Hacking FM 9 Dialog Boxes

[Curtis Graham]

Rick,
 
Through a lot of trial and error I have more or less successfully hacked Frame 9's pods and panels. Essentially what I'm doing is hijacking existing pods and panels by replacing their contents with my own. For example, I replace the contents of the default xref panel with my own controls.
 
In brief (very brief) what I've done is globally subclass the windows procedure for the OWL.Palette class -- used by Frame 9 as a container for pods and panels. In the window procedure I look for messages such as WM_SHOWWINDOW and, on finding the instance of one I'm interested in, remove the existing controls and make the OWL.Palette the owner of my custom window. By doing this the panel or pod will continue to act like the original with regard to docking, positioning, workspaces etc.
 
This is obviously a windows only solution and certainly falls squarely in the "hack" category. But you asked. It's possible (though unlikely) that a change in a subsequent Frame 9 patch could blow this away. I wish I didn't have to do it but without it my custom dialogs just didn't blend with the Frame 9 interface. Hopefully the Frame developers will have time to better integrate the new ui with the FDK at some point.
 
At this point you might be thinking 'forget it' and I could not find fault with that decision. However, If you are interested in more detail let me know.
 
Curtis
 


>>> "Rick Quatro" <rick at rickquatro.com> 6/18/2010 8:43 AM >>>
Hello Framers,

Has anyone figured out how to hack FrameMaker 9 pods or dialog boxes with a
resource editor or other means? Thanks.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
585-659-8267
rick at frameexpert.com

*** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com






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