Downloads: April 2007 Archives

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)