wxruby users - Jan 2008 - How to get a Window handle from another app?

Hello,

 

I would like to get a window handle from another app outside of wxRuby
and convert it into a wxRuby Window handle so that I can use it as the
parent Window for several wxRuby child windows.  Basically I want to use
the FRAME_FLOAT_ON_PARENT window style so that my wxRuby windows become
associated with the outside app kind of like toolbars, e.g., they don''t
show up in the taskbar and are always floating on top of my target app.


 

Going through the archives I found a related question here, but I think
it''s the opposite of what I want to do:

http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/wxruby-users/2007-December/003485.html

 

I already have wxRuby and my target app talking to each other pretty
well, it would just make for a cleaner interface to make the target app
into the parent window somehow.

 

Oh, and did I mention?, I''m looking for a cross-platform solution for
Windows and OSX!  Or I''ll just settle for Windows-only if I have to.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

P

 



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Hi

Ellis, Peter wrote:
>
> I would like to get a window handle from another app outside of wxRuby 
> and convert it into a wxRuby Window handle so that I can use it as the 
> parent Window for several wxRuby child windows.  Basically I want to 
> use the FRAME_FLOAT_ON_PARENT window style so that my wxRuby windows 
> become associated with the outside app kind of like toolbars, e.g., 
> they don''t show up in the taskbar and are always floating on top
of my
> target app.
>
[plain text is preferred on this list, please]

This reference from C++ wxWidgets and a few others seem to suggest a 
HWND window identifier can be linked to a Wx::Window using the
AssociateHandle method call:
http://www.wxwidgets.org/wiki/index.php/WxWidgets_For_MFC_Programmers#Associating_HWNDs_with_wxWindow_instances

However, although the AssociateHandle call is listed in the headers, 
it''s not listed in the wxWidgets documentation. So at present
it''s not
available in wxRuby. I will see if it''s possible to add this call for 
the next release.

alex

Thanks, Alex.  That sounds very promising.  I know I can get an HWND in
Ruby using the Win32API library in Windows.  Just curious how might that
work in OS X?  I''ve been mainly developing my app on Windows, but it
will also need to work on OS X eventually.

P

-----Original Message-----
From: wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org
[mailto:wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Alex Fenton
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:56 AM
To: General discussion of wxRuby
Subject: Re: [wxruby-users] How to get a Window handle from another app?

Hi

Ellis, Peter wrote:
>
> I would like to get a window handle from another app outside of wxRuby
> and convert it into a wxRuby Window handle so that I can use it as the
> parent Window for several wxRuby child windows.  Basically I want to 
> use the FRAME_FLOAT_ON_PARENT window style so that my wxRuby windows 
> become associated with the outside app kind of like toolbars, e.g., 
> they don''t show up in the taskbar and are always floating on top
of my
> target app.
>
[plain text is preferred on this list, please]

This reference from C++ wxWidgets and a few others seem to suggest a 
HWND window identifier can be linked to a Wx::Window using the
AssociateHandle method call:
http://www.wxwidgets.org/wiki/index.php/WxWidgets_For_MFC_Programmers#As
sociating_HWNDs_with_wxWindow_instances

However, although the AssociateHandle call is listed in the headers, 
it''s not listed in the wxWidgets documentation. So at present
it''s not
available in wxRuby. I will see if it''s possible to add this call for 
the next release.

alex

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Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Thanks, Alex.  That sounds very promising.  I know I can get an HWND in
> Ruby using the Win32API library in Windows.  Just curious how might that
> work in OS X?  I''ve been mainly developing my app on Windows, but
it
> will also need to work on OS X eventually.
I had a look at the wxWidgets headers, and it seems that AssociateHandle 
and SetHandle aren''t implemented on OS X, so it won''t work the
same way.
GetHandle is, and I''m pretty sure you can already get a meaningful 
system window id on OS X with get_hwnd. Whether you can do anything 
useful with this + RubyCocoa I don''t know.

alex

Does anyone know of a chart making extension written with wxRuby?  I
know there are a few Ruby gems out there to make charts (as SVG or an
image), but they seem to have a lot of overhead associated with them.
The ones I''ve found that seem most interesting (Gruff, Scruffy,
gnuplot)
require a big bulky graphics/image processing library to be installed.
Seems like wxRuby has all the pieces one would need to make a nice chart
API or custom chart widget, although probably without the SVG, which is
fine for my purposes.

Thanks.

Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Does anyone know of a chart making extension written with wxRuby?  I
> know there are a few Ruby gems out there to make charts (as SVG or an
> image), but they seem to have a lot of overhead associated with them.
> The ones I''ve found that seem most interesting (Gruff, Scruffy,
gnuplot)
> require a big bulky graphics/image processing library to be installed.
> Seems like wxRuby has all the pieces one would need to make a nice chart
> API or custom chart widget,
Yes, all the pieces should be there. There are several charting 
libraries written in C++ for wxWidgets which might offer a good starting 
point [1]

Basically, you use a DC (DeviceContext) to draw lines, polygons, 
ellipses, text etc. DC can draw images from files and do textured fills. 
Wx::Grid would be an excellent component for editing and viewing the 
source data points.

The target canvas can be either the screen (using Window#paint to create 
a PaintDC), or a bitmap (using Bitmap#draw to create a MemoryDC). The 
same actual drawing code is used regardless of the target. Once the 
drawing''s been done on a bitmap, call Bitmap.save_file to save the
image
to a variety of formats, including BMP, PNG, TIF or JPG.

For higher-quality output there''s also GraphicsContext, which can be 
created by calling GraphicsDC.create(dc) from any other DC. This will 
give anti-aliased edges and also offers gradient fills but is otherwise 
very similar.
> although probably without the SVG, which is fine for my purposes.
>   
There''s an SVG-writer as an optional contrib-module in the main 
wxWidgets tree, which allows DC drawing code to be output as SVG. This 
isn''t currently porrted to wxRuby, but if there''s interest we
could have
a look at adding it.

In my day job I do a lot of charting in Excel and SPSS so I''d be 
interested to hear how it goes if you decide to pursue this.

cheers
alex

[1] 
http://wxcode.sourceforge.net/complist.php?compperpage=1000&viewmode=full&browseby=category&section=graphics&page=1

Thanks, Alex.

I was hoping that we wouldn''t have to create our own, but we might do
it
if that turns out to be the best solution.  I''ll keep the list posted.

I did find this project, but it looks dead.
http://rubyforge.org/projects/wxryplot/
http://files.rubyforge.vm.bytemark.co.uk/wxryplot/WxRyPlot.doc

P

-----Original Message-----
From: wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org
[mailto:wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Alex Fenton
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:07 AM
To: General discussion of wxRuby
Subject: Re: [wxruby-users] chart extension for wxRuby?

Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Does anyone know of a chart making extension written with wxRuby?  I
> know there are a few Ruby gems out there to make charts (as SVG or an
> image), but they seem to have a lot of overhead associated with them.
> The ones I''ve found that seem most interesting (Gruff, Scruffy,
gnuplot)
> require a big bulky graphics/image processing library to be installed.
> Seems like wxRuby has all the pieces one would need to make a nice
chart
> API or custom chart widget,
Yes, all the pieces should be there. There are several charting 
libraries written in C++ for wxWidgets which might offer a good starting

point [1]

Basically, you use a DC (DeviceContext) to draw lines, polygons, 
ellipses, text etc. DC can draw images from files and do textured fills.

Wx::Grid would be an excellent component for editing and viewing the 
source data points.

The target canvas can be either the screen (using Window#paint to create

a PaintDC), or a bitmap (using Bitmap#draw to create a MemoryDC). The 
same actual drawing code is used regardless of the target. Once the 
drawing''s been done on a bitmap, call Bitmap.save_file to save the
image

to a variety of formats, including BMP, PNG, TIF or JPG.

For higher-quality output there''s also GraphicsContext, which can be 
created by calling GraphicsDC.create(dc) from any other DC. This will 
give anti-aliased edges and also offers gradient fills but is otherwise 
very similar.
> although probably without the SVG, which is fine for my purposes.
>   
There''s an SVG-writer as an optional contrib-module in the main 
wxWidgets tree, which allows DC drawing code to be output as SVG. This 
isn''t currently porrted to wxRuby, but if there''s interest we
could have

a look at adding it.

In my day job I do a lot of charting in Excel and SPSS so I''d be 
interested to hear how it goes if you decide to pursue this.

cheers
alex

[1] 
http://wxcode.sourceforge.net/complist.php?compperpage=1000&viewmode=ful
l&browseby=category&section=graphics&page=1



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Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Thanks, Alex.
>
> I was hoping that we wouldn''t have to create our own, but we might
do it
> if that turns out to be the best solution.  I''ll keep the list
posted.
>   
Following your earlier message I had a closer look at Scruffy and Gruff. 
Scruffy has the drawing code very nicely separated from the logic that 
organises the chart elements. So in about 20 mins I was able to replace 
enough of the svg-based drawing code with dc-based code to get it to 
draw the chart background, title, frame, axis and labels in a Wx::Window 
(see below for the app code)

