Your latest build fixed the problems I was having.  Thanks!!!!

Littleboy,

The following code returns a Syntax error trying to run the script from the Controller.  The loadImage function won't take "C:\frame.png".  When I change it to "frame.png", the Syntax error is replaced by "Error running script" message: Error# -2147467259 There was an error loading image: frame.png"

frame.png is located at C:\ 

What am I doing wrong?

---------------------------------------------------------

Sub Load_and_Show
 Dim ctx
 Dim img

    set ctx = canvas.getContext("2d")
  
    img = ctx.loadImage("C:\frame.png")
    ctx.drawImage img, 100,100

End Sub

------------------------------------------------------

BTW - Thanks for helping me out, and thanks again for putting all of this together.

loadImage returns an object reference, so you need to use Set. This should work:

Thanks!  That did it.

Suppose I should read the Canvas Tutorial.

This part is DX-specific

Littleboy,

I've been experimenting with your plug-in on an XP machine (at work ) and after you removed the test code you mentioned, my problem with the greyed out drop down and missing tab in the properties disappeared.  Last night I downloaded the same build at home and tried it on my Vista machines (Home Premium) - running the latest build of DX and I'm experiencing the same greyed out dropdown and missing property tab.  I assume that this is a Vista specific problem.  Im not sure what OS you are building the plugin on, but I thought I would let you know what I'm experiencing. 

Also..if it helps, I've seen the thread on Vista, SP1, and UAC.  I've had UAC turned off forever and never experienced any UAC/permission problems with DX before or after SP1.

New (almost final) build. Flickering should be reduced a bit (I'm no longer asking for redraw every time an operation is done on the canvas). Error handling is also much closer to the canvas spec now (use debugMode if you want to get an error on invalid parameters).

I'll try to see if I can fix the damn flickering for the final version, but otherwise this build should be what will be uploaded on WinCustomize. Let me know if you find any showstopper bugs!

On my todo list for a future version:

• Drawing text along a path
• Shadows (lot of work )
• Charts (doable via scripts, but given that it's a royal pain to share them...)

Nice work on the latest build.  Much faster!

Here are some shape scripts that I put together that might be useful to someone.  Some of the procedures already exist in the Canvas list, some don't, but these take away the need to worry about moving the pencil to x,y first and building paths with beginPath and Stroke'ing, (unless you need to build a complex path before drawing it).  Also, the procedures that use angles accept degrees, not radians.

'************************************************************************************
'Converts angles to radians
'************************************************************************************

Function inRadians(angle)
Dim PI
PI = 3.14159265

   inRadians = (angle * PI) / 180
End Function

'************************************************************************************
'Usage: showImage(context,locx,locy,path)
'************************************************************************************

Sub showImage(ctx,x,y,path)
  Dim img

    Set img = ctx.loadImage(path)
    ctx.drawImage img,x,y

End Sub

'************************************************************************************
'Usage: drawArc(context,locx,locy,radius, startangle - in degrees, endangle - in degrees, direction)
'  - direction = anticlockwise (true)  clockwise (false)
'************************************************************************************

Sub drawArc(ctx,x,y,radius,startAngle,endAngle,anticlockwise)
Dim startA
Dim endA

    startA = inRadians(startAngle)
    endA = inRadians(endAngle)

      ctx.beginPath

      ctx.moveTo x,y

      ctx.arc x,y,radius,startA,endA, anticlockwise
      ctx.stroke

End Sub

'************************************************************************************
'Usage: drawPieSlice(context,locx,locy,radius, startangle - in degrees, endangle - in degrees, direction, filled)
'  - direction = anticlockwise (true)  clockwise (false)
'************************************************************************************

Sub drawPieSlice(ctx,x,y,radius,startAngle,endAngle,anticlockwise,filled)
Dim startA
Dim endA

    startA = inRadians(startAngle)
    endA = inRadians(endAngle)

    ctx.beginPath
    ctx.moveTo x,y
    ctx.arc x,y,radius,startA,endA, anticlockwise
    ctx.lineTo x,y
    ctx.stroke
    if filled = true then
       ctx.fill
    end if

End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawCircle context,centerx,centery, radius, number of segments, filled
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawCircle(ctx,cx,cy,radius,num_segments, filled)
Const PI = 3.14159265

