[genzo]

I have been messing around with Xplode for quite awhile now and I have come up with this.

I have added the following:
You can use images as the background for the header, footer, menu, center area.
Added extra areas in the css style sheet.

You can now add Title/Headers in the list and they will collapse now with more items. It only allows one level.

Warning 56k Users (Large Images)
Picture1
Picture2
Picture3

You will get a better idea if you try Example Download

I am new to XML. JavaScript and only know some HTML so give me a break about my coding

Hope you enjoy.

[Wraith]

Good to see someone sharing what they've done.

[genzo]

Thanks Wraith for posting atleast you did

Ya if more people shared their changes then it would be better for Xplode Community and will help the others that are not as good.

So no one was even interested or could not be bothered to post

Thought I add something else in here as well instead of making a new topic. I am at the moment making a editor for Xplode that will make the xml file for you all you do is fill in the information in the application and then it will output the xml for you. I am mostly focusing this app on the select-install side of Xplode but will most likely be compatible with the others as well.

I have just started making it so it will be a while till its done and I do have course work to do on top of that.

Wraith, Thanks for Xplode and keep up the good work looking forward to the next update

[fizban2]

Genzo,

Thanks for the post, it is nice to see someone elses way of writing out there xml. I will hopefully post mine here soon after i get it working correctly

[benners]

@genzo
I don't know dick about html or style sheets, but thanks to your modified files and Google I have edited my selected install also. Thanks to Wraith as well for this excellent proggie which brought me from the dark ages of RunOnceEx

xplode1
xplode2

[S0mE0nesMiNd1]

Ugh, Can you explain how you got your main image at that resolution?

[benners]

@S0mE0nesMiNd1
If you mean my image, nothing special really. I use PaintShop Pro, the original image was 2109x3000, when I resized it to 540 height with Pixel, Bicubic or Bilinear there was always some jaggedness around the edges, weighted average removed the jagged edges but there still seemed to be a little bluring.

Eventually I did what I have done in the past, used the mouse wheel to zoom out in PSP and take a screen shot about the size I wanted, then resized with weighted average to increase by 10 or 15 pixels. I then used the dropper tool to get the background colour and created an new image of 600x540, the size of genzo's original image (which works out the right size when I set xplode to 800x600) any more and when its run on my machine the cpu usage is 70%+ pent 3.06ghz, then pasted the Angelina image into the new one, thats it.

[IceBlackIce]

Looks there's still hope for mankind, right Wraith?
Nicely done genzo...after i saw your example, sudently motivation came back to me.

Maybe Monday i'll post my...no work till then .

[IceBlackIce]

As promised here's a link with some pics showing my Xplode changes.... i know that suck a bit...but i dont have any patience (sp?) to work with graphs so i didnt took a lot a time with them...

Screenshots

Here's the guidelines.

All menus have time limit so i can put a cd in it...and if i want to be default, just let it roll, having the choice to change a bit or all of the process.

Pic 1 - Runs from a cd from the winnt.sif in GuiRunOnce, mapping a share from our server (This point is not implemented yet, but i have tested, and i dont foresee any problem)

Pic 2 - Starts a menu choice from the server giving the user all the options (this way i can add/remove methods as much as i want without burning new cds and without having to test for days)

Pic 3 - Wihu menu selection

Pic 4 - Wihu on the works

Pic 5 - Xplode menu selection

Pic 6 - Xplode on the works


Hope this can help someone and if you have any doubt post here

I hope all users who use Xplode share their knowledge/methods/shots so the developer see that there are people who really know how's things work and can improve it.

[genzo]

Thanks IceBlackIce for sharing your ideas.

I like your design and the idea to have a menu to select XPlode etc.

This has given me the idea that I could make a menu that you run XPlode with a different config file for each OS.

This will make the files a lot cleaner when handling them yet give a great interface for the different OS that I use.

At first I was going to store the config file for each OS on a different floppy disks, this way I can save using floppy disks.

NOTE
I have disabled the downloads and images because a member PM about that I was sharing XPlode when the main download area was taken down. I totaly forgot and dont want to go against Wraith wishes so I have taken them down.

