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Crystal Image Toolkit 0.81 is ready to download.

New Feature: Header group items are now part of CrystalCollector, CrystalImageGridModel, and CrystalImageGridView.  You can now assign a group of thumbnail images to a collapsible header.  To illustrate this, here’s a screenshot from the demo application “HeaderGroupItemDemo” which is included in the project:

There are four header groups visible that you can see here (FF, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man).  Each contains a set of thumbnails.  The arrow icon indicates the expanded state; you can replace this icon in the framework as I am just using a free icon here.  Likewise you can replace the folder icon to represent something unique about this group of images if you wish.  But what’s important to note here is that the header group can be collapsed/expanded by clicking on it:

Here I’ve collapsed two of the header items and left the other ones open.  You can see I have CrystalImageItem objects selected in each of the header groups.

In the C# code, Header groups translates to a CrystalGroupItem object containing a List of CrystalImageItem objects.  Each object now has a Parent property so it knows the group that it belongs to.  The biggest change in the collector is that now every GridModel has at least one root header. In the default mode, for backward compatibility, the header item is not displayed (ShowHeaders is set to false in CrystalImageGridView). This may cause problems in older applications that use CrystalImageGridView and try to navigate to item 0 in the GridModel.  You will need to do a test, such as: "if (theImage is CrystalGroupItem)".  See InitInitialImageImp in CrystalPictureShowController.cs for how to deal with this situation.

CrystalCollector now has an additional abstract method that requires you to CollectImages on a CrystalGroupItem object.  CrystalFileCollector implements this method and creates a default root header for simplicity.  But if you want to explicitly create CrystalGroupItem objects and add them to the collector, you do it like this:

   1: CrystalGroupItem groupItem = new CrystalGroupItem();

   2: groupItem.ImageName = "Fantastic Four";

   3: groupItem.ImageLocation = "..\\..\\SampleImages\\Fantastic Four";

   4: // Optional: set a unique image icon for this group header item in the image grid.

   5: //groupItem.FullImage = my Image icon;

   6: _theCollector.CollectImages(groupItem);

This is a bit of an early release of the header group feature.  In the future, I will add additional style bits for the header text font, add a border state around the header item, perhaps add mouse over events for it.

There are several bug fixes to the toolkit, which is why I wanted to release it now, even though this feature is a bit early.  To see all the bug fixes, please read the release notes in the zip file.

Download: Crystal Image Toolkit 0.81.  Totally free, open-source, C# .NET Framework 2.0 for Windows Forms.

Crystal Image Toolkit 0.80 is ready to download. 

New Features:

• CrystalImageGridView now has ZoomFactor: allows scaling of thumbnail images!
  See ZoomImageGrid demo and Crystal Picture Show Controller demo.
• CrystalPictureTracker: Pan Window that works with CrystalPictureShow.
  See Crystal Picture Show Controller demo.
• CrystalPictureShow: Hand cursors that allow the user to drag zoomed images around.
• CrystalImageGridView now has a new rounded rect border style.  Check out the groovy red borders in the Picture Show Controller demo.
• Crystal Toolkit now integrates log4net.  See CrystalLogger object.
  You can get even more debug logging by declaring CRYSTAL_DEBUG in project properties/build.

And now it's demo time, with Marvel comics pictures, of course:

CrystalImageGridView: ZoomFactor applied to zoom to a larger thumbnail image.  See my earlier article that explains how to set this up.  Changes were made to CrystalPictureShowController to add a second trackbar object to control thumbnail zooming. 

CrystalPictureTracker: Panning (controlling CrystalPictureBox) in separate window.  Tracker window appears when image is larger than client area.  You can close it, make it appear again by clicking on the Pan Window button.

