DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

[ewemoa]

No hurry on this end -- hope your investigation goes well

[Ath]

FWIW, using :dropList: (example below), I see the behavior I expected for :dropItem: / :dropItem1:

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:44 AM)

I'll have a look later today (at work ATM), but that looks like a buglet of some sort

-Ath (June 16, 2011, 05:31 AM)

And it was a small borders issue , would have worked for 1 file if you had dropped 2 or more files on the button.

Clicking on the close button does not appear to have any visible effect.

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:14 AM)

I can find no issues with either the Close button or pressing <Esc> with WinButtons having focus. Is there perhaps an extra (older) instance of WinButtons running that's waiting for a condition/hanging/cycling perpetually? (You could check that using Process Explorer or Task manager)

Update will be posted later this evening.

[cranioscopical]

Clicking on the close button does not appear to have any visible effect.

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:14 AM)

Ath, FWIW close button doesn't work for me (XP SP3). Escape always works.

Any chance of changing .ini to something different and making WBedit the application to handle that?

[ewemoa]

Glad to hear that the drop-related thing was nothing major

I can find no issues with either the Close button or pressing <Esc> with WinButtons having focus. Is there perhaps an extra (older) instance of WinButtons running that's waiting for a condition/hanging/cycling perpetually? (You could check that using Process Explorer or Task manager)

-Ath (June 16, 2011, 02:18 PM)

I don't think there was, and I reproduced the issue just now.  I am also running XP SP3.  Similar results to cranioscopical -- pressing the escape key works while clicking on the close button doesn't seem to.

Update will be posted later this evening.

Sounds good.

BTW, any chance of being able to drop WinButtons config files on WinButtonEdit.exe to have the config file opened up in WBE?  That doesn't seem to work here.

[Ath]

Ath, FWIW close button doesn't work for me (XP SP3). Escape always works.

-cranioscopical (June 16, 2011, 02:44 PM)

Similar results to cranioscopical -- pressing the escape key works while clicking on the close button doesn't seem to.

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:22 PM)

I've already found out it is to do with the Extended Style parameters of the window. Guess Vista/Win7 enforce the minimum required to have a working Close button, while XP doesn't Been fighting this before to get rid of a border when having a background color set
I'll hold the update until I find something workable or it gets too late here and keep this as a todo

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the status update.  I wish you luck in your search

[Ath]

So, a usable solution for the non-functional Close button on Windows XP was found: It shouldn't be combined with the movable option.
In this particular case (XP, and options: border, closebutton and movable) the movable option is ignored. 'movable' was originally implemented to be able to move a border-less WinButtons window, but the caption bar is available so the window can still be moved around the screen (the movable option could easily be mis-interpreted )

Also fixed was the defective :dropItem1: feature as reported by ewemoa, it was to do with borders checking and 1-off, a common pitfall when itterating (irritating?) over an array in a 0-based setting. If there where 2 or more items dropped it would have worked for item1

I've updated the download and release message so now we have WinButtons 3.2.1

I'll be searching for a final solution for this Closebutton/movable/Windows XP combination-issue...

[ewemoa]

So, a usable solution for the non-functional Close button on Windows XP was found: It shouldn't be combined with the movable option.
In this particular case (XP, and options: border, closebutton and movable) the movable option is ignored. 'movable' was originally implemented to be able to move a border-less WinButtons window, but the caption bar is available so the window can still be moved around the screen (the movable option could easily be mis-interpreted )

-Ath (June 16, 2011, 06:05 PM)

I think I get it -- if I choose both closebutton and movable, I won't be able to move the window via the border, but for the close button to show up the border option needs to be specified, and if that's specified, there will be a caption bar, and if there's a caption bar that can be used to move the window...

That is what I see with the latest update and that seems fine to me.

Also fixed was the defective :dropItem1: feature

-Ath

Thanks!  Tested it here and seems to be working 

I'll be searching for a final solution for this Closebutton/movable/Windows XP combination-issue...

-Ath

Good luck!

