Introduction
Yet another tool that helps you to launch your favorite applications. I also like Launchy or the RocketDock, but I wanted to have something simple where I can access my most used apps with one click.
You can access the application by clicking the icon in the notification area of the task bar.
Using the Code
The app itself is really simple. I use a small domain model consisting of two classes: One class to represent the categories (like Office, Development, etc.) and another which is composed inside the categories and represent the shortcuts. All this is accessible by a context object which uses a change tracking and persistence framework and XML files as backend.
The synchronization between model and UI is completely done by databinding: There are two nested items controls: One for the category and the nested one for the shortcuts. The logical representation of the application state and the functionalities are aggregated in the MainViewModel.
A "goodie" is that each link is surrounded by a color which is the average of the icon color (implemented in the AmbilightConverter).
Points of Interest
I learned something interesting about usability which I never realized before: I mentioned that if you want to access the app, you have to click the notify icon - which is quite small, at least smaller than the start button of the start menu. You have to "concentrate" a lot if you want to hit the icon - it's MUCH harder than hitting the start button. Even if the start button is bigger, it's not _so_ much bigger than a notify icon - WRONG! Then I realized that the start button is indefinitely big, because it goes beyond the corners of your screen, so you just have to push your mouse in the corner of your screen - and you will hit it automatically! So if you have an item which is very important and must be very easily accessible, think about placing it in one of your corners!
Open Issues
There is no way of extending the application externally. Right now, we can just run shortcuts. It could be nice having a mechanism that enabled you to implement a different behavior for the shortcuts, e.g. opening another menu, etc.
Maybe it would be nice replacing the start menu with this, which I did not do yet. Or implementing a hot key mechanism.
Extracting the Filesystem Icons
For this task, I used a nice implementation from vbAccelerator which saved me a lot of work. The licence can be found here.
Have fun!
History
- 1st June, 2009: Initial post
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 | Missing resource
sinun | 21:17 10 Sep '09 |
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Hi Ronald
Wonderfull and very usefull work!  After I checked how to use your application, I'm very happy!
From my point of view is only one problem: There is a missing "StaticResource WindowButtonTemplate".
(In the demo-version there is no problem.) I'm a beginner, could you solve this problem?
Thanks for any help.
sinun
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Hi Sinun!
Thanks for the compliment, it's nice to hear that somebody finds the work useful. The "WindowButtonTemplate" resource is in the external assembly "Technewlogic.WpfShell", which is referenced by the project (which should not be a problem if you want to compile the project). If you would like to have a look at the XAML resources, I could send them to you (I cannot attach any more files here, unfortunately).
Cheers!
modified on Monday, September 14, 2009 6:03 AM
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| Very nice but appears not to save/load settings???
Mike Tuersley | 4:57 10 Jun '09 |
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Very cool app but when running the binaries download, the containers/links that are setup, do not get restored after shutting down the app and relaunching - Mike
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Mike Tuersley
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Hi Mike!
Thanks for the comment. I just tried it with a naked machine, and in this environment, it worked. I carried out the following procedure:
1) Created a new folder and unzipped the package.
2) Started the app.
3) Created a Container and dropped a link in it.
4) I closed the app by right-clicking the notify icon and choose close.
5) Then, a balloon tip should appear where it says something like "Application is closing".
What should have happened is this:
* The application has written the data into the newly created subfolder "Data".
* In this folder, there should be two files: Link.xml and LinkContainer.xml.
Was the Data folder and the files created in your environment?
Regards
Ronald
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Hi Ronald!
Thanks for the reply. It was my fault. I did not close the app - it was sitting in the system tray when Vista was shutdown and did not save - a data folder and a blank xml file were created but no data other than the xmlheader was present. When I followed your instructions, the close saved the settings.
Thanks!
Mike
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Mike Tuersley
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| I do not know how to use it
Seraph_summer | 11:26 1 Jun '09 |
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no any information how to use it.
how to add the icon into it? just as the example shown by you?
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Hi,
here is a brief instruction:
1) If you switch on the "Pin" button (in the middle of the bar), the application window will not minimize automatically.
2) Add a category (e.g. "Office") by entering the category name in the textbox and click the "Add Container" button.
3) Now, open the start menu or use the explorer to drag and drop the shortcuts into the desired category.
4) Switch off the "Pin" button so that the window automatically disappears when an application is started or the focus has gone to another application.
You can also re-order the shortcuts in a category by holding down the mouse at their top corner and moving them to the left or right, and you can edit the description of categories or shortcuts, delete shortcusts and categories or re-order categories.
Regards
Ronald
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| Compiled version
iSHR! | 6:27 1 Jun '09 |
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Looks nice, but could you please provide a compiled version, I want to test it, but the pc I use for development is in the repair shop
Shri
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Hi Shri,
I attached the binaries - you can find them at the very top of the article. Please let me know if they work!
Regards
Ronald
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