CrystalImageGridView: Rounded borders on selected images.  There is now a property called BorderState that allows you to switch between these rounded borders and the old square frame.  Also, notice that in the split view mode, the CrystalPictureShowController hides the thumbnail trackbar and toolstrip objects auto-magically.   Thumbnail sizes in the split mode are fixed, whereas in the vertical orientation (with a sheet of thumbnails) they can be scaled.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work. You can run the demo programs without building the source by clicking on "StartDemo.bat" in the root Attilan folder or CrystalDemoLauncher.exe in Attilan\bin.

Download: Crystal Image Toolkit 0.80.  Totally free, open-source, C# .NET Framework 2.0 for Windows Forms. 

Crystal Toolkit is a Windows Forms (.NET Framework 2.0) control library written in C#. This is the eighth release and contains the following updates:

Bug fixes.

1. CrystalGradientControl-derived classes, including CrystalLabel and CrystalPictureBox (but not CrystalTrackBar): Transparent backgrounds were not working previously. To set a transparent background, set BackColor property to the Transparent color. You can do this in design mode or programmatically. This makes TransparentMode=True. When this occurs, Color1 and Color2 are ignored. To get the Gradient color mode to work, set BackColor back to Control (or any other non-Transparent value) and then set Color1 and Color2 to the Gradient color scheme.

2. CrystalThumbnailer: Exceptions are now caught when an error occurs when thumbnailing images.

3. CrystalImageGridView: Bug fixes for keyboard navigation. When images were selected and right-mouse click inside the middle of the selection, the selected image list is retained.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work. You can run the demo programs without building the source by clicking on "StartDemo.bat" in the root Attilan folder or CrystalDemoLauncher.exe in Attilan\bin.

I've tested the demos under Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. Needless to say, buyers beware, this is alpha software and it's free open-source code: you get what you pay for! I'd welcome any feedback, bugs (or bug fixes), and thumb-bitmap replacements. Send email to richard [at] attilan {dot} com.

Download: Crystal Toolkit 077 (zip file, 8 mb)

Crystal Toolkit is a Windows Forms (.NET Framework 2.0) control library written in C#. This is the eighth release and contains the following updates:

New features.

1. CrystalPictureShowController: Allows you to tie the common elements of an image viewing application in one controller. Create a form with CrystalImageGridView, CrystalPictureShow, a combo box and trackbar for image scaling, toolbar buttons for navigation. Set all these elements in the controller and you are off and running. You still need to handle the split container and certain events (like initiating and terminating full screen modes) but the sample program below will show you how to do that.

   CrystalComicShowController: Allows you to tie the common elements of a comic book viewing (reading CBZ or CBR archive files) application in one controller. This may be the first C# toolkit designed to allow you to read CDisplay compatible files. Create a form with CrystalImageGridView, CrystalComicShow, a combo box and trackbar for image scaling, toolbar buttons for navigation. Set all these elements in the controller and you are off and running. The internal framework uses CrystalMemoryZipCollector for CBZ files and CrystalRarCollector for CBR files.

Enhancements.

1. CrystalCollector: Virtual methods moved from CrystalFileCollector to the base class. Sorting methods, Copy, Move, Delete, Rename, Select operations are moved here so that all derived classes can use them.

   CrystalImageGridView: FocusedImage property added - returns the current focused image. CenterCrystalImage public method added - centers the given image in the grid.

Demo Programs Expanded.

1. CrystalPictureShowController Demo: shows how to use the new controller to quickly develop an image grid viewer. This sample also shows you how to put the main form into a menuless, toolbarless, fully zoomed mode that takes over the entire screen. Just click on the Full Screen button. The Slideshow mode has been expanded to include an options dialog to allow you to set certain options like Shuffle, Repeat, or SlideShow effect.

2. CrystalComicShowController Demo: shows how to use the new controller, and in an indirect way, how to use CrystalToolkit to pull images out of compressed files. To get the full benefit of this demo, you will need to have a CBR or CBZ file on your hard drive. Run the demo program, click File\Open Comic Archive and open up the CDisplay compatible file. You should see the thumbnails start to appear and then the app zooms into full screen mode. Press ESC and you will see the sheet of thumbnails representing the comic book pages.

Bug fixes.

