Using bitmap buttons

[Egil]

When updating one of my programs I added Bitmap Button Controls to obtain a more intuitive user interface. Some of the buttons should only be "active" when the program is in Standby mode. But when using ENABLECONTROL to make the button temporarily inactive, the bitmap is replaced with a grey square.
I have solved this problem by leaving the button continuously active, and showing a messagebox if the button is clicked when program is in "Active mode".
(code shown below)

Code Select Expand


' HFDL input file 1:
CASE 20
   if status10 = 1 then MESSAGEBOX(win,"Allowed in Standby Mode ONLY","Oooops!",@MB_ICONEXCLAMATION)

   if status10<>1

      if status20 = 0 
         SETCONTROLTEXT win,20,"1021"   :' Indicating that function parameter is set - blue background
         status20 = 1 
      else
         SETCONTROLTEXT win,20,"1020"   :' Indicating that function parameter is NOT set - gray background
         status20 = 0 
      endif
 
   endif


Would appreciate if anyone know if it is possible to make a bitmap button inactive, and still show the bitmap?



Regards,
Egil

[Brian]

Egil,

Off the top of my head, you could have two buttons, one "normal" and one "fuzzy"
and then swap as needed

Brian

[Egil]

Thanks Brian!

In Norway we say that you can't see the forrest because of all the trees....
This is such a case. Was not able to see it my self.


Egil

[Brian]

Ha,

In a proper country, we say "Can't see the wood for the trees" !!!

Brian

[Andy]

Egil,

In my experience, enablecontrol only greys out a control when disabled, which is not what you are after.

You could try hiding the button using the showwindow command.

If you wanted the bitmap to still show when the button is hidden, you could use loadimage to load them in and show them at the same location as the hidden button.

You could even take the bitmap image and perhaps use a copy of it made slightly grey?

When you want to enable the button again, just use showwindow command again at the same location.

Just a thought,
Andy.

[Brian]

Egil,

Been messing with the bitmap button thingy. It's simple, but it works...

Brian

[Egil]

Brian

Thanks for the snippet. Had already done sometihing similar, plus loading the bitmats from embedded recourse.
Using the  bitmap colors to indicate working status of the program using two sets of bitmaps, so planned to make a third set of bitmap for doing what both you and Andy suggested.
Tonight I sent emails to all users that have registered with me, asking their advise, and all answers so far are asking for a messagebox to warn them that the program is "Active"...

Attaching a compiled demo. Will post full source code when all changes have been done.


Egil

[LarryMc]

Understand it's just a demo
definitely need that 3rd set of bitmaps so that all the buttons show a "disabled" state when thing is "active"
then when thing is in "standby" each button switches between "off" and "on"

or is it that yo are wanting to select one of the buttons in "standby" and maintain it when you go "active"?

[Egil]

....or is it that yo are wanting to select one of the buttons in "standby" and maintain it when you go "active"?

When the program starts, all you see is a  row of seven grey colored buttons that indicate that the program does nothing (...yet). Plus two blu buttons.
The idea is to make the user able to see how the program is presently operating, by just a quick glance.

The program parameters then can be set, either by clicking buttons number two to seven counted from the left, or by clicking the tool button (second from right). And let the six above mentioned buttons change their colors to indicate that the "channel" is set and ready.

Then making the program the selected tasks by clicking the "Start/Stop" button. And change this button's bitmap text and color to indicate that the program is active or not.
When the program is in the "Active" state, the only buttons you are allowed to click, is the "Start/Stop" and the "Help" buttons. The rest of the buttons will be disabled.
And how to disable these was my question. Both Andy and Brian have indicated that the best way to do this is to hide these buttons and show a bitmap faking them instead. So I have to make a third set of bitmaps for these.

Last night I emailed all the users that have bothered to register with me, asking their opinion about this, and the answers returned indicate that they also would like a messagebox to pop up if they click one of these "disabled" buttons.

This program was originally just a quick hack intended for my own use, in an attempt to reduce the CPU load when decoding multiple datatransmission channels simultaniously, by separating the presentation (map viewing) and database programs from the software defined radios and decoder programs. Soon the program was shared with other decoding enthusiasts,

This upgrade is a result of suggestions and whishes made by the other users. Their main wishes are reduced window size, and the ability to communicate with other decoding enthusiasts.
So after this upgrade the program have a "new look", collects data from max four channels, and output this to a common file and/or sending it to another computer via UDP comms.

[Brian]

Egil,

You could always use tooltips on the buttons to indicate what state they are in

Messageboxes could become a nuisance if you have to clear them all the time

Brian

[Andy]

Egil,

Here is a quick example of my suggestion.

