wxWidgets create an app that lives on the desktop? - c++

Is it possible, using wxWidgets and C++, to create an application that will show on the desktop? What I mean, is that it would only display on the desktop, like Geektools, Rainmeter, etc.

Not out of the box.
You could try to get the HWND of the Desktop and create your own control in wxWidgets by deriving a class from wxControl or wxWindow and do the Drawing yourself. It is not that hard to do it :). You could even use wxHTMLWindow or wxWebConnect (3rdParty, based on Webkit) for that.
See GetDesktopWindow() for that:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms633504(VS.85).aspx
Assuming you are on Windows. You have to check for your WindowManagers Documentation on Linux yourself though. If you are using KDE, I would suggest to use QT directly or the KDE API. Same for Gnome.
It would be easier to use the corresponding os/windowmanager api for that though.
Hope that helps.

Related

GLFW loadding status on the taskbar

I need to make progres bar on taskbar using GLFW ( C++ ) , something like that:
There is a simular question about java: How to make a windows 7 loading bar on the taskbar, but I need it in C++
I was alredy looking for answer in GLFW's documentation, but I could not find any.
Is it possible using GLFW, and how can I do this? Let me know, if I can also make it work in linux or macOS.
If required, I might use native HWND window handler in Windows, but I was not able to find solution for native handler too.
On windows you will need to use ITaskbarList3 interface. SetProgressState and SetProgressValue method in particular.

How to create an Evernote kind of widget for global menu of a MacOS/X desktop using QT?

How to create an application which stays in top of MacOS, something similar to below image. You can see the Evernote elephant icon.
I don't want to use xcode - because my application already built in QT, it has nice GUI, now I wanted to add extended feature something similar to Evernote. If I click on an elephant it will open a dialog box to write notes. In my case- it's a simple event like on/off buttons.
I have tried and created GUI widget apps but how to make one which resides like Evernote app ?
A custom pop up menu like the one pictured can be done several ways in Qt.
QML is the most modern way of making the menu with the customized styling you are looking for.
Apply the appropriate flags to the window/widget so it appears as a popup.
The same effects can also be done in QWidgets, but takes more code and probably will take longer to make. The flags you are looking for will be found under Qt Window Flags and/or under Qt Widget Attributes.
The stock stylings for Qt for different OS's deal mostly with title bars, status bars, buttons, drop downs, etc.
The base styles for Mac can be found here:
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/gallery-macintosh.html
Once you go to a customized popup, you have to draw all of it yourself... but the native drawing elements in Qt are friendly enough and get you that look you are trying to do.
There are even some tools for exporting from Photoshop or Gimp directly to QML.
http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/quick-export-to-qml.html
Hope that helps.
You are looking for a tray icon. Qt implements it in QSystemTrayIcon.
Further information
You may take a look at the System Tray Icon Example.
Many StackOverflow posts exist on this topic.
If you already have a program written for Qt, then you can compile and run it under MacOS/X much the same way you could compile it under (whatever OS you're using now). You'll need to install Xcode because Xcode includes the C++ compiler (clang) you'll need in order to compile your Qt program, but you don't have to use the Xcode IDE if you don't want to. Rather, you can either use the QtCreator IDE under MacOS/X, or you can simply open up a Terminal window and do a "qmake ; make" in the directory where your Qt-based program's .pro file is, and build it from the command line that way.
If, on the other hand, your question is actually about how to add an icon to the global menu of a MacOS/X desktop, then I don't think Qt has an API for that, so you'll need to drop down to using one of MacOS/X's native APIs. That will probably involve learning some Objective-C (or Objective-C++, if you prefer), but integrating a bit of Objective-C/C++ into your Qt app is doable with a bit of work.

QT How to embed an application into QT widget

In our project we have three independent applications, and we have to develop a QT control application that controls these three applications. The main window will be seperated to three sub windows - each one display another one application.
I thought to use QX11EmbedWidget and QX11EmbedContainer widgets, but two problems with that:
The QX11Embed* is based on X11 protocol and I dont know if it's supported on non-x11 systems like Windows OS.
Since QT 5 these classes are not existing, and the QT documentation doesn't mention why.
So that I dont know whether to use it or not - I'll be happy to get an answers.
In addition, I see that the QT 5.1 contains QWidget::createWindowContainer(); function that in some posts it looks like this should be the replacement to the X11Embed. Can anyone please explian me more how can I use this function to create a QT widget that will run another application (a Calculator for example) inside its?
I have searched a lot in Google, and didn't find answers to my Qs.
Can anyone please help me? Am I on the right way?
Thanks!
If all three independent applications are written with Qt, and you have their source, you should be able to unify them just through the parenting of GUI objects in Qt.
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/objecttrees.html
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/widgets-and-layouts.html
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/mainwindows-mdi.html
If you don't have access to them in that way, what you are talking about is like 3rd party window management. It is kind of like writing a shell, like Windows Explorer, that manipulates the state and the size of other window applications.
Use a program like Spy++ or AutoIt Spy for Windows and the similar ones for other OS's, and learn the identifying markings of your windows you want to control, like the class, the window title, etc. Or you can launch the exe yourself in a QProcess::startDetached() sort of thing.
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.1/qtcore/qprocess.html#startDetached
Then using the OS dependent calls control the windows. The Qt library doesn't have this stuff built in for third party windows, only for ones under the QApplication that you launched. There are a lot of examples of doing things like this by AutoHotKey, or AHK. It is a scripting language that is made for automating a lot of things in the windows environment, and there is port for Mac as well (though I haven't tried the mac port myself).
So in the end you are looking at finding your window probably with a call like this:
#include <windows.h>
HWND hwnd_1 = ::FindWindow("Window_Class", "Window Name");
LONG retVal = GetWindowLongA(hwnd_1, GWL_STYLE); // to query the state of the window
Then manipulate the position and state of the window like so:
::MoveWindow(hwnd_1, x, y, width, height, TRUE);
::ShowWindow(hwnd_1, SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED);
You can even draw widgets on top of the windows you are controlling if you set your window flags correctly for the windows you are manipulating.
transparent QLabel with a pixmap
Cannot get QSystemTrayIcon to work correctly with activation reason
Some gotchas that come up in Windows when doing all of this, is finding out the quirks of the Windows UI when they set the Display scaling different from what you expect, and if you want to play nice with the Task bar, and handling all the modal windows of your programs you are manipulating.
So overall, it is do-able. Qt will make a nice interface for performing these commands, but in the end you are looking at a lot of work and debugging to get it in a beautiful, reliable, window manager.
Hope that helps.
I never tried it myself, but from the docs in Qt 5.1 I would try QWindow::fromId(WId id), which gives you a QWindow, which should be embeddable with createWindowContainer:
QWindow * QWindow::fromWinId(WId id) [static] Creates a local
representation of a window created by another process or by using
native libraries below Qt.
Given the handle id to a native window, this method creates a QWindow
object which can be used to represent the window when invoking methods
like setParent() and setTransientParent(). This can be used, on
platforms which support it, to embed a window inside a container or to
make a window stick on top of a window created by another process.
But no guarantee. :-)

Creating a window that can only be dragged within the parent window

I have a WIN32/C++ app and I want to create child windows in it that cannot be dragged out of the parent window. I want these windows to be owner-drawn, if it matters anyway. Should be simple enough; I'm looking for some basic guidance and tips regarding the subject.
It seems that you want to make an MDI app. This is much easier using a higher level framework such as MFC, WinForms, VCL etc., but can, of course, be done with plain Win32.
The MSDN documentation can be found here: Multiple Document Interface.
What you are looking for is called Multiple Document Interface (MDI).

How to create TitleAreaDialog using WTL or Windows SDK (no MFC)?

I am trying to create a TitleAreaDialog using WTL or Windows SDK (please no MFC).
From the google I am able to find these two links:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dialog/dialogheader.aspx (MFC article)
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dialog/taskdialogs.aspx (doubtful.. how to use it)
The desired output is like the eclipse JFace TitleAreaDialog (see the below image).
Kindly suggest a way to do this using sing WTL or Windows SDK (with c++).
Thanks
Finally able to solve it using the Dialog Header link. Just went through the code twice or may be thrice :) and then ported it for WTL.
There is another very good example in pure c++/win sdk:
xmessagebox. Its about replacing default windows messagebox with something good (although there is a mode which uses title area + icon).
If working for vista or greater and just want to grab very basic information via checkboxes, radio buttons etc then have a look at this: Vista_TaskDialog_Wrapper and VGTaskDialog