Dim X
Dim Y
Dim theta
Dim dtheta
Dim seg

    dtheta = 2 * PI/ num_segments
   
    ctx.beginPath
    ctx.moveto cx+radius, cy
   
    theta = 0
    For seg = 1 To num_segments
        theta = theta + dtheta
        ctx.lineto cx + (radius * Cos(theta)), cy + (radius * Sin(theta))
    Next
    if filled = true then
       ctx.fill
    end if
    ctx.stroke
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawAngleLine context,startx,starty, length of line, angle in degrees
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawAngleLine(ctx,startx,starty,linelength,angle)
Const PI = 3.14159265
Dim theta
  
    theta = (2 * PI/ 360) * angle
    ctx.beginPath
    ctx.moveto startx,starty
    ctx.lineto startx + (linelength * Cos(theta)), starty + (linelength * Sin(theta))
    'drawLine ctx, startx + ((linelength-200) * Cos(theta)), starty + ((linelength-200) * Sin(theta)), startx + (linelength * Cos(theta)), starty + (linelength * Sin(theta))
   
    ctx.stroke
End Sub

'************************************************************************************
'usage : returns distance from point x1,x1 to point x2,y2
'************************************************************************************
Function distance(x1,y1,x2,y2)
  distance = sqr( ((x2-x1)*(x2-X1)) + ((y2-y1)*(y2-y1)))
End Function

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawRectangle context,startx,starty,endx,endy, filled
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawRectangle(ctx,x1,y1,x2,y2, filled)
 ctx.beginPath
 ctx.moveto x1, y1
 ctx.rect x1,y1,abs(x2-x1),abs(y2-y1)
 if filled = true then
           ctx.fill
        end if
 ctx.stroke
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawGrid context,startx,starty,endx,endy, grid size
' - Draws grid by specifying the grid size in pixels
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawGrid(ctx,x1,y1,x2,y2,gridsize)
  Dim L 
  Dim Width
  Dim Height

        Width = ABS(x2-x1)
        Height = ABS(y2-y1)

        
        For L = 1 to (width+gridsize) step gridsize
          drawLine ctx,x1+L,y1,x1+L,y2
          drawLine ctx,x1,y1+L,x2,y1+L
        Next
 drawRectangle ctx,x1,y1,x2,y2,false
       
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawGrid2 context,startx,starty,endx,endy, num of divisions along x, num of divisions along y
'  - Draws grid by specifying the number of divisions per direction
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawGrid2(ctx,x1,y1,x2,y2,xdivisions, ydivisions)
  Dim L 
  Dim Width
  Dim Height
  Dim xgridsize
  Dim ygridsize

        Width = ABS(x2-x1) 
        Height = ABS(y2-y1)
        xgridsize = round(Width/xdivisions)
        ygridsize = round(Height/ydivisions)
        
       
        For L = 1 to width step xgridsize
          drawLine ctx,x1+L,y1,x1+L,y2   
        Next

        For L = 1 to height step ygridsize
          drawLine ctx,x1,y1+L,x2,y1+L
        Next

 drawRectangle ctx,x1,y1,x2,y2,false
       
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage:  draws a line on the x-axis with ticks on it, could be used for graph axis
'******************************************************************************

Sub tick_x(ctx,x1,y1,x2,xdivisions,ticklength)
  Dim L 
  Dim Width
  Dim xgridsize
 
        Width = ABS(x2-x1) 
        xgridsize = round(Width/xdivisions)
     
        For L = 0 to width step xgridsize
          drawLine ctx,x1+L,y1,x1+L,y1-ticklength   
        Next
    
 drawLine ctx,x1,y1,x2,y1
       
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage:  draws a line on the y-axis with ticks on it, could be used for graph axis
'******************************************************************************

Sub tick_y(ctx,x1,y1,y2,ydivisions,ticklength)
  Dim L 
  Dim Height
  Dim ygridsize
         
        Height = ABS(y2-y1)
        
        ygridsize = round(Height/ydivisions)
        
       
        For L = 0 to height step ygridsize
         drawLine ctx,x1,y1+L,x1+ticklength,y1+L
        Next

 drawLine ctx,x1,y1,x1,y2
       
End Sub

'******************************************************************************
'Usage: drawEllipse context,centerx,centery, radiuswide, raiustall, number of segments, filled
'******************************************************************************

Sub drawEllipse(ctx,cx,cy,radius1,radius2,num_segments, filled)
Const PI = 3.14159265

Dim startX
Dim startY
Dim theta
Dim dtheta
Dim seg

    dtheta = 2 * PI/ num_segments
   
    ctx.beginPath
    ctx.moveto cx+radius1, cy
   
    theta = 0
    For seg = 1 To num_segments
        theta = theta + dtheta
        ctx.lineto cx + ((radius1) * Cos(theta)), cy + (radius2 * Sin(theta))
 if seg =1 then
        startX=cx + (radius1 * Cos(theta))
 startY=cy + (radius2 * Sin(theta))
        end if
    Next
    ctx.lineto startX, StartY
    if filled = true then
           ctx.fill
        end if
   
    ctx.stroke

End Sub

'************************************************************************************
'Usage: drawRoundRectangle context,Leftx,Lefty, width, height, corner radius, filled
'************************************************************************************

Sub drawRoundRectangle(ctx, x, y, width, height, radius, filled)
    ctx.beginPath
    ctx.moveTo x, y + radius
    ctx.lineTo x, y + height - radius
    ctx.quadraticCurveTo x , y + height, x + radius, y + height
    ctx.lineTo x + width - radius, y + height
    ctx.quadraticCurveTo x + width, y + height, x + width, y + height - radius
    ctx.lineTo x + width, y + radius
    ctx.quadraticCurveTo x + width, y, x + width - radius, y
    ctx.lineTo x + radius, y
    ctx.quadraticCurveTo x, y, x, y + radius
    if filled = true then
       ctx.fill
    end if
    ctx.stroke
End Sub

Littleboy,

I'm still having problems with the new build running the Canvas Controller on my Vista machines (see reply #36 of this thread).  The controller and canvas procedures/plug-ins work great on my XP machine here at work. 

Any ideas?

Thanks.

I haven't had time to look further into that problem yet. I'm using Vista myself and it works fine here. I included a dxpack in the latest build in case you want to take a look. Good work on the scripts. Are you working on a widget already?

I'm going to publish another test build soon as there is a problem with stroked text in the current public build (fixed internally).

I have not started on a widget/object yet.  I tried to on Sep 4th when I posted about my problem with the Controller on Vista.  After I realized that the Controller would not work, I tried to make an object from scratch, added your plug-in under additional capabilities and tried to run some of the scripts I put together.  I could not go further from that point on because I got script errors  (Null), "Object not available" type errors and assumed that I either had a Vista problem or was not making a proper declaration somewhere in my script to include the Canvas plug-in.  I can examine the scripts in the Dxpack that you included in the build to see what I'm doing wrong.  I hope I'm just having a problem with your Canvas Controller widget and not the plug-in itself.  I REALY want this plug-in to work and have some project ideas in mind.

Some ideas include:

  - Charting and Graphing

  - Meters that can't be done with the current plug-ins:

      - for example, I just made a DX Wi-Fi meter that works on Vista.  It does not use any plug-ins, but uses different bitmaps for different states(meter levels).  I want the meter to be dynamically drawn so I'm not limited to discreet states (i.e. 5 states and 5 images)

  - DX based image editing

  - Live object reflections

     - I have not thought much about this yet, but is it possible to pass the .Image value from a normal DX object into the context of an object using the DXcanvas plugin so it can be manipulated or annotated with the drawing subs?

  - Realtime enhancements to objects, like running indicators, or annotations to highlight a specific area on an object

  - a simple implemantation of the LOGO language(which is fun for kids to play with).  I always liked moving the turtle around.

I'm going to work on creating or more accurately adapting the Bar Chart Script (that I mentioned in the forum a while back) into a function. The basic function should be easy, the only issues I've experienced have been parsing csv files because of essentially no standards.

Wouldn't the live object reflection be possible already? Set up a mask object then draw a gradient with one color being transparent and import the image into that object.

Also, I would think you could easily get another object's picture by using Object.Picture? Off to try some of your ideas.

Object.Picture I meant, not Object.Image