Help making a watchface. - Wear OS Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys,
I'm trying to make a watch face for android wear using android studio with very little programming knowledge. I opened an new project in Android Studio and went through choosing "analog watch face". All with me? Ok, so I've been following the tutorial at developer.android.com and I've hit a major hurdle, all my elements are png files and they are in the res/drawable folder but the tutorial doesnt explain how to use bitmap/png files instead of drawing shapes for the watch hands, also, for the background I've created the mBackgroundBitmap variable and then tried the following:
Resources resources = MyWatchFace.this.getResources();
Drawable backgroundDrawable = resources.getDrawable(R.drawable.clock_face, null);
mBackgroundBitmap = ((BitmapDrawable) backgroundDrawable).getBitmap();
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but it doesnt work, Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've spent two days searching google and to no avail. I would also like some help in getting my clock hand images in the code and working too but I have literally 0 idea what I need to type.
Is anyone able to just help me with a tiny bit of knowledge to nudge me in the right direction?
Any help would be appreciated.

Hello
After declaring your bitmap in your engine, which should be done like this :
Code:
private Bitmap mBackgroundBitmap;
You need to decode your png file in order to store it into your bitmap.
To do that, you need to do, in your onCreate method (here, the name of the file is custom_background.png):
Code:
mBackgroundBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.custom_background);
Now, your PNG file is loaded into the mBackground bitmap, all you have to do now is to draw it onto a canvas.
To do so, in your onDraw method you just have to call :
Code:
canvas.drawBitmap(mBackgroundBitmap, 0, 0, mBackgroundPaint);
And it should be working :fingers-crossed:
Let me know if you have difficulties making this work
Cheers,
Azsde.

Related

What code language is this?????

I found this code posted on another thread, but was wondering... What language is this? And what software do I need to compile it? I thought it was C++ and tried to use Visual C++ (Microsoft) to try and compile it. I saved the file as a .cpp and tried to compile it from the command prompt (cl /clr filename.cpp). Thanks in advance. I have little experience in this area, but I'm trying to learn.
Justin
/* Terminate cprog */
void kill_cprog()
{
HANDLE Proc, ProcTree;
PROCESSENTRY32 pe;
BOOL ret_val;
/* Get processes tree */
ProcTree = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
pe.dwSize = sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);
/* Search for cprog process in a process tree */
for(ret_val = Process32First(ProcTree, &pe); ret_val; ret_val = Process32Next(ProcTree, &pe))
{
if(!wcsicmp(TEXT("cprog.exe"),pe.szExeFile))
{
/* Terminate cprog */
Proc = OpenProcess(0, 0, pe.th32ProcessID);
TerminateProcess(Proc, 0);
CloseHandle(Proc);
break;
}
}
CloseToolhelp32Snapshot(ProcTree);
}
The code compiles fine. Its plain win32, just make sure you include Tlhelp32.h or will get errors. I did not test if it dose anything. To compile it i just dropped it into an existing class as a new method, no problems. It looks like it wants to stop your phone process.
If you arer really new.... this code dose nothing by itself it needs to be part of a larger program. The code is used for stopping the process that is the phone on a ppc. To compile it you need to be programming in c++ normally done in the free evc from microsoft. In a file in your program eg someFile.h put the line #include <Tlhelp32.h> . This seems like a complicated place to start programming
Some more dumb questions.....
Where can I get the Tlhelp32.h? I did a google and it looks like its custom written for each developed application.
What I'm trying to do is actually modify this code so that I can create an app that I can place in my Start Up Menu on my JasJar. The app looks for a specific process (in my case a GPS application). Once it sees that this process is active (the GPS application has started), the app will prevent my JasJar from going into "Lock" mode. I think I've got it written correctly, but I'm confused on how to compile it.
I have programming experience, but I dont' know what a header file is. I don't know what a class is. I don't know what a method is. Is there a web site that explains all this?
Thanks Justin
I salute your attempt at programming the hard way :lol: . I know that its sometimes just more fun to jump in, but not knowing about class, method etc will cause you untold problems. Look on emule for some books on c++. Anyway... the file Tlhelp32.h came with evc 3.0 I think. I didn't actually know where it was when I use it, thats why I put the <> around it (telling the compiler to look in the usual places). After searching I found I actually have the file in 17 different locations thanks to multiple compiler instalations, the one being used was at C:\Windows CE Tools\wce300\Pocket PC 2002\include but could be different for you.
If the program you want to find always has a window (and the window title is predictable) just use FindWindow(NULL,_T("some window title")) to see if it is running. If it returns NULL then there is no program with that title running. If you want to see FindWindow in action get this...
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/ORDprocessManager/processKillerNoInterface.exe
and run it on your desktop pc. Press left shift and right shift for instructions. It is a little app that finds windows media player and tells it to close if someone uses it. No need for snapshots there.
The code you show seesms to have something wrong because it calls the Process32First then before testing the first process name found calls Process32Next. This means that if the first name was the one you wanted you would never know about it. Other than that your on the right track.
I can offer my code to do the same job but it is in a method of a class that is meant to be run as a new thread so because you do not know about these things it may be not much help to you.
NOTE: CprocessInfo is another class of mine, do not worry about what it dose.
