Hans Dietrich Software

Announcements

We now offer the option of perpetual licenses for most components, which give you free upgrades for life. Please contact us for details.

A new Tips & Tricks page has been posted.

Also new: Font Survey: 50 of the Best Monospaced Programming Fonts.

Recent Updates

• XListCtrl
  • v2.4 is here! Now use hyperlinks in subitems.
• XCrashReport
  • v2.0 Add exception handling and crash reporting to your app. Now with 64-bit support and SMTP (gmail) send.
• XMessageBox
  • v1.17 Fixes problem with modal behavior.
  • v1.15 Fixes more problems and reduces stack usage.
  • v1.14 Fixes some problems with GUI demo apps.
• XDisplayImage 1.3
  • Lightweight API to display icon, bmp, gif, jpg, and png images without using a third-party library or DLL. Now supports overwriting images with standard Win32 text controls.

New Additions

• XCaptionButton
  • Add text or image caption buttons to a window caption bar.
• XTicker
  • A scrolling news/stock ticker with gradient background.
• XHtmlListBox
  • A virtual listbox that offers HTML text formatting and anchor links.
• XHexViewCtrl
  • Win32 control to display hex data. Customizable display, including colors, fonts, and scrolling marquee.
• XListBoxCS
  • C# listbox with per-item colors, bold, printf-style formatting, autoscroll, and built-in context menu. Perfect for color-coding log output.
• Resource Inspector
  • View resources contained in any Win32 PE file, including custom types, Win32 types, names, and language id.
• XHTMLCtrl
  • Ultra-lean HTML control to display fonts, colors, hyperlinks, and images. Non-MFC control, can be used in MFC or non-MFC app.
• Random Password Generator
  • Generate multiple passwords of any length. Customizable character set
• XDate
  • Gregorian, ISO, and fiscal date classes, 220 APIs, all in one convenient header file. Non-MFC, may be used in any C++ program.
      • CGregorianDate
      • CIsoDate
      • CFiscalDate
    

Links

• Software Catalog
• Contact Us
• Custom Software
• Font Survey: 50 of the Best Monospaced Programming Fonts
• Tips & Tricks
• Recommended Tools
• Terms of Use

XTicker

Tickers are commonly seen in news-feed viewers and stock-tracking software. XTicker implements a very small and efficient non-MFC ticker control that can be used in any Win32 or MFC application.

Demo Application

The demo application shows how XTicker can display text (from a string directly passed or from a string resource) on gradient backgrounds:

XTicker Features

XTicker offers the following features:

	You can display strings of any length (limited to 2,000 characters if loaded from string resource).
	You can choose the text and background colors. Background color may be gradient or solid.
	You can specify both the scrolling speed and the number of pixels to shift, to optimize XTicker for your application and users.
	The ticker display automatically stops when the mouse cursor is hovering, and will resume scrolling when the cursor leaves the control.
	Clicking on the control will send a message to the parent window.

CXTicker Class Members

Construction
	CXTicker()	Default constructor
	virtual BOOL Create(LPCTSTR lpszText, DWORD dwStyle, const RECT& rect, HWND hParent, UINT nID, HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hResInstance, COLORREF textcolor, COLORREF bgcolor1, COLORREF bgcolor2)	Creates and initializes the window associated with the CXTicker object
Attributes
	m_hWnd	Window handle of XTicker
	BOOL GetBold()	Retrieves bold setting.
	HFONT GetFont()	Retrieves font handle
	int GetPixelsToShift()	Retrieves number of pixels to shift
	int GetTickerSpeed()	Retrieves ticker scroll speed
	int GetWindowText(LPTSTR lpszText, int nMaxCount)	Copies the display text into a buffer
	BOOL IsWindowEnabled()	Determines whether control is enabled
	CXTicker& SetBold(BOOL bBold)	Set display font to bold or normal
	CXTicker& SetColors(COLORREF textcolor, COLORREF bgcolor1, COLORREF bgcolor2)	Set display text and background colors
	CXTicker& SetFont(LOGFONT& lf)	Set display font
	CXTicker& SetPixelsToShift(int pixels)	Set number of pixels to shift
	CXTicker& SetTickerSpeed(int speed)	Set ticker scroll speed
	CXTicker& SetWindowText(LPCTSTR lpszText)	Set display text
Operations
	void EnableWindow(BOOL bEnable)	Enables/disables control
	CXTicker& Start()	Start ticker scrolling display
	CXTicker& Stop()	Stop ticker scrolling display
	void UpdateWindow()	Redraws control

How To Use

Step 1: Add Files

All the files you need to add to your project are in the XTicker folder in the download:

• CXDC.h
• CXRect.h
• XTicker.cpp
• XTicker.h
• XTrace.h

The .cpp file above should be set to Not Using Precompiled Headers.

Step 2: Create XTicker

XTickerTestDlg.cpp shows how to create the XTicker object:

    VERIFY(m_Ticker1.Create(
        _T("Status: GREEN  All systems nominal."),
        0, rect, m_hWnd, 9001, AfxGetInstanceHandle(), 0,
        RGB(0,0,0),
        RGB(229,252,229), RGB(102,252,102)));

Step 3: Set XTicker Attributes

You should now set the speed, font, and other attributes for the XTicker object.

Step 4: Start XTicker

Start scrolling by using the Start() API:

    m_Ticker1.Start();

Revision History

Version 1.0

• Initial release

Buy latest version

Buy XTicker 1.0 license – $20.00 per developer. Includes full source code to XTicker and MFC dialog sample, with VS6, VS2008, and VS2010 projects.