PalmBMX --- Requesting some help

[Festus440]

PalmBMX = Palm BitMap eXtractor

I needed some code for the ZL IconFactory project to export bitmaps out of Palm files. I got this "bright idea" that this might be a handy general purpose utility for everyone.

I guess now I'm not so sure, so I'm asking for some volunteers to try out this sort of "pre-beta" version to see if it's worth finishing.

Here's what it does:

It's basically a utility for extracting bitmaps from Palm files.

Opens either prc or pdb files. (Programs or skins)
You can extract either one or all of the images at once.
It also exports abmp images from NX silk and status bar skins :)
Assigns filenames by the resource ID in decimal, instead of in Hex like PRCExplorer, which might be handy for some people.

Also has a little bitmap preview function.

Your help is appreciated!

I have it temporarily up on my HappyPalm web page:

http://www.festus440.happypalm.com/

[mistrfree]

I have tried it on several Palm files. It actually extracts the images, fantastic job.

[Festus440]

Thanks!

Did you try the preview?

You have to select "View" and then "Expanded View".

In that mode you can save individual images.

[mistrfree]

Yes. All functions seem to be working properly. Thanks for the hard work you put into it. :)

[Festus440]

Thanks mistrfree!

Maybe a screenshot would encourage others to try it.




http://www.festus440.happypalm.com/PBMX_Preview.jpg

[LaStigmata]

Just seen your message Festus and just got it downloaded. I will give it a run and let you know. Also I will try any and all your beta stuff so just let me know. But this realy looks like a good one.

Thanks
LaStigmata

[cbulock]

Great app! Is there any way a future version would have a way to edit the bitmaps and save back into the file. I can see that function being helpful to some.

[LaStigmata]

Ok, Festus I have a problem. I used it to open a VG skin that I had made and it worked wonderful. Then I tried opening a ZLauncher prc that I had made and it counted up the "total pitmap resources in this field" to be 208 then it just stopped with the "Working..." message up top. So then I clicked on "Extract Bitmaps" just to see if it would and it gave me this message "Run-time error '35602' Key is not unique in collection". Is this a problem with my prc file or what? I have run the prc file and it works on my clie.

[Festus440]

LaStigmata, if you don't mind, send me the file.

I doubt that it's your file. Regadless, it shouldn't hang or crash, I know there are some bugs, and some of the error trapping is currently shut off.

The key error has to do with the tree view.

[LaStigmata]

It's on it's way. Let me know if you do not get it.

[Festus440]

LaStigmata,

The reason the program crashed is because the skin file has a duplicate resource.

There are two Tbmp5758's in it. That caused the unique key error in the tree.

I'll need to add come code to catch that problem more gracefully.

However, I guess I'm my own worst enemy becuase the original error was due to a duplicate resource in the ZL ThemeMaker rcp file. (oops!)

[LaStigmata]

Good work! Thanks.

[Yoyoman412]

Festus

This is very KEWL. One prob though, I dont think pdb. dont work yet. I wasent able to open a ZL background, the button for extracting the bitmap did not allow me to click it. Other than that, this prog is very neat.

I noticed you have a ML4 background converter. Can you PLEASE make a ZL bacground converter too? It would make making a background for ZL so much easier. Thanks in advance and keep it up!

Jonathan

[LaStigmata]

Originally posted by Yoyoman412
Festus

This is very KEWL. One prob though, I dont think pdb. dont work yet. I wasent able to open a ZL background, the button for extracting the bitmap did not allow me to click it. Other than that, this prog is very neat.

I noticed you have a ML4 background converter. Can you PLEASE make a ZL bacground converter too? It would make making a background for ZL so much easier. Thanks in advance and keep it up!

Jonathan

Just resize the image to the size you need ie. 320 x 320 or 320 x 480 or 160 x 160 and save them as jpg.

[Yoyoman412]

Originally posted by LaStigmata


Just resize the image to the size you need ie. 320 x 320 or 320 x 480 or 160 x 160 and save them as jpg.