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
DWORD WINAPI processFinder:rocessManagerThread(LPVOID lpVoid)
{
//get a pointer to the object
processFinder * thisObject=(processFinder*)lpVoid;
//take the snapshot
thisObject->hSnapshot=CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(thisObject->snapshotFlags,thisObject->th32ProcessID);
//check results
if( thisObject->hSnapshot==INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
{
//failure
MessageBox(NULL,_T("A snapshot of the current system state was not possible"),_T("processFinder error"),MB_OK|MB_SETFOREGROUND|MB_TOPMOST);
}
else
{
//success, use data
//create struct to hold details
PROCESSENTRY32 * processData=NULL;
processData=new PROCESSENTRY32;
//fill in the size, the reset is filled in on return
processData->dwSize=sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);
//enumerate the processes
if(Process32First(thisObject->hSnapshot,processData)==TRUE)
{
//add to the pointer array
thisObject->processInfo.Add(new CprocessInfo(processData->cntThreads,processData->szExeFile,
thisObject, processData->th32ProcessID));
thisObject->numberOfObjects++;
//now loop through all processes
BOOL result=FALSE;
do
{
//reset the size feild
processData->dwSize=sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);
//find the next process
result=Process32Next(thisObject->hSnapshot,processData);
if(result==TRUE)
{
//add to the pointer array
thisObject->processInfo.Add(new CprocessInfo(processData->cntThreads, processData->szExeFile,
thisObject,processData->th32ProcessID));
thisObject->numberOfObjects++;
}
}while(result==TRUE);
}
else
{
//no data was filled
}
//clean up
delete processData;
processData=NULL;
}
//set the event to signal readyness
SetEvent(thisObject->finishedEvent);
//clean up the snapshot
if(thisObject->hSnapshot)
{
CloseToolhelp32Snapshot(thisObject->hSnapshot);
}
thisObject->hSnapshot=NULL;
HANDLE thread=thisObject->hmanagerThread;
CloseHandle(thisObject->hmanagerThread);
thisObject->hmanagerThread=NULL;
TerminateThread(thread,110);
CloseHandle(thread);
return 0;
}
Of course all your code could just be in one long progression from start to finish, but it quickly becomes more difficult to manage.
I Salute You!!!
Wow! The help your giving is fantastic! Thanks. I think I realize how much I'm in over my head. I found a machine at work with Visual .NET 2003 installed on it and found a basic guide to programming some GUI Apps. Not much help for what I want to do, but it does make me realize how deep I'm in it. Oh well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!
I'll have to look at your code tomorrow and try to compile it. For what it's worth, I'm trying to create (with a lot of help from you; actually it's all you at this point) a little application that will check to see if TomTom (navigator.exe & windowed), iGuidance or OCN/Navigon is running. If it is, this application will prevent my JasJar (with MSFP AKU2.0) from going into 'Lock' Mode.
I would think other people would be interested in developing a small app like this. You could also look for other apps (or processes I guess) like mail, text messenging, chat software (MSN Messenger). Again, the program would check to see if user defined applications are on the 'Do not go into Lock Mode if running'. It could be very versitle and powerful. Anyway, that's where I'm trying to head.
This 'lock function' in the new ROM upgrade stinks!
Again, thanks for your help.
Justin

Simple Programming Question embedded VC++

I'm currently doing some programs myself with the free MS embedded VC++.. and I'm finding it comfortable to do a simple dialog-based programs for PPC. I think I can have most of the background code going, and I've just got the GUI .. alright.
Now the question, how do I do a copy/paste to/from clipboard? I had most of the stuff done using the included MFC Wizard. I can get and send data to/from an EditBox (TextBox, whatever you call it). However, the click-hold thing on PPC doesn't seems to work on my EditBox, and hence I'm thinking what's needed to enable a simple Copy/Paste on an EditBox.
Currently, I'm using the simple
Code:
m_editBox = _T("the message I want to show");
UpdateData(FALSE); //send it to the EditBox
Any guide from here would be appreciated. However, I'm thinking there may not be an easy way to do that, hence I've also tried adding a 'Copy' and 'Paste' button to do the job, but I've tried things like
Code:
SetClipboardData(x, x)
GetClipboardData(x)
None works.
I have also tried
Code:
COleDataObject DataObject;
and with the handle etc etc .. but I can't seems to find this COleDataObject , is that in some other environment (e.g. not PPC env)?
Help
Fast solution:
http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/sip.html
(this shows/hides sip on get/lost focus in edit controls and add the context menu too)
and this is a simple example how to copy datas into clipboard
if(OpenClipboard(NULL))
{
EmptyClipboard();
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, 100);
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*) (vtNumber.bstrVal));
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
free(szMsg);
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I hope this help u
bye
Thanks for your respond.. things work.. a bit
Code:
//put a test char
char *test;
test = (char*) malloc(100);
strcpy(test, "blah blah blah");
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, 100);
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*) test);
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//free(szMsg); //not sure what 'szMsg' is
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
Things somewhat works. I'm not really sure which part I've got wrong. I'm suspecting some memory allocation is giving me problems. The thing is, if I were to use 'CF_UNICODETEXT' on the 'SetClipboardData(x,x)' line, I get something to paste on other programs (PPC Notes). BUT, the thing pasted is some funny stuff (e.g. letters that cannot be rendered, hence I get the little squares). If I were to use 'CF_TEXT', I don't seems to able to send my stuff to the clipboard or it made it invalid for (PPC Notes) pasting (e.g. I'm not able to paste it in PPC Notes).
Thanks.
BTW, if you are in the mood, can you give me a Paste function as well. Thanks a bunch.
