Software Architects
(www.softarch.com/SA_ImageFlow/) has released
CoverFlow Software Developer Toolkit for Mac OS
10.5 (“Leopard”). It provides developers with a
way to add a customized “Coverflow like” dynamic
visual interface to their Mac applications.
Designed for developers using the Cocoa
framework, the software development kit saves
development time when compared to integrating
native Apple Cover Flow, and it provides the
option for customizing the visual display to
match the developer’s application, according to
the folks at Software Architects. Features
include:
° An Interface Builder Plugin with which you can
bind your data to the ImageFlow view without
writing code;
° Wide support for standard image formats;
ImageFlow leverages the NSImage class to provide
support for a range of image formats and data
sources;
° Background image processing; the application’s
main thread isn’t blocked while images are being
processed;
° Customization; you can choose the background
and edge colors for the composition to provide a
customized dynamic presentation;
° Alpha channel support that supports images with
transparent areas, so that non-rectangular images
can be displayed correctly;
° A scrollbar, sample code and a source code option.
The CoverFlow Software Developer Toolkit works
with any Intel or PowerPC based Mac running Mac
OS 10.5 or later in an XCode/Cocoa development
environment. It costs US$500 for a one-time fee,
including distribution rights. The SDK with
source code costs $2,500; a demo is available for
download.