SplashAbout/Advanced Use

• For installation, download, version and other information, see the SplashAbout page
• The distribution archive contains an example application with all the resources needed to experiment with advanced properties

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Properties

When dropped onto a new application mainform, the property defaults will show a Splash Screen and About window that look something like this:

• A normal (borderless rectangle) Splash screen displayed for 2 seconds (ShowSplash method)
  • It will use the Application default icon (default=Lazarus icon)
  • Title will be the Application name (default='project1')
  • Colour will be clSkyBlue
  • No background image
  • No description
  • Window size = 320px x 240px
  • LCL and FPC build text
  • Compilation Date/Time text
• The About screen will show (ShowAbout method)
  • No License or Credits buttons
  • The same text as the default Splash Screen

The default screens are probably OK for a quick one-off app that is not for commercial use. It shows useful information for a developer.

However; if you think they look a bit uninspiring, the SplashAbout component is capable of considerable customisation from its default settings, and there are many properties available to help you achieve a unique and very inspiring result.

Here are the SplashAbout properties you can change for each kind of customisation:

Personalising the Splash screen

• Properties that affect the Splash Screen:
  • The Application Title,Icon and VersionInfo (set in Project/Options)
  • BackGroundColor
  • BitMapBackground
  • BitmapMaskColor
  • BitmapMaskMono
  • DelaySeconds
  • Description
  • Font
  • FormSplashHeight
  • FormSplashTextAlign
  • FormSplashWidth
  • Graphics
  • Icon
  • MaskType
  • Organisation
  • ShowDecription
  • ShowPoweredBy
  • TitleStyle
  • UserTitle

Personalising the About screen

• Properties that affect the About Screen:
  • The Application Title,Icon and VersionInfo (set in Project/Options)
  • Author
  • BackGroundColor
  • CreditLines
  • CreditsTextFileName
  • Description
  • Font
  • FormAboutHeight
  • FormAboutTextAlign
  • FormAboutWidth
  • Graphics
  • Icon
  • LicenseFile
  • Orgnisation
  • ShowCreditButton
  • ShowDecription
  • LicenseFile
  • SupportContact
  • TitleStyle
  • UserTitle

Personalising the License Screen

• Properties that affect the License Screen:
  • Author
  • LicenseFile
  • Organisation
  • SupportContact

Personalising the Credits Screen

• Properties that affect the Credits Screen:
  • CreditLines
  • CreditsTextFileName
  • ShowCreditButton

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How To...

How to show a shaped Splash screen

Properties to set:

• BitmapMaskColor (Graphics=saResources)
• BitmapMaskMono (Graphics=saResources)
• MaskType
• Graphics

MaskType

• Default=saNoMask

The simple thing to do is to choose one of the built-in masks (saRoundedRect, saBigCog, saBigFlower and saBigSplash) If you choose saUserMask then you need to make a 2-colour mask graphic in the .BMP format. You can optionally also make a corresponding BitMapMaskColor image. Note: There are some example images deployed in the /exampleapp folder of the distribution archive

How to make a BitMapMaskMono image

• Start with a black (RGB:0,0,0)background
• Make your contigious shape using a white (RGB:255,255,255) shape
• Reduce the image to a 2-color palette
• Save the file as a Windows Bitmap (.BMP) and use it to set the BitmapMaskColor property
  • It should NOT be run-length encoded (RLE)

If you want a shaped colour splash screen then you need to make a corresponding BitMapColor image

How to make a BitmapMaskColor image

You would normally do this before making the BitmapMaskMono image

• Make with an colour image that has a white (RGB:255,255,255) background
  • You can use a selection tool to isolate the background then paint it white in a graphics application
• Save the file as a .JPG and use it to set the BitmapMaskColor property
• To make a corresponding BitmapMaskColor image:
  • Invert the selection, and paint it black (RGB:0.0.0)
  • Reduce the image to a 2-color palette
  • Save the new image as a non-RLE Windows Bitmap file (.BMP) and use it to set the BitmapMaskMono property

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How to show a license button on the About screen

Properties to set:

• LicenseFile
• Optional:
  • Author
  • Organisation
  • SupportContact

LicenseFile

• Default=saNone

Standard licences (GPL etc)

• If you set LicenseFile to one of the standard license type (saGPL,saLGPL,saMIT or saModifiedGPL) then the License button will appear on the About dialog
• When clicked, the License button shows a modal window with the appropriate license text
• The text is stored as a resource, so no need for external files
• The text of the standard license can be modified by setting the Author Organisation and SupportContact properties

User licenses

• If you set LicenseFile to saUserFile then the License button will appear on the About dialog
• When clicked, the License button shows a modal window with text
• The text will come from a file you create yourself which must be called 'license.txt' and deployed in the same folder as your executable (see exampleapp)
• You can use the following tokens in 'license.txt'
  • All instances of <name of author> are replaced with the Author property
  • All instances of <contact> are replaced with the SupportContact property
  • All instances of <copyright holders> are replaced with the Organisation property
  • All instances of <year> are replaced with the compilation date

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How to show a Credits button on the About screen

Properties to set:

• ShowCreditButton
• CreditLines
• Optional
• Font (inherited)
• BackgroundColor (inherited)
  • CreditTextFileName

ShowCreditButton

• Default-False
• If set to True, then the Credits button will appear on the About dialog
• When clicked it will show either:
  • The contents of CreditLines
  • or the contents of a text file (default name='credits.txt') deployed in the same folder as your executable
• If both contain no text, then default text is shown.
• The text will scroll upwards, and repeat until the user clicks the close button
• The text will be centre-justified

CreditLines

• default=(empty)
• Use the Object inspector to write your credits text.

CreditTextFileName

• This can be set so that is doesn't clash with any existing deployed text file

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How to show a 'Powered by Lazarus' pre-splash graphic

Properties to set:

• ShowPoweredBy

That's it!

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How to show different text in the Splash and About screens

Properties to set:

• ShowDescription
• Description
• TitleStyle
• UserTitle
• Organisation

Description and ShowDescription

• Use the Object Inspector to write a short description of your application and set ShowDescription=True
• The Description text will show on both the Splash and About dialogs
• The Description text will replace the Build and Platform information on both dialogs

TitleStyle and UserTitle

• If TitleStyle=saUserTitle then the UserTitle text will appear on the Splash and About dialogs
• If TitleStyle=saForm the Caption text of your mainform will be used
• If TitleStyle=saApplication, the Application title (set in Project/Options) will be used
  • The text will also appear as the caption text of all dialogs

Organisation

• If set, then the text will appear below the UserTitle on the Splash and About dialogs

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See Also

SplashAbout component main page