DesktopX 2.4 Developer’s Guide
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Page 25
Activation
'Activation' defines how the user can interact with the object. If the setting is 'Default' then it
simply follows the user's settings, but you have three other options. 'Rectangular' activation is
based on the size of the source graphic and ignores any transparency in the object, whereas
'Visible Area' means that only those areas of the object visible on screen can be interacted with.
The final option 'None' means that the user cannot interact with this object and any attempts to
do so are ignored. This is usually most important for cosmetic objects on the desktop.
Start with
'Start with' defines the way in which a user interacts with an object. It is not always the case that
you want a user to have to click an object to activate it. In addition to the standard 'Default'
option, you have four more ways in which a user can interact with the object. Sometimes for
example you may simply want the user to move over an object for something to occur.
Default Cursor
This option allows you to specify which cursor will be displayed when the mouse moves over
the object. This is a very useful way to indicate to the user the effect of their interaction with the
object, for example if you want a user to drag and move the object rather than clicking it then it
would make sense to use the ‘Move’ cursor.
Popups
OK, now onto 'Popups'. These are a really cool feature in DesktopX that we briefly mentioned in
the Object Types section.
Earlier in this section we discussed visibility. You don't always want objects to be visible on the
screen, and in some cases you may want them to be 'Popups' whose appearance on screen is
controlled by other objects that have the 'Object Controller' type.
If the object is referenced by an object controller then it will function as a popup depending on
the value set here. If the object is not used as a popup in this way, then this value is simple
ignored.
You should note that when an object is called as a popup then all children of that object or
objects in the same group will also inherit the popup functionality of that object. This is because
popups are just really a shortcut for the visibility setting. By this, I mean that popups are
essentially a dynamic way of setting the visibility of the object. Visibility is a property the is
shared by group members and children inherit it from their parent. Don’t worry if you don’t
understand the parent/children definition. We discuss them in more detail later.
Here are the popup types.
'Static' popups - Normally, an Object Controller will toggle the appearance of a popup (open it or
close it depending on whether it already is visible). Once these 'Static' popups are opened they