1. CrystalImageGridView: Right-mouse button no longer clears item selection.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work. You can run the demo programs without building the source by clicking on "StartDemo.bat" in the root Attilan folder or CrystalDemoLauncher.exe in Attilan\bin.

I've tested the demos under Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. Needless to say, buyers beware, this is alpha software and it's free open-source code: you get what you pay for! I'd welcome any feedback, bugs (or bug fixes), and thumb-bitmap replacements. Send email to richard [at] attilan {dot} com.

Download: Crystal Toolkit 076 (zip file, 7 mb)

Crystal Toolkit is a Windows Forms (.NET Framework 2.0) control library written in C#. This is the seventh release and contains the following updates:

Enhancements.

1. CrystalCollector: AddImage and AddImageItem methods allow you to add images without calling CollectImages and having it auto-magically thumbnail images. In using these methods, you pay a price in having to setup things correctly. See the demo program BorderSplitMode for more details about how this is used with CrystalMemoryCollector.

Demo Programs Expanded.

1. Demo Launcher program starts all demos. Click on "StartDemo.bat" in the root Attilan folder or CrystalDemoLauncher.exe in Attilan\bin.

2. Simple Image Grid Demo: A simple illustration of how to use CrystalImageGridView with the CrystalFileCollector to thumbnail disk-based images in a background thread.

3. BorderSplitMode Demo: Use CrystalImageGridView and a derived Collector to assign each image item its own border color, as I explained here in this article.

4. CrystalPictureBox Demo: Use CrystalPictureBox to display scrollable or ratio-stretched images.

5. CrystalPictureShow Demo: Use CrystalImageGridView to navigate thumbnail images and then use CrystalPictureShow to display them and perform Slideshows.

6. WaitForm PictureShow Demo: Use CrystalPictureShow to create a unique wait dialog.

Bug fixes.

1. CrystalTrackBar: SmallChange and LargeChange were implemented. Control was not behaving properly when nested inside a container like a Panel or GroupBox. I also fixed a bug where the thumb was not able to move between ticks, if you were going from 0 to 10, it would skip to 10. Now it will go 0, 1, 2, 3...10. In fixing CrystalTrackBar, I decided to prohibit TransparentMode. It wasn't working very well. I had no intention of making a TrackBar replacement, my goal was just to get a TrackBar on a ToolStrip. I've taken my old implementation of CrystalTrackBar and placed this into CrystalFixedTrackBar, which is used only by CrystalToolStripTrackBar. I'm afraid the TrackBar component will never be a full replacement in either case, but it works well enough in my Image Viewer application that I'm happy with it.

2. CrystalImageGridView: UseAlpha was set to true by default. This is now set to false by default.

3. CrystalComicShow: Normal "non-comic CDisplay" images were incorrectly displayed when going back using the left arrow key.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work. You can run the demo programs without building the source by clicking on "StartDemo.bat" in the root Attilan folder or CrystalDemoLauncher.exe in Attilan\bin.

I've tested the demos under Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. Needless to say, buyers beware, this is alpha software and it's free open-source code: you get what you pay for! I'd welcome any feedback, bugs (or bug fixes), and thumb-bitmap replacements. Send email to richard [at] attilan {dot} com.

Download: Crystal Toolkit 075 (zip file, 4.2 mb)

Crystal Toolkit is a Windows Forms (.NET Framework 2.0) control library written in C#. This is the seventh release and contains updates for the following classes:

New in 0.74: Features.

New controls: CrystalComicShow.

New controllers for images: CrystalMemoryCollector, CrystalZipCollector, CrystalRarCollector.

New controller options: SortCrystalList method and CrystalSortType enumerator.

New slideshow options: Shuffle and Repeat modes were added. Slideshow options are now in CrystalSlideShowOptions, which will break older Form applications using the previous build.

