Thumbnail images in MMF 2

Hi Folks.

In Windows, if you go into a folder which has graphic files in it, you can View Thumbnails to see the images in the folder without having to open them. Is there a way to do this in MMF 2? I haven't done any testing yet, today I just looked at what objects were available that might be able to do this but none came out as instantly having this feature. So before I start running a number of test programs to see how to do it, I thought I'd throw it open here to see if anyone already has an answer.

I'm no expert, but you might be able to use the Active Picture object to display the picture from the file, and use either it's properties, or events at runtime to scale it down to thumnail size

i'm not sure if this applies to images or not, but i do know certain files (like PSDs) need a DLL to enable viewing their stored thumbnails. windows probably just opens and resizes the images to create thumbnails, if it has to (it keeps a database of the cached thumbnails [Thumbs.db] in each folder, at least)

if there's a specification for the Thumbs.db file floating around, you might even be able to extract the thumbnails from that if it's appropriate for your needs (though you'd need to use the binary object, and the Thumbs.db file itself probably won't be created/updated unless the folder is opened in Thumbnail View)

EDIT: then again, it's probably just easier to use active pictures

Thanks. I do know how to use the Active Picture Object to create thumbnail images, but what I'm after is a means of presenting the user with the contents of a graphics folder as thumbnails, just as if doing so through Windows. I want the user to be able to pick a folder on their computer and it will open up, displaying thumbnail images of any graphic files in there.

I believe Andos has an example of this on his site. Not sure of the URL though but I am sure one the helpful guys here will know!

Sadly the Active Picture object isn't optimized for thumbnails. For it to show the image it has to load the entire image and then resize it all which is very slow. Windows has some really neat method for only loading very little data from the image file and still get a viewable image (which is 100 times faster than the other method)

A thumbnail object, perhaps? Is this doable in the future?

Well, I did some testing today and managed to set up a system by which I can display a set of thumbnail images by using a number of Active Picture Objects. The thing is, it restricts the view to whatever number of APO's I use on the frame.

A Thumbnail Object would be great if it's do-able, or if possible, add a Thumbnail View option to the Explorer Object in MMF 2 Developer.

You could dynamically create the APO's at runtime based on the number of images you wish to load. Then simply place them in the frame using simple positioning and loops.

That way you could any number of APO's in your view as you want.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IsaacBoy

You could dynamically create the APO's at runtime based on the number of images you wish to load. Then simply place them in the frame using simple positioning and loops.

That way you could any number of APO's in your view as you want.

---

though the image-resizing lag will still be a problem

i threw together an app that uses 12 APs and the lag from even that few is obvious

Thanks, IsaacBoy, I did consider that option and the initial problem was scrolling. If a user views a folder with say 100 image files in it, squeezing all them on one frame would not be useful. As to implementing a scrolling technique... It seemed quite problematic though a working solution was achieved, though not one I liked.

At the moment, limiting the number of displayed images seems to be the best option for the program I need this for.

This is true too many and you're gonna get a lag. HWA will fix that problem though right?

It will only speed up the display, it will still be very slow to load and resize all images...

You need to cache the resized images :)

That's true actually Dynasoft, I believe that's what windows does...

Any further work on this concept?

I would be interested in a thumbnail object also as i want to make graphics apps in MMF. +1 vote :)