Introduction
This is the first of a three part article which is going to help people create a decent (but basic) application, using MMF. By application, I mean a program - such as a notepad program, or HTML editor. My first article, will cover the basic planning of an application - and creating icons, buttons and graphics.
Planning Your Application
Firstly you need to know what type of application you want to make. Maybe a website editor for people who can't be bothered learning HTML code? Maybe some type of strange notepad? You need to make something that's not already available. For example, there is no point making a notepad application - simply because most people already have one.
For my range of articles, I will be basing everything on my very own application. My application will just be an example. I will be making an application called PHPwiz - this is an application that will allow people to make PHP scripts almost instantly (PHP is a web programming language)!
Firstly, decide on what you want your application to do. List down the features you want to have - even if you don't think they are possible! Just list down some ideas to start yourself off.
- A PHP script system where the user can create and store their own PHP scripts
- Wizards, to help the user input difficult PHP scripts
- A project manager, for people to plan and see their projects
My list is very limited, as I'm only doing it as an example. But if you want a decent application, you should expect to have around 10-20 points on your list.
Extensions
You must remember, that you have hundreds of extensions available to you! There are so many good extensions to use for applications - and it will be very difficult to use an application without extensions.
To start with, make sure you have downloaded Bonus Packs 1,2 and 3 - which are all available at www.clickteam.com. Although most are useless for applications, they are very useful for any games you'd want to make.
As for applications, I use www.clickteam.info/extensions/ - this is a large extension list, where you can download extensions. Maybe you want users to be able to update your application? Then you'd probably need the MooSock and Supa Supa Download extensions. Just take a look through EVERY extension on that list, and see what would be useful to you.
Graphics
I can't stress enough how vital graphics are in an application. If you want to have a professional application, such as Microsoft Word, you're going to need a program such as Adobe Photoshop. If you arn't bothered about being proffessional, you can use Paint.
Adobe Photoshop
We're going to start off by making some icons. The icons I'm going to make are New File, Open File, Save File, Copy Text .etc buttons that the user can click on the toolbar of my application.
1. Open photoshop, and create a new image sized around 32x32. Zoom in up to around 1600%!
2. Take the Rectangle tool and select the colour White. Draw a large rectangle like below.
3. Under the layer manager, right click the layer of the white box and click Blending Options.
4. Select Bevel and Emboss - set the angle of Bevel and Emboss shading to 72.
5. Now select Stroke - change the size to 1px and colour to black.
6. Now create a new layer and create a much smaller white box. Do exactly the same as above, and place this box at the bottom left hand corner of the other box (this will look like a fold on a piece of paper).
7. The fold still doesn't look right - so select the whole image, click Edit > Copy Merged and then open MS Paint or a similar program. Change the image so it looks more like this:
As you can see, my knowledge of using photoshop sucks - but this shows how basic it is to create half-decent buttons and icons - here are a set of icons that I made using photoshop:
Active System Box
The Active System Box object in MMF, is a very good way to implement your buttons and icons into your application. We'll start off by create our New File icon.
1. Create an Active System Box, and set the settings to the settings in the image below:
2. Click on the Edit button under the image section. Copy and paste the New File icon that you made, into the picture editor (and save).
3. Set the size of the object to the size of your icon - but add 3 to the width and height. So if your icon is 23x26 - set your active system box to 26x29.
Application Interface
The interface, or style, of your application is also important. For my applications, I tend to use the standard Microsoft style - see the image below:
I have my small toolbar at the top, and a fancy statusbar at the bottom that shows build information. I drew that image in MS Paint, and used some basic styles and images from the normal Microsoft/Windows interface. You could design your own, or do the same as I did. One program that has it's own unique style, is iPublish 2 - I suggest you check that out, and maybe you can get some ideas together.
When you've got all your interface, icons and graphics made - put them together in MMF, and create the look of your application. Then, we'll get onto the coding..
In Part Two:-
- New file, open file and save file functions
- Using sub-applications along with the GFO
- Using extensions to create fancy features!
- Creating and opening your own file types
Hope this article helped some of you ever so slightly
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