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To be able to use my HTC Home with giant Wisebar Desktop icons at the bottom.
Currently, under my HTC home I have my Live Search text entry bar. Then under that is my Pocket Sports Center. However, there is nothing below that which leaves me approx. 1/4 of my screen unused. I want to get rid of my soft keys Calender (left) and iContacts (right) and use those big icons I've seen.
Basically, I want this...
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3390&d=1195825266
but I want a calender icon (left) & this "corded phone" icon (right) that will launch my calender & iContacts, respectively. Hell, if a Comm Manager icon could be squeezed between 'em that would be even better.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32131&d=1166278224
What program and icon set do I need to accomplish this? I'm not a total stranger to this but still learning...so a brief "how-to" would be extremely useful as well.
Well Wisbar is definitely your answer. Head on over to LakeridgeSoftware.com and download the free trial for Wisbar Advance Desktop. It will give you a 7 day trial fully functional, so you can see whether or not you want to keep it (for 10 bucks i think its very much worth it).
It's difficult to use at first, make sure you use the forums on the website to get yourself oriented, but once you learn it, it's incredibly versatile and pretty much limitless to what you can make your phone look like.
I'm fairly experienced with it and will gladly help you out if you run into any problems, but for what you're looking to do I think it should be very simple. WAD has an option built right in to disable the bottom contacts/calendar bar, but make sure you have the HTC home customizer installed so you can unlock the plugin so you can use it when WAD is running.
Let me know if you need any help, I'm sure I could help you throw something together for your christmas stocking lol
OK, so I got WAD installed. I've had HTC Home Customizer installed for sometime now. All I want to do is keep my phone exactly the same way it is now but replace the soft keys with icons.
Can ya give me a quick run down of what switches to toggle and all that?
I'm still trying to find those icons.
Hey,
I am developing for WM5 using C# ... is there any way that I can show my SIP keyboard but without the bar below it? I am running my App fullscreen and it just looks silly with the little bar below it... also it's a waste of real estate of the screen.
this is a pic of what I mean
Is there any reg key/COM usage/code/workarounds or anything I can do (not sticking something on the screen ) to hide this while showing the keyboard?
Mark
is this is an iphone keyboard??
i understand your pain. This is a design decision from Microsoft so that the user is able to switch on and off the keyboard at any time. But obviously they messed it up.
When I was trying I was not even able to draw something upon it to at least make it invisible. Anyway, if u are programming in C++ you could create your own SIP class. try this article from MSDN to help you out http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/02/10/370355.aspx
Hehe... yes it is indeed an iPhoney keyboard
I got it using the PCMKeyboard Here and then skinning it with this skin I actually found somewhere in xda dev forums
I have seen that link, that would allow me to create my own SIP keyboard and add it in... I like the iphone one and want to use it.. just without the stupid little icon. I'm happy to hack it off but ideally only when in my app... it'd be a bit annoying to lose it permanantly. I was thinking about some way to even force it offscreen... so it's "there" it's just not visible? ... might be a load of hassle as id'd have to catch the scrollbar everytime and only show it when the screen content was > screenheight + 20 px or something... but that might be an idea. Obviously I could write a keyboard controll but that's a lot of hassle to write and skin it.... unless there is already one in .net out there
Hope some xda dev genius can come up with a better solution though...
Resco Keyboard Pro also has iphone keyboard skin.
Yeah we work closely with Peter and the guys at resco with their mobile forms toolkit and co-design a lot of custom items... unfortunately that is just another SIP keyboard... so I would run into the same problem of hiding the evil little icon/toolbar.
