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Thread: Updating the UI on an old app.

  1. #1

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    Question Updating the UI on an old app.

    Thanks fo reading.

    I have a VB6 app that I would like to re-release with a face lift more in keeping with what Windows 10 users might expect.

    I do have v15 of Codejock but even that isn't great. I was wondering if there might be some specifically written VB6 controls that "look modern" .... For example the types of slide buttons you might see on web pages, instead of the old style radio buttons (black dot etc), something more stylish / modern.

    Examples

    Name:  __button.jpg
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Size:  5.8 KB or similar

    Name:  __button1.jpg
Views: 347
Size:  8.3 KB


    Would appreciate any suggestions.
    Thanks

  2. #2
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Leandro Ascierto has a lot of very nice, very modern looking UserControls

    https://leandroascierto.com/blog/cat...es-de-usuarios

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    Hyperactive Member -Franky-'s Avatar
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Alternatively, you can also use the WinRT XAML controls via the XAML Islands in VB6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...s/xaml-islands

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    'Modern'. Doh.
    https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert

    Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by fafalone View Post
    Leandro Ascierto has a lot of very nice, very modern looking UserControls

    https://leandroascierto.com/blog/cat...es-de-usuarios
    +1 his controls are amazing

  6. #6

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by -Franky- View Post
    Alternatively, you can also use the WinRT XAML controls via the XAML Islands in VB6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...s/xaml-islands
    Have you done this or have you seen examples of this done in VB6? I'm interested in seeing some code as well as the end result.

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    Talking Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    If there were some sort of visual designer that would output the XAML code for you then maybe this would be a viable alternative. Otherwise it's slow torture! Franky does have some VB6 examples though on the german forum.

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    PowerPoster yereverluvinuncleber's Avatar
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Same as my experience with RichClient to create standard forms. Without a visual designer any form layout is similar to driving 0.75" nails into your eyes with a toothbrush. It can be done but is so slow and painful as to make it almost pointless. That is why I use a PSD design using Photoshop - which is a perfectly good layout engine for VB6/RC6, coupled with Olaf's simple PSD parser, you can make any design, however 'modern' - into a form.
    https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert

    Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.

    By the power invested in me, all the threads I start are battle free zones - no arguing about the benefits of VB6 over .NET here please. Happiness must reign.

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    Same as my experience with RichClient to create standard forms. Without a visual designer any form layout is similar to driving 0.75" nails into your eyes with a toothbrush. It can be done but is so slow and painful as to make it almost pointless. That is why I use a PSD design using Photoshop - which is a perfectly good layout engine for VB6/RC6, coupled with Olaf's simple PSD parser, you can make any design, however 'modern' - into a form.
    Appreciate the reply, and thanks for that tip. Great idea.

    Cheers

  11. #11
    Hyperactive Member -Franky-'s Avatar
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by AAraya View Post
    Have you done this or have you seen examples of this done in VB6? I'm interested in seeing some code as well as the end result.
    I have several examples of how to use the WinRT XAML controls in VB6. However, I don't have the time to go any further here and therefore the events for these controls are missing. Some projects cannot be compiled because the names of the classes are sometimes too long. In order for the projects to be able to run directly in the IDE, the VB6.EXE needs a manifest. The required part for the manifest can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...cation-project For projects that are compilable, the manifest is included in the RES.
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by -Franky- View Post
    I have several examples of how to use the WinRT XAML controls in VB6. However, I don't have the time to go any further here and therefore the events for these controls are missing. Some projects cannot be compiled because the names of the classes are sometimes too long. In order for the projects to be able to run directly in the IDE, the VB6.EXE needs a manifest. The required part for the manifest can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...cation-project For projects that are compilable, the manifest is included in the RES.

    Nice thank you. Looking forward to trying it out.

    Cheers

  13. #13
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Olaf is supposedly creating a forms layout designer for RichClient, SearchingDataOnly may well be doing the same for something VB6/RC/script-ish. This is all hearsay but we can only hope. Without a graphic designer of some sort, any new ability to drop a few controls onto a VB6 form is going to run into serious problems when a multitude of 'modern' controls on a complex, muti-tabbed form are required. It would drive me, for one, MAD.

    As I said, using Photoshop, I am creating RC5/6 based forms using custom graphic controls each image layer becoming a widget with events &c. This is comparatively easily but when it comes to recreating a VB6-type form using RC, all the while, repositioning a multitude of VB6-equivalent RC widget buttons, labels &c onto an RC form, it is,for me, unworkable without a designer. That is why I still use VB6 forms and menus in conjunction with RichClient. I have in excess of 255 controls on my VB6 forms and I could not do all the positioning without the forms designer that VB6 provides.

    Converters from one format to another are fine, but you still have to revert back to the Vb6 designer when you want to make a complicated change and then when you re-generate the conversion, you stand to lose a lot of your later code.

    If you are thinking about creating/using and maintaining an app using 'modern' controls my first step would be to build your own forms designer.

    A forms layout engine by itself would be a grand thing but it needs to have some capability to integrate with your code so that each run of the designer doesn't kill your existing code.

    I previously coded in .js using Photoshop as the designer (just as I do now for VB6) the lack of integration between the graphics tool and the coding environment was the one thing I missed from my earlier VB6 days. I still do have to really perfect the graphics design before I release it as a basis for a VB6/RC form. However, Olaf's simple PSD parser really makes the whole process a lot easier meaning that you pop a PSD in one end and out comes a form in your program. You have all seen examples of my creations and you do not have to create steampunk stuff. If you can design using photoshop, you can make ANYTHING.
    Last edited by yereverluvinuncleber; Oct 19th, 2024 at 08:35 AM.
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  14. #14
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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Sorry to go on about this, sounding a bit like xiao...

    One of the good things about having 'graphic' controls rather than native VB6 controls or importing 'foreign' controls from other environments, is that you have complete control. You are not limited to a set of events and properties and functionality. You are in control of the look and feel and you can just swap in an alternative, to suit what is currently considered 'modern' - at will. You aren't stuck with a particular look. Once you have a PSD and the logic, you can swap the PSD and you have a new look entirely, same logic.
    https://github.com/yereverluvinunclebert

    Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.

    By the power invested in me, all the threads I start are battle free zones - no arguing about the benefits of VB6 over .NET here please. Happiness must reign.

  15. #15

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    Re: Updating the UI on an old app.

    Quote Originally Posted by yereverluvinuncleber View Post
    Sorry to go on about this, sounding a bit like xiao...

    One of the good things about having 'graphic' controls rather than native VB6 controls or importing 'foreign' controls from other environments, is that you have complete control. You are not limited to a set of events and properties and functionality. You are in control of the look and feel and you can just swap in an alternative, to suit what is currently considered 'modern' - at will. You aren't stuck with a particular look. Once you have a PSD and the logic, you can swap the PSD and you have a new look entirely, same logic.
    Yes totally agree.

    I really do not like using third party controls where I can avoid it, unless they come with source, or have generously been contributed by clever developers who have built a control and provided the source code as well.

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