Ribbon

[trancexx]

Few years ago Microsoft introduced new UI feature that they named Ribbon.

With the release of Windows 7 they added it as standard system feature. Windows Ribbon framework.

You could say it's a new technology waiting to be fully embraced. Considering AutoIt is currently in some shitty stage Ribbons are not expected to be supported natively. Which is actually good thing because otherwise some developer could have GUICtrlCreateRibbon idiotic idea.

Ribbons are beautiful things. In order to work with them you have to master objects. It's COM based technology. Some people will stop reading now, but really their shame.

Anyway, this example is based on work by Mr. Michael Chourdakis. Guy really took deeper dive to ribbon thematic and made few very interesting articles. All is available on internet naturally, just google Michael Chourdakis Ribbon or something like that.

So, the main thing to do is create so called Ribbon Framework Object. After that you have to initialize event handlers (two callback objects made with ObjectFromTag function) and load your Ribbon.

Ribbon is loaded from resource, either one of your app or some other. I have compiled resource dll for this example so that scripts could be run non-compiled and still use ribbon command bar.

Example shown here is not completely dummy, it uses all of the ribbon controls. Only it doesn't do anything smart besides that.

ZIP:

Ribbon.zip

Inside the zip there is folder called Ribbon with two files RibbonExample_NEW.au3 and RibRes.dll. Extract that folder somewhere, run RibbonExample_NEW.au3 and enjoy the Ribbon beauty.

There are few comments inline for easier comprehension of the overall script code.

Thanks Andreik for asking for more.

Edited September 12, 2013 by trancexx

[UEZ]

Very nice work trancexx! 5* from me!

What about RibRes.dll? Where is it from?

Br,

UEZ

[jvanegmond]

I thought the major benefit of ribbons was that they natively supported resizing of controls. Example in my Excel program:

Is this functionality supported? If so, will you write a demo using this technique?

I'm also having huge repaint issues with the GUI, mostly when resizing. Example: http://gyazo.com/7b3e742d70d5abab2519be627e1f898c.png I haven't done any debugging yet. Can you give me some pointers?

Edited May 3, 2011 by Manadar

[taietel]

UEZ, download the free version of VRC from here and make a custom one. Trancexx, thanks! 5*

Edited May 3, 2011 by taietel

[UEZ]

@taietel: ahh, I see now what is behind the DLL.

Thanks,

UEZ

[ptrex]

@trancexx

.... I am still reading ...

This is a great addition to au3 !

To resolve to Gui repaint issue (partially) add this

GUIRegisterMsg(0xF, "MY_PAINT"); Register PAINT-Event

...

Func WM_ERASEBKGND($hWnd, $msg, $wParam, $lParam)
    Return 1
EndFunc  ;==>MY_PAINT

Ps :

"I am still a COM fan, don't get me wrong, but there is more in life the COM alone"

[James]

Hah!

That's neat. I love it!

[jvanegmond]

GUIRegisterMsg(0xF, "MY_PAINT"); Register PAINT-Event

...

Func WM_ERASEBKGND($hWnd, $msg, $wParam, $lParam)
    Return 1
EndFunc  ;==>MY_PAINT

Did you mean to do this?

GUIRegisterMsg(0x0014, "WM_ERASEBKGND")
Func WM_ERASEBKGND($hWnd, $msg, $wParam, $lParam)
    Return 1
EndFunc

Because it solves repaint issues with the ribbon very nicely, just not the rest. http://gyazo.com/b431e13c8f318cce022389d0c097da68.png

[Yashied]

Nice. Five stars from me too.

[trancexx]

I thought the major benefit of ribbons was that they natively supported resizing of controls. Example in my Excel program:

Is this functionality supported? If so, will you write a demo using this technique?

I'm also having huge repaint issues with the GUI, mostly when resizing. Example: http://gyazo.com/7b3e742d70d5abab2519be627e1f898c.png I haven't done any debugging yet. Can you give me some pointers?

I'm not sure but probably OnViewChanged method of UIApplication is where that can be adjusted.

All the examples I had in c++ have had WS_CLIPCHILDREN style added for the main GUI. If that's added to AutoIt's GUI then overriding of some windows massaging would be in place too I guess.

I lol'd on pointers.

[UEZ]

Did you mean to do this?

GUIRegisterMsg(0x0014, "WM_ERASEBKGND")
Func WM_ERASEBKGND($hWnd, $msg, $wParam, $lParam)
    Return 1
EndFunc

Because it solves repaint issues with the ribbon very nicely, just not the rest. http://gyazo.com/b431e13c8f318cce022389d0c097da68.png

This is better but not perfect (tested on Win7 x64 with Aero):

GUIRegisterMsg($WM_NOTIFY, "ReDraw")
Func ReDraw($hWnd, $msg, $wParam, $lParam)
    _WinAPI_RedrawWindow($hGUI, 0, 0, BitOR($RDW_ALLCHILDREN, $RDW_UPDATENOW, $RDW_INVALIDATE, $RDW_INTERNALPAINT))
    Return "GUI_RUNDEFMSG"
EndFunc

Maybe some styles needs to be added which I don't know yet.

Br,

UEZ

Edited May 3, 2011 by UEZ

[JScript]

Wow, great! Five stars *****

Questions:

It only works if I use AutoItObject?

It depends on Net Framework? What minimal version?

Will always have this DLL?

Thanks for sharing!!!

[trancexx]

Wow, great! Five stars *****

Questions:

It only works if I use AutoItObject?

It depends on Net Framework? What minimal version?

Will always have this DLL?

Thanks for sharing!!!

Yes, code works thanks to AutoItObject. The only mayor dependency is operating system.

DLL is there to serve as resource holder. It can be any other PE module, or none if ribbon resource is added to your compiled script.

[JScript]

Thanks for your reply...

And about "Application button"?

[Andreik]

How could I create the resource file for a custom application? Should I install Visual Studio for Ribbon Designer?

[trancexx]

How could I create the resource file for a custom application? Should I install Visual Studio for Ribbon Designer?

I used Visual Ribbon Creator by Michael Chourdakis.

[Andreik]

Can you tell me please what you did to work properly. I tried Visual Ribbon Creator by Michael Chourdakis and as he said I installed VS 2010, I am able to generate C++ code but the application fail to compile DLL.

[spudw2k]

Forgive the dumb nature of my post;is the download of the Autoit Object package required.  I assumed the AutoItObject.au3 script included in the zip was all I needed but are there other dependencies nedded in the AIO package?  I only ask because I don't get what I expected when I run the example (plain GUI with a button and textbox) and I am unable to download the package from my current location do to firewall rules.
 

edit: spelling and grammar

Edited July 24, 2013 by spudw2k

[trancexx]

Can you tell me please what you did to work properly. I tried Visual Ribbon Creator by Michael Chourdakis and as he said I installed VS 2010, I am able to generate C++ code but the application fail to compile DLL.

Nothing particularly smart if I remember correctly. It was easy task.

I'm running Windows 8 with VS 2012 so I can't help much further, sorry.

 

@spudw2k, what's your system?

[spudw2k]

Win7 x64 SP1