DP Tool Club 26/CD_ASCQ_26_1295.iso/vrac/sbardemo.zip/README.TXT

Text File | 1995-08-18 | 18KB | 383 lines

Status Bar DEMO - Version 3.00

By:  M. J.  Rodriguez     CIS ID: 100321,620
                        Internet: [e-mail]
                                  [e-mail]


This compressed file contains the following files:

CONSTANT.GLB    - A supporting file for the demo
FORM1.FRM     - Demo Form for the project
FORM1.FRX    - VB Support Graphic file for FORM1.FRM
README.TXT    - This File
SBARDEMO.EXE    - Executable of the Demo
SBARDEMO.MAK    - Project MAK file
STATBAR.BAS     - Status Bar Module you need for any status bar
STATBAR.BMP    - BMP file used for the SBAR_MINICON Panels

Contents:
-------------------------------------------------
About the Code
Status Bar Implementation
How the Status Bar is Drawn
Adding the StatusBar to your project
How the Code Works
Use of the Status Bar with Menu's and Mouse Movements.
VB 4.0
Disclaimer
-------------------------------------------------


About the Code:
-------------------------------------------------

In early May I put out a project in CompuServe for a status bar that could be
displayed using just a label, a timer, and a picture box.  Then a week later,
I modified it by removing the label and just went with the timer and
PictureBox.  Suffice it to say, I have had over 1000 downloads of it and have
received many compliments.  Then as always, it doesn't quite meet just what
the user wants and so the questions came in.  This third iteration is the
result of some of those requests and includes some tips, although modified
here, from other users.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the name of the few who
did send in suggestions and additions, but if you see it again, I apologize
for not including your name... however, VC..(you know who you are because I
remember your initials), you get credit for the SBAR_FIXEDTEXT which was a
great idea and your code is included.   The person who sent me the SBAR_BUTTON
idea (without the code, so what you see is what I did) you get at least
partial credit for it.  And a special thanks to the Los Angeles Visual Basic
User's Group for their many kind comments.  I hope this will get added to your
Top Ten list again.

I have modularized this code to the point where you should be able to just
drop it into your projects and go.  If you have any problems let me know.


Status Bar Implementation:
-------------------------------------------------

In this concept, the Status bar is divided into panels.  Each panel is drawn
individually.  Each panel has properties which you can change.  How you change
the panel is determined by your needs.  The properties are kept in an array of
a user-defined type called PanelType.

Here is the structure of PanelType..

Type PanelType
    sCaption As String          'Caption contained in the panel
    PanelStyle As PanelStyleType 'Panel Information
    iFontBold As Integer        'Whether or not font is bold
    iFont3D As Integer          'Whether or not font is 3D
    sFontName As String         'Font Name - Defaults to statusbar setting
    sFontSize As String         'Font Size - Defaults to statusbar setting
    lFontColor As Long          'Font Color - Defaults to statusbar setting
    bVisible As Integer         'Let's you hide or show any panel you wish
End Type


The PanelStyle element is a user-defined type called PanelStyleType.  There is
no particular reason why I did it this way other than to isolate some
properties.  In the original implementation, the Status Bar passed the
PanelStyle element for drawing purposes.  Now, it isn't done that way, so
instead of changing it to be one complete element, I left it the way it was
and expanded it.  Probably not good coding, but it works.  Here is the
PanelStyleType.


Type PanelStyleType
    iLeft As Integer            'Left Position of the panel
    iTop As Integer             'Top position of the panel
    iWidth As Integer           'Width of the panel
    iHeight As Integer          'Height of the Panel
    iBorderStyle As Integer     'Type of panel 0-Recessed, 1-Raised, 2-Flat: User Defined
    iFormat As Integer          'Format of the panel - Text, Date, Time, etc...: User Defined
    iTextFormat As Integer      'Format of Text in the panel VCENTER, CENTER, etc.: User Defined
    iOther As Integer           'Used for Icon Information or Percentage in the Meter Bar
    lOther As Long              'User for color of the meter bar or whatever else needs to be used
End Type


These properties change as you need them to.  Once they are changed, they will
be reflected the next time the panel is drawn.