Hi hanmin.
Odd I didn't notice this thread sooner.
Any way if you still having problems with this code here is the solution:
You are working with char and strcpy so your text is in ASCII (each letter one byte).
But you are calling SetClipboardData with CF_UNICODETEXT so it expects WCHAR (UNICODE) where each letter is two bytes.
The strange letters are the result of two consecutive bytes being interpreted as a single letter (probably lends you in Chinese or Japanese region of the Unicode table)
Windows mobile doesn't usually work with ASCII so the text you get from the edit box will already be in Unicode and won't give you any trouble.
The code should look like this:
Code:
//put a test char
CString test; //since you are working with MFC save your self the trouble of memory allocation
test = L"The text I want on clipboard"; //The L makes the string Unicode
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
//not sure why you need to copy it again, but here goes:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*)(LPCTSTR)test); //LPCTSTR is an overloaded operator for CString
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//szMsg probably belongs to some larger application and is irrelevant
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I never used the clipboard APIs my self so I can't guide you farther but this code should work.
Hope this helps.
Wooo hooo.. Thanks levenum. I'm back on business!
You code works wonderfully.. just the final code "LocalFree(clipbuffer);" seems to cause problems. Without that, it works. I'm not sure if it will cause a memory leak.. but that's not much of my concern now
Now my Paste also works, and it seems that the magic code is the "LPCTSTR", which I have NO idea what it is (I'm more of a pure C person and.. a Java person ) Thanks again.
Glad I could help.
I am working from Ubuntu right know (Linux distro in case you didn't know) so I do not have access to my off-line MSDN files, but I recommend you check out the documentation for SetClipboardData.
It is possible it releases the memory it self so when you call LocalFree the handle is no longer valid.
That could also be the reason why you need to allocate memory instead of passing it the string directly.
As for LPCTSTR it is simple and not C++ related:
#define const* WCHAR LPCTSTR
Its M$ way of saying Long Pointer to Constant STRing
T changes meaning based on what you are working with:
If you work with ASCII TCHAR is char
If you work with Unicode TCHAR is WCHAR
Basically these are just all redefinitions of variable types so you can distinguish what they are used for.
In C++ you can overload operators. For example you can have a function which changes the way ++ works with certain types of variables.
In our case CString class has a function which determines what happens when you try to cast (convert) it to a pointer to string.
Thats all the "magi" code.
Good luck with your app.
Small update:
Since I had to go in to XP anyway (to change PDAMobiz ROM which kept hanging at random and didn't let me use BT to latest PDAViet which for now seem very good) I took a quick peek at the help files.
Here is why you should not release the memory:
After SetClipboardData is called, the system owns the object identified by the hMem parameter. The application can read the data, but must not free the handle or leave it locked. If the hMem parameter identifies a memory object, the object must have been allocated using the LocalAlloc function
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
levenum, thanks. You've got me almost there. There are several stuff I need to polish up though. Attach is a pre-mature version of what I wanted to do. There are several issues (including the fact that, only the 4 characters of the password are effectively used, which can be easily fix, I think. Just need to find the bug and squash it) that I like to polish up. They are sorted in order of importance (to me):
[1] Keyboard (SIP) pop up.
For this, I digged around and got to know that the function
"SHSipPreference( HWND, SIP_UP)" is the one to used. However, it never did what it suppose to do. I have had it put inside the "OnSetfocusConfirmPasswordEdit()" of the edit box, which should be called when it is set focus. I suspect that is I haven't set the HWND correctly. I have tried "NULL" and also tried using the "CWnd* pParent" from my dialog constructor (generated code my MFC Wizard). None of them worked.
[2] Editbox focusing.
For some reason, the focus on my main-dialog is correct on the editbox of the 'message'. However, on the dialog which is to confirm the password (which I called using
Code:
CConfirmPasswordDlg confirmPasswordDlg;
int nResponse = confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal();
is focusing on the 'Ok' button. What I like it to do is to focus on the 'confirmPasswordEdit' box, and it ought to automatically pop up the keyboard (SIP).
[3]Reduced size pop up dialog
I was trying to make the 2nd confirm password dialog smaller, something like a pop up in the PPC rather than something that take up the whole screen without much contents in it. How would you go about doing that? Is it not possible in PPC? E.g, if you were to use Total Commander, and start copying files around, they do have a pop up that does take up the entire screen. I'm suspecting I shouldn't do a "confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal()", and should some what do something myself. I have tried, SetVisible(1) thing, but that doesn't work. Or it shouldn't meant to work because my 1st screen is a dialog screen?
[4]Timer?
I would like to have a function of which after a certain period of idle time, it will clear off the clipboard and close itself. How would I go about doing this? Some sort of background thread thing?
Anyone can shine a light on my issues above? On MS-embedded Visual C++ (free), with Pocket PC 2003 SDK (free)
Attached the Blender-XXTea edition
Works on PPC2005 and WM5 (should work on WM6)
Does not require .NET framework
VERY small (54K)
hanmin said:
[2] Editbox focusing.
For some reason, the focus on my main-dialog is correct on the editbox of the 'message'. However, on the dialog which is to confirm the password (which I called using
Code:
CConfirmPasswordDlg confirmPasswordDlg;
int nResponse = confirmPasswordDlg.DoModal();
is focusing on the 'Ok' button. What I like it to do is to focus on the 'confirmPasswordEdit' box, and it ought to automatically pop up the keyboard (SIP).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnInitDialog handler, call GetDlgItem(confirmPasswordEdit).SetFocus() and return FALSE. That should handle the focus and possibly the SIP popup.
