DirectSkin

DirectSkin allows software developers to make their applications skinnable. A typical application can be turned into a skinnable one within a few minutes of integrating the DirectSkin OCX into the project.

DirectSkin is a library that will allow developers to make their software fully skinnable in just a few minutes. DirectSkin requires no special controls to implement. Simply insert the DirectSkin library into your project and in a few lines of code specify what WindowBlinds skin you would like to use. You can make your applications look fantastic at a fraction of the cost that it would take to develop a custom skinning system for your program.

How to add DirectSkin to your application depends on the language you are using.

From the projects menu select the components menu item. This will bring up a dialog where you can select DirectSkin files to use in your application. Scroll down the list until you find the 'wbOCX ActiveX Control Module' Tick this and click ok. A new icon should appear in your toolbox window. You can now create an item of DirectSkin on the form you are using. Please note that you should add DirectSkin to your main form. When this form is closed, DirectSkin is also closed which will turn off skinning.

The first stage of adding a control is the same if you are making a dialog based app or a MDI / SDI app. From the Project menu, click the add to project menu item. This will produce another menu with a 'components and controls' menu item at the bottom. Select this item. A new dialog should appear. From this open the 'Registered ActiveX Controls' folder. In here find the WBOCX Control and insert this into your project

If you are making a dialog based app, open up the dialog in ResourceView and add the control. Then from the classwizard make a member variable for this object. Then use this to access the member variables. You would usually initialise DirectSkin in the OnInitDialog function.

If you are making one of these then you need to add the header file (wbOCX.h) to your mainfrm.cpp file. Then create a class (or global) variable of type WbOCX. In your OnCreate function you need to create the control. BSTR bstrLicense = ::SysAllocStringLen(pwchLicenseKey, sizeof(pwchLicenseKey)/sizeof(WCHAR)); if (!w.Create("", 0, CRect(0, 0, 0, 0), this, 0, NULL, FALSE, bstrLicense)) AfxMessageBox("Failed to load WindowBlinds skinning OCX"); ::SysFreeString(bstrLicense); pwchLicenseKey is the structure created by the Microsoft utility Licreqst which we can supply to you if you do not have it.

From the component menu use the 'Import ActiveX Control' menu item. Find the WBOCX ActiveX Control Module and select it. Then use the install button to add it to the project. Once added use as every other control.

Here are some key features of "DirectSkin":

· Freeform window borders and buttons with standard and custom functions · Tool window borders and buttons · Window and context menu edges, fonts and backgrounds · Menu bars and MDI buttons · Standard buttons · Checkboxes · Radio buttons · Progress bars · Tab items, borders and pages · Listview headers · Scrollbar backgrounds, arrow and thumb images · Combo box buttons and borders · Group box borders and backgrounds · Status bars · Edit window borders · Toolbar buttons, rebars (grippers), separators and backgrounds · Trackbars (sliders) · Standard spin (up/down) controls · Custom controls

Requirements:

DirectSkin may be used with any programming language that supports ActiveX (COM) controls, including the following: · C/C++ (e.g. MS Visual C++, Borland C++Builder) · C# · Visual Basic. NET · J# · Visual Basic · Delphi Please note: Not all skinning features are available on all platforms. For example, certain "owner-drawn" Visual Basic window controls cannot be skinned with DirectSkin, and Delphi controls can only be skinned if they have a recognized class name. Similarly, .NET controls are not skinned on 9x platforms. If you have queries relating to this, please contact DirectSkin support.