The following are the types of panels as defined by global constants.  These
are not the only types you are limited to as you certainly can add any type
you want.  It's entirely up to you.


'Format of the panels
Global Const SBAR_TEXT = 0            'Panel just contains text
Global Const SBAR_DATE = 1            'Panel contains the date
Global Const SBAR_TIME = 2            'Panel contains the time
Global Const SBAR_WEEKDAY = 3         'Panel contains the weekday
Global Const SBAR_FULLDATE = 4        'Panel Shows date as Tuesday Jan 1, 1995
Global Const SBAR_CAPSLOCK = 5        'Panel is a CAPLOCK toggle display
Global Const SBAR_NUMLOCK = 6         'Panel is a NUMLOCK toggle display
Global Const SBAR_SCROLL = 7          'Panel is a SCROLL LOCK toggle display
Global Const SBAR_COUNTER = 8         'Panel is a counter display
Global Const SBAR_FIXEDTEXT = 9       'Panel contains a fixed text
Global Const SBAR_MINICON = 10        'Panel is a miniature icon display
Global Const SBAR_ICONMIX = 11        'Panel is a miniature icon/text display
Global Const SBAR_BUTTON = 12         'Panel will emulate a button and fire and event when clicked
Global Const SBAR_METER = 13          'Panel is a meter control that displays progress

The SBAR_MINICON and SBAR_ICONMIX are unique in that they reference small
icons.  In reality, I use another PictureBox names sbar_pics and include a
single bitmap of all the small "icons" I want to use.  The individual pieces
of the bitmap are 16 x 16 pixels and drawn using PaintBrush.  The program
makes the assumption that you will do the same otherwise, the pictures may not
come out correctly.  In the project, you will need to add at least one picture
box named sbar_pics.  It doesn't have to big and can be invisible.  If you
don't want to add the sbar_pics PictureBox, then remark out or delete all the
references in the code that work with these types.  Most of them are in
Select..Case statements and a few If..Then..Else.. blocks which are easily
remarked out.

The panels are displayed in one of three ways: Flat, Raised, or Recessed.
Here are the constants used in the implementation.

Global Const SBAR_PANEL_RECESSED = 0
Global Const SBAR_PANEL_RAISED = 1
Global Const SBAR_PANEL_FLAT = 2

By setting the iBorderStyle element in the PanelStyle UDT, you determine what
the appearance of the panel will be.


How the Status Bar is Drawn.
-------------------------------------------------

The Status Bar is drawn using the DrawText API call and the Line Method.  Each
panel size is determined by a number of conditions.  Every panel except
SBAR_TEXT, SBAR_ICONMIX, and SBAR_METER is determined by the size of the
element being displayed using a predefined format.  For example, the
SBAR_FULLDATE size is determined by the width of the text of a formatted
string containing capital X's and usually is represented the largest character
count of the possible text.  This allows for constant size.  The SBAR_TEXT and
SBAR_ICONMIX are displayed if any space is left over after all the fixed sized
panels are subtracted from the available width minus the size of the border of
the status bar around the panels and the gaps between each panel.  SBAR_METER
is a globally defined constant which can be changed by you.  It is currently
set to 100 pixels in width.  Here are the constants used in determining sizes
of borders and gaps.

Global Const SBAR_BORDERSIZE = 2      'Space between StatusBar borders and panels in pixels
Global Const SBAR_PANELGAP = 4        'Gap between panels in Pixels
Global Const SBAR_TEXTGAP = 1         'Gap in between the text and the border in pixels
Global Const SBAR_METERWIDTH = 100    'Width in pixels of the Meter panel

These measurements are determined by you and will affect the size of the
status bar's height.  Width is automatically decided as the status bar is
anchored to the bottom of the form.  This can be changed by adjusting the
Align property of the StatusBar control.