Your right, but for peeps like me without a mem stick or memory expansion capability, it is not so easy. I am capable of making a background with the Clie Simulator, but it involves several extra steps. Id like it if all I had to do was browse for the pic and then click convert and the prog would create the pdb in a specified folder.

Just an idea.

Jonathan

[Festus440]

Although the background files have "pdb" extension, they are a different format then skin files. That's why the BMX doesn't find any images in it. (Palm doesn't use the pdb or prc extension anyway, it's just for the conduit.)

Making a converter probably wouldn't be too hard. I haven't found any info on the file format yet.


I should have some bug fixes for the BMX in a day or two, including some optimization to speed it up a little.

[Festus440]

cbulock, didn’t mean to ignore your post

Although I don’t deny that being able to modify the bitmaps and save them back into the skin file would be handy, that’s more complicated than it sounds. (The bitmaps would have to be re-compressed, and the skin file would have to be rebuilt.)

You can do that now with Constructor, and it really goes beyond the true purpose of BMX.

BMX is intended to be a companion utility for the ZL IconFactory. If someone wants to replace or modify a program icon, I wanted to include a utility to extract the original icon from the program to use as a starting place.

I also thought that BMX might be a handy general-purpose utility for extracting bitmaps and I thought people might like being able to view the icons with transparency. (I’m not aware of anything else that does that.)

[cbulock]

I see, I'm not all that familiar on how that all works. I was thinking that a utiltly that could replace bitmaps easily could be useful for easily changing icons or to do some quick edits to skins. I might have to try Constructor though.

But, BMX is a sweet app!

[the_iceman]

Festus,

I saw you mention on the previous page of this post... in regards to the issue of having 2 5758 BMPs kinda lock the program up ..... do you know if you have modified the ThemeMaker program ... so it picks up 5758 & 5759 (SendButtonUp & SendButtonDown). It seems the thememaker picks up the SendButtonDown twice.

I've also noticed during the compression of the bitmaps for the RIGHT-TABS (Inactive Inactive Tabs mostly) .... it doesn't accurately perform the 'transparency'. I've seen this several times. I don't know if it is the entire compression routine it has, or what ... seems that it does have some issues with the right inactive tabs though.

Would it be possible for you to take a quick peek into it ??

If these issues have come up before... I apologize ... and this probably isn't the best place to post it.... but thought I would since you are in BETA for the new program.

Have a great day!

[Yoyoman412]

THS PROGRAM IS AMAZING. Now that I have this, converting skins to low res is so easy. All I have to do is use a program like IrfanView to skew the bitmaps and then copy and paste them to the skin when it is opened up in Constructor. To all the low res peeps out there, prepare for a lot more new low res skins from me that are converted from those high res skins you have always wanted.

Thank you!

Jonathan

[Festus440]

the_iceman,

I'm a little behind on updating the ThemeMaker. I did the TM before those tabs were being used and originally they didn't have any transparent colors assigned to some of them. I'll try to spend some time on that this weekend. The problem is in the rcp files. It took a lot of time to edit all of the rcp files and rename about a thousand bitmaps, so I'm surprised there aren't more typos!

Yoyoman412,
Thanks!
I should have an updated version tomorrow that fixes a few bugs including the one that LaStigmata found. I'm also trying to optimize things a little to improve performance.

[the_iceman]

I can fully understand festus... What you produce for us ... is absolutely incredible ..... I think you should put a PayPal on your web-site for donations!!!!!!!!!! I would be one in a long line who I'm sure would be willing to donate to you ... and all of the hard work you have done for all of us!

[Festus440]

I've had a few people suggest the paypal thing. (Including ZZtechs.)

I'll admit it would be nice to recoup some of my investiment in the programming software.

I'll probably do that when I release the ZL IconFactory.

[the_iceman]

I'll be in line for it! ;)

[the_iceman]

Festus,

In regards to the ThemeMaker, would you think it to be 'OK' to modify the .rcp files needed to change the two entries showing for 5758? and make one an entry for 5758 and one for 5759?

