Requirements and guidelines for creating icons

This topic provides information about icons and their representation in the product.

• • Icon platters
  • Icon image specification
  • PATROL product icon image directories
  • Basic bitmap image editing tools
  • Creating icon masks
  • To create an icon mask

In the PATROL Console, an object icon indicates the following:

1. The type of PATROL object that it represents by its general appearance). The following PATROL KM objects require icons:
   • Containers
   • Application classes
   • Computer classes
     
     The PATROL product offers a variety of bitmap icons that you can use for PATROL objects in the PATROL file system images directory. However, you can create your own to represent your KM objects uniquely.
2. The current state of the object is shown by the icon base (platter). How the platter is implemented in an icon depends on the platform for which you are developing your PATROL KM. On UNIX platforms, you must draw the platter as part of each object icon. However, on Windows, you should not draw the platter as part of the icon because it is automatically drawn beneath the icon by the PATROL product.

Icon platters

The PATROL product uses the following standard platter shapes and colors to indicate PATROL object states.

The following table illustrates how PATROL object states appear. 

PATROL icon appearance and file naming

 Windows platters

The PATROL Console for Windows does not use platters from bitmap images, instead it automatically merges different platters with the same image to produce the visual states. In this case, you should adjust your icon image dimensions to take the platters into account. The platters for the PATROL Console for Windows will appear at the bottom of the 48x48 pixel area. 

You only need to create 2 images, an OK image and an OK mask for PATROL objects that will only appear on the Windows platform. The PATROL Console generates the other images by adding the appropriate platter. For cross-platform consistency, you may wish to copy the base OK images to the equivalent WARN files; but the images can be the same. However, you may wish to change the base icon's appearance for warning and alarm conditions by creating an icon and mask specifically for the alert conditions and name it with the WARN suffix.

 UNIX platters

If you are designing icons for UNIX, you must include the platter in the icon bitmap. So you must make four bitmap files to indicate the states of each icon image that you create: an OK image and an OK mask and a Warning image and a Warning mask. 
To help you design your icons properly, the PATROL product provides a set of icon image examples (empty_page_ state.format ) in the PATROL image library.

Icon image specification

The following sections describe the icon image specification for PATROL KM objects.

 Icon formats and size

The PATROL product standards for image formats and bitmap sizes are shown in the following table: 

Standard File Formats and Bitmap Sizes

 Icon image file naming conventions

BMC Software recommends that you use a consistent naming scheme for all PATROL KM files and PATROL objects that you create. This avoids problems with duplicate filenames and clearly identifies and associates your PATROL KM components. 

An icon image filename is often formed by adding a prefix and a suffix to the root object name and separating the parts with an underscore () symbol. The file extension indicates the graphic format. 

An icon image filename has the following format: 

_KMprefix _ ObjectName _ Statesuffx. imagetype

• KMprefix identifies the PATROL KM to which the icon belongs; it is a 3-character (all upper case) code that designates a specific registered KM.
• ObjectName is made up of concatenated word(s) that describe the application class, container, or computer class).
• Statesuffix is always a word (all upper case) to denote the state that the icon represents, either OK or WARN.
• Imagetype is a file extension that indicates the type of graphic image; it can be: XPM or MSK (UNIX) or BMP or BMK (Windows).

For example, an icon graphic that indicates the OK state for the FILES application class object on Windows for the MailBox KM whose KM code is MBX would be named MBX_FILES_OK.bmp.

PATROL product icon image directories

Icon images must reside in the following the PATROL product directories: 

Basic bitmap image editing tools

Use a graphics drawing tool to create icon basic bitmap images (on UNIX, Windows, or any other operating system). Depending on the target platform, various graphics editing tools can be used. Typical graphics tools are listed in the following table. 

Typical graphic tools 

Creating icon masks

To have icon blinking effects, you must provide a mask (.msk ) file that defines a transparent area in the icon. When drawing a mask, the transparent area must be colored black. A sample mask image is shown in Typical graphic tools: 

To create an icon mask

1. Copy the finished bitmap icon file to an icon mask file
2. Edit the icon mask file, coloring its image black.
   You must create an associated mask file for each icon that you create.