Adding the StatusBar to your project
-------------------------------------------------

First thing, decide which form or forms your Status bar is going on.  You
aren't limited to just one form.  You can have a status bar on any form you
want or as many.  There may be a performance sacrifice if you have like GOBS
of forms with Status Bars, but whatever makes you happy, I always say...

If this is not a MDI form, and you have panels for CapLock, NumLock, or
ScrollLock, or add anyother toggle function, then you want to change the forms
KeyPreview property to True and then add in the Form_KeyDown procedure the
follwing snippet:

    UpdateKeyPanels StatusBar, sb_panels()

This procedure takes care of just toggle keys.  If you have an MDI form,
obviously, you can't use this because there is no KeyPreview property.
The Timer procedure does take care of this.


In the Forms Declaration section of the form, add the following:

    Dim sb_panels() As PanelType
    Dim sb_initialized As Integer

The sb_panels() is for the status bar for that form.  For any other form, just
add the same thing.  It doesn't matter.

You will need to add a procedure in the General Declarations section called
CreatePanels.  A remarked out copy of the procedure is available in the
General Declaration Section of the STATBAR.BAS file. You can use it as a
template for your setting properties and the number of panels you want to
create.  You can also use the copy that is available in the sample project.  Just
look in the general section and look for the CreatePanels procedure.  A simple
cut and paste will make it real easy to add.

In the Form_Load event, you will need to add the following code snippet.

    Dim bSuc%

    CreatePanels
    bSuc% = InitializeStatusBar(Me, sb_panels())
    sb_initialized = True

Now you are ready to add the status bar to your project. In the form,  you
need to add a picture box to your form.  If this is a MDI form, it will be
auto-aligned to the top.  It can be changed programatically later so don't
worry.  Set the Name property of the Picture box to 'StatusBar'.  That's all
you need to do with it.

In the StatusBar_Resize Event, add the following snippet:

    If Me.WindowState <> 1 Then
        If sb_initialized Then DisplayStatusBar Me.StatusBar, sb_panels()
    End If

If you are using the SBAR_BUTTON panel, then add the following code to the
StatusBar_MouseDown  and StatusBar_MouseMove procedures:

    SBarMouseDown StatusBar, Button, Shift, X, Y, sb_panels()

then add the following snippet to the StatusBar_MouseUp procedure:

    SBarMouseUp StatusBar, Button, Shift, X, Y, sb_panels()

These procedures have been setup to deal with the SBAR_BUTTON type panels.

Once you have done this, now add a timer and set the properties to the
following:

    Enabled   True
    Interval  200
    Name      StatTimer

In the StatTimer_Timer procedure, add the following snippet:

    UpdateTimePanels StatusBar, sb_panels()

unless you are using an MDI form, then you want to use this procedure:

    UpdateStatusPanels StatusBar, sb_panels()

which takes care of the toggle keys you want to use.


The last control you need to add is another picture box for the SBAR_MINICONS
if you want them in your project.  Add the PictureBox and set the following
properties:

    AutoRedraw  True
    AutoSize    True
    Name        sbar_pics
    ScaleMode   3 - Pixel
    Visible     False

The Picture property does not have to be set at design time, but it's up to
you.  Again, if you don't want to use SBAR_MINICONS or SBAR_ICONMIX, then
don't add the controls and remark out the lines that perform operations on the
sbar_pics control.


How the Code Works
-------------------------------------------------

The process involves, first, initializing the status bar by creating the
panels and then actually drawing the initial status bar.  Then as changes to
the status bar panels occur, they are redrawn.  They are redrawn on an
as-needed-basis, meaning that if the information changes in the panel, it is
redrawn and only redrawn for that panel.  The whole status bar does not have
to be redrawn unless the user resizes the form.  In this case, the resizing is
necessary because some parts of the status bar will go away and in order for
the user to see it, it has to be redrawn.  The dynamic panels of SBAR_TEXT and
SBAR_ICONMIX will adjust sizes if the status bar changes width.  What this
does is make it easier for the system to not make a change unless needed and
significantly speed up the updating of the status bar.  This is especially
useful for the Timer procedure because in many cases, it will be a quick in
and out process.  As such, if you make a change, just update the panel you
want.  In most cases, you will want to update only the text panel as you will
probably use that to display feedback to your user.


