DesktopX 2.4 Developer’s Guide
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Page 21
New States
You now know the basics of configuring a single state object. A multi-state object is no more
complicated.
To add a new state, simply click the 'Add' button. You will then be presented by a list of the
common states not yet used from which you can select:
Mouse over - occurs when the user moves the cursor over the active part of the object (as defined
by the 'Activation' option on the 'Relation' tab.
Mouse down - occurs which the user presses down the left mouse button over the object
Mouse up - occurs when the left mouse button is released whilst over the object
Show - occurs when the object appears on screen (either when loaded or via script)
Hide - occurs when the object is removed from the screen (either when unloaded or via script)
Command executed - occurs when the object is activated as defined by the 'Starts with' option on
the 'Relation' tab.
You can then configure this state just as you did for the first one. One thing to remember is that
all the images used must be exactly the same size.
The other buttons in this are should be fairly clear as to what they do. Obviously the 'Remove'
button removes a created state though you obviously need to have one state for an object.
Once you have spend time setting up the first state, the likelihood is that other states will be fine
tuned versions of that state, so for speed you can use the 'Copy From' button to copy the settings
from another created state to the currently selected one.
The 'Reset' button clears all modifications in the currently selected state so you can start again.
When you create a state the drop-down list shows you the states that exist by default in
DesktopX, but you aren't just limited to these. In the drop-down list box you can just type any
name in and a 'Custom State' of that name will be created which can be configured just like any
other.
Though these states are not triggered by user interaction they can be activated by Messages and
Script which we will come onto later and are very useful for that purpose.
The one final thing to define in a multiple state object is the 'Default Appearance'. On the
'General' tab you can specify the image to be used when the object first loads. This will not
change until the object is interacted with in some way. Note that this image must be the same
size as all the other state images.
