c++ win32 edit box cursor not flashing - c++

Question

I'm a newbie in windows programming and am continuously running into different kinds of problems, most of which I have been able to solve by myself.
My problem at hand is the caret (or cursor) shown in text areas. The thing that indicates where you are typing your text? Well it is shown, at least, but it doesn't blink like it should.
I have an EDIT box created in WM_CREATE like so:
case WM_CREATE:
{
if(!logged) {
HWND userField = CreateWindow(
"EDIT", // Predefined class; Unicode assumed
NULL, // Button text
WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | WS_BORDER | ES_LEFT, // Styles
C_WIDTH/2 - 80, // x position
C_HEIGHT - 240, // y position
160, // Button width
25, // Button height
hwnd, // Parent window
NULL, // No menu.
(HINSTANCE)GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_HINSTANCE),
NULL); // Pointer not needed.
// initialize NONCLIENTMETRICS structure
NONCLIENTMETRICS ncm;
ncm.cbSize = sizeof(ncm);
// obtain non-client metrics
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETNONCLIENTMETRICS, sizeof(ncm), &ncm, 0);
// create the new font
HFONT hNewFont = CreateFontIndirect(&ncm.lfMessageFont);
// set the new font
SendMessage(userField, WM_SETFONT, (WPARAM)hNewFont, 0);
}
}
break;
That is all code concerning the edit box. I'm sorry if I'm not being clear enough or my supply of code is lacking; I'm unsure of what parts of code is relevant here and what are irrelevant. I don't think I should paste my whole code here, either.
The problem, again, is that the caret in the textbox (userField) does not blink.
Please ask for more details if you need them.

Answer 1

Using your code, I didn't get a flashing caret. But then i added:
SetFocus( userField );
and voilà, a flashing caret :-)

Answer 2

This may not be the problem the OP was experiencing, but I was experiencing the same symptom, and I'm posting my solution here in case someone else experiences this problem...
In short, if you subclass an edit control, and handle the WM_SETFOCUS event, you need to call DefSubclassProc() or your caret won't show up. Presumably, you can call ShowCaret() yourself, but you're probably safer just calling DefSubclassProc() in case there's other processing that needs to happen.

Answer 3

After playing around - making my code a bit tidier and stuff - I accidentally solved this on my own
I changed
HWND userField = CreateWindow(
"EDIT", // Predefined class; Unicode assumed
NULL, // Button text
WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | WS_BORDER | ES_LEFT, // Styles
C_WIDTH/2 - 80, // x position
C_HEIGHT - 240, // y position
160, // Button width
25, // Button height
hwnd, // Parent window
NULL, // No menu.
(HINSTANCE)GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_HINSTANCE),
NULL); // Pointer not needed.
Into
HWND userField = CreateWindow("EDIT", NULL, WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD | WS_BORDER | ES_LEFT,
C_WIDTH/2 - 80, C_HEIGHT - 240, 160, 25, hwnd, NULL, g_hInstance, NULL);
The only difference there is the hInstance: in the first code it was apparently wrong. I changed it into my global reference of hInstance.