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Thread Dekstop component would be lovely
Mon, Dec 12 2011 5:54 PMPermanent Link

Ron Levy

Tim,

A desktop component (sort of like the app-attributes components we can get with Delphi) - would be nice, on my rather large screen the desktop does not seem to be extend to the entire screen (autoheight I suspect is not true - so manipulating it in component form instead of in code would be nice).

Also - need to have an option to have the main-form maximized - so the entire "window on desktop" metaphor can be removed - and the window can be aligned to the entire screen.

Also missing the ability to resize the windows via mouse control.
Mon, Dec 12 2011 8:53 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Ron,

<< A desktop component (sort of like the app-attributes components we can
get with Delphi) - would be nice, on my rather large screen the desktop does
not seem to be extend to the entire screen (autoheight I suspect is not
true - so manipulating it in component form instead of in code would be
nice). >>

The desktop is manipulated through the Project Options/Application page.
Any changes there are reflected in the main program source code
automatically via the two-way tools.

<< Also - need to have an option to have the main-form maximized - so the
entire "window on desktop" metaphor can be removed - and the window can be
aligned to the entire screen. >>

I'll see about adding a positioning option for this.

<< Also missing the ability to resize the windows via mouse control. >>

Yes, I know. Smile

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Mon, Dec 12 2011 9:43 PMPermanent Link

Ron Levy

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" wrote:

Ron,


<The desktop is manipulated through the Project Options/Application page.
Any changes there are reflected in the main program source code
automatically via the two-way tools.>

Thanks. That's great.

<< Also - need to have an option to have the main-form maximized - so the
entire "window on desktop" metaphor can be removed - and the window can be
aligned to the entire screen. >>

<I'll see about adding a positioning option for this.>

That would be a great start for the goal of making it more web-like and less desktop like in appearance. Removing the shadow that the window casts on the desktop would be the next - and then I will be able to bug you about OnResize events for the global window object and maybe even a layout manager - so everything looks more like a web application and we can do things like align containers in the middle instead of via absolute positioning...
Mon, Dec 12 2011 10:05 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Ron,

<< That would be a great start for the goal of making it more web-like and
less desktop like in appearance. Removing the shadow that the window casts
on the desktop would be the next - and then I will be able to bug you about
OnResize events for the global window object and maybe even a layout
manager - so everything looks more like a web application and we can do
things like align containers in the middle instead of via absolute
positioning... >>

Well, just so you know, EWB *has* to use absolute positioning.  Most of the
framework wouldn't work without it.  This isn't to say that the EWB
framework can't manage anchoring/alignment itself, just that I won't be
changing the DOM elements to start using natural document flow or relative
positioning.  You simply can't use anything other than absolute positioning
if you want to do something like EWB.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Mon, Dec 12 2011 10:14 PMPermanent Link

Ron Levy


<<<Well, just so you know, EWB *has* to use absolute positioning.  Most of the
framework wouldn't work without it.  This isn't to say that the EWB
framework can't manage anchoring/alignment itself, just that I won't be
changing the DOM elements to start using natural document flow or relative
positioning.  You simply can't use anything other than absolute positioning
if you want to do something like EWB.>>>

Yes, of course. I am thinking more of something like Delphi's align property - not of the free-flowing document properties of a web browser in relative positioning.

Just being able to define a "Box" (say a form, or a panel) as alCenter to it's container - that would be great.

Would be even better if we can separate the alignment properties to horizontal and vertical... with horizontal properties being alLeft, alHorizCenter, alRight, alClient, alNone and vertical being alTop, alVertCenter, alBottom, alClient, alNone - would be enough.
Tue, Dec 13 2011 6:45 AMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Ron,

<< Yes, of course. I am thinking more of something like Delphi's align
property - not of the free-flowing document properties of a web browser in
relative positioning.  >>

Just making sure. Smile We're on the same page, then.

<< Just being able to define a "Box" (say a form, or a panel) as alCenter to
it's container - that would be great.

Would be even better if we can separate the alignment properties to
horizontal and vertical... with horizontal properties being alLeft,
alHorizCenter, alRight, alClient, alNone and vertical being alTop,
alVertCenter, alBottom, alClient, alNone - would be enough. >>

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking - "anchoring" only (to use Delphi terms),
where you can set the top/left/bottom/right anchors to specify how the
control should behave as things are resized.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Wed, Apr 25 2012 11:15 AMPermanent Link

Leslie

Tim,

I was looking for clues in the framework source how the app could  reanchor itself, No solution yet. Do you have something cooking in this regard?

I could use some info to get started:

Application.Desktop has some sort of parent. How can I get its size? Using Application.DeskTop.Parent.Width in the code gives an error when the the page is displayed.

Does it have an event which could inform the app about size changes? If yes, an example would be useful.

In general there are classes and objects with no definition in the framework source.  At least  the interface would be useful to know their public properties and functions.

Cheers,
Leslie
Wed, Apr 25 2012 11:37 AMPermanent Link

Leslie

My goal would be to create a desktop like GUI. In order to do that the desktop must fit in the client area of the browser window and none of them should have scroolbars.This way some controls can always be at the same place on the screen  (toolbar, sidebar, status bar...) while the scrollable content is placed inside panels.

Cheers,
Leslie
Wed, Apr 25 2012 2:46 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Leslie,

<< I was looking for clues in the framework source how the app could
reanchor itself, No solution yet. Do you have something cooking in this
regard? >>

I'm not entirely sure what you mean - could you elaborate on what you're
trying to do ?

<< Application.Desktop has some sort of parent. How can I get its size?
Using Application.DeskTop.Parent.Width in the code gives an error when the
the page is displayed. >>

Actually, the desktop doesn't have a parent, at least not a
TContainerControl parent.  Its parent element is the body element of the
document, and this is the case for the forms also.

<< Does it have an event which could inform the app about size changes? If
yes, an example would be useful. >>

Yes, there's an OnResize event (TNotifyEvent type) for the TDesktop
component (WebForms unit).

<< In general there are classes and objects with no definition in the
framework source.  At least  the interface would be useful to know their
public properties and functions. >>

I'm not sure what you're talking about here (definition ???) - the entire
source code to the framework is provided.  You can see every single thing
that goes into any EWB application, and can modify it as you please.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Wed, Apr 25 2012 2:51 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Leslie,

<< My goal would be to create a desktop like GUI. In order to do that the
desktop must fit in the client area of the browser window and none of them
should have scroolbars.This way some controls can always be at the same
place on the screen  (toolbar, sidebar, status bar...) while the scrollable
content is placed inside panels. >>

This is exactly why I did not make the TDesktop be a container control for
the forms (it originally was).  It allows you to place other controls
directly on the desktop and still preserves the ability to use the control
handling of the TContainerControl (WebCtrls unit) to get a list of child
controls for the desktop, etc.  The TDesktop component is a direct
descendant of the TContainerControl component.

I still have to fix the issue that Rick mentioned regarding the forms being
able to be moved outside of the desktop area.  This bug was introduced when
I changed it so that the forms were no longer children of the desktop
container.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

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