5-24-01

Picture Extractor by Erick Tejkowsi

As a ResExcellence reader, you probably already know how cool Macintosh resources are. All sorts of information can be stored in resources, including text, icons, cursors, audio, and even graphics. This tutorial shows you how to extract 'PICT' resources from your favorite application and save them to disk in a more useable format - a PICT file.

Create the Interface

Launch REALbasic and open Window1, the default window found in each new project. Drag the following controls from the toolbar into the interface:

• Listbox - default name: Listbox1; ColumnCount=1
• Canvas - default name: Canvas1
• PushButton - default name: PushButton1; Text="Open App"
• PushButton - default name: PushButton2; Text="Save As Picture"

If you haven't guessed already, this project will allow a user to choose any application and display the 'PICT' resources contained within. Thereafter, the user can save any of the 'PICT' resources as 'PICT' files.

Define the Properties

You are going to need access to two important pieces of information throughout the code:

• FolderItem - The location of the application that you want to look inside
• Picture - the currently selected picture in the list

Since you want access to these pieces of information throughout your code, you must declare these properties local to the window. To do so, double-click Window1 to open its Code Editor. Next select Edit->New Property and add a new property:

f as FolderItem

Declare File Types

Now, before we go crazy adding code to the interface, we need to do one last bit of preparation. In this example, we want to give the user an opportunity to choose an application and later to save a 'PICT" file. By default, your application doesn't know anything about these two types of files. You have to describe them for your application to "know" what they are. To do so, select Edit->File Types and add the two file types pictured below:

AnyApplication: Describes what an application "looks like" to your application

image/x-pict: Describes what a 'PICT' file "looks like" to your application

When you're finished adding the two file types, your File Types dialog should look like this:

Add the Code

Now, it's time to add some code. First off, double-click PushButton1 and add the following code:

dim rf as ResourceFork
dim picturecount, i as integer

f=GetOpenFolderItem("AnyApplication")
if f<>nil then
  //Open the resource fork
  rf = f.openresourcefork
  //Count the PICT resources
  picturecount = rf.ResourceCount("PICT")
  //Clear the Listbox
  ListBox1.DeleteAllRows

  if picturecount>0 then
  //Loop through the PICT resources in this file
    for i=1 to picturecount
      ListBox1.AddRow str(rf.ResourceID("PICT",i-1))
    next
  //Sort the list of numbers
    listBox1.headingindex=0
  end if

  rf.close
end if

Next, open the Change event of Listbox1. To this event, add the following code:

dim rsrcnumber as integer
dim rf as ResourceFork

if me.listindex>0 then
  //convert the text in the listbox to a number
  rsrcnumber = val (me.text)
  if f<>nil then
    //Open the resource fork and load the picture from it
    rf = f.openResourceFork
    p = rf.GetPicture(rsrcnumber)

    //Resize and refresh the Canvas
    Canvas1.width = p.width
    Canvas1.height = p.height
    Canvas1.Refresh

    //Close the resource fork
    rf.Close
  end if
end if

To make the picture display, add the following code to the Paint event of Canvas1.

if p<>nil then
  //if there is a valid picture, draw it on this canvas
  g.DrawPicture p,0,0
end if

The final coding step shows you how to save the Picture (p) to an external file. Open the Action event of PushButton2 and add this code:

dim PictureFile as FolderItem

if p<>nil then
  PictureFile = GetSaveFolderItem("image/x-pict",f.name+".pct")
  if PictureFile<>nil then
    PictureFile.SaveAsPicture(p)
  end if
end if

Test and Build the Application

There! That wasn't too tough, was it? To test your masterpiece, select Debug->Run. when you are convinced it is error free, select File->Build Application to build the final version. Since you will be opening 'PICT' resources with this application and 'PICT' resources can be potentially large, make sure to give the application a healthy RAM size for Mac OS 8/9 use.

As usual, you can also download:

• The completed REALbasic project
• The ResEx 'PICT' Extractor application

5-22-01

REALbasic News by Erick Tejkowsi

REALbasic 3.2. REAL Software has released the latest incarnation of REALbasic - version 3.2. Check the News page for the list of new features and improvements.

Marquee Class. Mark Alme has posted a new Marquee Class that lets you put a Times Square-style animation in your RB projects.

New Resource Editor. Mathemaesthetics, Inc. has announced the immediate availability of Resorcerer 2.4 for Mac OS X. Among the numerous changes, some of the more important ones for ResExcellence readers and REALbasic users include:

• Mac OS X's first native resource editor
• Data fork resource file support
• 32 bit 'icns' resource and ".icns" file editing
• Pixel magnifier tool

Navigation Services. Alfred Van Hoek has released the latest update of his NavFolderItem plugin. It lets you custom your Save and Open dialog boxes in a myriad of ways.

ListBoxer. Tim Lisauskas has created an interesting little utility, called ListBoxer. It is a GUI-based REALbasic Listbox creation tool. Design a ListBox in the editor and with one button click it produces the REALbasic code .

It's all Greek to me. REALbasic is now available in Greece and Cyprus.

OS X Style Prefs Bar. Will Cosgrove has posted a nifty interface enhancement for REALbasic, called Prefs Bar. It gives you those great OS X style preferences, like those found in Mail.app. The great thing about this download is that OS X isn't required. Yep, they work on Mac OS 8/9 too!

Now, that's weird! Nubz Development recently made their Weird Toolz Plugin available for download. This is NOT a plugin for newbies or the faint-hearted, so if you don't understand how to use, you've been warned.

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