ssPolyClock on Alpha 3.0

What's New:

1. Created clockimgs custom class.  This now handles the themes and images
2. Added Theme No. 3 (Metal Skins) created by Dayll Bautista.   
3. Removed all previous skins I created before.  I changed this now into New Classic Theme (Theme 1)
4. Changed Skins Extraction to be based only on the currently selected theme.  
5. Will extract a skin only when is not there.  
6. Cleaner and smaller images.  All images are now in PNG format
7. To make things uniform, every theme now only has 7 skins

Before the class automatically overwrites a skin file on every form run.  The decision to make it like that is because I do not want someone bugging me about why their clock still looks the same despite an update has been downloaded where I have to explain that that  is because the specific skin's name is found and so extracting is skipped.

Now though, I decided to extract only when a skin file is not there.  So if you have encountered a problem of still getting the old looks, then go to local user's temp folder, look for clocks folder and delete all skins (.skz).  As simple as that!

Here is Metal Skins (Theme 3) - New!!!

ssThrobber on Alpha 3.0

What's New:

a.  Changed look. It is now Snoopy sliding around instead of a simple throbber
b.  Bigger fonts WordWrapped
c.  Ability to change caption
d.  The ability to specify positions

Since the original ssThrobber can change caption and positions, I decided to do the same with this one.  But while I use the word "Caption" here, it is really not the Caption property I touched but "Comment".  Don't bother yourself much about that one though because ssThrobber will handle those things by itself.  Here is a sample usage:

Thor, a must have Tool!

Thor is a tool developed and shared to us by Jim Nelson to manage add-on "other" tools in VFP IDE.  Tools such as ssClasses library, IntellisenseX, GoFish, FoxCodePlus, PEM Editor; to name a few.  Among the features of Thor is it acts as a repository of the abovementioned (and not mentioned) tools.

How does having Thor Tool in your unit advantageous to you?

ssSwitch & ssOptSwitch - New Skins

February 1:

• Changed theme 18 so we can have a cool looking checkbox style.  As ssOptSwitch uses ssSwitch, then you now can have a cool looking checkbox style
• Added lNoMarker parameter.  This marker was originally requested by a subscriber but personally I do not like this so I now made it optional.  Default is True though so as not to affect said subscriber's project

January post:

• Cleaner Codes
• Faster Switching
• Better looks
• Switched to PNG format for better appearances
• Changed font from Tahoma 8 to Tahoma 10

When I first created most of my classes, all I wanted is to have some uniquely looking objects I can use to spice up the look of my app.  And I have said that ssClasses will terraform our VFP apps, because that is what I have in mind back then.  The ability to change appearances of our form that an onlooker (or even developers of other PLs) will initially wonder what PL we have used to create our apps.

And I do not want ssClasses to be tied up with existing looks seen on the net because my perception is that those current trends we see out there normally don't last long that when something new is shown, users will say that 'hey your app looks old' just because they have seen that look before and also saw it being replaced by another trend.

ssTransparent + ssClose

As I am in the mood these days to create transparent irregularly shaped forms, I decided to work on another module on my end to give it a better appearance.  So last night I sat infront of my laptop ignoring my lovely wife designing yet another transparent form for that module playing with Daryl Bautista's Photoshop's styles script (many thanks!) and tweaking those a bit.

Then another thought hit me because I fail again to duck.  How about combining both ssTransparent and ssClose classes so I can have a cool close button in no time at all?  After much moving and styling of layers for the image to be used as the background and playing with ssClose settings, here is the result:

ssThrobber

Note as of December 28, 2012:

It was reported to me that ssThrobber do not work on others.  And when I checked here, it is only working on my machine but not on the rest of my users.  So here is a fix to make it work on your end.  You should register ssThrobber:

Step 1:

Click start button, run. Browse and look for where ssThrobber.exe is in you computer (d:\ssdemos). However, do not click OK yet and type a parameter /automation. Then click ok button and test again.

In the run box should be something like: 

d:\ssdemos\ssthrobber.exe /automation

Step 2:

Copy paste these into a notepad. Then save it as ssthrobber.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ssthrobber.animate]
@="ssthrobber.animate"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ssthrobber.animate\CLSID]
@="{051DF0CF-6D3F-4CE2-A04D-F11318866286}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ssthrobber.animate\NotInsertable]

After it was saved, double-click it.  That should fix the problem.


===============

Remember the throbber idea I shared last time in Weblogs?  Well it was reported before that during heavy processing, the animation stops.  Lucky for us Bernard Bout has showed another way on how to utilize that throbber by making it an exe and calling that from within our app.  Being that is now running on a different thread, then it is no longer affected by heavy processing on our app.

Following his instructions and codes, here is how to use that separate exe on our end:

local loThrobber
loThrobber = CREATEOBJECT('ssthrobber.animate')
loThrobber.Show

* Do your SQL SELECT here or any processes that will take long

loThrobber.Hide
loThrobber = Null

Very simple to use.  Just make sure that you copy that ssThrobber.exe where your app is.

This will be included likewise in the next upload together with  ssClasses library.

Also, if anyone who has a good throbber in their end would be willing to share theirs, please email me those so later I can put some more options such as changing the throbber to appear, etc.

ssClose

ssClose 1 to 3 are just a small image that serves as the exit or close button of your form.  Please see previous posts regarding those.

ChangeLog as of December 20, 2012:

• I accidentally removed form pinning capability via user interaction on ssSwitch.  Fixed.
• Changed previous skin because it now looks "bland" to my taste.  Created skin # 2.
• Added nSkin parameter in the end with default value of 1.  Right now it only has two values, i.e., 1 or 2.

Here are the current skins: