Digital Clock Docklet for Object Dock

[Ghostwalker]

Wonderful docklet, I'd like to know if you plan to release some skins.

Did you have something in particular in mind?

[Smaky]

That sounds great...

Maybe do a skin contest?

besides ghostwalker has created many skins and icons for my docklet in the past, maybe he is interested in creating a new one.

[Ghostwalker]

Smaky, I have an idea for a skin but I have a problem. I want to move the position of the stop watch image (which I did)but you still have to click the old spot for it to work. Is there a chance you could move the onClick to where the image is (same for start/stop and reset buttons). I would also like to set the position (vertical)of the date. As of right now the date shows at the top of the docklet I would like to move that down below the time.

UPDATED

Edited April 17, 2009 by Ghostwalker

[Smaky]

Ghostwalker,

Maybe it's time to revamp a little the Digital Clock Docklet... your snapshots look great. Please PM me so we can agree on how to implement what you are planning.

Edit:

Ok, using your new skin as a basis I am creating a new version of the Digital Clock Docklet to accomodate for a more flexible skinning and more options like alarms & time-zones. This is an early-beta that is not yet complete, but it lets you configure the clock's elements position for each skin... using this your clock skin is starting to become functional.

Please test it out since I would like to have your feedback before continuing with development -everyone else's is quite wellcome too).

Download the pre-alfa from: Digital Clock V2 - pre-beta

Download available from main post

A few snapshots from the new config settings dialog.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Smaky

[MarcoakaP]

It crashes in RK Launcher 0.41.282 under XP SP2 when clicking on the skin tab in the config settings dialog.

So the digits are no longer drawn by png images but are true fonts, or am I wrong?

Edited April 28, 2009 by Marcowee

[Ghostwalker]

I have pm'd the problems to you.

[Smaky]

It crashes in RK Launcher 0.41.282 under XP SP2 when clicking on the skin tab in the config settings dialog.

So the digits are no longer drawn by png images but are true fonts, or am I wrong?

They are still PNG's.

I will be testing on XP... stay tunned.

Edit: I can confirm there's a bug under XP that prevent the docklet from getting the appropiate path to the configuration & skin files. I will debug it and post an updated version shortly. Solved, latest update has been tested under XP and it now works.

Remember, only the clock & stopwatch modes are functional now, alarms & time zones modes are not yet implemented... I'll have to get in contact with ghostwalker to agree on implementation details.

BTW, anybody elses feedback is quite welcome too!

Edited April 29, 2009 by Smaky

[Smaky]

Please test it out again... there were some problems with the new modifications under XP that did not get my attention until you posted about them. Sorry.

It crashes in RK Launcher 0.41.282 under XP SP2 when clicking on the skin tab in the config settings dialog.

So the digits are no longer drawn by png images but are true fonts, or am I wrong?

[MarcoakaP]

Keeps crashing in RK launcher as described before, but at least the skin in the dock is visible. It works well in RocketDock instead.

[Ghostwalker]

At first in the skinning window several images where black but after opening and closing the preferences and some adjustments the images appeared(don't really think it is a problem). Everything seems to be working here I will grab some coffee and finish the other two backgrounds and send them to you then I will post the skin here for others to experiment with and maybe someone else will come up with a nice skin idea.I use Myriad Apple for the font converted from the original Macintosh font so Google for it. Smaky if the font specified in the skin is not on the users system it will fail gracefully wont it?

Edited April 29, 2009 by Ghostwalker

[Smaky]

I have had problems with RK Launcher in the past... problem is that their developers never responded to my emails before... si RK Launcher support is really limited. I'll try to find some time to check it out, but I make no promises.

Keeps crashing in RK launcher as described before, but at least the skin in the dock is visible. It works well in RocketDock instead.

As with any TTF/Open font in windows, if the specific font is not installed, windows will make a best guess to find a suitable substitute, but I think the worst case scenario is that the labels will show anything. I have no special provision to actually check that the font is there... when I fill the font combo, I simply look for a match between the selected (skin) font and any available font in the system if there is a match the font will be selected if not it will be left empty.

if the font specified in the skin is not on the users system it will fail gracefully wont it?

Edited April 29, 2009 by Smaky

[Ghostwalker]

Sent you a PM

[Ghostwalker]

This skin is incomplete it is for testing purposes only

As of right now the world clock and alarms are not complete when you click them the only thing you will see is the background. This skin could change drastically before this is all done. The ini file for the skin is in the folder with the skin, just go into preferences select the skin then go to restore and go to the skins folder and apply iTime.ini. For those of you who want the skin but not interested in testing when the skin is complete and working then I will post a new thread with a release.

Download

Edited April 29, 2009 by Ghostwalker

[PopCornPlaya9924]

Oh my god thanx so much, I rlly dont care about the alarm at this point.. thanks SOOO much

Please PM me when the "stable" version of the skin gets released.

NO HURRY! *really*

[Smaky]

Ghostwalker,

The skin is really great, Just a couple of thoughts...

1) Could the time digits be larger? When configured for small docks (48x48) they look a bit small. Same with the seconds, although the reflection looks great they are a bit small.

2) I think I will go with the title embeded in the background, as in your current skin... so I will take the "STOPWATCH" label out.

3) The current implementation expects buttons for each clock mode (clock, stopwatch, alarms & world clock), but it seems that you prefer to set them via the docklet background instead of a particular button. If this is so, I will take the buttons out and leave the hot-spot only.

4) The images for the digits need not to be of a particular size, It has come to my attention that the big digits images are larger than the actual digit, that it not needed anymore.

