Windows Dashboard .NET!

Special Edition!
Windows Dashboard .NET
No version information

I aim to release a new "lite" version of Windows Dashboard making the most of Microsoft's latest .NET framework. As for progress, it hasn't gotten very far, it's just a side-project of the main WDB, the reason being that I'm still only learning VB2008. But I've included a screenshot for you to check out. Something I don't understand is that, .NET has an executable which is 80kb, barely containing any code and roughly a 12,000k memory footprint, versus, v2's executable of 180kb, full of heaps of procedures & functions but only a 2,000k footprint. So besides hogging memory - what the hell is the latest .NET framework good for?

Windows Dashboard v2!

First Looks!
Windows Dashboard 2
v2.0 build 35

After 35 builds or so, I’ve finally managed to build a somewhat more clean & professional looking version 2 of Windows Dashboard. Let’s find out what’s new in v2;

1. New skinning engine, a new & quicker skinning engine with it’s own skin chooser.

2. Icon changer, to change the icons of your items.

3. Lightweight, the executable went from 488kb to 176kb!

4. Screenshot utility, to showcase your Dashboard.

5. Faster, due to the weight loss.

And much more to come, Windows Dashboard is still very incomplete.

What’s Planned?
Lots! If you’ve tried the new Dashboard, you’ll notice there’s an Accounts tab that doesn’t do anything? Here’s a little teaser of what’s planned;

Accounts support; for your favourite sites, if you surf & sign up a lot, or simple enjoy changing your username (I have no idea why) or whatever it is that you’re into, you’ll know that so many accounts in so many places can be hard to keep track of.

Profiles; for those of you that have to share a Dashboard. Profile support would be handy.

MRU list; integration for Windows’ list of most recently used documents.

Music player; why would you want to sit there in silence!

Song notes; for those times you’re listening to online radio and you hear a song you like, WDB will take note with a single click.

Skinning support; to help you create your ideal skin.

And a few more party tricks, but I don’t want to give away the ending.

But!
As some of you may know, WDB is coded using Visual Basic 6, ideally, I’d like to move it forward into Visual Basic 2008, so there could be a slight delay on things.

Windows Dashboard v1.2 (build 77).

4 New Updates!
Windows Dashboard
v1.2 Build 77

1. Columns.
This has been on the high priorities list for a while now, and it was easier than I thought, I just had to use my head a little more. Your items will now arrange themselves into columns rather than just listing off-screen.

2. Browser bug - again.
Turns out the browser had a tendency to change its own settings when I wasn't looking, funny how it never does it when we need it. But oh well, the bug has been fixed.

3. General code clean up.
Cleaned up the code again, I don't think I can delay v2 anymore, it'll have to come soon, v1 has a lot of very messy, unorganized and uncommented code which I'm starting to lose myself in. I'm just stalling until I can design a practical and pleasing.

4. Rename bug.
Renaming items would previously fail, but it has been fixed now.

Notes;
1. I've spotted a "small bug", well it's more of a cosmetic flaw, in the options, where a few frames & labels haven't been lined up properly, I'll get at that in the next build.

2. The version label seems to have misplaced itself, that'll need fixing too. See screen shot, bottom left of window.


I'd just like to point out that I lost the actual image whilst I was editing this post, and this is the closest thing I could find to it - featured build; 76. The version-text-cut-off bug has since been repaired.

Interface Design Tips.

If you've ever been stuck or lost for inspiration whilst designing an interface, just refer to this educational little presentation, every time. It will answer your questions and tell you where you're going wrong. After seeing that video, I believe it's time I revamped WDB. I'd like to give credit to the author for making it, a man in Texas called Garrett Dimon.

The presentation;
http://www.slideshare.net/garrettdimon/application-interface-design

Windows Dashboard v1.2 (build 76).

14 New Updates!
Windows Dashboard
v1.2 Build 76

1. Rearranged sections.
It's pretty obvious what this means, I've rearranged the section headings (on the left), they're now grouped by section type whereas before they were just listed by order created.

2. Rearranged browser controls (error).
I noticed a little mistake, in previous versions the address bar was followed by the favourites button and then the go button. So if you're using a skin that doesn't exactly have the clearest of icons, then you'd probably do what I did, click the one closest to the address bar? I've now swapped the two buttons around.

3. Basic skinning system.
I just realised that I'd been designing the interface colours & icons to my liking and so that they match my visual style & windows setup. And what use is that to anyone else? Or me, when I change my setup?

4. Transparency for window style 1.
Style 0 (chunky border) has a border which you can control the transparency of, style 2 (no border) has the main window, but Style1 doesn't. Is that fair?

5. Added extra buttons.
A few extra buttons here and there according to my changelog notes. I can't quite remember them all but in the "Notes" section we have;
Revert - to revert back to your last save. Open - you can now view text files. Back to notes - go back to your notes.

6. Auto-size search box options.
The search engine box. When you have a lot of search engines stored in there, having to constantly scroll down is an annoyance, so now it knows how tall it should be. It auto-sizes.

7. Skin: template.
Probably the most hideous skin you'll ever see. It's not there to look pretty, it's hideous colours serve the purpose of demonstrating to you where everything is and what it does.

8. Skin: dark theme.
It's just me having a crack at a dark theme, it is failure, but it does work extremely well with dark, glossy visual styles - such as Royale Zune/Noir or Vista clones, that's using window style 1 (Netbook).

9. Fixed bug in browser.
I was constantly getting script error pop ups. So I tried disabling script debugging in IE, because the browser is based on IE, but it failed. And now I think I have managed to manufacture an alternative workaround.

10. Integrate notes.
I originally disabled this, because it would clash with dark themes, but I've re-added it as an optional step. Using m3=1 in the [optional] section in your skin file will turn it on. As a tip, I recommend it not to be used on dark skins, because most people write their documents in black, thus causing a clash in colours.

11. Version label (& bug fixes).
I've added a little label in the bottom left corner which indicates your Dashboard version and release type (if applicable). This is to just remind people it's still a pre-release and it's bound to have bugs. I'll most likely remove it sometime in the future.

12. Section overs are 'skinnable'.
The little underlines for section images would sometimes be in the wrong place on other people's skins, so I've added support in skins to reposition & resize them. Which reminds me that I didn't do a good job, because the repositioning has only been done for the X axis and not Y.

13. General code cleanup.
Removed excess code, and re-ordered certain things to make WDB run faster.

14. New icons!
I've found a way to add extra icons to my application, so you now have a choice of four nicely appropriate icons that go up to 72 x 72 for your shortcut.

Hello & Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my new blog! This blog's purpose is to serve as a changelog for any of my on-going projects, possibly with some tidbits thrown in here and there to generally liven things up and to keep the balance between work & play.