Messages

1

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: January 02, 2010, 11:01 AM »

I have released a new version. I added Google Calendar support in Event Progress. And it's also possible to change where the settings are saved.

http://www.nordicfx.com/topbar

2

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: June 04, 2009, 04:01 AM »

2matt_man22
I'm big fan of Open Source and I have considered it... but I'm not very organized and there would be a lot of cleanup of code to do this and I don't have that time. However if there is anything that you would like to know more about I will do what I can to help out.

2fenixproductions
Looking forward to seeing it live, I will be setting up a 3rd party plugin page on my site and I could give you FTP access to upload it. Or do you have another suggestion of distribution? My site will evolve more towards "normal" users once it gets more stable.

3

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: June 01, 2009, 11:05 PM »

Looks good, have you started putting it together?

I have managed to put in the feature of recursive directories in Launcher. I have a problem with the icons, once I fix that I will release it. And I'm considering making the recursive directories optional.

4

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 31, 2009, 11:20 PM »

When you get it up and running I would love to see a S.M.A.R.T status warning if a hard drive is failing.

Are you planning on having each "battery" as it's own spot on the bar or a dropdown list with bars and the favorite/main drive one the bar?

5

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 31, 2009, 06:52 PM »

That shouldn't be too difficult...

In the plugin create a new UserControl, not a Control. In the XAML of the new UserControl you can design your layout with any types of controls that you need. In the code-behind create properties for value, minimum, maximum or whatever you need to pass to the control.

In the plugin, place a WrapPanel which will align the new instances automatically from left to right. Make sure you remove width and height for the WrapPanel and width for the UserControl.
Instantiate a new UserControl and add it as a child in the WrapPanel. If the content is cut off, the play around with Margin on the controls.

Topbar
|
UserControl
|
WrapPanel
|
Instance of battery UserControl

6

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 31, 2009, 05:58 PM »

Yeah, I had issues going from WF to WPF at first... but now I don't want to go back.

I can probably help you, let me know what you are trying to do with the picturebox or Image in WPF.

You can use WindowsFormsHost to host WF controls, but I've had display issues with it. It's sort of a wrapper.

7

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 31, 2009, 05:42 PM »

I uploaded v0.2.0.4 and I'm really happy with the update on this one.
The background color of the event progress bar changes depending on the percentage.
0% = Green
50% = Orange
100% = Red



http://www.nordicfx.com/topbar

8

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 25, 2009, 03:55 PM »

I have uploaded the latest version with the changes I mentioned in my previous post.

The new syntax for showPopupNotification is:
C#: ojbHost.showPopupNotification(string header, string mainMessage, string moduleText, PlugInInterface.Declarations.alertType alertType)
VB: ojbHost.showPopupNotification(ByVal header As String, ByVal mainMessage As String, ByVal moduleText As String, Optional ByVal alertType As alertType)

The alertType is an enumeration in PlugInInterface.Declarations.

9

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 25, 2009, 01:14 AM »

I have added some new settings to control the popup notification, you can now associate an optional audio alert and also an optional auto-hide.
I'm working on the alert positioning, still not sure how to get the location of the plugin from the host. The showPopupNotification will change ever so slightly because of these changes.

I'm now working on a new plugin, 'Web Services', which is basically a simple web browser in a window. Quick search WolframAlpha, Wikipedia and Nice Translator... without opening a browser.

I will probably upload a new update tomorrow.

10

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 23, 2009, 05:49 PM »

I have uploaded a new version (http://www.nordicfx.com/topbar/)

• New shutdown plugin (the old shutdown icon is gone)
• Fixed column width in the plugin manager
• You can choose basic alignment of the plugins, this feature will evolve and get more intuitive ... I just wanted to get it usable for the moment

Here's an empty plugin to play with (both C# and VB): http://www.nordicfx....bar/TopbarPlugin.zip
It needs the plugininterface.dll as a reference.
Keep other 3rd party dependencies together with the plugin.
The plugin file should have the file extension .top
Maximum height of the plugin should not exceed 18 pixels.
There is a property called auxVar which is for future uses.

To show a notification in the host use:
C#: ojbHost.showPopupNotification(string header, string mainMessage, string moduleText)
VB: ojbHost.showPopupNotification(ByVal header As String, ByVal mainMessage As String, ByVal moduleText As String)


I would love to see what you guys can come up with. Keep in mind that the plugin structure might change during version updates, but I will let you know beforehand.

11

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 21, 2009, 07:32 PM »

1. Are you running Windows XP? The tests I have done on an XP shows that text is slightly darker than on Vista. That's about it, not blurry. Would you mind sending me a screenshot?

2. Most likely the same issue as number 1.

3. Do you mean give the textbox max width of the column? I can look into it.

4. That's not something I have seen in my tests. After the window is open it has no connection to explorer.exe. It sounds to me that there is something else going on in your system.