It''s a fairly mechanical job of replacing calls to svg.text with 
dc.draw_text, svg.line with dc.draw_line etc in scruffy/components and 
scruffy/layers. I''m sure the individual chart types would need a little
more work, but each is still only a couple of calls to the same basic 
methods. I would recommend looking into it.

hth
alex

__
require ''scruffy''
require ''wx''

class Chart < Wx::Window
  attr_reader :graph
  def initialize(*args)
    super
    evt_paint :on_paint
    @graph = Scruffy::Graph.new(:title => "Monthly Profits")
    graph.add(:line, ''John'', [100, -20, 30, 60])
    graph.add(:line, ''Sara'', [120, 50, -80, 20])
  end

  def on_paint
    paint do | dc |
      graph.render(dc, :width => size.width, :height => size.height)
    end
  end
end


Wx::App.run do
  frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil, :title => ''chart demo'')
  chart = Chart.new(frame)
  frame.show
end

That''s fantastic!  I''ll definitely took a closer look at this.

P

-----Original Message-----
From: wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org
[mailto:wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Alex Fenton
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:42 PM
To: General discussion of wxRuby
Subject: Re: [wxruby-users] chart extension for wxRuby?

Ellis, Peter wrote:
> Thanks, Alex.
>
> I was hoping that we wouldn''t have to create our own, but we might
do
it
> if that turns out to be the best solution.  I''ll keep the list
posted.
>   
Following your earlier message I had a closer look at Scruffy and Gruff.

Scruffy has the drawing code very nicely separated from the logic that 
organises the chart elements. So in about 20 mins I was able to replace 
enough of the svg-based drawing code with dc-based code to get it to 
draw the chart background, title, frame, axis and labels in a Wx::Window

(see below for the app code)

It''s a fairly mechanical job of replacing calls to svg.text with 
dc.draw_text, svg.line with dc.draw_line etc in scruffy/components and 
scruffy/layers. I''m sure the individual chart types would need a little
more work, but each is still only a couple of calls to the same basic 
methods. I would recommend looking into it.

hth
alex

__
require ''scruffy''
require ''wx''

class Chart < Wx::Window
  attr_reader :graph
  def initialize(*args)
    super
    evt_paint :on_paint
    @graph = Scruffy::Graph.new(:title => "Monthly Profits")
    graph.add(:line, ''John'', [100, -20, 30, 60])
    graph.add(:line, ''Sara'', [120, 50, -80, 20])
  end

  def on_paint
    paint do | dc |
      graph.render(dc, :width => size.width, :height => size.height)
    end
  end
end


Wx::App.run do
  frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil, :title => ''chart demo'')
  chart = Chart.new(frame)
  frame.show
end



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http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wxruby-users

Hello,

sounds interesting. A chart extension would be very useful for me.
Any news yet?

Sven

Am Donnerstag,  2008-Januar-31 20:47:04 schrieb Ellis,
Peter:
> That''s fantastic!  I''ll definitely took a closer look at
this.
>
> P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org
> [mailto:wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Alex Fenton
> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:42 PM
> To: General discussion of wxRuby
> Subject: Re: [wxruby-users] chart extension for wxRuby?
>
> Ellis, Peter wrote:
> > Thanks, Alex.
> >
> > I was hoping that we wouldn''t have to create our own, but we
might do
>
> it
>
> > if that turns out to be the best solution.  I''ll keep the
list posted.
>
> Following your earlier message I had a closer look at Scruffy and Gruff.
>
> Scruffy has the drawing code very nicely separated from the logic that
> organises the chart elements. So in about 20 mins I was able to replace
> enough of the svg-based drawing code with dc-based code to get it to
> draw the chart background, title, frame, axis and labels in a Wx::Window
>
> (see below for the app code)
>
> It''s a fairly mechanical job of replacing calls to svg.text with
> dc.draw_text, svg.line with dc.draw_line etc in scruffy/components and
> scruffy/layers. I''m sure the individual chart types would need a
little
> more work, but each is still only a couple of calls to the same basic
> methods. I would recommend looking into it.
>
> hth
> alex
>
> __
> require ''scruffy''
> require ''wx''
>
> class Chart < Wx::Window
>   attr_reader :graph
>   def initialize(*args)
>     super
>     evt_paint :on_paint
>     @graph = Scruffy::Graph.new(:title => "Monthly Profits")
>     graph.add(:line, ''John'', [100, -20, 30, 60])
>     graph.add(:line, ''Sara'', [120, 50, -80, 20])
>   end
>
>   def on_paint
>     paint do | dc |
>       graph.render(dc, :width => size.width, :height => size.height)
>     end
>   end
> end
>
>
> Wx::App.run do
>   frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil, :title => ''chart demo'')
>   chart = Chart.new(frame)
>   frame.show
> end
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> wxruby-users mailing list
> wxruby-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wxruby-users
> _______________________________________________
> wxruby-users mailing list
> wxruby-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wxruby-users

