Hey all!

With Windows 7 a few months away, it was time to bring some of the new features to DesktopX. One of the things gadgets could really benefit from is the new extended taskbar. It has a few new options such as jump lists, tasks, thumbnails toolbars, icon overlays, progress bars and thumbnails.

DXTaskbar7 is a new plugin for DesktopX that allows you to access all those new features from your DesktopX scripts.

How to help

Download the DXTaskbar Dev package and start creating gadgets &widgets!

What to look for

• Tab handling problems: tabs not appearing, tab name and icon not properly updated
• Toolbar: icon corruption
• crashes or memory leaks

What is broken/not working properly

• ActiveX controls are not drawn on the tab preview (this is a problem with DesktopX)
• This is a DEBUG build, so it's going to be slower than normal

Links

• MSDN Documentation

Documentation

Tabs management

TabHwnd

Get the handle for that tab (to be used in ConfigureTab).

SetTabsIcon(image)

Set a global icon for all the tabs.

• image: path to a 16x16 image file

ConfigureTab(name, insertAfter)

Setup the tab name and position.

• name: title of the tab
• insertAfter: handle of the tab after which the configured tab should be inserted. Use 0 to insert after the last tab

SetTabActive()

Set the tab as active and show it in the tab list.

RemoveTab()

Remove the tab from the list.

Taskbar_OnCloseTab()

This function will be called when the user closes a tab in the list.

ThumbBar

SetupButton(id, image, tooltip, flags)

Setup a new tab button.

• id: internal id (to be passed in the Taskbar_OnButtonClicked callback when the button is clicked)
• image: path to a 16x16 image file
• tooltip: the tooltip to shown on mouse-over
• flags: a list of flags (see DXTaskbarDefines.vbs)

UpdateButton(id, image, tooltip, flags)

Update an existing tab button (only after buttons have been added).

• id: internal id (to be passed in the Taskbar_OnButtonClicked callback when the button is clicked)
• image: path to a 16x16 image file
• tooltip: the tooltip to shown on mouse-over
• flags: a list of flags (see DXTaskbarDefines.vbs)

AddButtons()

Add the list of buttons to the tab. 
A maximum of 7 buttons can be added at one time. After the buttons have been added, you cannot setup new ones. Use the UpdateButton function to modify existing buttons.

Taskbar_OnButtonClicked(id)

Called when the user clicks on a thumbbar button.

• id: the button id used in SetupButton and UpdateButton

Overlay

SetOverlayIcon(image, description)

Applies an overlay to a taskbar button to indicate application status or a notification to the user.

• image: path to a 16x16 image file
• description: an alternative text version, for accessibility purposes

Progress

SetProgressState(flag)

Sets the type and state of the progress indicator displayed on a taskbar button.

• flag: a progress flag (see DXTaskbarDefines.vbs)

SetProgressValue(completed, total)

Displays or updates a progress bar hosted in a taskbar button to show the specific percentage completed of the full operation.

• completed: number of steps completed
• total: total number of steps

Tasks and destinations

AddUserTask(name, path, arguments, icon, iconIndex, workingFolder)

Add a new user tasks (typically static links)

• name: name of the task
• path: path to the program to execute
• arguments: arguments to the program
• icon: path to .ico file to use as an icon
• iconIndex: index of the icon to use in the .ico file (typically 0 if you only have 1 icon type)
• workingFolder: working folder when executing the program

AddSeparator(category)

Add a separator

• category: the category to add a separator to. To add a separator to the tasks, use “Tasks” as the category.

CommitList()

Declares that the Jump List is complete and ready for display

AbortList()

Discontinues a Jump List building session without committing any changes

Changelog

1.0 Build 231

• Implemented Tasks

1.0 Build 205:

• Added parameter checking in most functions
• Fix for Vista and XP: all functions calls are ignored on those systems but are still available to scripts, so you should not get any script error

1.0 Build 198:

• First test version

Download

You can download version 1.0 from here.