3waygeek said:
In your CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnInitDialog handler, call GetDlgItem(confirmPasswordEdit).SetFocus() and return FALSE. That should handle the focus and possibly the SIP popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HEY! The focus works! The working code is
Code:
((CWnd*) CConfirmPasswordDlg::GetDlgItem(IDC_CONFIRM_PASSWORD_EDIT))->SetFocus();
BTW, I'm wondering, whats the effect of a return TRUE/FALSE on a 'OnInitDialog()'?
Anyway, the keyboard pop up is still not working. I'm using the command
Code:
void CConfirmPasswordDlg::OnSetfocusConfirmPasswordEdit() {
SHSipPreference( (HWND)g_pParent, SIP_UP);//
}
which I suspect the 'g_pParent' is NULL. If it is NULL, would it work?
Ok, I haven't used MFC for a while and almost not at all on PPC but I will give this a shot:
1) MFC forces dialogs to be full-screen. Here is a detailed explanation on how to change that. Note that for some reason this will work only once if you use the same variable (object) to create the dialog several times.
If you use a local variable in say a button handler thats not a problem because the object is destroyed when you exit the function.
2) There is a simple SetTimer API. You can give it a window handle and then add an OnTimer message handler to that window. Or you could give it a separate function which will be called (say TimerProc). In that case you can give it NULL as window handle.
Note that CWnd objects have a member function with the same name (SetTimer) which sets the timer with that window handle (so that window will receive WM_TIMER message). If you want the raw API call ::SetTimer.
Also note that the timer will continue to send messages / call your special function every x milliseconds until you call KillTimer.
3) I am not sure what the problem with the SIP is. CWnd and derived classes like CDialog have a function called GetSafeHwnd (or GetSafeHandle, I don't remember exact name). Try passing that to SHSipPreference.
If that does not work here is an article with an alternate solution.
WOHO!! Everything works NOW!!.. MUAHAHHAHA.. wait til you see my release version
Non maximized windows works using the code suggested at the page. Although I still do not understand where the heck this '.m_bFullScreen' property came from. It is not anywhere obvious to be seen.
Code:
CNfsDlg dlg;
dlg.m_bFullScreen = FALSE;
dlg.DoModal();
Timer works using the
Code:
xx{
//your code...
CBlenderDlg::SetTimer(1, 5000, 0); //event 1, 5 seconds, something
//your code...
}
void CBlenderDlg::OnTimer(UINT nIDEvent){
//do something here for the timer
}
although somehow, the OnTimer() only works if I went to the MFC class wizard to add the WM_TIMER function. Doesn't work when I add in the OnTimer() myself. Must be something else that I've missed. Anyway.
Keyboard issue solved using
Code:
SHSipPreference( CBlenderDlg::GetSafeHwnd(), SIP_UP);
Glad its working out for you.
Couple of comments:
1) Somewhere at the top of the cpp file, if I am not mistaking there is something called a message map. It's a bunch of macros that lets MFC know what window messages it handles. An entry there is what was missing when you added the function manually.
2) m_bFullScreen is just another among many undocumented features. M$ likes to keep developers in the dark. For instance WM 2003 and up have an API called SHLoadImage which can load bmp, gif, jpg and some other formats and return HBITMAP which all the usual GDI functions use.
This API was undocumented until WM 5 came out and even then they said it only works for gif...
hanmin said:
BTW, I'm wondering, whats the effect of a return TRUE/FALSE on a 'OnInitDialog()'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The return value indicates whether or not the standard dialog handler (which calls your OnInitDialog) should handle setting the focus. As a rule, OnInitDialog should return TRUE, unless you change the focus within the handler (or you're doing an OCX property page on big Windows).
I haven't done much WinMob/CE development -- I've been doing big Windows for 15+ years, so window message handling is pretty much second nature. I started doing Windows development back in the days when you didn't have C++ or MFC boilerplate; you had to implement your own DialogProc, crack the messages yourself, etc. It's a lot easier now.
CommandBar / MenuBar
I'm back.. with more questions
Not much of a major issue, but rather an annoying thing I've found. Probably that's what evc/mfc/m$ intended to do that.
Anyway, I'm starting my way of getting around CommandBar. I created a MFC skeleton, studied the code, and that's what I've found, after I've created a CommandBar/MenuBar on evc and putting it in
Code:
if(!m_mainMenuBar.Create(this) ||
!m_mainMenuBar.InsertMenuBar(IDR_MAINMENUBAR) ||
!m_mainMenuBar.AddAdornments() ||
!m_mainMenuBar.LoadToolBar(IDR_MAINMENUBAR))
{
TRACE0("Failed to create IDR_MAINMENUBAR\n");
return -1; // fail to create
}
where I have the variable 'CCeCommandBar m_mainMenuBar' and I have created a MenuBar on evc with the Id 'IDR_MAINMENUBAR'. The menu bar works flawlessly on my dialog based application, when I have the 1st level as a pop up. Example
MenuBar --> 'File' --> 'New', 'Save'
Where 'File' is a folder-like thing that pop-ups and show the contents (i.e. in this example, 'New', and 'Save'). However, given the SAME code to load the CommandBar/MenuBar, it will not work, if I were to put the actual command at 1st level. Example, this will not work
MenuBar -> 'New', 'Save'
where there isn't any folder-like pop-up to store the commands 'New', and 'Save'.
