I'm trying to figure out a way to add a TButton inside a TTrayIcon Balloon Hint.
Is that possible?
Application description and goal:
Basically my software detects when a USB device is connected to the computer
and automatically pops up a balloon hint which notifies the user that
a new device has been connected.
What should happen next is to ask the user "Do you want to execute operation A or operation B?",
and I'd like to give the user fast access to the options directly inside the ballooon hint.
What I have tried:
Googling a lot, but no success, because there is no info about how to access the balloon hint interface in any way.
I am using Delphi XE2 on Windows 8.
TTrayIcon is a wrapper for Shell_NotifyIcon(), which does not support custom controls in its popup notifications.
You will have to create your own popup window. You can use Shell_NotifyIconGetRect() if you want to position it relative to the tray icon. Just be aware that system tray icons can be hidden by the user, so be prepared that you may have to position your popup window without knowing where the icon is located at times.
Related
I know there are already posts about it, but I had a hard time finding anything really effective...
I am developing a small application that displays an balloon tip with a custom caption and icon.
I know how to use the TTrayIcon component and the Shell_NotifyIcon function. But now I have seen this thing (it is displayed when connecting the printer):
It has features like a standard balloon tip (appears and disappears like a balloon and is also displayed in the notification area):
Can anyone give direction on how one can create such a balloon (or a standard window with similar features, by using AnimateWindow and the like?
(I do not need it to appear in the notification area as in the second image)
Within the IDE, when F12 toggles between code and form,
the forms are displayed outside the monitor borders,
and therefore not visible.
This happens after a multi monitor setup has changed,
and the forms no longer open within the available new monitor screen areas.
One way to resolve this is to use the property inspector and
set the Top/Left properties to 4 to make the forms visible.
This is however a lot of work,
especially if many forms and possibly many projects are involved.
Is there a better way to reset the form locations once and for all,
so they are all visible with the new monitor setup?
There is nothing (AFAIK) in Delphi 6 IDE that would help. But assuming you are using Windows, the help is near, (tested on Windows 7):
Right-click on taskbar and select 'Cascade windows', this affects all windows in one go.
or
Alt-Tab to the window, press Alt-Space and then M (for move). Move the window with the arrow keys. This you would have to do seperately for each window.
Close your Delphi IDE. Then, if your current project group file is xyz.groupproj, open the file xyz.dsk with an text editor. Look for section [UndockedDesigner] entry "Count" and change its value to zero.
[UndockedDesigner]
Count=0
That will force all design window positions to 0,0 on your main monitor.
I'm trying to activate Hint from control of different application created from delphi upon focus, I'm using hook to identify the focused control, and then use WM_MOUSEMOVE, which I think will activate the Hint of that control, the handle would be the Control itself and the lParam is the Left and Top of the Control. The Control activate the OnMouseMove Event, but the Hint never shows. but when I use SetCursorPos, Hint show, but I need to show the Hint with out the cursor move on that Control. Can you please help me with this? Thank you in advance... by the way I'm using Delphi XE4
Among the really asked question is how to show the hint of a control that resides on another application (i am afraid without hook that application can not be done), the title is "Delphi - Activating the Hint from another control of Application".
First is first: That can be done without knowing what language the other app was done, but it is very complex to put it here (and i am not an expert on such way of coding, also i hate apps that work that way).
Second: The main idea is to hook the other application, search on Google some code of that apps, that can show you a rectangular hole square of the object the mouse is passing over, that application while doing it is iconized (i do not remember the name of it).
Waht such app does: As you move the mouse over the screen it overlays a rectangular over the control that mouse is over, then if you press the key to print screen, that small region is the only thing that goes to clipboard; on of such apps i saw had an extra funcion, they can move such controls if you press cursors on keyboard, also can hide/enable/disable such control... more, it can also make controls that are invisible to be visible, etc... i saw it working on my computer, and hey, for fun it is pretty and to DeBug or get extra things on some apps is also great (make some menús to be visible and enabled and then can use such funtions).
Please, please, understand i am agaist piracy and also against using such apps to let code to be run... some apps need pay for letting some menus enabled, but they have the code there, no need to change EXE to have/use that menus; just using this kind of apps makes that limited apps to be unlimited (just enable or show hidden menus and voila).
Note: To unhide menus, mouse point is not needed to be over the app, can be anywhere and is not moved.
The idea i want to say is: Any app can move, alter any control on any other app (at least on Windows) that is running, so maybe there can be a way to show such hint.
In the past i had use such app (sorry i do not remember the name) for DeBug my own apps, so i do not need to recompile in such cases where something was wrongly hidden, also work with buttons, labels, texts, combos, memos, etc.
