WPF Windows 7 Explorer Toolbar Control
Today I have been working on emulating the Windows 7 Explorer Toolbar in WPF. I really like this control as it blends the older toolbar and menubar concepts into one which may support icons and dropdown menus.
WPF makes creating new controls quite easy. I decided to base my controls off of System.Windows.Controls.Toolbar, and similarly each item in the Toolbar is based off of the Button control.
Here’s the XAML that I came up with
Creating a new WPF application and using this code for Window1.xaml, you should see this:
Note that while this control is visually similar to the Windows 7 Explorer Toolbar, it does not handle overflow, or collapse menu items like the Explorer one does. Perhaps an eventual update to this control will provide more advanced support.
This control does handle the IsMouseOver, IsMouseDown, and IsKeyboardFocused states. Adding the menu glyph is a WPF Polygon.
What is CamServer?
I added a link to CamServer on the right of the page a little while ago, but didn’t explain what CamSever is and who would want to use it. CamServer is experimental software.
CamServer is a surveillance and monitoring application for Windows and Linux that lets you easily view and record remote cameras. Simply plug one or more USB or PCI capture devices into a computer, and then view the cameras from a remote location — on the same network or over the internet. Computers running CamServer on the local network are automatically discovered, no configuration is needed!
Screenshots:
Cameras are loaded from your computer, the local network, and over the internet. CamServer nodes can host cameras for remote access. Designate one instance for external use, and view all your cameras in one place.
Record video to AVI for future playback. Cameras may be designated as public or open-access, or protected with a username/password of your choosing.
Camera feeds may include timestamp and response information.
If the connection is lost, CamServer will let you know that the device is no longer providing video.
Grab a copy of CamServer and let me know what you think!
Project Deferno
Over the past year or so, a few friends and I had been toying with the idea of a better IRC client, something with an attractive UI, HTML rendered themes, flexible features and, above all, feels like a 21st century piece of software. mIRC feels horribly dated, how much has really changed since it was run on Win95?
Project Deferno is live today, and available to anyone via ClickOnce deployment. Functionality is very limited, but development is moving quickly.
Deferno is targeted at Windows 7 with Aero, features may be limited in other configurations.
Download Project Deferno. [ClickOnce installer]
Support/Questions should be directed to irc://irc.freenode.net/#deferno
Download old GVNotifier (1.1)
For historical/compatibility purposes, I’m making GVNotifier 1.1 available as a zip download. Please use the latest version if possible, but if you’re having a problem that didn’t exist before, feel free to roll back to the old version until everything gets worked out.
GVNotifier 1.2 – let’s get serious!
I’ve been hard at work on GVNotifier 1.2 for the last couple of weeks. Lots of bugfixes and enhancements have been added based on the great feedback I’ve had via the comments form, widget and the GVNotifier beta group.
This version adds lots of preferences–so you can use it how you like.
Check out the screenshots:
The contact list supports pinning, keep your favorite contacts just a click away. Contact photos are downloaded from Google Contacts.
The login experience has been enhanced, if you’re still unable to login, you may send a detailed error report and I can look over the logs to determine what’s happening.
Lots of preferences have been added for key features.
Quickly call or text new people without having to open a browser to Google Voice.
Easily message contacts with multiple numbers. Just click the number to choose where to send to.
GVNotifier 1.2 is available now, auto-update to the latest version if you already have it installed, or Download it here.