Windows XP Visual Style Controls with wxRuby

wxRuby uses the native Microsoft Windows common controls when displaying widgets on a Windows OS. You may have noticed, however, that the form controls do not have the Windows XP look and feel. They have the flat and 2-dimensional look of earlier Windows versions...



...rather than having the rounded corners and 3-dimensional look of Windows XP...



Note, among other things, the "glowing button" effect when the mouse hovered over the "Get Films Data" button.

This is because Windows XP comes with both version 5 and version 6 of the Common Controls, but unless specifically instructed to use version 6, it will default to using version 5 controls.

So, how do you instruct Windows to use the version 6 controls for your wxRuby GUI application? By including a simple manifest XML file with your application.

Copy the following text into a new text file. Save the file as "rubyw.exe.manifest" in your ruby/bin folder, the same folder that contains rubyw.exe. You might also save a copy to the same folder as "ruby.exe.manifest".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <assemblyIdentity version="1.8.6.0" processorArchitecture="X86" 
        name="Microsoft.Winweb.Ruby" type="win32"/>
        <description>Ruby interpreter</description>
        <dependency>
         <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity 
                    type="win32" 
                    name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" 
                    version="6.0.0.0" 
                    processorArchitecture="X86" 
                    publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" 
                    language="*"
                />
        </dependentAssembly>
    </dependency>
</assembly>

When the ruby.exe or rubyw.exe interpreter is run, Windows will look for a manifest file matching the program name in the same folder. When it finds our manifest file, it will then use the version 6 controls, as defined in the <dependency> section of the manifest.

We place the file in our c:\ruby\bin directory because that is where ruby.exe and rubyw.exe are located. We name the file ruby.exe.manifest or rubyw.exe.manifest to match the name of the interpreter being run.

If you are compiling your application with RubyScript2Exe, copy the manifest file into the folder with your script, then embed the manifest file in your compiled executable using the RUBYSCRIPT2EXE.bin statement:

RUBYSCRIPT2EXE.bin = ["rubyw.exe.manifest"]

When your compiled executable is run, your manifest file will be extracted to the same temporary "/bin" folder as the rubw.exe (or ruby.exe) interpreter.

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