Creating eComStation Window Themes

This toolkit should contain most of what you need in order to create new 'Window Themes' for eComStation.

Window Themes allow you to change the appearance of your window-frame controls, checkboxes, and radio-buttons, using the Window Themes applet.

(The Window Themes applet is located under the 'Appearance' sub-folder of 'System Setup' on the eComStation 1.1 desktop. It was previously called 'Theme Manager' under eComStation 1.0, and was located directly under 'System Setup'.)

All window-frame, checkbox, and radio-button controls are bitmap resources (within the system file PMMRGRES.DLL). The Window Themes applet alters their appearance by replacing these bitmaps.

Requirements

• eComStation (1.0 or later).
• The Window Themes applet must be installed. (It is installed by default on all versions of eCS.)
• The IBM Resource Compiler. This is installed by default on eCS 1.1, but not on eCS 1.0. If you do not have it installed, the maintenance tool (ECSMT) includes the necessary files (RC*.*, RDC*.*).

Choose a Name

You must give your theme a short one-word name. This name will be used to generate the theme filenames, so it must consist of characters which are legal for the filesystem on which the Window Themes applet is installed (probably HPFS). I recommend you limit the name to eight characters or less, so that FAT compatibility will be possible.

Creating the Bitmaps

To create a new window theme, you must first create bitmap files for each control. Specifically, you must create the following files, with the filenames listed:

Example	Filename	Description
	sysmen.bmp	System menu button, normal
	min.bmp	Minimize button, normal
	max.bmp	Maximize button, normal
	rest.bmp	Restore button, normal
	csysmen.bmp	System menu button, normal (duplicate)
	sysmend.bmp	System menu button, depressed
	mind.bmp	Minimize button, depressed
	maxd.bmp	Maximize button, depressed
	restd.bmp	Restore button, depressed
	csysmend.bmp	System menu button, depressed (duplicate)
	hide.bmp	Hide button, normal
	hided.bmp	Hide button, depressed
	close.bmp	Close button, normal
	closed.bmp	Close button, depressed
	buttons.bmp	Checkboxes & radio buttons

The images shown are examples from the default eComStation theme. Obviously, your own images will look different.

Each bitmap file must contain two images (or 'devices'): a 'small' image which will be displayed on lower resolutions, and a 'large' image which will be displayed on higher resolutions (1024x768 and above).

Use the image file templates from the templates directory to create your images. This will ensure that your images have the correct devices defined. Use the Icon Editor to edit your bitmaps; the 'Device' —> 'List' menu option allows you view and switch between the different devices.

In addition to the above bitmaps, you must create another bitmap image which will be used to populate the 'preview' panel of the Window Themes applet when the theme is selected. This file must be named themename.BMP, where themename is the one-word name of your theme.

The preview bitmap must be laid out as follows:

This bitmap contains the 'small' (low-resolution) images from these control bitmaps, from left to right: radio-button, selected radio-button, checkbox, selected checkbox, close, hide, restore, close (again), minimize, maximize. These controls must be laid out exactly within the pixel boundaries shown.

You should use the PREVIEW.BMP file in the templates directory as the basis for creating your own bitmap.

Compiling the Theme

Once all your bitmaps have been created, you must compile your theme files. Use the MAKETHM.CMD REXX script to do this easily. The syntax of this command is:

    MAKETHM themename directory description

Where themename is your theme's one-word name, directory is the name of the directory where your bitmap files are located, and description is a one-sentence description (maximum 30 characters) of your theme (which will appear in the Window Themes GUI). Both directory and description are optional; if omitted, the value of themename will be assumed for both.

Upon successful completion, MAKETHM will create two additional files:

themename.RES

The binary resource file containing the theme bitmaps.

themename.IDX

The description file which defines your theme.

Installing the Theme

Copy the following files to the Window Themes applet directory (on eComStation 1.1, this defaults to \ecs\system\thememgr on the system drive):

• themename.RES
• themename.IDX
• themename.BMP

Use the ADDTHEME.CMD script to install the theme:

    ADDTHEME themename

Now start the Window Themes applet. The new theme should now be ready for use.