GmailNotifierControl: A Gmail Notifier like control

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Introduction

I've been using Gmail for something like 8 months, and all I can say is that the Gmail team did a good work. I also liked the Gmail Notifier, the way it acts... I decided thus to create my own Gmail Notifier like control, so as to use it in apps I write.

Using the code

The GmailNotifierControl is made of a picture box, a label, one or two timers (I could have used only one but the code wouldn't have been that clear) and a [ThatsItControl :)]. The control exposes some properties visible under the Misc... section in the VS IDE, and a method, all of which are listed below:

• GmailImage: The image to show in the control.
• Info: The text to display.
• Interval: The time to sleep before moving the control up or down.
• NotifyText: The text to display in the notify icon of the control.
• Pitch: The number of pixels by which the control is moved vertically (in the Y axis).
• TimeOut: The duration of visibility of the info, after that duration the control hides.

• ShowInfo(): Shows the info set in the control.

The code itself is easy to understand, just see by yourself:

private void tmrMove_Tick(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    int nTaskBarHeight = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Bottom - 
                         Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Bottom;
    if(!bHide) //Show the Info Box
    {
        this.Show();
        if ( this.Top > Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Bottom - 
           (this.Height + nTaskBarHeight )) //screen limit - TaskBarSize
        {    
            this.TopMost = false;
            this.Top -= nPitch;
            this.Refresh();
            bFinished = false;
        }
        else 
        {
            this.TopMost = true;
            bFinished = true;
            this.Refresh();
            bHide = true;
        }
    }
    else if (!bFinished) //Hide It
    {
        if ( this.Top < Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Bottom )
        {    
            this.TopMost = false;
            this.Top += nPitch;
            this.Refresh();
            bFinished = false;
        }
        else 
        {
            this.TopMost = true;
            this.Hide();
            bFinished = true;
            bHide = false;
        }
    }
    if (bFinished)
        tmrMove.Stop();
    if (bHide && bFinished)
        tmrEnd.Start();
}

In order to have the properties in the same category in the IDE, I used this:

   [Category("Misc..."), 
    Description("The TimeOut in milliseconds of GmailNotifierControl Info")]
    public int TimeOut
    {
        get
        {
        return this.nTimeOut / 1000;
        }
        set
        {
        this.nTimeOut = value * 1000;
        this.tmrEnd.Interval = value * 1000;
        }
    }
    
    [Category("Misc..."), 
     Description("The text to show in the GmailNotifierControl")]
    public string Info
    {
        get
        {
        return this.strInfo;
        }
        set
        {
        this.lblInfo.Text = value;
        this.strInfo = value;
        this.Refresh();
        }
    }

Points of Interest

I have tried to override some form specific properties like opacity, just to get them together in the Misc... category but couldn't. I would also like to refine this control, so any contribution, any suggestions, would be welcome.

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)