Usng an image to "disable" a group

[J. Landman Gay]

I think you're making this too hard.  :-) 

Create an image object.  Use the paint bucket to fill it with a color.  Set its transparency, and size it over a group.  Hide and show it as needed.  

This will create a sort of tinted overlay that allows the original group to show through but will block mouse events. I'm not sure that's what you're looking for but it should work.  The corners will be square, which doesn't quite match the shape of a group that has borders.  

On September 21, 2014 8:29:57 PM CDT, Peter Haworth <pete at lcsql.com> wrote:
>Hi Scott,
>Yes, it's a little difficult to explain.
>
>Basically I'm trying to block access to groups on a card until allowed
>by
>script. Right now, I do it by disabling/enabling the groups when
>appropriate.  That works just fine but I was trying to find a better
>way to
>visually indicate that a group is disabled instead of the faded grey
>color
>that LC uses.
>
>Exporting a snapshot of each of these groups it their enabled state,
>positioning them over the groups and showing/hiding them is how I'm
>trying
>to handle it but I had hoped to be able to change the background color
>of
>the image to indicate the group is disabled.
>
>At this point, I don't think it's worth the effort to pursue this any
>further so I'll go back to disabling/enabling the groups.
>
>
>
>The card has three groups on it, each with various controls in it,
>field,
>buttons, etc.  Currently, when the card opens, the first group is
>enabled
>and the other two are disabled.  The user fills in data in the first
>group,
>and clicks on a button that adds the data to a database.  At that point
>the
>second group is enabled and the user fills in data in that one, clicks
>a
>button to add it to the database and the third group is enabled.  So
>basically just controlling the order in which data is entered.
>
>That all works fine right now but I don't particularly like the way a
>disabled group looks and since there doesn't seem to be any way to
>control
>that, I started down this path of trying to use graphics and images to
>do
>it (and wish I hadn't :-).
>
>I ruled out a graphic because it doesn't block users from typing into
>any
>field controls there might be in the group.  Unless it's opaque of
>course
>but then the user can't even see that there's a group there.
>
>I've been working with a snapshot image of the second and third groups
>positioned over the top of them and that does indeed stop the user from
>doing anything with those groups until the image is removed.  However,
>other than the user not being to use any controls in the group, there's
>no
>visual indication that the group is "disabled" and that's what I was
>hoping
>to achieve by somehow setting a background color/blendlevel of the
>image
>but it seems setting the backgroundcolor of an image has no effect.  I
>tried all the other colors in the Property Inspector for the graphic
>but
>non of them affect it's background
>
>Pete
>lcSQL Software <http://www.lcsql.com>
>Home of lcStackBrowser <http://www.lcsql.com/lcstackbrowser.html> and
>SQLiteAdmin <http://www.lcsql.com/sqliteadmin.html>
>
>On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 4:52 PM, Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com>
>wrote:
>
>> Hey Pete:
>>
>> It sounds like there's some detail missing here.  I haven't followed
>all
>> the posts on this, but from what you described, it shouldn't matter
>if
>> whatever you're capturing has a background or not.  If you're
>capturing
>> multiple overlaid objects, you should either be capturing a snapshot
>of
>> the group of all the objects, or from the card so all the objects
>appear
>> composited together.
>>
>> Are you intentionally trying to leave gaps in the snapshot?  If not,
>a
>> capture of the card should work.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Scott Rossi
>> Creative Director
>> Tactile Media, UX/UI Design
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9/21/14 3:44 PM, "Peter Haworth" <pete at lcsql.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Hi Eric,
>> >I tried that but the image has no background color so changing the
>> >blending
>> >doesn't change it's appearance (the underlying group just shows
>through).
>> >
>> >Using a snapshot would work great if I could just find a way to
>change the
>> >background color of the resulting image but there doesn't appear to
>be a
>> >way to do that.
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com