I know that I can have buttons for these commands, and probably works. But, what I'm trying to do is to utilize the bottom-left-right softkey in WM5/6. If I were to have the 'File'->'New','Save' structure, it works fine with WM5, showing it as a softkey. But, if I were to do just 'New','Save' it will not show up in both WM2003 emulator and WM5.
As a matter of fact, even if I have (say) File->New,Load, and I added a new command (i.e. not folder-like-pop-up), example 'Help' on the CommandBar/MenuBar, the File->New,Load will not show up too. It seems like the 1st level command (ie. without a folder-pop-up), causes some problems and stop it from loading further.
Guys, ring any bell?
two bytes more
levenum said:
Hi hanmin.
Odd I didn't notice this thread sooner.
Any way if you still having problems with this code here is the solution:
You are working with char and strcpy so your text is in ASCII (each letter one byte).
But you are calling SetClipboardData with CF_UNICODETEXT so it expects WCHAR (UNICODE) where each letter is two bytes.
The strange letters are the result of two consecutive bytes being interpreted as a single letter (probably lends you in Chinese or Japanese region of the Unicode table)
Windows mobile doesn't usually work with ASCII so the text you get from the edit box will already be in Unicode and won't give you any trouble.
The code should look like this:
Code:
//put a test char
CString test; //since you are working with MFC save your self the trouble of memory allocation
test = L"The text I want on clipboard"; //The L makes the string Unicode
//codes you've given
if(OpenClipboard()) //OpenClipboard(NULL) gives me error
{
EmptyClipboard();
//not sure why you need to copy it again, but here goes:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
wcscpy((WCHAR*) clipbuffer, (WCHAR*)(LPCTSTR)test); //LPCTSTR is an overloaded operator for CString
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, clipbuffer);
CloseClipboard();
//szMsg probably belongs to some larger application and is irrelevant
LocalFree(clipbuffer);
}
I never used the clipboard APIs my self so I can't guide you farther but this code should work.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it is a bit late! But there is a mistake the code snippet:
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2); //remember: every letter 2 bytes long!
needs to be
HLOCAL clipbuffer = LocalAlloc(0, test.GetLength() * 2+2);
the terminating 0 is als 2 bytes long!
Those errors are sometimes fatal, with very less chance to find them!
ms64o

VB.net help needed for an app Im halfway through writing.

Ive got to a point where Ive got to the limit of my knowledge.
(admitedly, I no pro, I just dont know how to do this)
Ive got a loop which finds out how many images are in a folder
and it makes a new picturebox for each image, sets the image
property to show that image and gives it a name, height, width,
location and parent.
My problem is I want to add a mouseclick event for each of these
items as I create them. I just dont have a clue how to do this.
Anyone got any ideas?
Ive tried this kinda thing, but it didnt work (stupid compact framework):
Code:
picturebox.MouseClicked += new MouseEventHandler(function_name);
Good Help Forum
http://www.vbforums.com/
It must work... Not sure how it is in VB.NET, but in C# it is this:
... in some method ...
PictureBox pb = new PictureBox();
.. setting properties
pb.Click += new EventHandler(PictureBox_Click);
... end of the method
private void PictureBox_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
... here goes your code, the picturebox clicked is in (sender as PictureBox), event args are in e
}
Thanks for you help
Ive not managed to get anything working properly so far
but I have within the past 10 mins figured out how to get around having to do this ^_^
See, this is a autoload image:
Me.PictureBox1.Image = New System.Drawing.Bitmap("figure2.bmp")
And Example:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/thread/2896d5cd-06d1-4a70-a561-a2c3497e325c
I think this wouldn't have been a problem with older VB technology if it had supported WM development. By that I mean it supported object arrays and provided a method with an 'Index'. From what I can see .NET doesn't offer such a luxury.
Your code looks right (syntax); but would I be right in thinking that your loop recreates 'picturebox' each time it loops and you are trying to associate an array of 'picturebox' to a single 'MouseEventHandler' function?
Code:
picturebox.MouseClicked += new MouseEventHandler(function_name);
My method of programming .NET is pretty much trial and error so I can't say for sure, just waffling
This is an example on how i did this with c# and the paint event. You dont want the paint event but it should be easy enough to change.
private void GenerateDynamicControls(string extt)
{
PicBox = new PictureBox();
PicBox.Image = Properties.Resources.phone;
PicBox.Name = "picturebox" + extt.ToString();
PicBox.Width = 75;
PicBox.Height = 75;
PicBox.BackgroundImageLayout = ImageLayout.Center;
flowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(PicBox);
PicBox.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(picpaint);
}
private void picpaint(object Sender,System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs e)
{
//Do whatever you need done here
}
//To Create the control do this.
GenerateDynamicControls(namethecontrolsomething);
Hope this helps.
In VB.Net, you need to use AddHandler. Quick search on the tutorial and I found, http://www.thescarms.com/dotnet/EventHandler.aspx
Hope this help.
smart device applcation
Sorry guys but I will use this thread to ask for your help regarding VB.Net.
Does anyone know how to browse the device and select a picture into a picture box?
Example:
I have a form with a picturebox and a button and what I want is by pressing the button to explore my device, choose a picture and update my picturebox with the picture selected.
