Developed by: yyy
Original idea by: diedie

Released on: February 2, 2006

Credits and Special Thanks to:

• George Mamaladze - The panel is based on his article - 'Processing Global Mouse and Keyboard Hooks in C#': http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/globalhook.asp
• Cory Foy - Thank you for allowing me to use the code from your article: http://www.cornetdesign.com/2005/04/screen...c-using_08.html

Compatibility:
The panel was tested on Desktop Sidebar build 108 and Windows XP, but should work as well on most of the previous versions\builds.

Description:
The Keyboard State panel monitors the state of the 'Caps Lock', 'Num Lock' and 'Scroll Lock' keyboard keys. It also allows you to change their state.

Skinning:
The panel includes 2 skins: "LED" and "Blue-Glow". You can change skins manually using these instructions:

1. Open the folder in which you installed the panel (Usually: "C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Desktop Sidebar\plugins\KeyboardState").
2. Open, using a text editor like Notepad, the file called "KeyboardState.dsplugin".
3. You should see these lines:
   
   HTML
   <Skins>
   <Skin name="blue" file="Skins\LED\LED.dsskin" />
   </Skins>
   
   
   
   Change the path of the file attribute to the path of the dsskin file which is found in the skin you want to use, i.e.:
   
   
   HTML
   <Skins>
   <Skin name="blue" file="Skins\Blue-Glow\Blue-Glow.dsskin" />
   </Skins>
   
   
   
   This will set the panel to use the "Blue-Glow" skin.
4. Save the file and restart Desktop Sidebar.

You can also create skins - just copy one of the built-in ones and change it the way you like it. The skin is written in the *.dsskin file.


Dear User,
Thank you very much for using my panel. I hope you enjoy it. Notice that many efforts were made to ensure that this panel will work flawlessly. If you happen to find a bug, or have a suggestion, you can contact me by E-mail: yyylny@gmail.com or here in the Forums. I'll be happy to help.

Enjoy !

Looks good, yyy. BTW, why do you need a "Reconnect to Keyboard" option?

Thanks eitaneko Enjoy the panel! I added the "Reconnect to Keyboard" option just in case something goes wrong when the panel tried to connect (hook) to the keyboard. In this case, the panel might not respond to changes in the keys states and I wanted the user to have a fast way to fix it without restarting DS.

EDIT:
@ALL - There seem to be some issues with the panel after moving it. If the panel stops responding after you move it, right click it and choose "Reconnect to Keyboard". I'll try to fix it tomorrow.

Great idea but the leds don't light up and the white lettering doesn't show up on the Metalic sidebar.

There's a problem that happens after moving the panel - you have to right click it and choose "Reconnect to Keyboard". I'll try to fix it soon. You can always change to the other skin (Blue-Glow) if you don't see the default one good enough.

Thanks for using the panel

installed and running, i'll post a screen later in the februari desktop section

wouldn't it be easier to change LED to bleu lights in an options bar? you know...right click options

but cool panel already

OK - enjoy the panel I'm trying to improve it a little bit so the keyboard hook will work better.

Yep, I had the same problem (hooking) in the color picker panel. I dunno if it'll be the same in C#, but you can always take a look in the picker's source code.

Thanks for your help but what problem did you have? My problem is that the hook gets stopped after moving the panel for a certain times. For some reason DS first creates a new instance of the panel and only then removes the previous one, when moving a panel. That causes problems since I set the panel to remove the hook after the panel is removed, but actually it is just being moved to another place on the sidebar.

I found a better way to do the hooking with so I'll post a new version of the panel soon. It still might stop working after it's being moved for a few times, but that's why I added an option to re-hook in the context menu so it should be enough.

i had no probs, when i installed the panel i could not move the panel, but i quit ds en restart and then i could move it. nothing else needed

If you move the panel too much, there'll be a problem with the hook and the panel will stop responding. Sometimes it takes a few movements until you see the problem. I couldn't find a way to fix it, but since there's a way to reconnect to the keyboard without restarting the panel so this shouldn't be a problem.

I'm still wondering what causes the panel to act so weird.

BTW, Prism - why do you need to use hooks? I thought you were just using a timer to update the panel, no?

See, I had used hooks to get the WinKey+Z accelerators, until I understood that there's an easier way, using Windows' hotkeys API. Anyway, this problem happens in both cases - the hook "disconnect" when the panel is moved.

Brilliant panel YYY and so far I've not experienced any probs, even after moving it to where I wanted it. Now comes the request! Is it possible to add a F(unction) lock status as used with the Microsoft Wireless Natural Multimedia keyboard? Link to product http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseand...ls.aspx?pid=014

This keyboard defaults to the function keys being short cuts for office and you have to switch on the function keys so knowing what their status is would be a massive help (there is no on screen indication only a light on the wireless receiver which i cant see)

Any way many thanks for the cool panel.

@Prism - oh, yes - I forgot that you use hotkeys. I found out that the hook stays sometimes, even after moving the panel, but it's not stable. Anyway, that's a minor issue so I'll keep it the way it is now unless people start to complain about it.

@sp2 - Thanks a lot for using the panel - enjoy it I know what you're talking about - I also have a Microsoft keyboard with the F key. However, I doubt that's possible to get its status as it seems to appear only in the Microsoft keyboards. I might check about it later and tell you if I find something. Thanks for suggesting

Thanks my friend. I have needed something like this ever since I got my Logitech MX 3100.

Kool indeed!

Thanks for using my panel - I'm glad to see you like it

Sorry but I couldn't find a way to detect when the F Lock key is pressed. If somebody knows how to do it I'll be glad to know.

Nevermind, many thanks for taking an interest in my suggestion.

www.mvps.org/jtsang/flock.html

Explains alot about he f-lock key

Oh well!

Yes, I saw it while I was searching for a way to capture the F Lock key but it doesn't say how to do that. I also tried some other methods of capturing the F Lock key but it doesn't seem to trigger the code I was using so I don't know if it's possible to capture it.

As far as I can tell it isn't possible to get F Lock's status as the keyboard itself controls it, and doesn't pass info about it to the computer. The reg fix that guy in sp2's link made just maps all the altered keys of the keyboard to their unaltered counterparts as to cancel F Lock's functionality when it is activated, it doesn't actually detect whether it's activated or not.

Yes, that's what I think.