There must be someone here who knows how to do this.. I mean I just watched videos of people proving they are smarter than HTC and writing OpenGL drivers for a phone!! lol... I might go and annoy a jr developer to make myself feel smart again as reading posts in this forum are no good for my ego
Not sure if there is anything in here for you. I can't see what your after, but I'll post it anyhow. You might be able to gleam something from it...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa182530.aspx
Ta
Dave
DaveShaw said:
Not sure if there is anything in here for you. I can't see what your after, but I'll post it anyhow. You might be able to gleam something from it...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa182530.aspx
Ta
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... nothing there, but thanks very much. I have created a menu bar and when I add more than 2 items to it the sip icon moves to the right hand side, so there is obviously something somewhere that can control this... if it is docked in that menu, I wonder if there is a way to hide the menu as opposed to removing it and possibly hide the sip thing too??! or the sip thing might exist "above" the bar and just appear to be on it....
Any more ideas would be very welcome!
Cheers for the help,
Mark
I'm no programmer so I can't help. But I remember when I was using PocketCM contacts (written by the tene who wrote PocketCM keyboards), during the sms screen the keyboard will popup but the little "evil" bar won't appear. You may want to ask tene how s/he achieved that.
wearefree said:
I'm no programmer so I can't help. But I remember when I was using PocketCM contacts (written by the tene who wrote PocketCM keyboards), during the sms screen the keyboard will popup but the little "evil" bar won't appear. You may want to ask tene how s/he achieved that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh... cheers for that! I'll post on the PocketCM forum and see if I can get an idea.. or is he a member here?
Can't believe how much hassle such a small thing is... unfortunately my plan to push the form 25px lower to simply hide the bar doesnt seem to be working....
Mark
I just saw the thing about the Q&A thread ... so sorry for doing this... but in for a penny and all that...
I have seen here what looks like the code to hide the sip button.. but I am unsure how to call that in c# anyone able to help?
markmcgookin said:
I just saw the thing about the Q&A thread ... so sorry for doing this... but in for a penny and all that...
I have seen here what looks like the code to hide the sip button.. but I am unsure how to call that in c# anyone able to help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im having a play, let me see what I find...
Dave
Cheers dave!
Much appreciated!
Heres a quick Port of what I need to do to show/hide the SIP.
Did you also spot the link to the C++ article at the bottom. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266244/EN-US/)
Ta
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for your help... that seems to just be the same as
this.InputPanel1.enabled = false;
and if you still click there it proceeds to appear. I really want the keyboard up.. but with no icon or space down there. (Tempted to say it's impossible just to spark peoples interest in a challenge! lol)
I have tried this and it's PERFECT for what I want... only in VB
So I am going to have a go at converting it to c# ... but we all know... this will never work... lol so I will keep you posted and put the solution up when I finish. (P.S - Please dont tell my boss I've spent all day on this... but you know what it's like when you come up against a problem that puzzles you!)
HORRAY!
We have success... this is based on the work from the link that the guys in the above post have done in VB... I won't lie I don't understand it 100% but I get most of it. I have ported it over to .cs and it works a treat!
the commented out line in the code is for me, I have a custom iphoney SIP with different dimensions in it. The project as is should work for the standard windows kb sip.
Thanks so much for all the contributions and help though!
solution is attached
markmcgookin said:
HORRAY!
We have success... this is based on the work from the link that the guys in the above post have done in VB... I won't lie I don't understand it 100% but I get most of it. I have ported it over to .cs and it works a treat!
the commented out line in the code is for me, I have a custom iphoney SIP with different dimensions in it. The project as is should work for the standard windows kb sip.
Thanks so much for all the contributions and help though!
solution is attached
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grats Mark,
I was just looking at that code. What it does, is it gets the Handle of the Window of the SIP (keyboard and the bar your trying to hide) using Find Window, SipWndClass is the name of the SIP window.
And them moves them down, off the bottom of the screen.
Ta
Dave
I dont mean to bring up old threads but I just wanted to add a note for any one that stumbles across this on the intertubes(as i did). In fact, the sipbutton and sipkeyboard have different handles. To actually hide the sipbutton(and not just move the keyboard over top of it) you need to use the "MS_SIPBUTTON" class to get your handle instead of "SipWndClass".
i.e.