[Ath]

if I choose both closebutton and movable, I won't be able to move the window via the border

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 07:55 PM)

Almost correct.
If movable is set, then the window can be dragged around by clicking on the window-background and dragging it.
If border + closebutton are set, then you can drag it around by grabbing the window by it's caption.
On XP you can't combine border + closebutton + movable, as then the Close button stops working, for reasons yet unclear to me. Not sure this is solvable, though.
Hope this clears my previous description.

[cranioscopical]

If movable is set, then the window can be dragged around by clicking on the window-background and dragging it.
If border + closebutton are set, then you can drag it around by grabbing the window by it's caption.

-Ath (June 17, 2011, 01:29 AM)

 

And, being a lazy [insert your term here] I'll repeat my earlier question viz., Any chance of changing .ini to something different and making WBedit the application to handle that? I mean associate a different .something file extension with WBE.

The point being that, when testing, a double-click on a file name would be a quick(er) way to load a selected .ini into WBE. In my view  this would be especially useful since WBE can have multiple instances. Your view may be entirely different 

If not, presumably I can set WBE to handle .ini on a temporary basis and just toggle between that and my standard .ini association.

[Ath]

I'll repeat my earlier question

-cranioscopical (June 17, 2011, 08:39 AM)

I saw your original question, but I've been thinking about a) what you meant exactly, and b) what exactly you meant

associate a different .something file extension with WBE

-cranioscopical (June 17, 2011, 08:39 AM)

Oh you want to register the file extension, ah, that can be done, but I'll think/search about the extension to use, as most 3-letter combinations are in use already.
What I already thought of: .wb, .wbut, .wbe, .wbtc, but suggestions are welcome
I'll have to change that extension to be the default for WinButtons as well (and fall back to WinButtons.ini if not found), or possibly just like the AutoIt installer offers: select between WinButtons and WinButtonEdit as the default "open" action. (And also add some Explorer context-menu options for Open With.../Edit with WinButtonEdit/Run with WinButtons, etc. And then options to de-register these )

I'll combine that, as good as it goes, with this request:

BTW, any chance of being able to drop WinButtons config files on WinButtonEdit.exe to have the config file opened up in WBE?

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:22 PM)

Would you expect it to run 3 instances of WBE, if 3 files are dropped on a single instance, or just open the first and ignore the rest?

[cranioscopical]

I'll repeat my earlier question

-cranioscopical (June 17, 2011, 08:39 AM)

I saw your original question, but I've been thinking about a) what you meant exactly, and b) what exactly you meant

-Ath (June 17, 2011, 12:10 PM)

It's always good to look at all sides of an issue! 

Oh you want to register the file extension…  .wb, .wbut, .wbe, .wbtc, but suggestions are welcome

I guess it depends on what, if anything is untaken — wbi?

Speaking for myself, I'm not concerned about context menu entries.

I'll combine that, as good as it goes, with this request:

BTW, any chance of being able to drop WinButtons config files on WinButtonEdit.exe to have the config file opened up in WBE?

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:22 PM)

Would you expect it to run 3 instances of WBE, if 3 files are dropped on a single instance, or just open the first and ignore the rest?

Again speaking personally, I'd expect it to anticipate correctly my intention and act accordingly. Surely that's within you programming power? No, you say? Fie!

Thanks for listening 

[ewemoa]

Regarding the file extension topic, while I can appreciate the convenience of file associations, I'd prefer that it not be a requirement for a system's registry to be modified for my own case and I'm willing to forgo the convenience.  So...do you think there will still be a portable version of the application available?

[ewemoa]

BTW, any chance of being able to drop WinButtons config files on WinButtonEdit.exe to have the config file opened up in WBE?

-ewemoa (June 16, 2011, 04:22 PM)

Would you expect it to run 3 instances of WBE, if 3 files are dropped on a single instance, or just open the first and ignore the rest?