On the other hand, for the Alarms % world clock modes, what would you all like them to behave?

Edited April 30, 2009 by Smaky

[Ghostwalker]

Ghostwalker,

The skin is really great, Just a couple of thoughts...

1) Could the time digits be larger? When configured for small docks (48x48) they look a bit small. Same with the seconds, although the reflection looks great they are a bit small.

2) I think I will go with the title embeded in the background, as in your current skin... so I will take the "STOPWATCH" label out.

3) The current implementation expects buttons for each clock mode (clock, stopwatch, alarms & world clock), but it seems that you prefer to set them via the docklet background instead of a particular button. If this is so, I will take the buttons out and leave the hot-spot only.

4) The images for the digits need not to be of a particular size, It has come to my attention that the big digits images are larger than the actual digit, that it not needed anymore.

On the other hand, for the Alarms % world clock modes, what would you all like them to behave?

1. Yes, I was trying to use the font used in the iPhone and iPod Myriad Pro I will try bolder type to see if that is better, for the seconds I will make them larger and the reflection smaller.( I originally used the same size image that came with the default it did not allow me the room for many of my fonts.)

2. That works

3. Not sure if you should do that, I'm working on two other skins one of which I want to use individual buttons like you have set up. By the way Is there a list of the image names? stopwatch.png, clock button.png? and so forth it took me a couple of try's to figure out what you named the alarm & world clock background images.

By the way I also wanted to say how great a job you are doing with this skinning engine, I don't think there has ever been a docklet like this.

Found a bug, when you uncheck Colorize clock digits that works for the clock skin but the stopwatch still colorizes everything.

Found another, when you have all the option for the docklet Label unchecked it still shows a label when you hover over it.

Edited May 1, 2009 by mps69

[Ghostwalker]

How is this for a less digital look...

[darkelf]

Very nice!

[Smaky]

Looking great... I'll be back at my desk next wednesday (if the swine flu alert is dismissed in Mexico City when I get back to home), right now I am away from my development VM.

Thank you all for your feedback.

Still waiting for suggestions for the world clock & alarm modes.

[Ghostwalker]

Alarm:

1. Multiple alarms

2. option to have audible or visual notification

3. Turn individual alarms off/on from the docklet(set alarms in the preferences)

4. Set day of week and time for the alarm(Monday 6:00 am, Wednesday 8:45 pm,...)

World Clock:

1. Multiple Time zones(The number of different times displayed would depend on the skin. The iTime skin only allows for 3 but other skins could have more.)

This is just to get things started

[Smaky]

Ok, I have just started implementing the Alarms mode... right now it is still not functional.

This is the list of images as of now:

Backgrounds

background_ck.png - Clock mode background docklet icon

background_sw.png - Stopwatch mode background docklet icon

background_al.png - Alarms mode background docklet icon

background_wc.png - World clock mode background docklet icon

gloss.png - Gloss overlay (same for all clock modes)

Buttons - Used to show the "active" clock mode

button_ck.png - Clock button image

button_sw.png - Stopwatch button image

button_al.png - Alarms button image

button_wc.png - World clock button image

Elements - Used to interact with the clock

start.png - Start button for stopwatch mode

stop.png - Stop button for stopwatch mode

reset.png - Reset button for stopwatch mode

reset_ds.png - Disabled reset button for stopwatch mode

al_on.png - Enable alarm button

al_off.png - Disable alarm button

al_highlight.png - Highlight alarm element

wc_highlight.png - Highlight world clock element

Digits

0-9.png - Big digit images (0.png, 1.png, 2.png...), for hours & minutes

1-9s.png - Small digit images (0s.png, 1s.png, 2s.png...) for seconds

1-9c.png - Alarm digit images (0a.png, 1a.png, 2a.png...) for alarms/world clock modes

Indicators

am.png - AM indicator

pm.png - PM indicator

cn.png - blinking dots

amc.png - AM indicator for alarms/world clock modes

pmc.png - PM indicator for alarms/world clock modes

cnc.png - blinking dots for alarms/world clock modes

@Ghostwalker,

The images for the alarm highlight, on & off buttons are all 256x256 píxels png's I believe they should only contain the actual image (highlight & buttons) so you may position them accordingly.

What I have in mind is that you will be able to set an "alarms region" which will define the area inside the alarms mode docklet that will be available for showing configured alarms. then based on the highlight & button positions the docklet will calculate the actual position of them for the second and third alarm instances (or as many as they can really fit given the highlight dimensions). I think we will need an "up" and "down" buttons to cycle through the configured alarms (in case more than the displayable number are configured).

I'll wait for your comments... in the meantime I'll code the alarm configuration dialog.

[Ghostwalker]

I will send you new images and the additional(up/down)images after my morning coffee.

[Smaky]

@Ghostwalker,

The alarms config dialog is ready... the ball is on your field now!

[Ghostwalker]

Sorry Smaky some important things came up and I did not get to the images. Last night we had some bad weather here in the midwest (U.S) and electrical power is out in a 50 mile radius as of 6 am this morning I have been running on my back up generators. Will get on this asap and post.

Updated skin

I think I have everything the way you needed it, my first post with the skin has been updated also.

Download

Edited May 8, 2009 by Ghostwalker

[Smaky]

@Ghostwalker,

Well... thank you. This is a small preview of what is getting ready for next release (still a lot of work to do). I will need a couple of icons (32x32 & 24x24 I think). One for the alarm clock element and two more for the "Enabled" and "Disabled" states... right now I am using the very same icon as you can see. (Do not pay attention to the lower list... it will disappear from the final dialog).