I have a CDHTMLDialog in a BHO that I want to be partially transparent, in the sense that the transparent area changes according to the logic of the dialog. I got it to become transparent visually (using SetLayeredWindowAttributes), but it is critical to make this region truly transparent, because otherwise when I click on the transparent region my clicks do not reach the IE window which is below the transparent part of my dialog. I temporarily fix this by constantly resizing my dialog according to the size of the active part of the dialog, but I can't keep up with this forever...
I think the solution has something to do with what windows calls "regions" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd162915%28VS.85%29.aspx) but I'm not exactly sure how to work with them. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I don't think you want to make parts of your window transparent, what you want to do is (I think) set the window region (like you mention). Read the MSDN on SetWindowRgn() - basically you define a GDI object of type HRGN (if you're using MFC, CRgn) which described a surface of a certain shape, and eventually with parts cut out. Windows then considers only the 'region' that you set on a window as the part of the window to use. Basically it's how you make non-rectangular windows. A 'region' isn't a 'transparent' part of a window, it's a way to discard areas of a window, in a way.
I found the way to make an entire window transparent and click-through here:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/wtl/transparent.aspx
But it's not useful for my case where I only want the transparent part of my window (transparent by HTML/CSS definitions) to be click-through...
Update: Apparently, the clicks are supposed to go through the transparent parts (see http://jalaj.net/2007/02/05/form-with-a-hole/), but in my CDHTMLDialog they don't. My best guess is that a sub-window of the BHO catches my clicks, but I don't really think that makes much sense...
Related
I want to make my own scrollbars for a custom drawn plot, like this image, what would be the best way to go?
Scrollbars should:
Only be visible when mouse hover over it (with fade in/out)
Be a part of the x/y axis of the plot, like in the picture
Not have any arrow buttons, just the thumb Thinner than the normal scrollbars
Would you suggest to:
Create everything from scratch, handling paging, scrollwheel etc.
Try to inherit CScrollBar and do my own drawing?
From what I've read, it's not very easy to customize scrollbars in MFC, for example here)
First off, these have to be scrollbar (or other) controls, not window scrollbars (used for scrolling a window).
Second, the statement "it's not very easy to customize scrollbars in MFC", is only partially true. MFC is a "thin wrapper" of Windows API, so you should better refer to the documentation of the Windows scrollbar control.
Then there is the CScrollBar class, but took a short look, and indeed, it does not really offer anything more than the Windows scrollbar does. As for the sample in the link you posted is a new (custom) control (painting everything on its own), i.e. literally "from scratch", not inheriting anything from CScrollBar.
So, you have to look into the Windows scrollbar control, and what it offers. Did take a look, and saw few things. Unfortunately there seems to be no owner-draw functionality. You can process the WM_CTLCOLORSCROLLBAR message, but this only allows you to change colors.
And according to the documentation the background color only. This appears to be the only possible customization, apart from the SBM_ENABLE_ARROWS message, which can hide the arrows. And no fading effect. If these are enough to you, you could try the Windows/MFC scrollbar, otherwise try writing your own.
I am trying to create a Direct3D app that is operating in windowed mode with a title bar and minimize/quit button. However, I'd really like to be able to axe the border around the window.
I am looking to do this because it looks pretty cheesy on dual monitors when the app is filling the primary monitor horizontally (with room to move the app vertically), but its window border overflows onto the secondary screen. I've tried a bunch of combinations of setwindowlong with GWL_STYLE and GWL_EXSTYLE, but can't seem to make headway unless I disable the title bar.
I've seen a bunch of apps that are borderless however they seem to emulate the title bar rather than using the built in one provided by Microsoft.
Thanks for any suggestions.
You can't remove the border and keep the titlebar AFAIK.
You can reimplement the titlebar by using WM_NCHITTEST but you still need to draw it yourself which would not be a bad idea if you want your D3D app to look its best.
Visual Studio, last time I checked, achieves its border with transparent layered windows standing behind the primary one. They are the shadows you see.
I create the bitmap first, and then the button and call button->Raise().
The button doesn't show up until I hover over it, and even though I'm supplying it with a transparent png as an image, the transparency is screwed up as can be seen here:
As Raise() documentation says, this function only works for the top level windows. Overlapping child windows are not supported by wxWidgets and won't work correctly under all platforms.
The closest you can do to what you want is to use a custom background on your parent window, which will, indeed, show behind your bitmap button.
I have a popup dialog( CDialog ) that handles WM_CTLCOLOR message to color itself. It is having some controls (like bitmap buttons) that draws themselves using OwnerDraw. It is also having a control that displays an image with size that takes up to 70% of the dialog.
When user re-sizes the dialog, some of the controls in the dialog should be re-positioned (not re-sized). It also involves re-sizing of the image inside the dialog. As the re-sizing of image makes the whole process slow, individual re-positioning of the controls are causing a visual effect of flickering.
I need to get rid of these. One idea is to put the controls as the children of an intermediate dialog that is the child of the original popup dialog. So, when there is a re-size, I can re-position the dialog only instead of moving each controls individually. (Re-position happens only in one direction (x or y), so moving the intermediate dialog should be enough.
As it involves some coding effort, before going this way, I need answers to the following questions:
Will this work?
If yes, whats the complexity involved in this method?
Is there a better way?
Please help!
Simple fixes are:
creating the slow window last so that it doesn't hold up drawing of the simple controls
turning on the WS_EX_COMPOSITED style flag so Windows double-buffers the entire window, including its children. Beware of painting artifacts
turning off the WS_CLIPCHILDREN style flag so the holes are not so noticeable. Making the background white would accomplish the same
keeping the drawing of slow controls simple between WM_ENTERSIZEMOVE and WM_EXITSIZEMOVE
using less controls, burning up an expensive window on a simple string or image is unnecessary
It will probably work, but you should try solutions that don't alter your control hierarchy before, because it has other subtle consequences (focus, tab order, message notifications, etc).
Try one or all of the following:
Use BeginDeferWindowPos/DeferWindowPos/EndDeferWindowPos functions to move the children.
Set the WS_CLIPCHILDREN style flag in the dialog.
Set the WS_EX_LAYERED extended style flag in the dialog.
I am trying to create a custom control that displays a bitmap with per-pixel alphablend (as some of you already know for other questions).
Right now I am using a custom control in the resource editor and I attach it to a class derived from CWnd. When I register my custom class I set the hbrBackground of the WNDCLASS structe to NULL_BRUSH to achive the transparency of the control.
In the OnPaint of the control I use AlphaBlend to paint the per-pixel alpha blend bitmap.
This works quite well but I have this two problems:
I want to change the displayed bitmap when the mouse is over the control. As the control is transparent, the areas that one bitmap that are not overlapped by the other bitmap are not erased. How can I erase the background when the image is changed?
The second problem is related with two overlapping controls. My control is painted over other control that has a gradient (in fact is inside other control). The problem is that if I put my control before in the z-order the other controls overlap my control and mine is not displayed. If I put the other control before in the z-order I can not get the mouse message in my control.
Maybe I am doing something wrong or I am wrong in how I am trying to implement my control. Any kind of help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Javier
I'll take a chance. :-)
This should give you all you need to accomplish what I think you want.
General Solution for Transparent Controls
As far as Z-order issues, the z-order does not affect message priority. You'll need to post some code so we can determine what is happening there.