Tips

RX Library

Tips


Loading from Resources.

I'm mixed about using the resources section of the EXE file to load GIFs.

Against:
The reason is that you can be sure that nobody will be stealing those images <g> and do not have to worry about distributing the correct resource version. Instead of using resources, you may want to use
Rx Picture Clip instead.

For:
You would like to store the information as a resource DLL.


Using Rx Picture Clip instead of Delphi's default Image List.
The
Rx Picture Clip has a definite advantage over Delphi's Win32 Image List.

For starters, it does not use the ComCtrl32.DLL which causes your images to disappear when the ComCtrl32.DLL is the wrong build on your client's computer. As the images are self contained inside the EXE file, instead of the resources, you can be sure that nobody will be stealing those images <g>.

By using the
Rx Picture Clip, you do not have to worry about distributing the correct version ComCtrl32.DLL


Explorer Button Substitution.
The
RxSpeedbutton has an interesting property known as Flat which allows it to mimic MSIE's explorer button. Further to this, you can add the speed buttons to the RxSpeedBar.


Tray Button and Form Hiding
The
TrayIcon property puts the image on Windows 95 (or NT's) "tray". However, nothing is mentioned about hiding the form.

Drop an
AppEvents component to your form (make sure this is your 1st or main form) and set the ShowMainForm property to false to hide it.

Remember to add a popup menu or a hints description to TrayIcon. The popup menu would access another form that would be the applications form.

In other words,
1. Place an
AppEvents component to your main form.
2. Place a
TrayIcon component to your form.
3. Set the AppEvent component
ShowMainForm property to false.
4. Add a popup menu to TrayIcon.Popupmenu property.
5. The popup menu should show another form. This form is the main application.


Saving the Form's Location...

Use the
RX Form Placement component. Specify what properties you want to save in the Options property. For this to be done automatically, set Active to True.


Index Page | About | Download
Creation Date: 4 Feb 1998 | Last Update: 16 Mar 2000