[Wraith]

I have no problem with people who want to share their configurations, I just object to redistributing the executables.

[IceBlackIce]

Yeah i intend to implement that to Windows 2000 ... but as i am lazy as hell i am expecting the Rollup Update to save me from rearrange the the software list after
If i find some time i will get on the works with it sooner.

[Glowy]

@benners
oh my! i like what you've done with the icons in the second picture.
looks like there is a lot for me to learn..

would you mind sharing what you've done.. saves me some time re-inventing an old invention

[benners]

@Glowy
Sure, as I have said in my previous post I don't know anything about style sheets or Javascript so what I do is alter things and see what changes. The attached style sheet is what I use for the effects, the green tick, red cross and blue pause were ones I had on my hard drive, I opened the icon with iconXP and saved the 24x24 32bpp one as a gif.

The check box I made in Paint Shop by creating a new image 24x24 with a white background and adding a bevel effect with Eyecandy filters and the clock is an animated gif I made from another icon, I removed the hand in Paint Shop so the face was blank, then used the line tool to created hands at different times, then using Ulead gif animator created the animated gif, for the gifs to run you will need to allow "Play animations in web pages" under the advanced tab in IE.

I have commented the style sheet for my benefit so the terminology may not be correct, let me know if you need any more info and I will try to help.

Attached File(s)

•  icons.zip (7.71K)
  Number of downloads: 50

[Glowy]

Great thnx..

I don't know much about css and java either. I didn't come around in changing things in javascript and the style sheet. But after seeing what you and others did I'm off to try

I see you're quite handy with photoshop/paintshop.. another thing I can't seem to find the time for :S

The clock is animated? nice! can't wait to try it, and after that show it off
I'm running XPlode at T-12, so I don't know if the animation will show. sure hope so. as the plugin used says: eyecandy!

thanks again for sharing your work

[benners]

Quote

I'm running XPlode at T-12, so I don't know if the animation will show

I don't know about T12 all I run then is the default tweaks and they just fly through, it is animated before windows starts after the second reboot, but on my slow computer (Athlon XP2100) it does stop and start, maybe there is not enough juice. I have found that if I open Task Manager when xplode is running the animation plays smoothly, still trying to figure out the kinks

[Glowy]

Finally got around to test it.
The animation works at T-12!

[benners]

result.

I'm toying with the idea of creating a bitmap for the selection menu so that instead of a colour there would be an image but I can't decide on which is the best, I would like the writing to have a glow around it but due to the different text lengths sometimes it just looks tacky

[genzo]

This is my newest version of XPLODE.
Please post comments and ideas.

Pictures
About: This shows the about sections that can be found in the new menu that starts up.
Install1: This shows my install menu I am planning on changing it show that it shows icons like "benners" install.
OSMenu: This shows a list of different Operating Systems and will allow you to pick one.
Select: This shows the select menu not really much to see here.
Tree & Tree2: This shows the new tree menu that collapses when you click it.

INFO
When you pick one of the OS buttons it will load a different XPLODE XML file that has been set in the html code.
This part has been made using javascript and html.

You just click the button and it will run the new XML file, so you dont have to click install.
It does have a downside because of security a message comes up asking to allow the javascript to run click yes or it wont work.

The way that it runs a new XML file is by running "XPlode.exe /xml:win2000.xml" etc and then closing the current instance of XPlode.
This was the only way that I could get it to work without Wraith altering the XPlode code.

How it works
When it is first run the OS Menu will show, just click one of the OS buttons and it will then load a new xml file for that OS.
You can now select the items that you want to install using the new collapable menus.
Click install when ready and it will install the selected items.

This download only contains the needed files and not the exe file and other files you should have.
So just extract XPLODE to a new folder and then copy these files over the ones allready their.

PLEASE MAKE SURE ITS A NEW ONE THAT YOU EXTRACTED AND NOT SURE MAIN ONES.

View Pictures HERE
Download HERE

[Wraith]

Nice work.

Just been mucking around with Flash, set this up...



Obviously adding animation and whatnot isn't terribly hard, maybe I'll clean the javascript up and attach it later.

This post has been edited by Wraith: 13 May 2005 - 09:55 PM