The ANIMATE object is a Windows GUI control that plays a very basic AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) file.

It is normally used to indicate system activity during lengthy operations such as copying and searching for files, and prior to the release of Windows Vista it was a core part of the Windows Explorer shell. Since then it has been somewhat deprecated in that role, but the control is still part of Windows and available for use with OpenInsight.

Developer Notes

Early versions of the control (prior to ComCtl32.dll v6) used a separate thread to play the animation, but this was removed from version 6 (i.e. from Windows XP onwards when using visual styles). In this case you must call the SYSTEM object PROCESSEVENTS or PROCESSMESSAGES methods frequently during any long running process to allow the Animation control to play the file as it now uses an internal TIMER event.
The control can display an AVI file originating from either an uncompressed AVI file or from an AVI file that was compressed using run-length (BI_RLE8) encoding. It must not contain a sound channel.
Several standard Windows AVI files are supplied with OpenInsight for common operations such a file copying, moving, deleting and so on.
Equated constants for the ANIMATE object can be found in the PS_ANIMATE_EQUATES insert record.
Equated constants the Windows API Animate messages and styles can be found in the MSWIN_ANIMATE_EQUATES insert record.

ANIMATE Properties

The ANIMATE object supports the following properties

Name	Description
AUTOPLAY	Specifies if the AVI file begins playing as soon as it is opened.
CENTER	Centers the AVI file in the ANIMATE control
CLIPNAME	Specifies the name of the AVI file to play.
REPETITIONS	Specifies the number of times the animation should play.
STARTFRAME	Specifies the frame number where the animation should start playing from.
STOPFRAME	Specifies the frame number where the animation should stop playing.
TRANSPARENT	Indicates that the animation should be displayed using a transparent background.

The following Common GUI Object properties are not supported:

FOCUS
FONT
FORECOLOR
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TEXT

AUTOPLAY property

Description

Specifies if the AVI file beings playing as soon as it is opened.

Property Value

The AUTOPLAY property is a Boolean value of TRUE$ or FALSE$.

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

N/a.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

CENTER property

Description

Centers the animation in the middle of the control when set, otherwise the animation is displayed in the top-left position.

Property Value

The CENTER property is a Boolean value of "0" (FALSE$) or "1" (TRUE$).

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

N/a.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately in the centre of the control//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CENTER"
 DataArray := @Rm : TRUE$
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

CLIPNAME property

Description

Specifies the name of the AVI file to play.

Property Value

The CLIPNAME property can be the name of an actual file, or the name of a resource contained in an EXE or DLL. If the latter then it should be specified in the format:

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

The control can display an AVI file originating from either an uncompressed AVI file or from an AVI file that was compressed using run-length (BI_RLE8) encoding. It must not contain a sound channel.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file contained in Shell32.dll with an ID of 43506//
 // and begin playing immediately in the centre of the control//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CENTER"
 DataArray := @Rm : TRUE$
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : "shell32.dll#43506"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

REPETITIONS property

Description

Specifies the number of times to play the animation.

Property Value

The REPETITIONS property is an integer value that specifies the number of times to play the animation. If set to -1 (the default) then the clip plays indefinitely.

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

N/a.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file contained in Shell32.dll with an ID of 43506//
 // and begin playing immediately for a total of 10 times.//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "REPETITIONS"
 DataArray := @Rm : 10
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : "shell32.dll#43506"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

STARTFRAME property

Description

Specifies the frame number from which to begin playing.

Property Value

The STARTFRAME property is an integer value that specifies the frame number to start playing from. The value must be less than the STOPFRAME value and less than 65536. It defaults to 1.

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

N/a.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately from frame 4.//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "STARTFRAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : 4
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

STOPFRAME property

Description

Specifies the last frame number to display when playing a clip.

Property Value

The STOPFRAME property is an integer value that specifies the frame number to stop playing at. The value must be -1 (the default) to specify the last frame in the clip, or be greater than the STARTFRAME value and less than 65536.