Am Donnerstag,  2008-Januar-31 20:41:58 schrieb Alex
Fenton:
> So in about 20 mins I was able to replace
> enough of the svg-based drawing code with dc-based code to get it to
> draw the chart background, title, frame, axis and labels in a Wx::Window
> (see below for the app code)
>
> It''s a fairly mechanical job of replacing calls to svg.text with
> dc.draw_text, svg.line with dc.draw_line etc in scruffy/components and
> scruffy/layers. I''m sure the individual chart types would need a
little
> more work, but each is still only a couple of calls to the same basic
> methods. I would recommend looking into it.
>
I had a look at it, but it still looks too complex for me.
Can anybody provide some concrete code pieces?

Any help appreciated.

Sven
> __
> require ''scruffy''
> require ''wx''
>
> class Chart < Wx::Window
>   attr_reader :graph
>   def initialize(*args)
>     super
>     evt_paint :on_paint
>     @graph = Scruffy::Graph.new(:title => "Monthly Profits")
>     graph.add(:line, ''John'', [100, -20, 30, 60])
>     graph.add(:line, ''Sara'', [120, 50, -80, 20])
>   end
>
>   def on_paint
>     paint do | dc |
>       graph.render(dc, :width => size.width, :height => size.height)
>     end
>   end
> end
>
>
> Wx::App.run do
>   frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil, :title => ''chart demo'')
>   chart = Chart.new(frame)
>   frame.show
> end
>
>
>

Alex Fenton wrote:
> require ''scruffy''
> require ''wx''
> 
> class Chart < Wx::Window
>   attr_reader :graph
>   def initialize(*args)
>     super
>     evt_paint :on_paint
>     @graph = Scruffy::Graph.new(:title => "Monthly Profits")
>     graph.add(:line, ''John'', [100, -20, 30, 60])
>     graph.add(:line, ''Sara'', [120, 50, -80, 20])
>   end
> 
>   def on_paint
>     paint do | dc |
>       graph.render(dc, :width => size.width, :height => size.height)
>     end
>   end
> end
> 
> 
> Wx::App.run do
>   frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil, :title => ''chart demo'')
>   chart = Chart.new(frame)
>   frame.show
> end
This won''t run. I get ''in `render'': wrong number of
arguments (2 for 1)
(ArgumentError)'' when I copy your example verbatim.

Removing the extra argument in render and rerunning gives me:

C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scruffy-0.2.2/lib/scruffy/graph.rb:131:in 
`render'': undefined method ''[]'' for
#<Wx::PaintDC:0x591d318>
(NoMethodError)

I would like to render a graph directly to the screen - is this possibly 
using scruffy / wxruby?

Regards
Andreas
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Andreas Warberg wrote:
> Alex Fenton wrote:
>   
>> require ''scruffy''
>> require ''wx''
>>
>> class Chart < Wx::Window
>>
>>     
...
> This won''t run. I get ''in `render'': wrong number
of arguments (2 for 1)
> (ArgumentError)'' when I copy your example verbatim.
>   
I think you''ve misunderstood the purpose of the example. It was just to
show a set up where a scruffy graph would render using a wxRuby DC 
(device context) rather than to an SVG object.

What remains for someone with motivation to do is to convert or 
translate the calls that scruffy makes to an svg object inside the 
library (eg svg.line, svg.circle) into the equivalent DC calls 
(dc.draw_line, dc.draw_circle). The relevant parts of scruffy to look at 
are in the components and layers directory.

Probably it would be easiest to create a bridge class that translates 
svg calls as dc calls. Then you could use the the Scruffy library 
unmodified.

I did enough to persuade myself that this was likely a viable approach, 
but have no particular interest in pursuing at the
moment.
> I would like to render a graph directly to the screen - is this possibly 
> using scruffy / wxruby?
No, not directly without you or someone else doing some work.