Code:
Dim h As IntPtr = FindWindow("MS_SIPBUTTON", Nothing)
MoveWindow(h, 0, Me.Height, 0, 0, False)
With Fingerkeyboard you have the option to simply not show the entire bar
Would it be possible to have this work only if your keyboard was in landscape position? I know Fingerkeyboard has this option but I would like to do the same thing with a different keyboard. Thanks in advance.
Oh wow.
I have been looking for this solution for a LONG TIME. I'd love to be able to have the same type of screen as using Pocket CM (keyboard at the bottom of the screen) in other programs, without losing the functionality of the screen buttons... like "Send" "Menu" in messaging.
Hi guys,
I just got an idea about keyboard for PPC... that will be more finger friendly, PLUS, screen friendly.
Would it be possible to build something like FULL SCREEN keyboard overlay the screen, but still able to see the running software and able to see words is inputting? Just like a transparent keyboard layout on the screen, but doesn't really eat up the screen space. Not sure if I describe well enough. What do you guys think?
I am not a programmer, so I can only hand off my idea and pass the development to any volunteer programmer who has the knowledge and ability to make it.
- andre
Sounds like a great idea
Post your suggestion on the PocketCM.com forum and maybe the keyboard over there could be adapted.
As many of the screens on WM6 are designed for the built-in kb, the dialogue boxes can get cut off if you use an opaque kb.
Thanks. I've done so. I hope to see something like this one day. =)
That is actually a very good idea. I wonder how difficult it would be to do? I know nothing about SIP programming, heh.
Unless I am mistaken, it's impossible to do that as WM6 does not support transparency or graphical layers
Ufufu said:
Unless I am mistaken, it's impossible to do that as WM6 does not support transparency or graphical layers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How the S2U2 volume is working? It's transparent if you wish
romualdrichard said:
How the S2U2 volume is working? It's transparent if you wish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is... All programs that appear transparent (and there are many, throttlelock, mortbuttons, s2u2 volume etc etc) just take a screenshot of the background and draw over that. Which means that they just appear to be transparent - if things change beneath, you cannot see them, what you see is the screen like it was when you launched the program.
I hope someone corrects me on that, but I am pretty sure it works like that
Ufufu said:
I don't think it is... All programs that appear transparent (and there are many, throttlelock, mortbuttons, s2u2 volume etc etc) just take a screenshot of the background and draw over that. Which means that they just appear to be transparent - if things change beneath, you cannot see them, what you see is the screen like it was when you launched the program.
I hope someone corrects me on that, but I am pretty sure it works like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So make it take a screenshot every second or so...?(Dynamo 3 does that, not for transparency but for thumbnails, but it does that)
I don't know if it's doable. It's easy to get the current screen (what WM is currently painting), but not that easy to get a screenshot of a background program, or the desktop. Programs that do that (eg, CapSure) switch to the program you want to take a screenshot of first, so even if you could switch to the program, take a screenie, and get back to where you were in 1 second, the screen would "flicker" all the time.
About Dynamo, I didn't check the latest versions of Dynamo3, but maybe it takes screenshots of the running (front) program? And I don't think it takes screens every second!
Even if I am wrong (very probable), and it's doable, I don't think it would be very practical! For locking programs, this would totally ruin baterry life. For a "transparent" keyboard, 1 per sec would not be enough, and it would probably ruin responsiveness.
Then again, I never tried to play with screenshots and fake transparency for a WM program, so who knows! Maybe! O_O
I've tried to do that for ThrottleLock. My first choice was using the WM_PRINT window message, but it's not supported for windows mobile ... other choice was to send the WM_PAINT message or a refresh and trying to get the DC associated with the window to use BitBlt to copy it to a target Bitmap... Not luck as the window will not be painted while it's not visible... As far as I know it's not possible... If anyone figures out another way to get it please let me know
todaylife can do that all. fully transparent pngs over a changing background.look at my screenshots of my skins, everything is working in background. dont know how dazzlingdazz made it but its true.