There are no VBX's or DLL's used except for the DrawText, GetKeyState and
BitBlt API functions.  That's all that's needed.  The rest is done all through
VB code.


Use of the Status Bar with Menu's and Mouse Movements.
-------------------------------------------------

I purposely did not include examples of how to use menu events to update the
Status Bar.  You are probably going to need a VBX that intercepts Window's
messages.  As far as mouse movements are concerned, you add those to wherever
you wish by simple calling the UpdateTextPanel procedure and pass the
StatusBar control, the Panel element from the array, and the new caption.
In this case, there is enough flexibility to abstract some of that by calling
one procedure that makes the decision of which panel gets updated and when
and then you call one procedure for any changes.  In my usage of this code, I
usually have the main form have a StatusBar only (such as an MDI form) and then
modularly declare the status panels in my application's main module.  In that
module, I have an initialization procedure and a procedure which handles the
display of the status bar.  Also, I have added pop-up menu support for turning
on and turning off specific panels by the user.  That info is saved in an INI
file so if the user wants to add GDI meter and FSR meter and a CapsLock panel,
they can do it by right clicking the mouse on the StatusBar and having a
Pop-up menu which turns off or turns on different configurations and even
changes what the panels actually show.  Some may want to have three SBAR_METER
panels, a SBAR_FULLDATE panel, the SBAR_CAPSLOCK panel, and two SBAR_MINICON
panels which monitor printing and incoming mail.   Again, it is easy to add
procedures which can increase the functionality of your StatusBar and make it
effective for your application.  While I could have added all that
functionality, time is something I don't have a lot of.  Suffice it to say,
this code is not a solution as it is more of a template.

One small not if you allow users to dynamically change or you dynamically
change the status bar panels configuration - call the DisplayStatusBar
procedure to redraw the status bar after you change the configuration so you
don't get a funny looking status bar.  An example would be like you changed
panel 2 from an SBAR_METER to an SBAR_ICONMIXED format.  Obviously, you are
going to have to redraw the whole thing again to make it look correct.  Again,
the DisplayStatusBar procedure will take care of this for you.  A better
method would be to call the Form_Resize event which automatically redraws the
status bar.

There is also those who like to use what I call a Flash Message method. What
this does is redraw the entire status bar and displays just a message.  To use
the FlashMessage, pass the StatusBar and the message you want to display and
voila.  At some point, you will need to restore the status bar.  Just call the
DisplayStatusBar procedure.  Real quick.

I would encourage you to look at the sample project to see how easy it is to
add functionality.  You can experiment with it to better understand how it
works and really get a sense of how well this can work in your application.

VB 4.0
-------------------------------------------------

VB 4.0 may make this obsolete so I don't think I will do anymore with this
code.  However, if they do something and it turns out that it can't do what
this code can do.. guess what.. I will make it VB 4.0 compatible..<g>


Disclaimer
-------------------------------------------------

I hate to do this but the reason is very simple.  This code is for you to use
for FREE.  You may modify it in whatever manner you choose.  I am more
interested in helping those who are looking for something with some good
functionality, but can be tailored to fit a specific need.  Because of this:

I MAKE NO WARRANTY EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED ON THE RELIABILITY OR
USEFULNESS OF THIS PRODUCT.  I ASSUME NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY
DAMAGES CAUSED BY USE OF THIS PRODUCT.  THE USER ASSUMES ALL RISK FOR USE OF
THIS PRODUCT.

If you have any questions or comments, and especially if you have suggestions
or things to add to it, you are encouraged to make contact with me.  I am very
interested to see what types of changes you make or improvements you add.  I
would very much like a copy of what you did.  I never claim nor do I ever try
to imply that I know everything, but I like to share information and if you
have some stuff for me, I would certainly love the opportunity to share code
or say hello.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

M. John Rodriguez