frontend developers - forms and menues

Mcnovy · 05-09-2006, 03:06 AM

Hey.

im making my own front end, but i have a Q. for other developers of front-end.

the way im about to do it, is (by the way its C#) i got a form, and in that form, i use usercontrols to be used as menu's.

how do others do it..

ex code, og just explanations would be great.. thanks

Enforcer · 05-09-2006, 04:27 AM

if you can understand VB6, download the Road Runner Source and have a look at that.

skrewdlude · 05-12-2006, 10:40 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Mcnovy

Hey.

im making my own front end, but i have a Q. for other developers of front-end.

the way im about to do it, is (by the way its C#) i got a form, and in that form, i use usercontrols to be used as menu's.

how do others do it..

ex code, og just explanations would be great.. thanks

Can you make a quick paint image of what you are trying to do? Why are you using user controls as menus? There is a built in menu control. It is in the System.Windows.Forms name space.

Ineffigy · 06-10-2006, 02:36 AM

He's probably wanting to create an interface that is skinnable and uses graphics for the buttons. There are a few ways to do this. Is this what you are trying to accomplish?

Mcnovy · 06-10-2006, 08:46 AM

Ineffigy

yes.. that is exactly what i am trying to

do any of you have an prober way to do it..?

badman · 12-11-2006, 06:04 AM

www.codeproject.com ?

Ineffigy · 12-12-2006, 10:19 AM

You might want to look into "Owner Drawn" controls. This allows you to have control over how the controls (buttons, drop down menus , etc) are created. Another idea is to generate your own controls using DirectX. This will allow for hardware acceleration and alpha blending techniques. It all depends on how fancy you want to get.

sama · 12-12-2006, 10:28 AM

a simple way would be to work on an image, and have a file that defines clickable areas. To begin with, you can have one image. then you can start adding images that are hidden, and the button you press, reveals that part of the hidden image and so giving the illusion of animation.

this would be a much better way than to use a form. however, for rapid develipment (and you can worry about skinning later) you can use a form, but make sure you dont' embedd too much into the actual buttons, and just have the buttons calls methods. in that way, when you do implement the code for a skin, you can point the click-over to the method.

hope that helps

Ineffigy · 12-12-2006, 11:05 AM

Why not go a step further and have an XML file that defines each object, the properties (aka images) of the object and the method to be called from being "clicked" on or any other event. This way the screen becomes totally customizable and you can work on the background processing instead of focusing on the interface.

sama · 12-12-2006, 11:14 AM

that's exactly what I said

FMode · 12-12-2006, 11:56 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Mcnovy

Hey.

im making my own front end, but i have a Q. for other developers of front-end.

the way im about to do it, is (by the way its C#) i got a form, and in that form, i use usercontrols to be used as menu's.

how do others do it..

ex code, og just explanations would be great.. thanks

If you really need your own frontend:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/cf-plugins/71327-vb-net-plugin-new-concepts.html
(this is also running standalone because it is not using CF's skinning engine)

Ineffigy · 12-12-2006, 03:09 PM

Looks like Street Deck is about to become the better solution of addin development.

http://www.mp3car.com/wiki/index.php...for_StreetDeck

Aaaron16 · 02-04-2007, 02:16 AM

I like the idea of using DirectX, especially for the alpha blending capabilities. Does anyone have links to projects that do it this way?

farolfo · 02-05-2007, 04:29 AM

Plastico HT on www.sf.net have a complete set of usercontrol like menu, common dialog and other features, it's open source and it is made in vb6

Mcnovy · 02-17-2007, 04:30 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by sama

a simple way would be to work on an image, and have a file that defines clickable areas. To begin with, you can have one image. then you can start adding images that are hidden, and the button you press, reveals that part of the hidden image and so giving the illusion of animation.

this would be a much better way than to use a form. however, for rapid develipment (and you can worry about skinning later) you can use a form, but make sure you dont' embedd too much into the actual buttons, and just have the buttons calls methods. in that way, when you do implement the code for a skin, you can point the click-over to the method.

hope that helps

Quote:

Why not go a step further and have an XML file that defines each object, the properties (aka images) of the object and the method to be called from being "clicked" on or any other event. This way the screen becomes totally customizable and you can work on the background processing instead of focusing on the interface.

is XML the way other front end developers are making their skinning options..?

and, do anyone have some links on how to's..?
thanks..:!

appreciate all help I can get.!

do not wish to use either CF or SD, would like to create my own (one reason is to make myself a better programmer)