In TodayLife, it's the app itself that's painting the background... So it's easy to paint other stuff on top and still show the main screen underneath. Unfortunately not the same thing we want other applications & wm interface to show beneath the transparency.
Android supports multi-layer drawing for applications, let's hope wm7 has it too.
Some 'marshall wait cursors' are transparent. But I don't know anything how they're working.
I had this idea myself about a year ago, but thought that it is impossible to make a transparent sip, because it is not displayed over a program. It's under it. I don't know how to say in English, but I thought the sip reduce the fullscreen-size.
But maybe someone can write a program that is no real sip but transparent over other programs.
I mean like the phone pad, it is no real sip but used as an input method.
Sorry for my bad english, I hope you can guess what I mean.
ReinerK said:
Some 'marshall wait cursors' are transparent. But I don't know anything how they're working.
I had this idea myself about a year ago, but thought that it is impossible to make a transparent sip, because it is not displayed over a program. It's under it. I don't know how to say in English, but I thought the sip reduce the fullscreen-size.
But maybe someone can write a program that is no real sip but transparent over other programs.
I mean like the phone pad, it is no real sip but used as an input method.
Sorry for my bad english, I hope you can guess what I mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Marshall waitcursors work with screenshots too.
The SIP doesn't reduce the screen size, some programs however can detect it and re-draw itself, making it seem like the screen size is reduced - but not all, it doesn't work like that I think
There are already fullscreen keyboards over other programs, that's not the problem, the problem is the transparency
excellent idea.
transparency is supported.
Look at RetroPPC clock. the only thing that I had to do to make my clock transparent, was to use PNG-24 format.
so the clock just revolved on top of the background even when it had to shift for the scroll bars.
in any case, the effect can be achived. what about a flash based keyboard?
Hello guys!
I think many of us came to the thinking that, though TouchFLO 3D is great UI, we should make something alternate, something that better fits our needs. And now, i think i'm ready to create one, but first we should decide how should it look like and how should it operate.
So, i propose a kind of "brainstorming contest" where you decide about the look of a new UI. But to avoid this turning into an annoying feature request list ("more tasks on today! please! please! please!" ), here are the rules:
- NO text-only suggestions - every post s/b illustrated with pen-and-paper drawing
- NO screenshots or photoshop cooks - only hand-drawings or something that look like em (yes, you can use digitizer tablet )
- drawings are NOT required to be professional - just something to illustrate you thoughts
- you are NOT required to develop the complete UI - you may just post suggestions about UI parts, but preferred things are unique navigation idea (try to forget about tabs), apps\tabs convergence, brand new useful apps/tabs
- best contributors ideas (possible with Manila API) will be implemented and their names will be listed in "About..." screen
Posts that violate rules (even best of them), will be ignored.
That's it.
maybe this is too open ended.. do you haev some ideas of your own that you might want to put forward?
omniwolf said:
maybe this is too open ended.. do you haev some ideas of your own that you might want to put forward?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already implementing ideas of my own
I just wanted to know what do folks think/dream about
show us whatcha go then!
I think D-MAN666 doesn't want to influence people, this is a brainstorming If he starts with his idea, it is probable that nobody will post a completely different concept...
This might be a useful start for interface design:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397220
One thing I would love to see is a radial menu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_menu
Similar to tap-and-hold for a context menu, but instead of a list popping up, a radial menu appears. You could fit 8-12 options around the circle, which would cover TF3d's pages.
So in usage, tap for the popup radial menu, then:
- swipe up for Contacts
- swipe right for Music
- swipe down for Home
- etc
IMO, it's much easier to be accurate in swiping at different angles/directions than it is to be precise with the default TF3d slider tabs, so you could really speed your way through the interface. The same could apply elsewhere: tap and hold a contact, then swipe up to call, left to SMS, right to email, etc.