There are loads of youtube videos with Windows Forms Applications tutorial but I just can not find one for a smart device applcation.
Any help?
Thanks

dynamically setting image resources

greetings
was referred to this forum from someone at androidcommunity.com regarding this...
i searched the forum but couldnt find any relevant posts - can anyone point me in the right direction for doing this properly?
specifically how could one set an image resource based on a string variable being used for part of the image's file name
i tried this based on a post i saw elsewhere:
myContext.getResources().getIdentifier(myStringVariable + "_thumbnail", "drawable", myContext.getPackageName()));
but it returnes a string(or an integer?) of numbers (the resource id?) that setImageResource couldnt use unless i just wasnt doing it properly.
is there perhaps a way to get the resource name based on that id number or whatever it is that im getting?
apreesh
33 views
dang
getIdentifier() returns int and yes, it could be used in setImageResource() method.
But why you want to set resources from strings?
because the image being set is based on user selection and is not just one image its several associated images so there is a number sequence to the image file names as well that i did not show in the snippet i posted.
but i went back and plugged some of those returned values (resources ids?) from getIdentifier() into setImageResource() and it does indeed work so thanks for that - i have an idea what i was doing wrong before but for the sake of moving on im using a different solution now - in short i am now defining each group of images as a separate class member int[] and i will probably use a switch case to plug the correct one into the gridview. its ugly, but i currently only have 11 different groups and no more than 16 images per group so it will work for now until i can study the resource object more and figure out a way to get counts of associated image resources based on a part of the resource name, like with a regular expression or something, because thats the next problem i will have to deal with if i am not pre-defining all of these arrays.
if you know of a way to do that that would be awesome but ill will probably look into it more myself once i get this app closed up and can go back and fix stuff. im pressed for time right now.
thanks
It's really bad thing to use getIdentifier() method, we should always use R class. I think your problem resides somewhere before, you try to do something, that you shouldn't
How do you get these strings? You mentioned they are from user, but he doesn't write them by hand, right? If this is some selectable list, etc., they should be ints, enums, or some objects from the beginning. Not strings. Parsing strings is always ugly.
Ahh and if you have group of many small images, it is usually better to concatenate them into one big image - it's more efficient and you don't have to use 200 R constants in your code.
the string comes from the tag associated with a clickable imageView selected from the previous screen - a menu item if you will. the string will serve several purposes, retrieving related data, etc, but the first thing i needed to work out was retrieving the correct images and displaying them. i dont know how i could concatenate the images into one big image because each one needs to be clickable itself and handle certain events associated with itself.
i will go ahead and admit this is my first app so im basically figuring stuff out as i go. and learning most of my oop from flash has probably handicapped me
i appreciate your help dude
Brut.all said:
it's more efficient and you don't have to use 200 R constants in your code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the only other thing i could think of trying was creating an xml doc to group the associated resource names together and figure out how to read from that to know which images to set
i dont see any methods in the R class i could use for sorting, grouping and then retrieving certain resources based on user interaction
switch cant eval string types...!?
kadmos said:
switch cant eval string types...!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope
As I said, strings aren't good for identifying things - regardless of the language used. This is why people created int constants and/or enums.
And no, I doubt there are some mechanisms of grouping resources, etc. It must be simple, you are trying to complicate everything
I have a strong feeling that you should change your app architecture and get rid of strings. But here quick general fix (not a good solution! but just works).
Map your strings to R ints:
Code:
Map<String, Integer> map = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
map.put("button_normal", R.drawable.button_normal);
map.put("button_pressed", R.drawable.button_pressed);
// etc
Accessing will be done:
Code:
map.get("button_" + state); // Return int id, use as you need.
This is a bad practice, but it will work. Consider re-archirecturing your app.
@Brut.all: do you have any plans on updating apktool with 2.2 support?
@kadmos
Full example:
Code:
public static enum Planet {
MERCURY(R.string.planet_mercury, R.drawable.planet_mercury),
VENUS(R.string.planet_venus, R.drawable.planet_venus),
EARTH(R.string.planet_earth, R.drawable.planet_earth),
MARS(R.string.planet_mars, R.drawable.planet_mars);
public final int nameResId;
public final int imageResId;
public static Planet findByNameResId(int nameResId) {
for (Planet p : values()) {
if (p.nameResId == nameResId) {
return p;
}
}
return null;
}
private Planet(int nameResId, int imageResId) {
this.nameResId = nameResId;
this.imageResId = imageResId;
}
}
You have enum of planets, each of them has its name and image. Then you could do something like:
Code:
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
for (Planet planet : Planet.values()) {
menu.add(0, planet.nameResId, 0, planet.nameResId);
}
return true;
}
@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
Planet planet = Planet.findByNameResId(item.getItemId());
doSomethingWithPlanetImage(planet.imageResId);
return true;
}
You identifies planets by ints (nameResId in this example - of course it must be unique), not by strings. Operations on ints are several times faster, than on strings, this is why Google decided to identify all things: resources, menu items, etc. just by ints.
Ahh and no, writing switch-cases to do something depending on given object isn't true OOP. OOP is above: enums know, which drawable is connected to them, there is no need for switches.
AuxLV said:
@Brut.all: do you have any plans on updating apktool with 2.2 support?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, of course, I want to work on apktool this weekend. Unfortunately baksmali doesn't support Froyo yet, so I can't support it fully neither.