The other approach would be to wrap a C++ wxWidgets component that 
renders SVG (such as wxArt2D) in Ruby. This is probably harder.

alex

alex

Andreas Warberg wrote:
> I would like to render a graph directly to the screen - is this possibly 
> using scruffy / wxruby?
Or, the simplest route would just to be to install a ruby extension that 
renders SVG to PNG or some other raster format that wxRuby can read, and 
then display that.

I think ImageMagick can rasterize SVG in this way.

alex

Alex Fenton wrote:
> I think you''ve misunderstood the purpose of the example. It was
just to
> show a set up where a scruffy graph would render using a wxRuby DC
> (device context) rather than to an SVG object.
> 
> What remains for someone with motivation to do is to convert or
> translate the calls that scruffy makes to an svg object inside the
> library (eg svg.line, svg.circle) into the equivalent DC calls
> (dc.draw_line, dc.draw_circle). The relevant parts of scruffy to look at
> are in the components and layers directory.
You''re right I did misunderstand. I might pursue your first suggestion 
to create the svg and the load it as an image, though it is suboptimal.

I understand you can divert the output procedure to the screen but since 
it is not a part of the "standard package" - and I thus need to write
it
myself - I don''t think it is a good route to take, considering time and
reliability.

Thanks!

Andreas
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

I just wanted to report back to the list on one chart-making technique
that has been working out well for me so far.  I am using a popular open
source scientific and mathematical plotting package called Gnuplot.  

http://www.gnuplot.info/  

To use Gnuplot I started with a Ruby wrapper called rgplot (found on
RubyForge).  

http://rubyforge.org/projects/rgplot

After playing with rgplot a while, I came to the conclusion that the
interface wasn''t really suited for my needs, so I studied the code,
learned a few key things, and ultimately came away with the one or two
lines of code that setup the pipe between Ruby and Gnuplot.  Then I
wrote my own proof-of-concept wrapper to plot a couple of charts:
clustered bar charts, stacked bar charts, line graphs, etc.  

Unfortunately, my wrapper is not really good enough for public
consumption, but I can explain how it works and you might be able to use
the same idea for your own applications.  Basically, Gnuplot is run as a
subprocess from Ruby.  You pass whatever commands and data you want to
Gnuplot through a stream to that subprocess.  When it''s done plotting,
Gnuplot writes an image file to disk (JPG or other format).  Finally you
create a Wx::Image from the image file and draw it as Wx::Bitmap on a
dc.  

You can get pretty nice looking charts out of Gnuplot but you might have
to work at it.  The Gnuplot syntax can be a pain, but it does come with
a lot of example files that help a lot.  It also has an interactive GUI
that is handy for testing command syntax.  One thing that Gnuplot cannot
do is pie charts.  However, if you really need pie charts, they would be
easy enough to implement yourself by drawing directly with wx.  

To implement your own wrapper for Gnuplot, I definitely recommend
studying rgplot (or use it "as is", if it works for you).  One thing
to
look out for is that Gnuplot will be running asynchronously from
whatever else you are doing in Ruby or wx.  So I use the on_timer event
to watch for the image file to be completed.  After a lot of
experimentation, I found that (File.exists?(path) and File.size(path) >
0) is the best test to see if the image file is actually ready to be
loaded into wx.  Also, if you need to create multiple charts at the same
time, you will need to write a manager that sequentially feeds jobs to
Gnuplot and then collects the resulting images.  I was able to do that
without too much trouble, again using the on_timer event.  

Maybe someday I''ll be able to put together a wrapper that I would be
willing to share.  At the moment I''m not working on this actively, but
I
hope to get back to it in a few months.

Best of luck,
P

-----Original Message-----
From: wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org
[mailto:wxruby-users-bounces at rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Andreas Warberg
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 5:53 AM
To: wxruby-users at rubyforge.org
Subject: Re: [wxruby-users] chart extension for wxRuby?

Alex Fenton wrote:
> I think you''ve misunderstood the purpose of the example. It was
just
to
> show a set up where a scruffy graph would render using a wxRuby DC
> (device context) rather than to an SVG object.
> 
> What remains for someone with motivation to do is to convert or
> translate the calls that scruffy makes to an svg object inside the
> library (eg svg.line, svg.circle) into the equivalent DC calls
> (dc.draw_line, dc.draw_circle). The relevant parts of scruffy to look
at
> are in the components and layers directory.
You''re right I did misunderstand. I might pursue your first suggestion 
to create the svg and the load it as an image, though it is suboptimal.

I understand you can divert the output procedure to the screen but since

it is not a part of the "standard package" - and I thus need to write
it

myself - I don''t think it is a good route to take, considering time and
reliability.

Thanks!

Andreas
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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