For other thoughts, here's a read on interface optimization (for the technically inclined):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law
And maybe later if I'm bored I'll draw some mockups
http://microsoft.blognewschannel.co...bile-7-to-focus-on-touch-and-motion-gestures/
sorry for breaking the rules, but everyone else is lol...thats a link to the WM7 concept design...along with theoretical gestures...i really digg the battery bar on the bottom and the reception bar...
Ill be the first then...
A quick drawing i knocked up... manila stays very much the same but basicaly show page navigation on the manila both horizontal and vertical..
I hope its clear enough
2 ideas here
I am going to break the rules since I'ma t work and can't really be seen drawing lol.
Here they are:
- Make use of the touch capacitative ability of the the buttons panel. It's made up of three touch panels. Maybe a swipe from left to right to unlock and right to left to lock.
- Display applications within tabs. Ex: Being able to display Icontact when sliding to the contact tab.
And for UI inspiration, I would look here:
http://www.throttlelauncher.com/portal/setupsaskins/45-091setups/69-new-minimal-flow-theme
Ok, here's my concept
The general idea is to keep most of manilla look'n feel, just remove useless animations/transitions, and change the home screen.
Changes : on the right side of the screen, a scrollbar similar to the "contacts" one appears. It controls the content of the box under the clock.
On the left, a button to maximize (take the place of the clock) the box, and a fast vibrator/ring permutation button.
So, by scrolling the bar, the content of the box changes, could be call log, contacts, fast program launcher, music player, and so on.
The idea is to keep complex functionalities (camera, tv, etc) needing full screen accessible by the manilla bar, and quick&fast features such as logs, sms, player accessible on the main screen.
Nice idea, man
Hi there,
just a thought on a possible gui for the UI, instead of tabs, layers (don't know if that's possible, but it would be very cool imho)
you could have multiple layers, and have the layers in the backgound fade out and become smaller (perspective) and use a swipe up or down to navigate
Anything happening on here?
Just wondering
SinnerNL said:
Hi there,
just a thought on a possible gui for the UI, instead of tabs, layers (don't know if that's possible, but it would be very cool imho)
you could have multiple layers, and have the layers in the backgound fade out and become smaller (perspective) and use a swipe up or down to navigate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great idea!
like the game u can get on Playstation 3... where u 'swim' around collecting stuff and going thru lvls....
I'm thinking that the Ximoon idea is quite good but one thing that should be included is landscape option and I'm not talking about TP version but one with the same functions like the portrait one
I like the idea of the circular menus...
well first of all thanks to you guys you are doing awsome work and its always funn spendin my free time in your forums
now to my idea
does anybody know the film : the lawnmower man? theres one scene almost at the end of the film where he tries to escape to the internet i think the idea is quite amazing movn in a bowl and havin litle windows to select.
what do ya think
this is the link to the movie scene just skip it forward to about 5 minutes
Edit: sry forgot the link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doAnB5_eDnw&feature=related
Hi All,
I cracked open Remote Spy++ and started figuring out how I could go about writing a Honeycomb start menu replacement for WM5-6.1 (seen the XP Start Replacement? Same idea). Having written something similar on desktop Windows I thought it would be easy. The app is in C#/CF.
So the window hierarchy is:
Code:
- Desktop
- HHTaskBar
- (nothing !!!)
And messages of interest (in order):
Code:
WM_LBUTTONDOWN (0x201)
WM_PAINT (0xF)
WM_INITMENUPOPUP (0x117)
Okay, so forgetting about the fact that the window is opaque (I will delve into this later on), I went ahead and subclassed it to catch the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message (the others didn't stop the original from showing up). That falls over (the debugger doesn't even break into code and the device needs a hard reset). I am investigating this - although my MessageBox shows up just before it dies.
