Creation of MBM file

Comments

07 Sep
2009

Article Review by savaj (20090907)

This article have less explanation, but very important to create .mbm file dynamically. If you have .bmp file in advance then you can create .mbm file easily by modifying .mmp file. But in some case you need to convert it dynamically, for example when you capture image using camera and then want to convert that image to .mbm file. CFbsBitmap::StoreL() is a key API in creating .mbm file dynamically, this article described it in clear way, so even beginners can understand it easily.

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This article provides two methods for creating Symbian .mbm (multibitmap) files from bitmaps. The first uses Symbian C++ directly, while the second uses the build toolchain to create the file based on a definition in the MMP file.

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Article

Created: giridharn (28 May 2007)

Last edited: hamishwillee (27 Jan 2012)

Creating an MBM file in Symbian C++

1. Convert images to bmp and save them as .mbm using function CFbsbitmap::saveL()
2. Get this MBM filepaths into some buffer and pass them to TDesC* aSources[],
3. For TInt32 aSourceIds[] you can use ids starting from 0.
4. Call this storel() function ,mbm is ready to use now...

_LIT(KMbmFile,"C:\\result.mbm");
_LIT(KBMPFilePath0,"C:\\facebook.mbm");
_LIT(KBMPFilePath1,"C:\\balance.mbm");
 
TInt32* uniqueIds = new ( ELeave ) TInt32[ 2 ];
CleanupStack::PushL( uniqueIds );
uniqueIds[ 0 ] = 0;
uniqueIds[ 1 ] = 0;
 
TFileName** filenames = new ( ELeave ) TFileName*[ 2 ];
CleanupStack::PushL( filenames );
filenames[ 0 ] = new (ELeave) TFileName( KBMPFilePath0 );
filenames[ 1 ] = new (ELeave) TFileName( KBMPFilePath1 );
 
CFbsBitmap::StoreL( KMbmFile, // Filename for new multi-bitmap mbm
2, // Count of files
( const TDesC** )filenames, // bitmaps to be loaded
uniqueIds ); // id's of the bitmaps in MBM files
 
// Clean resources
delete filenames[ 0 ];
delete filenames[ 1 ];
 
CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy( filenames );
CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy( uniqueIds );

Creating an MBM file using a Symbian project file definition

This method applies if you already have Bmp files and/or their masks. In this case the MBM files can be created using the mmp file.

Without mask file

START BITMAP      S60Test.mbm
HEADER
TARGETPATH        \system\apps\step6
SOURCEPATH        ..\bitmaps
SOURCE            c12  tlo.bmp
END

With mask file

START BITMAP		Myownmbm.mbm
HEADER
TARGETPATH		\system\apps\Jhalak
SOURCEPATH		..\bitmaps
SOURCE			c12 check.bmp
SOURCE			c12 check_mask.bmp
SOURCE			c12 uncheck.bmp
SOURCE			c12 uncheck_mask.bmp
END

This creates a mbg file that has to be included wherever the images need to be used. The mbg is actually a text file which contains an enum with the image indexes.

e.g.

/* This file has been generated, DO NOT MODIFY. */
enum TMbmS60test
{
EMbmS60testTlo
};