WinAPI create window + child windows, process a button press? - c++

Question

I'm new to WinApi and I'm looking to create a simple window inside my program containing a blank parent window and two smaller child buttons "button1" & "button2". with this button I'm hoping to change a bool value from false to true and visa versa, but nearly all the examples I have seen are quite hard to understand, it seems like you have to return an MSG value of some kind which I don't know how to process.
I have a pseudocode below of what I'm trying to do, I have left comments explaining what I want to do at each moment, am I going about it the right way?:
#include <windows.h>
static int buildwindow(){
MSG msg;
//create parent window
HWND hWnd = CreateWindow(TEXT("scrollbar"), TEXT("Parent"), WS_VISIBLE | WS_POPUP,
10, 10, 800, 500, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
//create child window
HWND hWnd1 = CreateWindow(TEXT("button"), TEXT("button1"), WS_CHILD|WS_VISIBLE | WS_POPUP,
10, 10, 80, 25, hWnd, NULL, NULL, NULL);
//create child window2
HWND hWnd2 = CreateWindow(TEXT("button"), TEXT("button2"), WS_CHILD|WS_VISIBLE | WS_POPUP,
100, 100, 80, 25, hWnd, NULL, NULL, NULL);
ShowWindow(hWnd, SW_SHOW);
UpdateWindow(hWnd);
ShowWindow(hWnd1, SW_SHOW);
UpdateWindow(hWnd1);
ShowWindow(hWnd2, SW_SHOW);
UpdateWindow(hWnd2);
//wait for buttonpress
while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
{
TranslateMessage(&msg);
DispatchMessage(&msg);
}
//return the buttonpress
return (int) msg.wParam;
}
int main(void)
{
//create window inside the buttonpress method
int buttonpress = buildwindow();
//check which button was pressed
if(buttonpress = button1){
//do something
}
elseif(buttonpress = button2){
//do something else
}
//finish
return(0);
}

Answer 1

The message loop (GetMessage) won't end until a WM_QUIT message arrives.
You need to implement callback functions for the button click events.
I suggest reading more on button messages here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb775941(v=vs.85).aspx