Dynamic Icon Meters

Environment: VC6 SP4, W2K SP1

Over the past couple years I have needed to create an informative bar graph of information that is in the form of an icon in the System Tray. I initially made several icons at different levels and then combined the levels that corresponded with the information that I wanted to display. This method worked, but became cumbersome to change the colors of the bars, and would cause small applications unnecessary bloat. After sitting on it for a while I decided to make a method to create a flexible dynamic meter system for an icon, so CMeterIcon was created.

It is not so simple to use, but it makes this up in flexibility. Here is how to use it.

// initilize the meter
CMeterIcon mi32;
const int nNumBars32 = 3;
const int nLevels32 = 4;

// set the limits of where the bar color changes (low-high)
int pLimits32[nLevels32] = {25,35,87,100};

// set the corresponding color for each level
COLORREF pColors32[nLevels32] = 
 {RGB(255,0,0),RGB(255,255,0),RGB(0,255,0),RGB(0,255,255)};

// start it up
mi32.Init(hFrame32,nMaxVal,nNumBars32,nSpacing,32,32,RGB(0,0,0));

// load our limit and color info
mi32.SetColorLevels(pLimits32,pColors32,nLevels32);

// create an array of values for the bars
int pVals32[nNumBars32] = {nVal1,nVal2,nVal3};

// generate the icon (destroy this icon using DestroyIcon())
HICON hIcon32 = mi32.Create(pVals32);

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