Now my small problem is: I just need exactly what title say, but i can not make it to work.
Must be:
Mouse position must be irrelevant (it also must be able to be outside the application)
Just when a button that has focus is pressed with keyboard (Space or Enter) or just after some code somewhere on my application, i want to show the Hint of a specific TEdit for a short period of time.
I did not get Hint to be shown; not unless mouse point is over such TEdit but i want/need mouse pointer to not be over it, neither it to jump to the TEdit.
Idea Conept for that Hint to be shown: After doing some code that changes something, show extra info associated.
Example:
A button with that loads a file using an open dialog, filename is put on a ReadOnly TEdit (so it let user copy the text, but not change it); i want extra info that i punt on .Hint of such TEdit to be shown inmediatly.
That hint use is for not overload window with a lot of fields (TLabels) for showing such file data.
Simple idea: such Hint shows TimeStamp and size of the selected file.
P.D.: Not much related (since i am trying with a normal plain text hint), but hints can also store a full HTML page and with 3rd party tools be shown as an HTMLhint, so they can show a lot info of that file (also its content, etc) in a web based format; as i say i first try with standard plain text hints.
In order to show hint programatically you need to call TApplications ActivateHint method to which you specify the position parameter.
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE3/en/Vcl.Forms.TApplication.ActivateHint
Based on position parameter Application automatically finds which controll is at that position and shows its hint.
NOTE: Position parameter screen coordinates in pixels and not your controll coordinates. So you will have to use ClientToScreen method to change your coordinates apropriately.
You can see simple example of how to use this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15031208/3636228
Now if you need to do this from another application then you will have to add some comunication mechanizm to these two application so that one could send a proper message to tell the other to show the hint at specific position. But this does require you to be able to change both applications.
EDIT: This works with VCL applications but I'm not sure if it would work with FireMonkey applications.
I am programming a Delphi (XE3) application where mouse position is important, but I would like to be able with another mouse to be able to set breakpoints without moving the primary mouse position. I may be pressing shift or control in the application I am trying to debug, so alt-tabbing to the IDE and setting a breakpoint with the keyboard keyboard won't work. Can Windows 7 easily be set up to do this?
It's possible to attach multiple keyboards and mice to a computer, and various video games can take advantage of the multiple input devices, but the OS in general does not take advantage of that. No matter how many keyboards and mice you attach, there's still just one input queue and one cursor on the screen.
If all you need is to set breakpoints without moving the mouse, then you can navigate the input caret to the desired line with the keyboard and then press F5 to toggle breakpoints.
If you need to be able to debug without interfering with the program at all, then you might need to use remote debugging. Although the documentation suggests using Remote Desktop to operate the remote program while you're sitting at the local system, that's not what you want to do in this situation because you'll still have just one set of input devices. Instead, log on to the remote computer from elsewhere (either directly, or via Remote Desktop on a third computer). It'll help to have two computers you can access from the same chair.
Windows in my application are popping up off the edge of the screen, and this of course is a problem because some of the windows are modal and can't be dismissed (you don't even know they are there).
I'm using the TurboPower Orpheus component which remembers the location and size of each form, then restores it when the form is shown again. It saves the size and placement in an INI file.
What can I do to prevent windows from ever showing off the side of the screen?
It's common for this sort of thing to happen if you use multiple monitors and then disconnect one, such as when undocking a laptop. Or if you dock a laptop to a screen with a higher resolution. Or use remote desktop, etc..
The remedy is to override the "remember my position" behavior with a sanity check, to see if the left+width exceeds the width of the screen (Screen.Monitors array, actually - thanks guys), and vice-versa for the top+height.
Ideally, you "bump" by subtracting the difference, so you're butting up against the edge that the window wanted to straddle.
Also, see if there are updates to Orpheus that fix this. If not, you can get the source, make the correction (optional), and contribute it back to the project. It's OSS, as I recall.
You may want to give a look at their DefaultMonitor property and read the code from TCustomForm.SetWindowToMonitor to see how to deal with positioning relatively to Screen.Monitors.
Use DefaultMonitor to associate a form with a particular monitor in a multi-monitor application. The following table lists the possible values:
Value Meaning
dmDesktop No attempt is made to position the form on a specific monitor.
dmPrimary The form is positioned on the first monitor listed in the global screen object's Monitors property.
dmMainForm The form appears on the same monitor as the application's main form.
dmActiveForm The form appears on the same monitor as the currently active form.
Note: DefaultMonitor has no effect if the application does not have a main form.
To recall the previous position of a form, without having it suddenly in an area which is no longer available (due to a plugged off screen or changed resolution), you just call
TForm.MakeFullyVisible;
That's it. See the documentation.