Code Select Expand


window win
uint bmp[1]

bmp[1] = loadimage(getstartpath + "bit1.bmp",@IMGBITMAP)

OPENWINDOW win,0,0,1000,730,@SIZE|@MINBOX|@MAXBOX,0,"",&Hnd

CONTROL win,@BUTTON,"",10,20,20,20,@CTLBTNBITMAP,1

CONTROL win,@RADIOBUTTON,"Prog Active",10,50,200,20,@CTEDITLEFT,2
CONTROL win,@RADIOBUTTON,"Prog In-active",10,80,200,20,@CTEDITLEFT,3

setcontroltext win,1,getstartpath + "bit1.bmp"
setstate win,2,1


waituntil win = 0
end

sub Hnd(),int
SELECT @MESSAGE
CASE @IDCREATE
   CENTERWINDOW win

    CASE @IDCONTROL
   SELECT @CONTROLID

             Case 2 'active
                  showwindow win,@SWSHOW,1

             Case 3 'inactive
                  showwindow win,@SWHIDE,1
                  SHOWIMAGE win,bmp[1], @IMGBITMAP,10,20,20,20

         endselect

    case @idclosewindow
         end

endselect

RETURN 0
ENDSUB


Use the bitmap attached here in the same folder as the source code.

To use:
Click Prog inactive to hide the button and show the bitmap,
Click Prog active to show the button again.

You may have to play around a little with the size of the bitmap image when using the showimage command.

Don't forget to use DELETEIMAGE on exit (not included here as I didn't have time) to free memeory.

Hope this gives you an idea for your buttons.

Andy.

[Egil]

Brian,

In this case I do not think that using tooltips is the way to go. Since there are so many other things that need to use the mouse when decoding, a messagebox is probably the way to go. That is also what the other users want.


Andy,

Thanks for the code! That is a great idea, and I had already decided to do it that way. In addition the button background color is changed when the start/stop button is clicked.
BTW, right now I'm waiting for the "assistants" I mentioned in a PM. Their bus will pass here in just a few minutes. So the rest of the evening we are going to fly the CB colors here....


Regards
Egil

[Andy]

Egil,

As always, no problem, i had just 45 minutes to dig out the code inbetween doing other things and obaying Anne (the boss).

What you need to do is make two copies of each bitmap, one for the button, and one slightly a different colour when then button is hidden.

That will do it for you I think.

Andy.

[Egil]

What you need to do is make two copies of each bitmap, one for the button, and one slightly a different colour when then button is hidden.

We have similar thoughts about this. The demo above already use two bitmaps for each button, and now I'll use your idea to hide the buttons.
The visitors I had last night did not like my color scheme, and I think they might be right, so tonight I'll experiment a little with other colors.

Right now I'll escort two of my bosses (9 and 11 year old granddaughters)  to town,  and buy christmas presents  for one of their friends is spending her first of three years in Costa Rica.


Egil

[Andy]

Egil,

I've amended the program a little more.

This one has 4 buttons, when the program is set to in-active, buttons 1, 2, and 4 are hidden.

Button 3 remains "active".

I've also adjusted the alternative bitmap sizes to take into account the button's border which looks better.

See attached.

Andy.

[Egil]

Great idea Andy!

Thanks for sharing. As I told you yesterday, this is almost identical to what I planned here.
Have been busy doing bitmaps today. Here I'm making a set of new 24x24 bitmaps. Was a little more work than I had expected, and took me a while to decide what colors to use. found out by the oldest development method in histtory: "trial and error". 

But now I have to put this work aside for a while. My oldest granddaughter and her husband will arrive in less than an hour, and will stay here for the weekend.


Egil

[Egil]

This has been a rather busy week, but this morning I finally came around to work on this project again.
I found that in order to show a full multicolored bitmap inside a button control, the button controls had to be made five pixels both wider and higher than the bitmaps. Otherwise the animation effect would distort the appearance of the bitmap when pushing the button.

The attached picture show that the far left and far right buttons are the only two controls active when program is running. The rest are only bitmaps faking buttons.
The picture also shows that input channels 2 and 3 are "active" and that the output channel is saving the received data to disk. This means that the users  can see the state of the program with just a short glance, which was the only suggestionall users had in common. Have yet to decide if the shown color scheme will be the final one.

Regards,
Egil.

[Andy]

Egil,

That's great work.

As I mentioned in my last post, you do have to adjust the size of the bitmaps to take account of the button's border.

I found that on my second example that I had to adjust the bitmap's location as +2 across, +2 down, -2 width, and -2 height - it's just a matter of playing around with the sizes.

But I think you have what you wanted now, and it looks great.

Andy.