| Step-by-Step Tutorials |
#4 -
Scripting 101 |
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A series
by RomanDA |
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Today's Lesson:
"Scripting 101"
Today we will learn how
to do some VERY basic scripting in DexktopX. Scripting in DX can
be done with JavaScript as well as VBScript, but since i know next to
nothing about Javascript, I will be covering VBScript.
Please Look over the previous 3
tutorials so that we can skip up to some things here without redoing everything
we have already done. Things like Creating a new object, and changing font
sizes, etc. I will not cover those again, if you haven't looked at the first
3 you will need to go back and check them now.
For this and all the
Step-By-Step DX Tutorials you will need to purchase
DesktopX for $14.95 from Stardock.
Lets get started. |
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STEP 1 - Create the object |
Like I stated above, I am
not going to walk you thru everything here, so please look over the
other tutorials first.
- Create a new object
(see Tutorial #1)
- Make it a TEXT
object.
- Make the text large
enough you can see it on your desktop
- Add the text
DATE: to the object.
(you can make it whatever color you want, and font)
- RIGHT-CLICK
on the new object and select PROPERTIES
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STEP 2 - Making your first Script |
- From the
PROPERTIES window click on the NEW Button, next to
SCRIPT.
- You will see the
above screen (DX always creates a OnScriptEnter and
OnScriptExit subs.
- The ENTER is what
runs when you load up the object for the first time.
- The EXIT is what
runs when you close down your object.
- In this case we are
going to make the object show the current date when we load it up
- We are going to add
a single line of code in the OnScriptEnter Section:
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object.text = date
- As you type in this
info you will see dropdowns that show the options you can use.
All you need to do is click on T in TEXT and this dialog will show
up, so you can hit enter as soon as the dropdown jumps to Text, or
continue typing.
- That's it, lets
cover what we just did.
- object. -
this is how DX refers to the current object, so that it knows what
object we are working on.
- text - this
is the actual text of the object.
- = - is simply
telling it that the text EQUALS what comes next
- date - the
date is a built in function of visual basic. It is simply the
current date.
- combining it all, it
takes the current object's text and makes it equal to the current
date.
- Once this is all
entered, click on FILE then SAVE AND CLOSE Editor
- Then click on OK
and your TEXT on the desktop should show:
 (ok, it will show the REAL
date, not the date I made this - lol)
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STEP 3 -
Adding some
more info to the script |
Hopefully the above wasn't
to confusing, it worked, and your ready to add a little more to it.
- RIGHT-CLICK
on the the object and in the menu you will now have a few different
options
- You will want to
click on EDIT SCRIPT
- You should see the
same EDIT window you saw above.
- Let's add some text
to the item.
- edit the line
object.text = date
- to look like:
object.text = "Date: " & date
- What this does is
put the text Date: before the date itself. the & is used to join the
2 items.
- click on FILE
then SAVE AND CLOSE Editor
- Then click on OK
and your TEXT on the desktop should show:
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STEP 4 - Lets add some TIME |
We are going to make this
into a time object, with the current time being displayed at all times.
To do this we need to add a TIMER to the object. Timers are just
what they sound like, they perform an action at set intervals. You
can have multiple timers running at the same time, they can be at
different intervals. Lets see how this looks in the code:
- RIGHT-CLICK
on the object and select EDIT SCRIPT
- We need to move some
things around, please copy/paste the below code into your object.
- Note the yellow text
is only Comments, that's why they have a ' before them.
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'Called when the script is executed
Sub Object_OnScriptEnter
Object.SetTimer 1, 1000
'-- This turns on a timer called 1000 and runs
what's in there every 1,000 milliseconds or 1 second
End Sub
Sub Object_OnTimer1
'-- This is the Timer we started above,
notice the 1 is the same as the 1, in our SetTimer call?
'--- FormatDateTime(now,3) returns the complete time in the
format: hh:mm:ss am/pm
CurTime = formatdatetime(now,3)
object.text = "Date: " & date &
vbnewline & "Time: " & CurTime
'The vbnewline is a linefeed/break putting the time on a line
UNDER the date
End Sub
'Called when the script is terminated
Sub Object_OnScriptExit
object.KillTimer 1
'---
This shuts the timer off when the widget closes
End Sub |
- click on FILE
then SAVE AND CLOSE Editor
- Then click on OK
and your TEXT on the desktop should show:
- There will be a LAG
of 1 second before this shows on the screen because it has to wait
that 1 second before the Timer fires off. You can remove this
lag by adding the following line right below the object.settimer
line, so the Object_OnScriptEnter would look like this:
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'Called when the script is executed
Sub Object_OnScriptEnter
Object.SetTimer 1, 1000
Call Object_OnTimer1
End Sub |
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CONCLUSION |
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Ok, you now have a working
date/time clock on your desktop now.. woo hoo.. LOL I hope this
first step into scripting in DX has shown you how simple it can be.
I will continue to work on scripts for the next 2-3 tutorials, mainly
the basics, if you want more complicated Tutorials look over my older
ones on the
index
page.
I know this is some very
basic stuff, but that is the idea, most people are afraid of scripting,
and I want to show that anyone can get in there and at least get started
on scripting.
I hope you have enjoyed
this step into DX, and look forward to the next installment..
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