SKIN Programs

[AnilGopu]

Hi, I am Looking for Writting Some SKIN enabled Programs. Pl Give some Info on this and related Sites.

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Regards,
AnilGopu

[DrBrain]

Could you explain your self a bit.

[AnilGopu]

Skin Program mean the Program which can have a Soft Shape, in windows env. For Example Lycos "NEOPlanet" is a Skin Program. User can select, his own Skin from the Skins supplied by NeoPlanet developers. For this kind of programs user can create his own skins also. For ex. ActiveSkin ActiveX control of Softshape "www.softshape.com" provides a Skin Builder with the Control.



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Regards,
AnilGopu

[lvramanan]

Hi AnilGopu,
I hope that you're from India. I'm also from India. Ok, I'll come to the matter. For you, in getting example for skins, you goto http://www.planet-source-code.com and on the right hand side you'll see several links showing different subjects. From that Choose, VB and in that you'll see a demo (Project) name skin demo. Get it downloaded and it's a very nice stuff. But I'm not clear with what he had used. if u understand anything, Please help me. If you want more you search there, (keyword skins), you'll find a lot of documents with skin example.
Meet you Later.
Regards,
Ramanan.

If you've any more doubts you can contact me at
lvramanan@yahoo.com

[amitabh]

You can try http://www.vbaccelerator.com . They have explained the whole concept as well given quite a few examples.

[agent]

I could never get the NeoCaption from vbaccelerator to work with skins that i made myself. IF you put image controls around the borders of the forms, and use a couple of api functions (sendmessage and releasecapture), you can get a resizable skin app.

I wrote a skinning control that uses this method to skin a form. very basic. you must manually resize the Skin control in the form_resize event, and you must tell it when your form gets and loses focus, but it gets the job done.

you can get it at http://agent_153.tripod.com/SkinCTL.zip

[KrishnaSantosh]

Using Windows API you can shape your form in any way you want. Either like a face, or an elephant or what ever you like. For Details Please EMail Me.

ID : santoshkrishna@santoshsmail.com

[amitabh]

Skinning doesnot mean just creating odd shaped forms, it means making the shape of the form run time dependent. It depends upon the skin choosen by the user about which you might not be knowing at the design time.

[jier]

Well..ive made many many many skinnable programs..and there is no need for controls..

its as simple as...loading ini's and pictures...heres an example..

if getini("skin","current",app.path & "\myapp.ini") = "" then
me.picture=loadpicture(app.path & "\skins\default\main.bmp")
end if


pretty simple...if you need more help..just ask
check out some of my programs: www.545studios.com

[amitabh]

That's ok if you have a predefined shape, but how do you change the shape of the form every time a new skin comes up as in Windows Media Player 7

[jier]

using me.cls, me.refresh, and CreateWindowRGN

[amitabh]

So it means that the shape co-ordinates willhave to be provide in the ini files that yo were talking about

[jier]

no it doesnt...you pick out the magic pink, from the bmp loaded, and chape the form

[amitabh]

Could you clarify what you do you mean by "magic pink"

[jier]

in the skin scene, magic pink refers to rgb(255,0,255), 99% of skinnable programs use this color to know what area's the skin designers want to be transparent.

[amitabh]

Thanks jier

[jier]

no problem..if you need any more help..just ask.

[lvramanan]

Hi jier,
I found that you've changed only the form's background and other things. I hope that you would've seen windows media player 7 and also a skin in it , by the name HeadSpace. There the form's shaped is irregular unlike yours. your's will be ok if my bitmap is a Rectangluar shape or Sqyare. If my bitmap is Circular or any other shape, it'll not be nice. If what I told is right, Please give me the solution, or if i'm wrong please explain me what i have to do. Anyway thank you.

[jier]

ummm..yeah

i explained howto shape forms, and load images..you must have missed it or something, loop through the forms image, using GetPixel, if the pixel is rgb(255,0,255), update th rgn, removeing that area..loop thorough a few more times to make sure you get all the pixels...and SetWindowRgn

[Ibis]

Hi,
I don't understand it, can you please give me a full example how to load a skin into VB, including the text in the .ini files?

Ciao,
Philip Klop

[jier]

I wont give you a example, But i have some for you! :)

There's a cool little notepad replacement out..and the code for it, as well as more skin examples can be found here:

http://www.veoweb.com/users/kewlpad/code.html

[Ibis]

Hi,
Thanks man!

Ciao,
Philip Klop

Ibisware Productions
http://www.ibisware.com/

[sweetagar]

I tried NeoCaption on my MDI, but it generates error upon creating a new Child Windows!

Is there any example work with MDI?

Much Thanks