XP Theme enabling..

[Borje Hagsten]

Why is it so? If to XP Theme enable a program, COMMCTRL.INC has to be
included, else the program won't start. Weird, so I boiled it down to
the ImageList_AddIcon function and since it's just a wrapper for the
ImageList_ReplaceIcon call, it means both those two are needed. IOW,
instead of including the entire COMMCTRL.INC, one can just include
FUNCTION ImageList_AddIcon and the declare for ImageList_ReplaceIcon.

Ok, but why at all? My code is not calling any of them, and I found no
info about them being necessary at MSDN. Somehow, the XP Theme engine
must be doing some really weird stunt with ImageList_AddIcon there ..


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[Michael Mattias]

From what you describe (error message? maybe some import from missing from "COMMCTRL.DLL"?), seems you could make program run simply by doing an InitCommonControlsEx with the appropriate flags for icons.

If your program is not calling ImageList_xxx, your program does not need "COMMCTRL.INC". Must be one of those built-in functions in COMMCTRL.INC which is causing COMMCTRL.DLL to be added to the import table.

[Borje Hagsten]

Nope, it does not have anything to do with initializing - it's that
exact function, ImageList_AddIcon. Had to step through COMMCTRL.INC
and rem out block by block to find it. And since ImageList_AddIcon
is just a wrapper for ImageList_ReplaceIcon, both the function and
the declare for ImageList_ReplaceIcon is needed. It's very stange.


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[Borje Hagsten]

Ok, my mistake, sort of. You are right, Michael - declaring and calling
InitCommonControls is enough too. Must be because the ImageList_AddIcon
function is a wrapper for ImageList_ReplaceIcon that initialization
happens if those two are included instead.

IOW, forget it - declaring and calling InitCommonControls alone at
program start is enough for XP Theme's app's to start ok.


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[Kev Peel]

Yep, that's right Borje. I had a rude awakening once when a themed app I was writing failed to show the main window. This was in the old days when I used to develop software in Win98, thankfully no more...

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[Roger Garstang]

I found that out a long time ago and even posted it somewhere.

I noticed it needed image functions when using the declares to disable
certain common controls to cut down on included code and was getting errors when
disabling the Image APIs with the declare.

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If you aim at nothing...you will hit it.

[Michael Mattias]

Call me naive, but ...

If WIndows/XP is smart enough to know it is going to be doing a 'themed' application...

Shouldn't it be smart enough to know to load the common controls DLL to the address space of said process?

Or does it load it, but is not smart enough to initialize it for whatever it needs to "do" themes?

(FWIW, I have no clue what makes an application "themed")

[Borje Hagsten]

I think it can be done in several ways, but the way I just did it
is - in a resource file, add:

1 24 "xptheme.xml"

In the code (as I just have learned), either include CommCtrl.inc or
add the declare for InitCommonControls and call it at startup. Then
save the following as xptheme.xml in same folder. Note that name and
version under assemblyIdentity should be name and version of the program,
so for a program called "MyProg.exe" version 1.0 it could look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity
    name="MyProg.exe"
    processorArchitecture="x86"
    version="1.0.0.0"
    type="win32"/>
<description>Windows Shell</description>
<dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity
            type="win32"
            name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
            version="6.0.0.0"
            processorArchitecture="x86"
            publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
            language="*"
        />
    </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

Compile and stir carefully, and you have made yourself a modern-looking
XP Theme-enabled PB program with fancy buttons, etc, when Theme is enabled.
No external files necessary to include in delivery, since xptheme.xml
(can probably be any name) is baked into it via the resource file. Those
values, 1 24, are MS equates CREATEPROCESS_MANIFEST_RESOURCE_ID
and RT_MANIFEST, but I use the values direct instead of having to define
them. There's an example in the file download section here by Bob Plymale
called Theme.zip (thank you, Bob), and more info can be found at MSDN.

PS, "Windows XP" and "smart" in same sentence? It's still basically Win 3.1,
or even DOS, but in a fancier and more complicated costume..

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[This message has been edited by Borje Hagsten (edited April 21, 2005).]

[Roger Garstang]

Yup, that is all that is required for themes unless you use Tab
Controls. Especially if they have icons. Bgrounds of the icons
don't paint transparent, and sometimes are larger than tab. Color
of the tab panel is also white instead of ButtonFace. And Image
buttons...along with RRbuttons aren't Themed. I found some code
to add to your RRbutton to theme it, but never got around to adding
it yet.

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If you aim at nothing...you will hit it.

[This message has been edited by Roger Garstang (edited April 21, 2005).]

[John Reinking]

publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"

Of course, Cut'n'Paste would have saved me 2 hours of grief!
There are no l's { ells - you know, lower case L, chr$(108)} here.

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[Michael Mattias]

>there are no l's { ells - you know, lower case l, chr$(108)} here

actually, in resource scripts "l" is used..

myresname   myrestype
begin
   123l,    // force to 32-bit instead of default 16-bit
   "happy days\0"
end

this would be the 'user-defined resource' way to store a pb udt like...

type myrestype
 a   as long
 b   as asciiz * %max_myrestype_text_len
end type

more on user-defined resources here:
user-defined resource demo january 26 2003

[Michael Mattias]

i think it can be done in several ways, but the way i just did it
is - in a resource file, add:

1 24 "xptheme.xml"

seems to me you could just 'inline' that xml script, if avoiding the use of yet another physical file ("xptheme.xml") would be desireable..

// myprog.rc
// ....
//   theme definition  ///
1 24 
begin
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>,
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestversion="1.0">,
<assemblyidentity,
 name="myprog.exe",
...

end

i'm not sure if you need the newline characters (i'm not that familiar with xml), but you could insert those easily enough.

of course, if you don't mind "yet another physical file" then it's no big deal. me, i really do not like needing a zillion physical files to make up a 'source code package' and if i already need the "*.rc" file, well, this way would be one less file to lose/corrupt/accidentally erase, etc.

reference: user-defined resource demo january 26 2003

[later]
or, you could use mr. durham's recently posted code at http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ad.php?t=24569 if you just want to keep the 'theme' info in your 'regular' source code...
[/later]

golly, i like having all these options!

mcm



[this message has been edited by michael mattias (edited april 26, 2005).]

[Simon Morgan]

Thanks, Borje, that works a treat. I also looked at Bob Plymale's example in the download section, but does anyone have a method for dealing with the tab control and image button problem?

I have an image button that I sometimes need to blank by removing the image. At that moment the button changes from square-cornered to round - not very elegant!

[Bob Plymale]

You will have to manually theme the button or any control.

Give me your email and I will email you an example of manually theming.

Bob

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[Simon Morgan]

Many thanks for that offer, Bob. My email address is:
simon.morgan <at> buchanancomputing.co.uk

[Edwin Knoppert]

Why not post that in the source forum?

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PwrStat - Static library linker for pb/dll or pb/win.

[Trento Castricone]

Bob

I would also like to know how to manually theme a button or control

Thanks

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Trento Castricone
http://www.raineyday.com
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Bernhard Fomm]

I also.

[Bob Plymale]

Well, I am looking for my code now. I did that over a year ago.
I did send it to several people, just do not remember who. But if they see
this email can they please send me the code and I will post it to the forum.

If I cannot find the code or no one sends me a copy I will redo it next weekend and
post.

Bob

bob at plymale dot us

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