C# Plugin to display a table of information

[lawty]

Hi
Im new to rainmeter and Im about to embark on creating a new c# plugin to display some data in a table format. This data is held in SQL. I was wondering if it is possible to display windows form (data grid) directly on the desktop - i.e. do the workings within the code and use rainmeter to display the output or whether I have to output data to a CSV file and parse it and how flexible is the output? I have been requested to produce a clickable table. Are there any good examples out there? I have been googling like mad and havent really turned up anything code wise...

Grateful for any help on this

anna

[jsmorley]

No, you can't directly display a table. You would have to output to some cvs or xml or other format you can parse with WebParser, then output the result in a bunch of meters. It would take a fair amount of measure and meter code to get a decent looking table output, but certainly doable.

You probably won't find much in the way of working examples, as this is just not something Rainmeter is particularly good at, and the shear amount of code required to get all the measures and meters you would need is pretty daunting. I think most folks run screaming from the idea once they start to explore it.

[Aragas]

Rainmeter need some implementation here, it's a really good idea.
Yea, run really fast. Too much variables, don't think that Rainmeter can handle without some consequences more than 7-8 variables in one plugin.

[ikarus1969]

Depending on the data tabular presentation can be the right approach. As there's no plugin (yet) i took the time and made a skin listing the WiFis and depicting them in a tabular way.

jsmorley was right when he posted

It would take a fair amount of measure and meter code to get a decent looking table output, but certainly doable.
...

I think most folks run screaming from the idea once they start to explore it.

It's always a question of how much effort you want to take for it and for me it was worth the effort it took me for the "All WiFis"-skin:

Screenshot Rainmeter Available WiFis.png

I will post it at the weekend in the "Share your creations"-subforum.

[lawty]

Looks great! Look forward to it
Many thanks

[Mordasius]

If you can get the data into a format that can be read into a lua table you can use string.format to give mixed justification in a single meter as used on the Team Liquid stream.

The use of lua tables and string.format will greatly reduce the number of measures and meters you need to display a table with rainmeter.

[ikarus1969]

I will post it at the weekend in the "Share your creations"-subforum.

done: http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=18250