BitmapInline(3)

NAME
Win32::GUI::BitmapInline - Inline bitmap support for Win32::GUI

SYNOPSIS
To create a BitmapInline:

    perl -MWin32::GUI::BitmapInline -e "inline('image.bmp')" >>script.pl

To use a BitmapInline (in script.pl):

    use Win32::GUI();
    use Win32::GUI::BitmapInline ();

    $Bitmap1 = Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->new( q(
    Qk32AAAAAAAAAHYAAAAoAAAAEAAAABAAAAABAAQAAAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAQAAAAAAAA
    AACcnABjzs4A9/f3AJzO/wCc//8Azv//AP///wD///8A////AP///wD///8A////AP///wD///8A
    ////AHd3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3dwAAAAAAAABxIiIiIiIiIHFkVFRUVEQgcWVVRUVFRCBxZVVVVF
    RUIHFlVVVFRUUgcWVVVVVUVCBxZVVVVUVFIHFlVVVVVVQgcWZmZmZmZSBxIiIiIRERF3cTZlUQd3
    d3d3EREQd3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3
    ) );

DESCRIPTION
This module can be used to "inline" a bitmap file in your script, so that the script doesn't need to be accompained by several external files (less hassle when you need to redistribute your script or move it to another location).

  FUNCTIONS
inline

The "inline" function is used to create an inlined bitmap resource; it will print on the currently selected filehandle (STDOUT by default) the packed data including the lines of Perl needed to use the inlined bitmap resource; it is intended to be used as a one-liner whose output is appended to your script.

The function takes the name of the bitmap file to inline as its first parameter; an additional, optional parameter can be given which will be the name of the bitmap object in the resulting scriptlet, eg:

    perl -MWin32::GUI::BitmapInline -e "inline('image.bmp','IMAGE')"

    $IMAGE = new Win32::GUI::BitmapInline( q( ...

If no name is given, the resulting object name will be $Bitmap1 (the next ones $Bitmap2 , $Bitmap3 and so on).

Note that the object returned by "Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->new( ... )" is a regular Win32::GUI::Bitmap object.

With version 0.02 and later you can inline icons and cursors too. Nothing changes in the inlining process, just the file extension:

    perl -MWin32::GUI::BitmapInline -e "inline('harrow.cur')"  >>script.pl
    perl -MWin32::GUI::BitmapInline -e "inline('guiperl.ico')" >>script.pl

The module recognizes from the extension the type of object that it should recreate, so it will add these lines to script.pl:

    $Cursor1 = Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->newCursor( q( ...
    $Icon2 = Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->newIcon( q( ...

new

  my $bitmap = Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->new($data);

Returns a regular Win32::GUI::Bitmap object from the data created by the inlining process.

newCursor

Similar in behaviour to new(), except it returns a Win32::GUI::Cursor object.

newIcon

Similar in behaviour to new(), except it returns a Win32::GUI::Icon object.

REQUIRES

Win32::GUI
MIME::Base64
File::Spec
threads::shared

WARNINGS

•   Don't use it on large bitmap files!

    BitmapInline was designed for small bitmaps, such as toolbar items, icons, et alia; it is not at all performant. Inlined data takes approximatively the size of your bitmap file plus a 30% overhead; thus, if you inline a 100k bitmap you're adding about 130k of bad-looking data to your script...

•   File::Spec must be able to find a writable temporary directory.

    When inlined data is used in your script (with "Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->new( ... )"), then a temporary file is created, loaded as a regular bitmap and then immediately deleted. This will fail if Win32::GUI::BitmapInline script is not able to create and delete files in a suitable temporary directory at the moment of the call.

    Win32::GUI::BitmapInline uses File::Spec-tmpdir()|File::Spec/tmpdir> to locate a suitable temporary directory. This should be fine under most circumstances, but if you find it returning the current directory (which means that File::Spec was not able to find a writable temporary elesewhere), and you are not confident that the current directory will always be writable, then one workaround is to change directory to a known safe place before constructing the bitmap, and changing back afterwards:

        my $olddir = cwd();
        my $tmpdir = get_some_writable_dir();
        chdir($tmpdir);
        $Bitmap1 = Win32::GUI::BitmapInline->new( ... );
        chdir($olddir);

•   The package exports the "inline" function by default.

    For practical reasons (see one-liners above), "inline" is exported by default into the caller's namespace; to avoid this side-effect is strongly recommended to use the module in your production scripts as follows:

        use Win32::GUI::BitmapInline ();

VERSION
Win32::GUI::BitmapInline version 0.03, 24 January 2001.

AUTHOR
Aldo Calpini ( "dada@perl.it" ). Modifications by Robert May ( "robertemay@users.sourceforge.net" ).