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

N/a.

Example

 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately from frames 4 to 8//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "STARTFRAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : 4
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "STOPFRAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : 8
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

TRANSPARENT property

Description

Indicates that the animation should be displayed using a transparent background.

Property Value

The TRANSPARENT property is a Boolean value of "0" (FALSE$) or "1" (TRUE$). When set to TRUE$ the top-left pixel in the animation frame is assumed to be the AVI file background color – any pixels matching this color are instead painted the same color as the control's BACKCOLOR property.

Property Traits

Development	Runtime	Indexed	Scaled	Synthetic
Get/Set	Get/Set	No	No	No

Remarks

This control is sensitive to the order in which properties are set. To ensure that the transparency is implemented properly set the BACKCOLOR and the TRANSPARENT property before you set the CLIPNAME property.

Example

      
 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately with a transparent background//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 ObjxArray =        @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray =        "AUTOPLAY"
 DataArray =        TRUE$

 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "BACKCOLOR"
 DataArray := @Rm : -1 ; // transparent//
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "TRANSPARENT"
 DataArray := @Rm : TRUE$
 
 ObjxArray := @Rm : @Window : ".ANI_COPYING"
 PropArray := @Rm : "CLIPNAME"
 DataArray := @Rm : ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi"
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( ObjxArray, PropArray, DataArray )

ANIMATE Methods

The ANIMATE object supports the following methods:

Name	Description
PLAY	Begins playing the animation file.
STOP	Stops playing the animation file.

PLAY Method

Description

Begins the playback of an animation file.

Syntax

bSuccess = Exec_Method( CtrlEntID, |

"PLAY", |

Repetitions, |

StartFrame, |

StopFrame )

Parameters

Name	Required	Description
Repetitons	No	Specifies the number of times to play the animation. Defaults to -1. See the REPETITIONS property above.
StartFrame	No	Specifies the frame number from which to begin playing. Defaults to 1. See the STARTFRAME property above.
StopFrame	Yes	Specifies the last frame number to display when playing a clip. Defaults to -1. See the STOPFRAME property above.

Returns

"1" (TRUE$) if the clip was started successfully, "0" (FALSE$) otherwise.

Remarks

N/a.

Example

      
 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // from frames 4 to 8, with 10 repetitions//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( @Window : ".ANI_COPYING", |
                         "CLIPNAME",               |
                         ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi" )

 Call Exec_Method( @Window : ".ANI_COPYING", "PLAY", 10, 4, 8 )

STOP Method

Description

Stops the playback of an animation file.

Syntax

bSuccess = Exec_Method( CtrlEntID, "STOP" )

Parameters

N/a.

Returns

"1" (TRUE$) if the clip was stopped successfully, "0" (FALSE$) otherwise.

Remarks

N/a.

Example

   
 // Example://
 ////
 // Open an AVI file called "FileCopyXP.avi" and begin playing//
 // immediately, stopping after some process has finished//
 
 $Insert Logical
 
 Call Set_Property_Only( @Window : ".ANI_COPYING", |
                         "CLIPNAME",               |
                         ".\avi\filecopyxp.avi" )

 Call Exec_Method( @Window : ".ANI_COPYING", "PLAY" )
 
 // Do long running data process ....//
 
 Call Exec_Method( @Window : ".ANI_COPYING", "STOP" )

Table of Contents

Developer Notes

ANIMATE Properties

AUTOPLAY property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

CENTER property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

CLIPNAME property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

REPETITIONS property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

STARTFRAME property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

STOPFRAME property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

TRANSPARENT property

Description

Property Value

Property Traits

Remarks

Example

See Also

ANIMATE Methods

PLAY Method

Description

Syntax

Parameters

Returns

Remarks

Example

See Also

STOP Method

Description

Syntax

Parameters

Returns

Remarks

Example

See Also