code into a class --
> or at least into CallBacks of the XbpStatic() -- rather than cluttering
> up and blocking the event loop! You should never do extended operations
> like this in the event loop -- especially a "Sleep(200)" in your event
> loop is very, very bad! It is obviously also bad in code that is called
> from your event loop, such as CallBack code blocks or methods.
>
> You could use "oXbp:LbClick := {|aPos, uNIL, obj| ChangeTheBitmap(obj)}"
> instead. But ":LbDown" and "LbUp" would work even better for simulating
> the "push down" effect. And you wouldn't need to create an artificial
> time out (of 2 seconds or less).
>
> Also, save both bitmaps in iVars of your class, rather than creating new
> bitmaps every time the user clicks on the static -- especially when you
> never destroy them anywhere! Otherwise, every click will create two more
> bitmaps that use up memory and resources.
>
> Andreas