5. That would be nice, I'll add it to my list.

6. The icon on the left isn't supposed to do anything except give you space to access the bar context menu if the bar is full of plugins, plus when you want to move the bar to another monitor you click and drag the icon.

7. You mean a plugin that would close Topbar? It's on the list.

8. The 'down arrows' gets enabled when the bar is full, the plugins will be located in a dropdown menu.

9. That is on my list.

10. As I mentioned in an earlier post, that code was destroyed because of a hard-drive crash and I haven't had time yet to re-create it.

Thank you for your comments!

12

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: May 20, 2009, 09:35 PM »

I apologize for not updating for a very long time... I just finished my exams so now I have some more time.

I have released a new version of Topbar which includes a new weather plugin. At this moment it only displays current conditions but will soon include forecasts as well. Left click on the temperature display to get a tooltip.

I have also added a visual alert for the event progress when the timer reaches zero.

Head over to http://www.nordicfx.com/topbar/ and download it. Let me know if you have any problems or suggestions.

13

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: November 30, 2008, 12:53 AM »

Hey guys, I was gonna release this version on Thanksgiving but my hard-drive failed and I had to start a restore and re-create code that was not in the backup. And because of this, the plugin code will be slightly delayed.

I have placed the plugins within their own subdirectory to sort out dependency files.

It is now possible to cycle through display modes in the Event Progress.
To change background of the host, right-click on the bar and go to 'Settings'.


I hope everything will work smoothly, as it is a major re-write there is always the possibility for bugs.


http://www.nordicfx....;id=29&Itemid=23

14

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: November 06, 2008, 01:33 AM »

I have just ported it and it now works with any .NET control, not just the toolstrip controls.
To be honest I haven't tested all controls, but they SHOULD all work ;-) ...

It's also now possible to change color and set an optional image background. If a color is set, it's also possible to set the transparency of the background.

I now have 3 plugins to complete before I upload a new version.

The creation of plugins have been simplified a lot, minimal code is needed. Once I'm done with the port, I'll upload the code that is necessary to try it out.

15

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: October 29, 2008, 03:32 PM »

To be honest, when I first conceived the idea... it wasn't meant to be as big as it has become. And to rewrite it at this point would take a lot of time. I have considered moving over to WPF for the next big version, I have done some tests and it looks promising except the windows API for setting the bar as reserved space doesn't quite work yet. But with WPF, you can basically do whatever you want in the given space.

But I will definitely consider changing it to a panel or something similar.

16

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: October 29, 2008, 03:29 AM »

@mouser:
The default settings in the plugin are 'none' for all options.
I know that some timezones have the weekday baked in to the default value. I can look in to this and see if I can get a fix working.

@fenixproductions:
- I have been thinking of letting users change background. It is on my todo list.
- I was considering custom alignment when building the plugins, but I thought it might be too many settings for the casual user. I might setup an advanced mode of some sort. I'll add it to my list as well. (keep in mind that alignment is limited to what the normal .NET toolstrip can do, which is left or right aligned.) Re-ordering of the plugins is possible in the plugin manager.
- Source code for the plugins will come once all changes to the plugin structure are done.

17

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: October 29, 2008, 01:58 AM »

To try to narrow it down, could you try changing timezones in the plugin settings?

Maybe also try changing the formats?

18

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: October 29, 2008, 12:29 AM »

I have just uploaded a new version.

Release notes:
    * Stability issues fixed.
    * New fields in the GetColor plugin
    * History graph in the Currency plugin
    * Ability to edit countdown list

http://www.nordicfx....;id=29&Itemid=23

19

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 19, 2008, 02:54 AM »

I just finished the new quick launch plugin. Try it out:

http://www.nordicfx....;id=29&Itemid=23

Let me know if you have any problems.

20

General Software Discussion / Re: What screen recorder is this?

« on: September 13, 2008, 03:36 PM »

For those of you who wants to know, I found out that this feature is built into Vista when you use a tablet.

// Jacob

21

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 08, 2008, 10:36 PM »

I'm working on the quick launch plugin at the moment... but the EventProgress is working as it should.

22

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 05, 2008, 09:53 PM »

Yeah, another XP x64 issue... I have fixed it and uploaded a new version.

http://www.nordicfx....;id=29&Itemid=23

23

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 05, 2008, 01:19 AM »

Great!
Could you maybe send a screenshot?

24

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 05, 2008, 12:46 AM »

I managed to solve the issue, could you try again?
Uninstall the old version first and answer yes on if you want to remove the setting files.

The bug was the multi-monitor feature, XP x64 apparently reports devicenames slightly differently.

http://www.nordicfx....;id=29&Itemid=23

25

Developer's Corner / Re: A plugin based information bar in Windows

« on: September 04, 2008, 11:13 PM »

I downloaded a Windows XP 64 trial and I see the same problem. It is something specific to XP 64, it works on all other Windows versions. I will look into this ASAP.