• CrystalComicShow: A subclass of CrystalPictureShow. A control that display comic-book images from CDisplay archive files. You can access CBR and CBZ files and see the thumbnailed images just like any picture folder. No sample for this yet--it's part of the main application I'm working on for a free release later this year.
• CrystalMemoryCollector: I needed a collector that didn't work off any disk-based files whatsoever. This class needs to be fleshed out a bit more, but I intend to write a nice sample that shows how you can build a cool wait dialog using this controller.
• CrystalZipCollector: This was built for CrystalComicShow, to enable me to display comic book images from a CBZ (zip) file. It may have broader applications. It uses ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll, which is included in the open_source_code folder of CrystalToolkit. You can download the full version of SharpZipLib here.
• CrystalRarCollector: This was built for CrystalComicShow, to enable me to display comic book images from a CBR (rar) file. It may have broader applications. It uses unrar.cs, which is included in the open_source_code folder of CrystalToolkit. To make this work with your application, you must include unrar.dll in your application folder. You can download unrar.cs and unrar.dll from RARLab.
• Controller sorting: CrystalFileCollector now contains a public method called SortCrystalList. This takes an enum called CrystalSortType and allows you to sort on ImageName, ImageType, CreationDate or LastWriteTime. You can sort using this type in either ascending or descending order.
• Slideshow enhancments: The Slideshow options were taken out of CrystalPictureShow as individual properties. They are now contained with the object CrystalSlideShowOptions, which is a new property within CrystalPictureShow. Shuffle and Repeat modes were added to the slideshow options. You can also begin a slideshow at any starting position within the current CrystalCollector.
• To see how to build a C# image viewer with thumbnails slideshow application: Download the zip file in the link below and unzip to your hard drive. Navigate to the Attilan folder. Double click on CrystalDemo.sln. Hit F5 to build CrystalToolkit and execute the demo program, CrystalImageGridDemo.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work.

I've tested the demos under Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. Needless to say, buyers beware, this is alpha software and it's free open-source code: you get what you pay for! I'd welcome any feedback, bugs (or bug fixes), and thumb-bitmap replacements. Send email to richard [at] attilan {dot} com.

Download: Crystal Toolkit 074 (zip file, 1.9mb)

Crystal Toolkit is a Windows Forms (.NET Framework 2.0) control library written in C#. This is the sixth release and contains updates for the following classes:

New in 0.73: Features.

New controls: CrystalPictureBox and CrystalPictureShow.

• CrystalPictureBox: A substitute for the PictureBox control, although not every PictureBox method/property is supported. This is a "crystalization" of Bob Powell's ZoomPicBox program that demonstrated how to build a picture box replacement. I added the ability to center the image within the client rectangle. My class also derives from CrystalGradientControl and adds some new modes for making the image Scrollable or RatioStretch. The latter two methods were ideas borrowed from Gil Klod's Viewer control on CodeProject.
• CrystalPictureShow: this class works with CrystalImageGridModel and executes a slideshow of images that are contained within the model. It is derived from CrystalPictureBox. Again, I have heavily borrowed/stolen/whathaveyou from Mr. Bob Powell, who showed me how to perform image transitions such as Slide, Spin, Iris, and Fade. All of these modes are supported with CrystalPictureShow.
• To see how to build a C# image viewer with thumbnails slideshow application: Download the zip file in the link below and unzip to your hard drive. Navigate to the Attilan folder. Double click on CrystalDemo.sln. Hit F5 to build CrystalToolkit and execute the demo program, CrystalImageGridDemo.

This release comes in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the contents to your hard drive, navigate to the root Attilan folder, and double click on CrystalDemo.sln. This solution file contains the Crystal Toolkit plus demo programs. Just build the solution (which compiles the CrystalToolkit library first) and run the demo programs to see how they work.

I've tested the demos under Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista. Needless to say, buyers beware, this is alpha software and it's free open-source code: you get what you pay for! I'd welcome any feedback, bugs (or bug fixes), and thumb-bitmap replacements. Send email to richard [at] attilan {dot} com.

Download: Crystal Toolkit 073 (zip file, 1.3mb)