DesktopX 2.4 Developer’s Guide
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 24
3.3 The Basics of Relationships
You've already learnt about how the objects you create can interact with the user, and will now
learn how they interact with each other.
DesktopX allows you to tweak how they interact with users, but also how they interact with the
desktop and other applications on screen.
To access these settings, open up the Object Properties dialogue and then click the 'Relation' tab.
Visibility
The first thing you can specify is whether the object is visible or not. You may wonder why you
would want to hide objects. There are two main reasons. The first is that the object may be doing
work in the background such as loading a webpage which you don’t want visible. Alternatively,
you may only want the object to be visible at certain times which are controlled by script or
popups which we will come onto later.
Z-Order
If you consider a desktop, then all objects on there have an 'x' and 'y' position which defines
where they are on the screen. What you might not consciously have thought about is their 'Z-
Order'. This defines which object or application appears 'on top' of the other when they overlap.
Objects with a higher Z-Order appear on top of those with a lower Z-Order.
You have three Z-Order options for your objects. The first is 'Desktop'. This means that running
applications will always appear above your objects. They will open on the desktop. Those
interacted with most recently (clicked/moved), will be on top of other objects.
A 'Normal' Z-Order means like the object will behave like a mini-application. Objects with a
'Normal' Z-Order appear above or below applications and other 'Normal' Z-Order objects
depending on which were interacted with most recently.
An 'Always on Top' Z-Order means that this object will always be visible above all applications
and objects. It functions in the same way as the 'Always on top' setting of the default Windows
taskbar.
Movement
'Movement' can be defined as 'Normal' or 'Locked'. If it is 'Normal' then the user can drag the
object around the screen. If 'Locked', this is not possible. The user can still move the object by
holding down the CTRL key and dragging, but accidental movement is not possible. You can
also choose the 'Default' mode, which means that its movement is defined by the User's
DesktopX Settings as we discussed in the last section.