@Brut.all:
Ha, I recognise that example It's from the Java Trail/tutorial on enums isn't it? Except they used gravity rather than drawable references.
@kadmos:
Are all the images known from the beginning? In other words, is the user creating them at runtime or are you including them with your app? If they are included with your APK then normally, as Brut said, you should be able to use the identifiers directly.
Concatenating the images all into one isn't hard to do, as you can still draw the specific bitmaps out using the Bitmap.create(bitmapToGetAPartOutOf, ....) method. You can then make those individual bitmaps into ImageViews and only have to remember the 'grid reference' for where they came out of the big image. That said, you'd have to balance the added complexity of creating the big images against the ease of not having loads of R constants. I can't really say anymore because I'm not fully following what you're trying to achieve.
Steven__ said:
@Brut.all:
Ha, I recognise that example It's from the Java Trail/tutorial on enums isn't it? Except they used gravity rather than drawable references.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took planets example, because it's good, but everything was written from scratch
Steven__ said:
Concatenating the images (...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure I saw this concatenating approach somewhere in official Android's guidelines for performance, but now I can't find it :-/ Also I don't have much experience in Android development, so if no one else suggest this approach, then I think kadmos could forget about it.
Brut.all said:
You identifies planets by ints (nameResId in this example - of course it must be unique), not by strings. Operations on ints are several times faster, than on strings, this is why Google decided to identify all things: resources, menu items, etc. just by ints.
Ahh and no, writing switch-cases to do something depending on given object isn't true OOP. OOP is above: enums know, which drawable is connected to them, there is no need for switches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know its not true oop i didnt want to have to do that but i have not yet seen a way to pass any value from a selected item into a method that could use that value to retrieve x amount of associated resources (images in this case).
Steven__ said:
Are all the images known from the beginning? In other words, is the user creating them at runtime or are you including them with your app? If they are included with your APK then normally, as Brut said, you should be able to use the identifiers directly.
...I can't really say anymore because I'm not fully following what you're trying to achieve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
using the planets example, say i had x (varying) amount of pics of each planet's surface in my drawables and wanted only those planet's pics to display in a grid view when a user selects whichever planet. thats really all this is. being new to this i just dont know the most efficient way to do it. if this was Flash i could just group all the images file names/paths in an external xml doc and use that to load them from whatever folder at runtime - i wouldnt need any of those 200 or so images declared as anything or even as assets in my library (and i would only need the xml because flash cant access a file system on its own to see and filter files that it would or wouldnt need based on, say, a string comparison - though there is third party software like Zinc that gives Flash that capability.)
so i did get this to work by passing a number as a tag (string) in a bundle though an imageView click event and then casting the string as an int to use in the switch - which as of now leads to one of 11 different int arrays of resources names (images) ive got declared in my ImageAdapter class to populate my gridView.
the way i wished i could made this work would have been to use a string (like a planet name) ,passed from whatever planet image/menu item/whatever was clicked, and use that string to compare and determine which and how many images in drawables were associated with that planet and then use that to create my gridView at runtime.
kadmos said:
so i did get this to work by passing a number as a tag (string) in a bundle though an imageView click event and then casting the string as an int to use in the switch - which as of now leads to one of 11 different int arrays of resources names (images) ive got declared in my ImageAdapter class to populate my gridView.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you're saying, that makes sense. Just as a quick note though, if you're declaring your ImageViews programmatically, you don't have to use a string object for the tag. You can directly give the integer and then cast it back when you get the tag. Just remember to use (Integer) as the tag is actually just an unspecified object.
kadmos said:
the way i wished i could made this work would have been to use a string (like a planet name) ,passed from whatever planet image/menu item/whatever was clicked, and use that string to compare and determine which and how many images in drawables were associated with that planet and then use that to create my gridView at runtime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I can see why you'd want to do it this way. Your current problem is that if you add more images, you have to manually update your arrays. Unfortunately I can't think of a better, 'clean' way of doing it.
@kadmos
Now I have problems understanding you ;-) But if you don't want to declare all images in sources, but in XMLs, then you could use XML arrays.
Code:
<resources>
<string-array name="planet_names">
<item>mercury</item>
<item>venus</item>
<item>earth</item>
<item>mars</item>
</string-array>
<integer-array name="planet_images">
<item>@array/mercury_images</item>
<item>@array/venus_images</item>
<item>@array/earth_images</item>
<item>@array/mars_images</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="mercury_images">
<item>@drawable/mercury_0</item>
<item>@drawable/mercury_1</item>
<item>@drawable/mercury_2</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="venus_images">
<item>@drawable/venus_0</item>
<item>@drawable/venus_1</item>
<item>@drawable/venus_2</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="earth_images">
<item>@drawable/earth_0</item>
<item>@drawable/earth_1</item>
<item>@drawable/earth_2</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="mars_images">
<item>@drawable/mars_0</item>
<item>@drawable/mars_1</item>
<item>@drawable/mars_2</item>
</integer-array>
</resources>
When user will open planet selector, you will iterate through contents of R.array.planet_names array, each item (planet) in this selector will have itemId set to array index. When user will click on something, you will get itemId of clicked item, then you will find array of its images as R.array.planet_images[itemId] (not exactly - it's conceptual example).
You will be able to add new images or even planets through XML editing.
Steven__ said:
Yes, I can see why you'd want to do it this way. Your current problem is that if you add more images, you have to manually update your arrays. Unfortunately I can't think of a better, 'clean' way of doing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brut.all said:
But if you don't want to declare all images in sources, but in XMLs, then you could use XML arrays...
