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[bbTCL] Wallpaper Switcher


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#1 sitalk

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Posted 13 May 2015 - 10:25 PM

(Refer to http://blackbox4wind...lackbox/?p=2941 for installing and using bbTCL in bbZero x64)

 

Hello everyone, I just finished with a new bbTCL powered bbInterface control and actually I'm pretty happy with the result.

As you can see in the video below it's a wallpaper switcher widget.

 

Posted Image

Full video: http://webmup.com/34e8e/vid.webm

 

It scans image files from a specific folder and let the user browse them in the form of thumbnails before setting them as a desktop wallpaper.

 

Usage

 

The first thing to do is to hit the "update thumbs" button for letting it generate the thumbnails that will be used on the bbInterface control itself.

 

After that clicking the arrows will go trough the thumbnails and the "SET!" button will apply the selected image as the desktop wallpaper.

 

The "random" button will select and set a random background from the list.

If you rightclick the thumbnail the widget resets itself deleting all the generated thumbnails.

 

If you add new images in the folder, or delete some of them, pressing again "update thumbs" will take action accordingly: it will delete the thumbnails for the wallpapers that don't exist anymore and generate them for the new ones.

 

I've enabled the auto-hide property for the widget because I think it's convenient it goes away when snapped to the screen edge, while you can drag it somewhere on the desktop to pin it during use.

 

Installation

 

Please note that you have to install ImageMagick because my bbTCL script uses its "convert.exe" command-line utility to generate the thumbnails. You have two options here:

- install a suitable release from http://www.imagemagi...ry-releases.php

- use the attached file that I extracted from the release: Attached File  convert.zip   4.57MB   38 downloads

The utility "convert.exe" needs to be in a folder that is specified in Window's PATH variable.

In my case the bbZero root folder is in it so I put it there. I guess if you use ImageMagick's installer it will include itself in the PATH variable.

 

If you use wallpaper files that doesn't have your screen resolution, it's better to disable, under Blackbox>Configuration>Graphics, both "Enable Background" and "Smart Wallpaper".

 

These are the TCL scripts and bbInterface controls:

 

Attached File  WallpaperSwitcher.zip   2.46KB   40 downloads

 

In the TCL scripts, just in the beginning, two paths need to be modified to your needs:

proc WallpapersFolder {} { return "C:/bbZero/wallpapers" }

And...

set fp [open "C:/bbZero/plugins/bbInterface/BBInterface.rc" r]

Enjoy (and let me know if you have any trouble)! :)


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#2 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 07:16 AM

Although this could already been done using broamrelay and a suitable script, this is definitely more easy to do.... Kudos!



#3 sitalk

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 07:47 AM

Well sort of... but it's quite different.

With Broamrelay you can achieve a similar result, but you have to both manually add every wallpaper and create the thumbnails if I'm not mistaken.

In this case you can simply manage your wallpapers adding or deleting pictures in the folder, TCL will take care of both updating the list and generating the thumbnails.

 

And Broamrelay it's x32 only. :(



#4 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 09:08 AM

Well sort of... but it's quite different.

With Broamrelay you can achieve a similar result, but you have to both manually add every wallpaper and create the thumbnails if I'm not mistaken.

In this case you can simply manage your wallpapers adding or deleting pictures in the folder, TCL will take care of both updating the list and generating the thumbnails.

 

And Broamrelay it's x32 only. :(

Yes, using broamrelay you do have to create the thumbnails yourself. That's why I said it's definitely more easy to do. Great job!

Now all we need is a style switcher (hint, hint). Again, it can be done with broamrelay but TCL offers more flexible options :)



#5 sitalk

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 11:29 AM

Now all we need is a style switcher (hint, hint).

Mmm, interesting... what do you have in mind?

#6 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 12:14 PM

Well, as you know using broamrelay you can build a style switcher with bbi. Theo laid the basics a long time ago and I have used numerous style switchers over the years. I can e-mail you the script and add some info, if you're not familiar with Theo's work.



#7 sitalk

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 01:05 PM

I can e-mail you the script and add some info, if you're not familiar with Theo's work.

Sure, so I can take a look to what was done. Do you have still my email from the registration here on the forums? I actually never used broamrelay myself, I've seen what it does after you mentioned it here. A shame there's no x64 support, it can do some quite nice things, like fading in and out bbInterface controls for example! By the way I checked on the internet a bit about Theo's Style Switcher and I found this for example: http://www.boxshots....eenies/1567.jpg   So we are talking of a switcher that displays screenshots of a complete setup as a thumbnail am I right? When setting a style it only changes the style and wallpaper or can do something more, like, I don't know, switch entire bbinterface.rc configurations, or disable/enable plugins?

#8 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 02:06 PM

A style switcher can do anything, you can even use batch files for more. Are you sure broamrelay doesn NOT work in a 64-bit environment?

Here are two more screenies, one by me a long time ago and another by iamriki.

 

Attached File  Factory_by_pitkon.jpg   199.27KB   1 downloads

 

Attached File  Style_Selector_for_Blackbox_by_iamriki.jpg   115.65KB   2 downloads

 

Yes, the screenshots are walls and styles combined (you have to create the screenies yourself, of course) and yes, I do have your e-mail addy from your registration, if it's still the same :)



#9 sitalk

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 02:51 PM

Are you sure broamrelay doesn NOT work in a 64-bit environment?

As far as I can see on http://bb4win.source...et/plugins.html there's no x64 version.

 

I do have your e-mail addy from your registration, if it's still the same :)

Yep it is :) Well my improvements to the concept, doing it in bbTCL, can be of course to make it so it's all automated. I have just to check out how to make simple screenshots in TCL (although it can be done for sure running some external tool like I've already done with ImnageMagick)... the rest it's pretty straightforward.   I think I'll start with something that allows the user to save a profile when he hits a "save profile" button, and the script will generate a profile containing: - a screenshot of the current screen in thumbnail form - the current wallpaper and style - a snapshot of bbinterface.rc - the currently enabled plugins   I'm pretty intrigued in making profiles for bbinterface configurations, it enables the user to use this not only as a style switcher, but as a bbinterface setup switcher. This way one can have customized bbinterface setups for different activities (gaming, programming, encoding, etc) and they can be created or modified simply my tweaking them directly on blackbox without involving manual script file editing.



#10 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 03:30 PM

First of all, our own plugin database (Downloads/Plugins) is much more complete and updated than the one on bb4win.source. That's for future referance :)

Second, I think mojmir updated broamrelay for 64-bit builds. Not sure, haven't got a 64-bit build myself and mojmir is awol at the mo.  :(

Third, I don't think including other configurations is much of a help in style setting. Then we'd have a theme changer, and crowmag's BBTheme is pretty good at it.

Fourth, I am sure you'll come up with something easy and automated. Good luck with it! :)



#11 sitalk

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 03:51 PM

Actually you're right about making it a theme changer this way.

 

Still I think I'll do something that just saves and switches bbinterface configurations in the future, because... now that I came up with the idea I realized that it can be of use for me. :P And separating this functionality from the style and wallpaper is even better because I tend to keep these aspects separate instead of considering them part of a theme.

That's why for example I just made a Wallpaper Switcher and not a Wallpaper *and* Style Switcher. :P

 

It all comes up to one's use of blackbox, being so customizable everyone uses it in different ways.



#12 pitkon

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 03:58 PM

You are so right there...

And it could be of use to many others, too :)



#13 sed

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Posted 04 June 2015 - 04:01 PM

I have quite a few to switch between






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