Update: Using BeginInvoke with a worker method fixes the above issue. E.g:
Code:
public IntPtr NewWndProc(IntPtr hWnd, uint msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
{
if (msg == WM_LBUTTONDOWN)
{
this.BeginInvoke(new Action(DoWork));
return IntPtr.Zero;
}
return CallWindowProc(oldWndProc, hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam);;
}
private void DoWork()
{
Form2 two = new Form2();
two.Show();
}
So my question: the HHTaskBar is opaque, it has no child controls. Obviously, I don't want to subclass the battery/close/etc. buttons, and ideas on how to reliably retrieve the rect for the start button?
Or is the whole thing a hack? I suspect there is a way to do this without all this subclassing hackery. Google and forum search didn't turn up anything.
Thanks guys.
Source code
Usage: (not recommended on real device - use an emulator!) Click on button1 then click anywhere on the taskbar. Now reboot
I'd start with Quickmenu:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471292
This app is the best start menu replacement I ever saw...
I'd only add a mixture of WKTASK's taskbar management and the ability to choose a icon for the start menu.
Thanks
twolf said:
I'd start with Quickmenu:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471292
This app is the best start menu replacement I ever saw...
I'd only add a mixture of WKTASK's taskbar management and the ability to choose a icon for the start menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, it doesn't look like he has any source code available though. Looks like I will have to investigate more... I am not going for the drop down style (but as you said, it is really cool), I am trying to make a Honeycomb (WM 6.5) style menu.
I tried the wm6.5 honeycomb start menu... was not impressed, but maybe it had some extra something i didnt noticed... :/
I still haven't flashed my device with 6.5, but I reckon a FOSS honeycomb menu could be cool...
I think you'r on to something here. The start menu as it is in WM6.1 is pretty much useless. I would much rather have the start menu show me a application shortcut page like the one in WM6.5. Although to be honest I don't really like the honeycomb look. What's wrong with a plain old columns and rows type of thing. With the added physics scrolling/swiping stuff of course
frepe383 said:
I think you'r on to something here. The start menu as it is in WM6.1 is pretty much useless. I would much rather have the start menu show me a application shortcut page like the one in WM6.5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! I am also hoping to replace that shoddy settings menu.
frepe383 said:
Although to be honest I don't really like the honeycomb look. What's wrong with a plain old columns and rows type of thing. With the added physics scrolling/swiping stuff of course
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think something with tabs (like Manila 2D) such as 'Programs', 'Running Programs', 'Settings' would be pretty useful. Skinning is a given, and honeycomb would be one (for the fanatics).
Update
I decided to call the tool Mead (as in the beer that contains honey ).
I was having problems with the default message pump and the hook (well, subclassed event). I am not sure which message was crashing my program, but if I use Application.Run() a native exception occurs in mscoree3_5.dll. The workaround is to create the form in the handler for the hook and show that one (it wasn't a UI thread being called from a worker, I am aware of that). So I think it must be a CF message pump bug. In any case, it works great now.
Quitting isn't all the way there yet, still some bugs (the type that will need a soft reset).
On to the UI stuff.
clickety
Excellent idea mate, but is it worth doing? the Beta 2 of 6.5 is already out and i am guessing its not long until the final version
Any news on this?
Nope
Nothing new. Just haven't had time between my job.
For now I am pinning it as the native call-in issue that the .Net CF suffers from (a documented limitation). Something isn't quite right.
I will continue to experiment, but push comes to shove, I will probably land up creating an interop library for it.
Instead of subclassing, you can just create a childwindow of HHTaskbar that is located over the start button.
Alternatively, you could suPerclass the "Explore" window class just to replace the Programs menu. Beware, that superclassing may be a bit dangerous
Interesting Idea
That is an interesting idea. When I get time I will start messing around with it.
That said I do expect some problems: again the interop call-in to .NET CF, but this may prove to work as a work-around .