FM-14: Custom icons not accepted

[K.Daube]

There are severe problems to customise FM-14: Either code has been messed up or the technique has completely changed without documenting it.

This all has worked perfectly in FM-13. See my website.

For tests I change temporarily the files in %appdata%\Adobe\FrameMaker\14\ (user area)
In WorkSpaces\UnStructured\WYSIWYGView\toolbars\table_format.xml :
from

      <images base="S_ADDCOLS"/> 

to

        <ACTION command="AddColumnsToRight" tooltip="Add Column to Right">
            <images base="etb_ADDCOLS"/>
        </ACTION>

In the user area I have these icon files extracted (and renamed) from fmcustom.dll:

   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N.png
   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N_2X.png
   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N_3TO2X.png
   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N_D.png
   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N_D_2X.png
   etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N_D_3TO2X.png

The result is disgusting:
The button does not appear in the toolbar and for the (in the tool bar) following buttons the function and icon are out of sync:

The function is that of the missing icon and this is what the tool tip displays!

If have tried all sorts of naming for the custom icon file. Nothing works (the first is in subdir etb_icons):
   <images base="etb_icons\table_col_add"/>
   <images base="etb_ADDCOLS"/>
   <images base="ETBADDCOLS"/>

What the heck is going on here?

[amitjha-lt]

Hi Daube

Thanks for reporting this issue. We checked and we found an issue around this. We logged a bug for this.

We are investigating an workaround and we will get back to you.

Thanks

Amit Jha

[amitjha-lt]

Hi

We checked and found, this issue is occurring because any image which doesn’t start with “S_” flows through old workflow in our code and “_C_S” is appended for those. For images which start with “S_”, appropriate string “_SM_N”  or “_SM_N_2X” or “_SM_N_3TO2X” is appended based on resolution.

To get newly added images in dll to work correctly, it should start with “S_” and end with either “_SM_N”  or “_SM_N_2X” or “_SM_N_3TO2X” for three variations.

Later, we will make changes make it simple.

Thanks

Amit Jha

[K.Daube]

Thanks Amit, for this information.

My understanding of the proces is that the files in %appdata%... are an addition to those in the dll and hence are taken if the name is not found in the dll. Hence I will try to name my icons S_etb_something_N etc.

Is this a correct assumption?

Thank you for an answer

[K.Daube]

Amit, although this forum does not seem to be the right place for this discussion, I continue here, because there was no reaction in the beta-test forum on this subject.

Well Amit, there seem to be other conditions also:
Having this in the toolbar:

        <ACTION command="AddColumnsToRight" tooltip="Add Column to Right">
      <images base="S_etb_ADDCOLS"/>
<!-- or             S_ETB_ADDCOLS  -->
        </ACTION>

and these files in %appdata%...

     S_etb_ADDCOLS_SM_N.png, ...
or  S_ETB_ADDCOLS_SM_N.png, ...

still shows the standard icon from the dll (grey), wheras my icons are coloured. However, there is no more a 'gap' in the tool bar and hence the buttons are in sync with their function.

When fixing this, please consider

• There should not be a need for all UPPERCASE in the custom icon names (table_row_add should be valid)
• There should not be a need for a prefix in the custom icon names (table_row_add should be valid)
• Custom icons files should be able in a subdirectory, e.g. %appdata%.../14/etb_icons with a corresponding notation in the tool bar file (etb_icons\table_row_add)
• Please give also advice of the picture formats: What properties do the ..._D file have?

I guess that this can not be fixed for the coming release, although it is desirable.

[K.Daube]

Sorry, can not edit...

The sentence

"still shows the standard icon from the dll (grey), wheras my icons are coloured. However, there is no more a 'gap' in the tool bar and hence the buttons are in sync with their function."

Is wrong. I have double checked: The situation is still the same as in the initial post:

"The button does not appear in the toolbar and for the (in the tool bar) following buttons the function and icon are out of sync:"

[amitjha-lt]

Hi

We also found some inconsistent behavior in Resource Hacker, and we are looking into this. Are you adding the image as a new entry with a new name or just renaming or replacing the existing entry? You can delete the existing entry and add the new one?

Also, make sure to clean your app data to ensure the new name is consistent in toolbar XML.

Please see the attached image for your reference.

Thanks,

Amit Jha

[K.Daube]

Amit,

Beware, I do not edit the dll. I use ResHacker only to extract the icons and list them (in a pdf).

To create a new tool bar, I use the mechanism which was reliable since years: provide a set of icon files (*.png) in the user area and refer to them (with the base name) in the tool bar file (*.xml).

Just for lazyness, I used icons extracted from the dll and then colorized them, gave a new base name and try to use them in the user area. If I see that the process works, I will create my own icon files.

[amitjha-lt · Accepted solution]

Thanks again for pointing out it.

We checked and with new rendering engine to support high resolution this part is broken currently. We will look into it.

Thanks

Amit Jha

[4everJang]

Hello Klaus,

Was there any news since the last post about this? I am trying to make custom toolbar icons work in FM15 but have not been able to make your sample images appear. It would be nice to know how I can make this work within a couple of weeks.

Thanks in advance

Jang

[K.Daube]

Yes, Jang, eventually I got the necessary information which is now in the document etb-customising-fm14.pdf Adobe changed the naming scheme for the custom icons. See page 25 of the pdf: «The naming scheme differs to the scheme used in the DLL: the leading S_ is not necessary, the intermediate _SM_N must not be present.»

HTH

Klaus

[Stefan-Gentz]

It's also documented in the FrameMaker 2019 release online help:

Adobe FrameMaker (2019 release) – Customize icons

[4everJang]

Thanks guys. I will write a blog post about hijacking the table formatting toolbar, using custom icons and a set of extendscript routines. First I need to make it work and get a big smile on the customer's face.

Ciao