For example, if I were to write a calendar app on top of AIR, say with Flex, could this app pop up reminder windows for approaching appointments, just like Microsoft Outlook can?
Clarification: Can those windows be actual dialogs where I can enter and save information?
See Creating toast-style windows
Twhirl pops up "toast" notifications (similiar to most instant messengers), while it is running in the system tray.
So yes.
There are notification balloons tips but this method is going out of favor with systray icons in Windows 7 and it's not cross platform. Unfortunately, you can only call this in the Win32 API using Shell_NotifyIcon and there is no way to get to it from Air.
Stuck making your own toaster popups.
YES
Your Flex AIR application can pop up windows, dialogs, toasters, whatever.
Have a look at this article on the Adobe Website, for creating your own Toast Style Popups.
(Credit for this goes to Duncan Smart, answering this question.)
Related
How do I go about creating my own taskbar toolbar, a la Windows Media Player:
Windows Media Player's Start bar toolbar http://me.monoxide.ws/images/wmp-toolbar.gif
Examples or documentation or even open source software that implements this for just about any language would be appreciated, but Google isn't being very helpful. Ultimately, I would like to do this in C# (I expect to need P/Invoke) for XP onwards, but any language and Vista onwards would be acceptable/helpful too.
Check this out:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharplanguage/thread/e180c4d5-8cd7-47e3-b45a-d643c02bab36
(source: microsoft.com)
It's called as "Desk Band"
See MSDN desription about this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersguide/shell_adv/bands.asp
and sample over there
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/dotnetbandobjects.asp
By the way, thanks for asking this question. Back in the days I also wanted to do this. However, yesterday I said bye bye to Windows and Hi to Mac. If you asked this yesterday I would upvote it trice if I could ;-)
You'll notice that Media Player on Win7 doesn't have a desk band. Instead it has tiny play/pause buttons in the thumbnail preview that appears when you mouse over the taskbar icon. You can do the same thing for your application. If you use Code Pack (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack) there is a sample under Samples\Shell\ThumbnailToolbarDemo. Windows 7 only, but way less annoying than taking up an inch or two of taskbar, and just as handy when you want to insta-pause.
Now, we are developing a window application for play video like TV.
But When it's running full screen, we must block all window notifications.
so i found many ways to disable notifications.
http://www.maketecheasier.com/disable-toast-notifications-in-windows-8/
But we can't use this way, because it's for only Window App Store Applications.
We want to block all Notifications.
connected USB noti, window update noti, etc.
In addition, Our application has property of the Topmost(base on .net C#).
But it can't Blocked.
is it possible to use the user32.dll??
How to solve it, anyway is ok.
sorry for my poor English. Thanks.
With windows 8, is it possible to create an application that is always visible? For instance, in previous versions of windows, there is the task bar with quick launch icons. Can I create something similar to the quick launch icons that are always on the screen?
If you are referring to a Windows 8 Store app then the answer is no. You can have a live tile and toast notifications that provides updates to the user which may cause the user to launch your application.
A good article to read to understand how your Windows Store apps will run on Windows 8 go here to learn about Application lifecycle (Windows Store apps). This will explain the App execution state.
It is not possible in the RT version, but the same is possible in the desktop version. If you have a desktop app, you can pin it to the taskbar. But any Window store app cannot be pinned to the taskbar. What you can do instead is move the app to the beginning of your Home screen, so anytime you click the Windows button your app will be visible right in front.
Do you mean always visible in the Star Menu screen? If so, you can add tile updating functionality to your application. As long as the user has the application pinned to the Start Menu, he would see the updates. Check the link below for an introductory tutorial.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/04/16/creating-a-great-tile-experience-part-1.aspx
"Quick Launch" has a very specific meaning, which you may or may not have been referring to in your question.
Below is the Quick Launch bar in Windows 8 - essentially a toolbar pointing to a location in your %AppData% directory. Prior to Windows 7 it was available by default, but the ability to now pin items directly to the taskbar rather supersedes it. Here's how you can restore Quick Launch if you really want to :)
It's, of course, available only in the Desktop mode and not on the Modern UI, where pinning a tile is the best you can hope for, and it's all up to the user to pin it AND to determine where it shows up on their Start Screen.
Another option worth mentioning (although more like system tray than quick launch) is lock screen presence. If the user chooses so and your app supports that, he can add it to his lock screen:
either as a a badge (up to 7 apps)
or as a tile notification (single app only)
This is not a way for the user to quickly start your app (other answers have already covered these options) but a way to stay visible and keep your user informed.
Are About dialog boxes "dead" in Windows 8 Metro apps? I looked over quite a few apps and screenshots of apps in the Windows store, and did not find any "inspiration".
Is there any guidelines from Microsoft or any article that discusses this issue?
What do you think is the best way to show a dialog box/popup that shows the app name, version, author and a link to the app's home page?
I am thinking of a icon button in the bottom appbar, something like "About Appname", that opens a popup with this information. I am using C# and XAML.
You would place the About into the Settings pane via the Settings Charm using the Setting Contract. You can see the About in almost all of the apps in the Store today. Quick start on adding Settings can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh872190.aspx
Guidelines for app settings here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh770544.aspx
Take a look here.
It lets you create dialogs/flyouts very easily from a UserControl. A few lines of boiler plate and you are done. Takes care of animation, UI management etc.
Is there away to copy a screenshot directly into an Adobe Air (2) application?
Kinda like this: User presses the "print screen" button and the screenshot shows up in the app.
Also I'ld like to know if pasting via keyboard or right-click work for that?
I'm new too AIR.
Best, John
Yes, it can be done.
But no, not directly from Air, unless you wish to capture parts of your own AIR UI (which should be no problem as these are within the scope of the AIR Application)
To capture the whole screen you would need to use an ANE (Adobe Native Extension) which can be written
both for iOS and Android devices and used from within AIR via an API.
Introduction to ANE Development:http://help.adobe.com/en_US/air/extensions/air_extensions.pdf
The following post discusses on the way by which an Air ANE can capture a screenshot (which is technical and relevant for developing such an ANE for Android)
How Native Extension take screenshot on Android device?
Other then this you might try a workaround, that is, instructing the user to capture using his own device's capture combination, then simply ask them to select the file from the Gallery, if indeed this is your intention...?