Writing to/getting clipboard data

Writing to/getting clipboard data

Felix-The-Ghost

Member #9,729

April 2008

Hello, right now I was wanting to export a bitmap to the system clipboard, although being able to fetch this would be nice as well.
I looked and found only expired MS links. Rather than hard-coding one export function can I have a function that checks the OS and uses the right system code since Allegro has no clipboard functions?
Guys I've never used the system functions.

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Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

You would want to make that part of your build system. If they compile it on Linux...then the Linux code would be used, and so on for the other OS versions. Just look at how Allegro does this.::)

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Felix-The-Ghost

Member #9,729

April 2008

What if I've never

Quote:

make that part of your build system.

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torhu

Member #2,727

September 2002

MSDN docs for the clipboard are here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms648709(VS.85).aspx

I've never used that part of the api myself, though.

Allegro has a function to convert an allegro bitmap into a Windows bitmap, that you can pass to SetClipboardData():
http://alleg.sourceforge.net/stabledocs/en/alleg037.html#convert_bitmap_to_hbitmap

Good luck

---
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Felix-The-Ghost

Member #9,729

April 2008

Yeah I keep hearing about that but is that only for windows?
I'll try it anyway but I really want something cross-platform with platforms that support clipboards.

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---------------------------
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torhu

Member #2,727

September 2002

Cross-platform GUI libs often have clipboard functionality. I guess you could borrow some code from one of them. Or use one of them directly.

Otherwise, you'll just have to implement it yourself on each platform. :-/

---
Smokin' Guns - spaghetti western FPS action

Thomas Harte

Member #33

April 2000

There is a cross-platform clipboard access add-on for SDL, probably you could adapt what you need from that. Otherwise, I can offer this code, which should be trivial to adapt, that I use myself for copying an SDL surface to the OS X clipboard:

1void MacHostMachine::SaveScreenShot( SDL_Surface * surface )
2{
if ( NULL == surface )
{
  DisplayError( "Unable to copy screen buffer" );
  return;
}
printf( "Copy Surface:\nSize - %dx%d\nOffset - %d\nPitch - %d\nRefcount - %d", surface->w, surface->h, surface->offset, (int)surface->pitch, surface->refcount );
9 
// Create an NSImage the same size as the SDL surface
NSSize sz;
sz.width = surface->w;
sz.height = surface->h; 
NSImage * img = [ [NSImage alloc ] initWithSize: sz ];
15 
// Create a bitmap image representation to put things in
NSBitmapImageRep * rep = [NSBitmapImageRep alloc ];
[rep initWithBitmapDataPlanes:NULL
  pixelsWide:surface->w 
  pixelsHigh:surface->h 
  bitsPerSample:8 
  samplesPerPixel:3
  hasAlpha:NO
  isPlanar:NO
  colorSpaceName:NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace
  bytesPerRow:0 
      bitsPerPixel:0 ];
28 
// Copy the SDL surfaces data to the bitmap representation
memcpy( [rep bitmapData], surface->pixels, (surface->w * 3) * surface->h);
// Add the bitmap representation to the NSImage
<img src="addRepresentation: rep" />;
33 
// Add the image to the pasteboard
NSPasteboard *pasteboard = [NSPasteboard generalPasteboard];
  [pasteboard 
  declareTypes:[NSArray arrayWithObject:NSTIFFPboardType] 
  owner:nil ];
[pasteboard 
  setData:<img src="TIFFRepresentation" />
  forType:NSTIFFPboardType ];
42 
// Free the image and representation
<img src="release" />;
[rep release];
46 
// Free the surface by calling baseclass
HostMachine::SaveScreenShot( surface );
49}

(edit: that's Objective-C++, put it in a file with a name ending in .mm, put the standard C or C++ function definition into an ordinary header file, include the header file from ordinary C or C++ code and call the function as you would any other; implement the Windows equivalent in a .c or .cpp file and call it through the same header — then just pick which file to include in your project according to your platform).

And for copying to the Windows clipboard:

1void WindowsHostMachine::SaveScreenShot( SDL_Surface * surface )
2{
// We have a 24 bit surface which we will convert to a DIB for storage on the clipboard
int bmpRowSize = surface -> w * 3;
int bmpSize = sizeof( BITMAPINFO ) + ( bmpRowSize * surface -> h );
HANDLE dib = ::GlobalAlloc( GMEM_MOVEABLE, bmpSize );
BITMAPINFO * bmp = (BITMAPINFO *)::GlobalLock( dib );
::ZeroMemory( bmp, bmpSize );
bmp -> bmiHeader.biSize = sizeof( BITMAPINFOHEADER );
bmp -> bmiHeader.biWidth = surface -> w;
bmp -> bmiHeader.biHeight = surface -> h;
bmp -> bmiHeader.biPlanes = 1;
bmp -> bmiHeader.biBitCount = 24;
bmp -> bmiHeader.biCompression = BI_RGB;
bmp -> bmiHeader.biSizeImage = 0;

char * bmpRow = ((char *)bmp) + sizeof( BITMAPINFOHEADER );
// Just to be difficult windows DIBs are stored with the pixels in inverse order.
for ( int row = ( surface -> h - 1 ); row > -1; row -- )
{
  memcpy( bmpRow, ((char*)surface -> pixels ) + ( row * bmpRowSize ), bmpRowSize );
  bmpRow += bmpRowSize;
}