-Ath (June 17, 2011, 12:10 PM)

I think the former would be more useful, but wonder about the potential persistence-consistency issue for multiple instances of WBE running...When I wrote my request, I was sloppy in my wording.  What I had in mind might be more accurately described by:

"...any chance of being able to drop a WinButtons config file on WBE to have the config file opened up in WBE"

[Ath]

I'd prefer that it not be a requirement for a system's registry to be modified

-ewemoa (June 17, 2011, 03:47 PM)

That is for sure not a requirement, just an additional option, available from the Options menu, and by selecting it again it will be fully removed assuming the proper privileges are available (else it should silently fail both actions). (It's finished already, but I'm testing it some more)
DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

BTW, I've chosen the extension .wbuc for the time being. I'm working on some minor issues with WBE and teaching WinButtons to also support that extension, so I'll probably release tomorrow (it's rather late here already).

able to drop a WinButtons config file on WinButtonEdit.exe to have the config file opened up in WBE

-ewemoa (June 17, 2011, 03:54 PM)

And that's also nearly finished and it will be an Option to either drop and open a single file or open extra WBE instances with the extra files. It's under the same testing regime as above

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the clarification, status update, and your continued efforts!

Good luck with testing 

[cranioscopical]

an additional option, available from the Options menu

-Ath (June 17, 2011, 04:47 PM)

 

[Ath]

After a few feature requests, some bug-fixing and a dearly missed feature that got implemented, there's a new release for both WinButtons and WinButtonEdit:

WinButtons 3.3.0
What's new:

• Preferred file extension changed from .ini to .wbuc (WinButtons Configuration)
• Some minor issues fixed

WinButtonEdit 0.9.0.0 (RC6)
What's new:

• Buttons can now be moved between groups (Treeview context menu)
• WBE supports Drag&Drop, configurable for either a single file or multiple files into multiple (new) WBE sessions (details in the readme)
• The .wbuc file extension can be easily associated with WinButtonEdit or WinButtons (when in the same directory)
• Several bugfixes

The stuff can be downloaded from the original release post, it's a zipfile with all compiled binaries, (AutoIt3) source for WinButtons and includes an updated readme for both WinButtons and WinButtonEdit.

If you might find any bugs, or have more feature requests or other remarks, please report here, so I can improve myself and the software.

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the new release!

Some comments follow:

Preferred file extension changed from .ini to .wbuc (WinButtons Configuration)

-Ath (June 18, 2011, 02:31 PM)

If .wbuc is now the preferred file extension, do you think it would make sense for the default WinButtons.ini to be renamed to use the new file extension?

WinButtonEdit 0.9.0.0 (RC6)
Buttons can now be moved between groups (Treeview context menu)

-Ath

This worked for me.

WBE supports Drag&Drop, configurable for either a single file or multiple files into multiple (new) WBE sessions (details in the readme)

-Ath

This works for me sometimes.  My current guess is that it works for .wbuc files but not .ini files.

BTW, regarding the WBE drag and drop feature, what I had in mind originally was dragging and dropping on to the .exe and not a running instance -- though this is nice too   Sorry if my phrasing was unclear / wrong.  Do you think this "drop on to .exe" feature is a possibility?

[Ath]

If .wbuc is now the preferred file extension, do you think it would make sense for the default WinButtons.ini to be renamed to use the new file extension?

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

I didn't do that on purpose, as users would be surprised to see the original WinButtons configuration where they may have created a personal one with the old filename, and the .wbuc file gets preference...

WBE supports Drag&Drop, configurable for either a single file or multiple files into multiple (new) WBE sessions (details in the readme)

-Ath

This works for me sometimes.  My current guess is that it works for .wbuc files but not .ini files.

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

It should work equally well for both .wbuc and .ini files (these are the only supported extensions, ATM). One peculiarity you could see is that if the current WBE instance has a file opened that is in the set of files dropped. That already open file is kinda ignored, but left open in the original WBE instance. If multiple drop files is enabled and more are dropped, the extra files should open in new WBE instances. If multiple drop files is disabled, nothing might happen when multiple files are dropped that include the file already open in WBE.

Do you think this "drop on to .exe" feature is a possibility?

