Skins are popular these days and why not use DHTML to create these skins. Below is a skin for Microsoft Media Player that is designed to be placed on your taskbar.
Try the sample below:
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This is one of my first tries to create an application for Windows using DHTML. I made this last summer but it wasn't until now that I found a way around a bug in IE4/Windows 98 that allowed me to make it work satisfactory. (summer of 98)
The problem
If you have been following the developing IE process since early IE4 betas you might remember that you can have web pages as toolbars. (To do this right click your taskbar and select Toolbars -> New Toolbar...) The problem with this is that you can't select a file on your computer, you can only select a folder or write a web page adress (the file:// protocol is not working!) but as I said I've found a solution.
The solution
Have you ever heard of the javascript: protocol? If you haven't try writing javascript:alert("Hello World!")
in your IE adress bar. It will display a message box saying "Hello World!". So what you wan't to do
is write some code that loads the right local file. This is preferable done by using
a window.location.replace() because it does not add another entry in the history list (it just
replaces the old one).
Installation
- Download taskplayer.zip
- Extract it to any directory you wan't (how about C:\Program
Files\TaskPlayer\ ?) - Right click on your task bar and select "Toolbars -> New Toolbar..."
- Write the following in the text field (and change the folder name so
that it matches the place where you extracted the zip file:javascript:window.location.replace("C:/Program Files/TaskPlayer/index.html")
History
- 1998-07-25: The first beta was released to the public. Worked in IE4. Simple controls like Play/Pause/Stop.
- 2000-08-17: The layout of the dialog was fixed by Karsten Hojgaard (KAH@drs.telia.dk) to work in IE5+. Thanks a lot.