Whatever-Dock - running indicator for file explorer

Hey!

I'm using a Rocketdock (i tested them all) at the moment as a taskbar replacement on XP and it runs pretty well so far. But for one problem i just cannot find a good solution.

I want to have a icon in my dock that:

- when i click it opens an file explorer, if there is none open so far

- when i click it and there are file explorer open allready it should bring to front the one i used most recently

- when there are file explorer open allready it should show a running indicator beneath it (<-- !!)

So that the file explorer would integrate just like any other program in my dock. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

#516752

hmmm dont know if this may help you further. Is not the answer to what you are looking for but still its a start, and in other docks not the Rocket Dock.

for RKlauncher:

I have an icon that has a running indicator of the explorer, so its always on since the explorer is always running (unless you kill it with the taskmanager). When i click on it, a windows explorer opens showing me the "MyComputer" folder. Now the trick i have for recalling the same window when one is already open is an app called QTTab Bar. Check the options and you will be able to have only one explorer window at a time.

How to do this:

Grab the explorer.exe into the dock. Put this argument on the properties of the icon

::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

If you are using XWindowsDock this can be done by putting the above argument BUT IN THE PATH field when you create an item.

Hope this brings you some other ideas man.

#516757

Thanks for the input Church!

I came up with something different, and it works fine so far for me so i gonna post it here if anyone has the same problem

There is this script language for windows called autoit (quote from their website):

"AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. It uses a combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks in a way not possible or reliable with other languages (e.g. VBScript and SendKeys). AutoIt is also very small, self-contained and will run on all versions of Windows out-of-the-box with no annoying "runtimes" required!"

and with that (i was allready familiar with that language) i wrote a script, that checks whether there is an explorer window open, and if so it brings it to the front, and if not, it opens a new one. Here is what the script looks like:

$var1 = WinSetState("[CLASS:CabinetWClass]", "", @SW_RESTORE)

If $var1 = 0 Then

	Run("C:WINDOWSEXPLORER.EXE /n,D:")

EndIf

Thats the whole script. Pretty easy. So i compiled that script into a exe file and put an shortcut to that into my dock. Running indicator doesn't work though. If you want to use this too, you'll have to install autoit v3 adjust the code (only the Run("...") part) so that is opens the directory you want it to.

#516770

[CLASS:CabinetWClass] means it searchs for a top-most window whose ClassName is CabinetWClass, right?

Then a docklet could be written to do what you want.

#516790

a docklet would also be good alternative ;D

as they say, each to his own im happy with my solution and you are happy with yours, so everybody is happy lol

#516791

yes i think so, matonga.

Unfortunatly i dont know anything about the windows window api (is it called so?) yet. Do you maybe know some website where such things are explained?

PS: this question might be to specific, but is it possible that theres no way for an docklet to show an running indicator? i cannot find anything on the objectdock's docklet sdk documentation.

#516792

PS: this question might be to specific, but is it possible that theres no way for an docklet to show an running indicator? i cannot find anything on the objectdock's docklet sdk documentation.

this is the 1 billion $ question for all of us haha

#516793

so its always on since the explorer is always running (unless you kill it with the taskmanager). When i click on it, a windows explorer opens showing me the "MyComputer" folder. Now the trick i have for recalling the same window when one is already open is an app called QTTab Bar. Check the options and you will be able to have only one explorer window at a time

#517672

yes i think so, matonga.

Unfortunatly i dont know anything about the windows window api (is it called so?) yet. Do you maybe know some website where such things are explained?

PS: this question might be to specific, but is it possible that theres no way for an docklet to show an running indicator? i cannot find anything on the objectdock's docklet sdk documentation.

Sorry I didn't read this post before.

If you search for any window with class CabinetW32Class, and your search is successful, then one or more Explorer windows are open. Else only the taskbar is open.

Yes, there is a way to tell objectdock to show an indicator in your docklet, I think it is called DockletSetIndicator( ). It is not supported by RocketDock .

I tried writing a docklet but it didn't work for me. I'll post source code soon.

Edit

Ok, here it is:

http://www.matiasmoreno.com.ar/ExplorerDocklet-source.rar

I have never tested it in ObjectDock (it doesn't work with Rocket Dock).

Should compils fine in Delphi 5 and later. If someone wants binaries I can upload it also.

#517674