Integrating an app into a profile

[Ugo_Ripley]

Hi all.
I'm so new to all this that I just can't figure it out.

Would it be possible to integrate an application written for Live For Speed into its own tab in a TB profile ?

I'm thinking of VLFSD (or Virtual LFS Dashboard) which displays speed, rpm, and some other in-game infos.
Virtual LFS Dashboard - Live for Speed

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

You can make an area of a tab transparent, and/or make it so you can actually click through it onto the program that is behind the TB window.

Check out this thread:
click through

WBK

[Ugo_Ripley]

Ok, so your hint is running VLFSD first, and then TouchBuddy on top of it ? When I select the transparent tab, VLFSD becomes visible. Right ?

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Yep..........

[Ugo_Ripley]

Ok, so this is what I've done:

- I edited an existing LFS profile (Live For Speed_PM) and I appended an empty, "translucent" tab with the minimum selectable value (40)

- On the "main" tab I added a little button to be able to select the new tab
I couldn't find out how to "clone" it to add it to other tabs as well...(edit: found out how!)

- I added a solid black 800x600 jpg as a "tb.previous" button on this new tab, so wherever I touch the VLFSD screen, it just goes back to where it was before.

First I run VLFSD and move it on the touchscreen, then I load TB "over" it, and then the game itself.
It works well enough, the only "problem" is that I don't know if THIS is the right way to do these things, as far as buttons and profiles...

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

That is one way to do it. Here is another using the Click-Through module that is built-in to TouchBuddy.

1) Click the 'Insert a New Module' button on the Library tab on the left to add the Module. It defaults to the Click-Through type.
2) Size the window the size that you want.
3) Enter the 'window_name' EXACTLY like the Titlebar of the Window you want in the module. Here I embedded the Firefox browser into the tab. This is the tricky part, and may not always work. Try different names, like here I could have tried just Firefox, or Mozilla Firefox, or MozillaFirefox... You can also try looking at what it is called in the Windows Task Manager and try that name.



If the name does not work, you will need to use a Windows 'Spy' program to let you see actually what Microsoft Windows exactly names that window. Use a Program like:

Process Explorer
I think the 'Description' field is the name you want to use Process Explorer. It displays the running programs, so you need to run your program to see it here. I think it also has a way to actually move your mouse over programs windows to get the info. But that may have been another program.

And here you can see the result. The Firefox Browser is embedded into a little window on the tab:

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Ugo, did you get this to work?

[Ugo_Ripley]

I'm trying right now, and it seems to work indeed. The window is correctly displayed on its clickthrough tab.

I only don't understand how to add a "back" button.
VLFSD is a full-screen, 800x600 app.

What do the "noactivate" and "layer" options mean ??

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

I don't know what noactivate does. My guess would be it is a 1 or 0 value for True or False. If you are having problems you can just change it and see if that helps. It probably says whether the program in the window can become active or not maybe?

Layer simply indicates if something is drawn on top of another.

You could add a little button in the corner of your screen, and set it's layer to 1 (or any number higher than the click-through window. And then the button should stay on top of it so you can see it. Then, in the Button Editor, just below the list of images is a drop down listbox called 'Select Tab:'. Just select the tbrevious item. You do not need a macro. When the button is touched, it should go back to the previous tab. Or you could select a specific tab in that list to jump to.