PicMenu - alter the highlight of the image

[Marko]

Hello

How to alter the highlight (distinction) of the image in PicMenu after clicking in another hotspot (arrow)?

Below the code.
Is this good tracks?

external.PicMenu.image=panoramaX;

Regards
Marko

[allSaints]

Well Marko,

as the picMenu web page (http://wirestam.com/panos/Flash/plugins/picMenu.html) says at the bottom:

The imgSelected=nn parameter can be used at any time to select an image...


Tommy

[Marko]

Tommy, Great Thanks

I read yours instructions but I committed the mistake.
...external.picMenu... - this does not work
....external.picmenu... this works :)

Regards
Marko

[allSaints]

Yes, that is an important little detail: the plugin name must always be written in lower case after "external.".

And I have tried to remember that, and named my later plugins with only lower case letters.


I'm glad you found the solution to the problem so quickly,
Tommy

[DonJuane]

Absolutely fantastic plug-in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I previously posted a wish list but now I see the "close on mouse out" can be accomplished with the current implementation. Sorry about missing that.

I have had a couple of hours now to play with it more and here are some wild imaginative ramblings, and again assuming I am not missing something, I have a mini wish list for your wonderful plug-in :-)

1) option to open menu automatically when a mouse-over occurs on either the title or the drop down arrow
2) windows opens not only when drop down arrow clicked but when frame title is clicked as well (assuming the #1 "open on mouse-over" is an option and is set to off)
3) on horizontal menu with menu on top, an option to reduce space between the bottom of the text and the bottom edge of the menu
4) and if you are so bored one winter day you don't know what to do and the bar is closed - an option to use a PNG as a background for the window
5) and if it snows for a week and you are locked in your home and have done everything else one normally does when it snows - an option to round out box corners of the PicMenu & ChoiceField

That is all - thanks again!


(your plug-in really changes the dynamics of FPP - great job!)

[DonJuane]

6) tool tip option when mouse over (if open menu with mouse-over option is disabled)

[DonJuane]

Or conceivably, I suppose you could also separate the hidden menu sub-display into 2 functions. One one side, the title bar would become sensitive to a mouse-over event. On the other side, the display of the already in-place pull-down-arrow would now become optional. As an example, separate options for each could be provided:

mouse_over_title_opens_menu_if_closed=1

With this new feature, the need of the pull down arrow would also be optional, since the mouse-over could open it and it could return to it's previous state when the mouse leaves:

display_pull_down_arrow=1

If enabled, the pull down arrow could still serve as it does today - a switch, i.e. clicking it would either display/hide the menu. Adding a mouse-over option could allow a mouse-over to open the menu when the pull-down arrow had previously closed it, it had timed out, etc. If the menu was already open, of course there would be no change from a mouse over event on the title and the operation would not cause anything to happen, well that is, unless a tool-tip option was enabled :-).

This is just a concept. I know nothing of coding it and just sharing ideas for posterity. Thanks for your consideration. :-)
.

[allSaints]

DonJuane,

thanks a lot for your suggestions - I have saved them for those long winter nights ahead... :)

You know, when you're making a plugin, it's always a balance between giving the user a lot of options to choose from and keeping it simple and easy to implement. And looking at the plugin page, I'm sure there are some people already saying: "-No, this looks far to complicated - I want something easier...".

I am also noting that, when it comes to mouse-over effects, we have quite different views. I find it really annoying when a program does unexpected things on my screen just because I happen to move the mouse over a certain place - I mean, a lot of mouse-overs are not deliberate. If I want to open something, then I want to click it first. A small tooltip window is quite acceptable - that's just information, not an action.

I'm not sure I understand the 3rd point in your list - about reducing the space below the thumbnail text. You decide the height of the menu yourself with the size parameter.


Tommy

[DonJuane]

Tommy, thank you so much for considering these. I have a problem with communication most all the time and that is sometimes people believe my words as criticisms. I guess I am not very good at communicating my good intentions. I have tried to figure out this problem I have and perhaps it is from using keyboards for 40 years, my mind always condenses my thoughts to the shortest possible lines and sometimes these lines seem too sharp, direct and to the point and without the proper amount of kindness included. For that I apologize.

What I meant to say is your plug-ins make FPP a very robust offering and I cannot say enough good things about them. I was not meaning to criticize your design at all but wanted to ask this for my own unique needs so I also want to apologize for being somewhat greedy :-).

The comments on the desire for a mouse over option was after sitting my wife down in front of a finished presentation and her first comment was "what do I do with this" once the menu had closed. She could not figure out what to do with the closed menu block. (I always use her as my usability tester.) She noted that the tooltips were missing here (where I have them enabled for every other button) and that she didn't understand that you are supposed to click on the arrow to open it (don't ask me????)

So from that perspective I was thinking it might be nice (and only as an option - not to change the base default design) that I might like to try that change to see if she and her very limited flash knowledgeable friends (who will be using this) might better be able to understand this facility when the menu is closed. When the menu is open, she has no usability problem. So that was where I was coming from. I wouldn't want you to change the default design for me. Good news is one other person I think asked for this as an option I think. I really don't know who all would like this? I guess the thing that comes to mind is you have already done so much hard work, I believe most people feel guilty for asking for more than you have already provided.

OK, back to my original comments. The last part is not seriously important and was only an observation of a "if you have nothing else to do". It was regarding the space around text. From my experiments using thumbnails that are 100:50 , a pic menu that is TC and horizontal at the top of the screen filled by 8 thumbnails with the scroll bar off. I find that with the height of the pic menu made large enough to not hide the text under the photos, there is a border that is about half the thickness of the text itself. The short description is there seems to be an invisible border under the bottom of the text that is about 1/2 the actual height of the text. If I try to reduce that border by making the menu smaller, the text gets clipped off on the bottom while the thickness of this invisible border remains the same.

I hope this makes sense and once again thank you for considering these comments. I appreciate it very much.

Don

[allSaints]

Don,

no need to feel sorry at all. But I know exactly what you mean. In fact, you perceived my comments as a bit critical to your posts, when they on the contrary were written in a very positive mood. And I even included a smiley :) just to make sure you wouldn't misunderstand me. But you think a hundred words, and then you only write down ten of them. And that's the curse of the net - we can't see the smile on each others faces when we read or write something.

And just because we disagree about the mouse-over, doesn't mean that I think you are wrong and I'm right. It's more like - you prefer apples while I like bananas.

Anyway, the text issue - I'm still not certain what you mean. Look at the test page (http://wirestam.com/panos/Flash/picMenu/pmtest1.html). I have placed the menu TC and no scrollbar and I have decreased menu height until there is no space at all under the text - and I can't see anything like a border of space. If you have an url you can publish, it would be nice. Check if you have the latest version of the plugin, I honestly can't tell if it was like that in an earlier version. Note however, that the plugin now has parameters and data in its own xml file.


Regards,
Tommy

[DonJuane]

Duplicate.

[DonJuane]

OK, I have to run some errands and will do some more testing tonight. It is noon here in the US. (Just check your webpage and very nice - also a beautiful place you live in there - I hope to visit some day.)