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

I'd have to figure out how to do that, I'm not familiar with that feature (aka: I never open files that way myself). If the file association is set to open with WBE, a double click would suffice
If preferred I could add 'Edit with WinButtonEdit' to the context menu in Explorer? (And change 'Open' to 'Open with WinButtonEdit')

[ewemoa]

If .wbuc is now the preferred file extension, do you think it would make sense for the default WinButtons.ini to be renamed to use the new file extension?

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

I didn't do that on purpose, as users would be surprised to see the original WinButtons configuration where they may have created a personal one with the old filename, and the .wbuc file gets preference...

-Ath (June 19, 2011, 04:01 AM)

Ah, the joys of backward-compatibility...

On a related note, are there some reasons why it is that some of the dialogs for WBE don't have both *.wbuc and *.ini for their value in "Save as type"?  For example, "New" and "Save as..." both lead to one where the value is only *.wbuc...

Ah, btw, choosing File -> New and then pressing the Cancel button leads to the file dialog appearing again here...I get a feeling of Deja Vu.

WBE supports Drag&Drop, configurable for either a single file or multiple files into multiple (new) WBE sessions (details in the readme)

-Ath

This works for me sometimes.  My current guess is that it works for .wbuc files but not .ini files.

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

It should work equally well for both .wbuc and .ini files (these are the only supported extensions, ATM).

-Ath

I'm sorry to say that it doesn't seem to work here for ini files that I have tried.  I created a file via WBE called "Test.ini" (a new file, one button, saved as "Test.ini", quit WBE, open WinButtons.ini, then drop "Test.ini" on to the treeview).  Whether the "Multiple files dropped..." is enabled or disabled appears to make no difference.

I tried opening various appropriate *.ini files manually (works fine -- e.g. start with the newly created Test.ini), then followed this by dropping any of the other appropriate *.ini files on to the treeview -- the result was no change in the treeview.

Do you think this "drop on to .exe" feature is a possibility?

-ewemoa (June 18, 2011, 04:52 PM)

I'd have to figure out how to do that, I'm not familiar with that feature (aka: I never open files that way myself). If the file association is set to open with WBE, a double click would suffice
If preferred I could add 'Edit with WinButtonEdit' to the context menu in Explorer? (And change 'Open' to 'Open with WinButtonEdit')

-Ath

Hmm...well if it's too much trouble, please punt on it (at least for now...).  Since I don't do file associations because of the registry involvement, context menu entries in Windows Explorer fall under the same class of things I don't go for either, so unless someone else asks for it...

[Ath]

don't have both *.wbuc and *.ini for their value in "Save as type"?  For example, "New" and "Save as..." both lead to one where the value is only *.wbuc...

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

They are both there (that's the same dialog, btw), but I seem to remember having naming-issues when both specs where there in the same selection. I'll retest that. Maybe I should add *.* to that dialog too?

Ah, btw, choosing File -> New and then pressing the Cancel button leads to the file dialog appearing again here...I get a feeling of Deja Vu.

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

That's on purpose, you have to choose a filename (sorry for the fuss, though).

by dropping any of the other appropriate *.ini files on to the treeview -- the result was no change in the treeview.

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

Ah, re-tested and confirmed as a bug (a round brace a few characters too far to the left ). Fixed in the next release.

[Ath]

Ah, btw, choosing File -> New and then pressing the Cancel button leads to the file dialog appearing again here...I get a feeling of Deja Vu.

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

That's on purpose, you have to choose a filename (sorry for the fuss, though).

-Ath (June 19, 2011, 07:04 AM)

I think I'll re-do this option a bit for the next release.
It now asks to save the just created empty buttonset to a file, but I probably should ask the new filename first, and on cancel do nothing, not even clear the buttonset in memory. That sounds more as it would be expected, in UX terms.

[ewemoa]

don't have both *.wbuc and *.ini for their value in "Save as type"?  For example, "New" and "Save as..." both lead to one where the value is only *.wbuc...

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

They are both there

-Ath (June 19, 2011, 07:04 AM)

DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

I'm not seeing them both...

Maybe I should add *.* to that dialog too?

-Ath

I don't have an opinion on this...yet

[cranioscopical]

I'm not seeing them both...

-ewemoa (June 19, 2011, 05:55 AM)

Same here, FWIW