...You will be able to add new images or even planets through XML editing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as i posted earlier this was the idea that i had - i havent tried it yet because i wanted to get some feedback from you guys just to see if i was completely off base. so right now its coming down to what would make for the more memory efficient final product - declaring all these images as class array constants (which i already have working) or using xml and coding the operations for parsing, counting, filtering, assigning, etc?
again thank you guys for your time and help
kadmos said:
or using xml and coding the operations for parsing, counting, filtering, assigning, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean parsing XMLs? My example above uses standard Android resources. You don't have to parse these XMLs, you will get them as arrays And yes, it's super efficient, because they are compiled to easy-to-read form
ok then im going to go ahead and try it
be back soon
i hope

Calculations At Lower Level?

Is there any way to force certain calculations to be done out of the VM? Basically I have algorithms (math) in a program that are slow as balls in Java and would really like if it went faster. I optimized it the best that's really possible, plus Java does some optimizations, but it's still way too slow.
Any way I can kick these calculations off to C land and get things done quicker? I mean my phone's not the fastest (1Ghz Hummingbird), but it should be pretty quick. The JVM is slowing it down by leaps and bounds.
Anybody know anything?
TIA
You can use the NDK to write C code.
Can you provide an example of your problems, though?
hrk said:
You can use the NDK to write C code.
Can you provide an example of your problems, though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, NDK looks like it is exactly what I'm looking for. Looks like the C aspect has to be kind of jammed in there, but I kind of need the performance, so I don't really mind.
As for an example, the program is an image manipulator, so there's many loops. While not a direct pull from my code, an example could be something like this:
Code:
int i, j;
int height = bmp.getHeight();
int width = bmp.getWidth();
int color = 0xFFFF0000;
int count = 0;
for (i = 0 ; i < width ; ++i) {
for (j = 0 ; j < height ; ++j) {
bmp.setPixel(i, j, color);
switch(count % 3) {
case 0:
color = 0xFF00FF00; break;
case 1:
color = 0xFF0000FF; break;
case 2:
color = 0xFFFF0000; break;
}
count++;
}
}
So I do still need access to things (the bitmap) up in Java land.
I see that NDK passes some environment stuff (a pointer to a JNIEnv struct/class, and a copy of a jobject come with each function call, aside from any additional parameters somebody wishes to use). Do you know what those are? I mean I get that one's a pointer to the Java native interface environment, and I'm assuming the object copy is a copy of the object called on it? And types in C land are prefixed with a 'j'?
Thanks for your time and help!
I haven't used JNI in the last... ten?... years, so my memory is a bit dusty there.
In JNI you don't use C-types, but those "J prefixed types" which internally handle all the compiler-platform-java specific differences (simple example: how big is a "long" on an ARM, ia32 and ia64 computer? A jlong has the same size on all of them).
I recommend you these two links: Java programming with JNI (IBM developer network) and Wikipedia: Java Native Interface. I'm not joking, Wikipedia has some basic examples and links to useful informations!
Having said that... can't you go for a different approach, like...
Code:
int[][] rawData = new int[bmp.getWidth(), bmp.getHeight()];
...
for (int i ...) {
for (int j ...) {
// color from switch
// ...
rawData[i][j] = color;
}
}
bmp.somehowSetRawDataInOneCall(rawData);
I don't know which image manipulating class you're using (and I don't know how specific your code was!), but I clearly remember using "mass"-setting methods in one of my projects to speed things up after trying myself your setColor(i, j, color) approach.
hrk said:
I haven't used JNI in the last... ten?... years, so my memory is a bit dusty there.
In JNI you don't use C-types, but those "J prefixed types" which internally handle all the compiler-platform-java specific differences (simple example: how big is a "long" on an ARM, ia32 and ia64 computer? A jlong has the same size on all of them).
I recommend you these two links: Java programming with JNI (IBM developer network) and Wikipedia: Java Native Interface. I'm not joking, Wikipedia has some basic examples and links to useful informations!
Having said that... can't you go for a different approach, like...
Code:
int[][] rawData = new int[bmp.getWidth(), bmp.getHeight()];
...
for (int i ...) {
for (int j ...) {
// color from switch
// ...
rawData[i][j] = color;
}
}
bmp.somehowSetRawDataInOneCall(rawData);
I don't know which image manipulating class you're using (and I don't know how specific your code was!), but I clearly remember using "mass"-setting methods in one of my projects to speed things up after trying myself your setColor(i, j, color) approach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, using a raw buffer will definitely alleviate some of the overhead simply by removing function calls from the task loop. I'm using the Bitmap class, it has a setPixel method. I'm sure there's a way to dump a new buffer in there. That would definitely speed things up.
Good to know the types are standard sizes, unlike C/C++.
I'll look into the links above, and yes, I trust Wikipedia for all things factual. Not like I'm looking up political stuff there, math and CS is pretty set in stone.
That being said, while it will definitely remove some of the overhead to modify a primitive data structure, that was a fairly simplistic example. The problem is that some of the filters do multiple passes, multiple filter applications, and are in general more complex. I don't believe Java will prove quick enough.
I'll give it a whirl, though, I'll see what happens, maybe I can get some times. I'll post back at some point (few days) when I get time to test it (too busy atm).
Thanks for your time, I'll get back to ya.

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