::GlobalUnlock( dib );

// This is the lazy way, we're using the old-style clipboard that dates back to win16!
::OpenClipboard( NULL);
::SetClipboardData( CF_DIB, dib );
::CloseClipboard();
// The DIB memory we allocated now belongs to windows, we're not supposed to free it.

// Free the surface though...
HostMachine::SaveScreenShot( surface );
35}

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Elias

Member #358

May 2000

Hm, someone want to make a clipboard addon for A5?

--
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Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

I would, but I don't know how to get the clipboard info in X or on a Mac OS... Even if I did, I would not be able to provide any Mac code....I don't own one to test on.::)

Evert

Member #794

November 2000

Quote:

someone want to make a clipboard addon for A5?

My thoughts exactly, after reading the first post.

Quote:

I would, but I don't know how to get the clipboard info in X or on a Mac OS... Even if I did, I would not be able to provide any Mac code....I don't own one to test on.

That's ok, I'll do the Mac port. Elias can do the X11/GTK port. That's how it went for the file picker addon too.

Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

Quote:

That's ok, I'll do the Mac port. Elias can do the X11/GTK port. That's how it went for the file picker addon too.

Ok...I'll try to get some work done on it tonight then. I've been battling another stupid chest cold. It really sucks when you already have breathing problems...like asthma.:-/ I'll just post something here, or in my own thread...I don't have write access to the Allegro SVN. I really need to check about that though...I've not tried to get it yet.:'( How do I go about getting write access anyway?!???

Thomas Fjellstrom

Member #476

June 2000

Quote:

My thoughts exactly, after reading the first post.

I kept needing to refrain from posting a "Allegro 5 needs a clipboard addon" message :-X Considering this thread is about allegro 4.

The main issue with making such a beast is that every platform does it a little bit differently. Clipboard/D&D support in an app with a nice cross platform gui isn't exactly a cake walk..

edit:

Quote:

How do I go about getting write access anyway?!???

Make some patches, do some work, and people will give you write access when they think you are ready (ie: you can be trusted not to cause svn to explode).

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Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

Quote:

Make some patches, do some work, and people will give you write access when they think you are ready (ie: you can be trusted not to cause svn to explode).

OK...I Got ya.8-)

BAF

Member #2,981

December 2002

Allegro 5 is a game library.... why the hell does a game need to use the clipboard?

BAF.zone | SantaHack!

Thomas Harte

Member #33

April 2000

A game probably doesn't, but it might. Isn't that why the add-on system was invented?

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Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

I use Allegro for other stuff as well. Games need level editors and such. It would be nice to have a uniform approach. You could even have the editor built into the game. Another nice feature...it's multiplatform, if designed correctly.

Elias

Member #358

May 2000

Almost all network games need copy&paste for the in-game chat. Look for example at Wesnoth - it would be really annoying if you could not copy&paste there.

--
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LennyLen

Member #5,313

December 2004

Quote:

I use Allegro for other stuff as well.

Only one of my Allegro projects has been a game. Most of what I've used it for has been command line image manipulation tools and graphing utilities.

Don Freeman

Member #5,110

October 2004

And once again...I will bring up the network addon for a5.::) Anyone interested?

On the clipboard issue:
I'm working on a Windows version anyway. How would I go about converting an HBITMAP to the new ALLEGRO_BITMAP? Maybe we could add this to the functions available under Windows....like the 4.2/4.3 versions:
win_get_dc
win_release_dc
convert_hbitmap_to_bitmap
convert_bitmap_to_hbitmap

Here is what I am thinking of the function protos:

ALLEGRO_CLIPBOARD_DATA * al_get_clipboard_data( ALLEGRO_DISPLAY *display );
bool al_set_clipboard_data( ALLEGRO_CLIPBOARD_DATA *data );

and then probably have conversion routines to convert from a ALLEGRO_CLIPBOARD_DATA struct to the various stuff, like an ALLEGRO_BITMAP or ALLEGRO_SAMPLE...probably add the ability for user defined types as well.
That cool for ya?!???

Hey, has anyone seen SpellCaster in a while?!

Alianix

Member #10,518

December 2008

There are times when we should draw the line in the sand, and this is such an occasion.

"Say no to copy clip board addon for AL5 !" I beg you...;D

Timorg

Member #2,028

March 2002

There is a line in the sand, but if someone is willing to develop and support an addon who are we to stop them. From the point of view of getting it included into allegro, that I agree with, I really can't see that happening.

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