Also can any of the entries and/or all have transparency turned on? As an example according to the zlauncher ThemeDoc.htm image 5385 can have transparency on ... but it isn't shown to have that in the .rcp file(s). Can I manually add the transparency to any/all of the bitmaps .... with the exception of Panels and Path graphics and date/time (5000-5010, 5444-5445 & 5500-5501)?

I just don't want to do anything to screw up the wonderful program you have created!

If you would like me to modify the .RPC files ... I can do that and send you a copy once I've completed them. (Anything to help out!) :)

[Festus440]

the_iceman,

Sure, that would be great. It sounds like you have a good handle on what to do. If you do make an error, you will either get an error from the TM or it will show up in the PilRc output screen.

I'll mention that there are two versions of the rcp files. One set is in the "bitmaps" folder and the other is in the "Backup_Images" folder. The only difference between the two is the path to the images. The set of rcp files in the "Backup_Images" are used for the project folders.

Thanks!

[LaStigmata]

I have changed most of them to transparency allready and never had a problem yet.

[the_iceman]

LaStigmata,

Did you even change the those 'flagged' in ZLauncher's themedoc as Non-Transparent to include the transparency flag?

Some I didn't mess with. When I went through the different ICONS.... There would be say 3 graphics which make up the Inactive Tab on the right (Left, Body, Right). The 'Right' part of the tab did have transparency turned on .. but not the Body and the Left Side. What seems to have been happening on the 'right' tabs ... is you could see a 'body-tab' underneath the Right Tab. So if you had rounded corners on the tab .. it looked a lil funky ... to see a little bit of the other underneath it. Other times it would look 'ok'. By putting the transparency on all 3 of the right-tabs (did this for all of the tabs itself whether they be top/right/bottom/left ... is it helped clear that up .... and looks goooooooooooooood now.

The other ones which were 'KEY' to me to ensure transparency was turned on ... were the 'Activate previous tab/next tab/Tab List buttons ... those seemed to also be turned off.

I updated the RCP files for the HI-RES ones (only 2 files). I haven't done the rest as of this point ... just wanted to test it out while I'm here at work .... I love this job!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

[LaStigmata]

All I have messed with have been the Hires ones also. And yes I have made all 3 of the icons that make up the tabs trans. I think you are safe with about all of them except the panels. I tried with an early skin to make the panels transparent but they for some reason do not refresh. If you raised one of the popup panels then raised the other one it would leave the icons visable underneath the current one. The same kind of thing happens with the top and bottom bars. The only color that effects the transparency is the 255,0,255 color anywhy.

[the_iceman]

That can happen as well with Icon Buttons. I was playing around with it... and say you take the large ToolBar Icon for COLOR. That Icon is 48x48. Say I want to give the entire 'button' an effect of dropping down. Not just from a graphical perspective... but to have the ICON Move down and to the right 2x2 pixels when depressed. What you will find, having transparencies turned on for both the Up and Down positions .... is it looks just fine when you first bring up the button. But when you hold down the button ... you will see 2x2 pixels showing in the upper-left from the old image. Then let go of the button... and your 'UP' button shows... but then shows the bottom-right 2x2 pixels left over from the Down Button. ZLauncher doesn't seem to 'clear-and-repaint' the area. It seems to just place it 'on top' so to speak.

I've tried to get around this multiple ways ... just doesn't seem to work well though. Best to just create the UP/Down Buttons exactly the same size and position them in the same place to avoid having parts of the buttons 'left showing'.

Course.. if you minimize the Tool Panel .. and then relaunch it... it paints it just fine just a little bit of a pain.

[Festus440]

I've put an updated version of PalmBMX on my web page:

http://www.festus440.happypalm.com

Has a few bug fixes. I cut down on the disk writes, so it should be slightly quicker in the preview.

[LaStigmata]

Downloading it know, I'll kick the tires and drive it around the block.

Good work as always Festus!