Ideas for New Controls Thread

[Novabrain]

MMF is very open and ripe for more controls and better ones, along the way.

For those familiar with VB, you probably know that there are many types of custom controls you can plug into it. I think Mabry Software had very good selection of useful and functional add-ons.

I would like to go in that direction in the near future. There is no limit to the kinds of controls we can imagine and explore or the kinds of improvements that could be made for current, stock objects.

Feel free to jot-down your ideas or make a wish-list. I may create a version of this thread in another, internal area as well.

My ideas:

Knob Object:

User set's the size, supplies a graphic for the knob, (with pointer or without) sets the range and start and end points. The background is transparent, but the user can put any texture or graphic behind it. The object would also have options for circular ticks, numbers, or a line with caps, gradients, etc.

The turning of the knob is, of course, controlled either by keyboard or the mouse.

The customization is open here and could have many creative solutions for users, like setting a restriction range on the fly during runtime, (0-100 range restricted to x-n).

Flip-out Menu Buttons:

Not sure what these are actually called, but you see them in Photoshop on the tools bar and in other apps. Basically, it is a multiipart button or system box that contains a graphic for each choice. I have seen two types. A button of this style has an indicator, (though the graphic could have it) if there are more choices on right-click. The two types are more buttons of the same style opening outwards, or a pop-up menu-style set of choices that have a graphic and text.

There are other ideas to consider. Add your own. It helps to think about them and make some notes. Maybe we will see them someday.

[Novabrain]

If you look at the first page of this search, you will find some ActiveX controls as examples and for ideas.

http://www.filesearch.biz/padsite/showpads.php?cat=Development%3A%3AActive%20X

I think I might look around and see what's new in ActiveX controls to see if we can get some cool inspiration going.

[Novabrain]

Bumped for ideas and discussion.

As per my other bump, it would be good to speculate on where to go after the current batch are published.

If we can focus our development power on good ideas, we may be able to make major inroads into expanding MMF2 beyond its current limitations.

[Novabrain]

Someone has requested data aware controls.

Any thoughts or elaborations on that? All I remember about them is from my VB days

[Nico]

Tab Control Object :
(icons support, orientations tabs, etc ...)
see page : http://www.codeproject.com/tabctrl/XPTabApp.asp

ListView+ Object :
(icons support, check boxes & comboboxes support, etc ...)

[Sphax]

Popup Menu with icons and tooltips
(icons support, save/load features to/from files or strings)

[Novabrain]

We should also talk internally about potential updates to included extensions.

One thing that comes to mind is the potential for more customization of the controls: list, combo, edit, etc.

What I mean is that they would look better in games and skinnable apps if you could color/skin the scroll bar elements and arrows, for instance. Maybe adjust their style and size?

[Sphax]

For skinnable controls, I think new objects should be done because it's totally different than using Windows controls.

[Nico]

The solution : 9-slice scaling !
As for Flash, able to change the shape, colors, etc... of each basic control (button, checkbox, radio, combobox, list, etc...)

[Sphax]

a 9-slice component object is in my todo list.