Ethan - May I have some help? (Not studio related)

[technominds]

Ethan, i was browsing a site when searching for some code for a VB6 project im working on and I saw your name as a MS certified person? Any chance you could help me with a bit of code?

(or anyone else who knows VB6?)

Thank Guys

[Ethan Winer]

> Any chance you could help me with a bit of code? <

I'll be glad to help you with code, as long as it's BASIC or assembly language for DOS.

I was a Microsoft MVP for many years, but that was long ago and I never made the leap to Windows programming. Microsoft hosts VB-related newsgroups, and I assume there must be online forums like this one but for VB programming. That's my best suggestion for programming questions.

--Ethan

[Theros]

Whats the problem? I have a more then extensive knowledge of VB6, sadly I programmed for 3 years in it, stupid printer company couldnt be bothered to move their code to C++

[technominds]

Ah, well im making an application... as part of its user interface I need to create a custom control.


The custom control should be a custom list, with each list item containing an image, label, and link that can be varied between each list item.

Just a thought, its pretty much the same as the left hand shortcut menu on mac's Finder.

So i would like each item to be draggable (up and down the list).

Im sure with even basic knowlage of custom controls this should be quite simple but unfortunately I cant get my head around making repeatable custom controls... I just dont get it :S


Thanks for any help you may be able to give!

tm

[Theros]

Hmmmm... Im not familiar with the MAC so I wouldnt know what you were on about there...

You can create the drag and drop moveable items using OLE, I would know how to do it in C++, so Ill have to try to port it across for you... are you familiar with the WinAPI calls?

Pictures, or icons in a listbox should be easy enough,

When you are talking about links, do you mean hyperlinks? or just imaginary links in between certain listbox items?

[technominds]

This might give you and idea, the list on the left.

I didnt mean to write link, because of course a link woud be added once the control has been created so all i want is a label and image, both customizable and not like the restrictive listbox that VB6 currently provides.

Ive seen custom lists been done before and I spoke to someone who said it is fairly simple to do when making your own custom control, but I just have no idea where to start!

So like the mac shortcut bar, I would like to be able to drag any of the list items up or down the list and be able to assign a click function (in macs case it would be to load the selected items folder to the window) to each individual list item.

I hope ive given enough info for you to picture it now!

Thanks again for the help!

[Theros]

Hmmm are you doing this for a mac or for PC?

With PC you would be able to use WinAPI calls to indent the text on the listbox, then the GUI functions in the API to blit an image or icon into the space created by the indent... the drag and drop can easily be done via OLE, like the drag and drop movement of a file explorer perhaps... (so long as you were using windows..)

I wouldnt have any clue where to start on a mac tho... Heck I couldnt even imagine that VB would ever work on mac...

[technominds]

Yea im on windows, i would really appriciate if you could help me with this as the way ive done it so far looks horrific... you think you could throw me the source together? (using the mac idea as a template).

Thank you to the hugest extent!

[Theros]

Ill give it a go later this evening perhaps, im at my mother in laws at the moment, and I'd need to get on one of my machines...

Ill give it a go for you... Might be easier to create the control in C++, if I cant manage it in VB... should be real easy to interface it with VB anyhows, but Ill certainly give it a go on Basic first

On another track... What's it for anyhows? Not that im fussed, just dont want the thread to get boring...

[technominds]

Hah... well... it origionally was for some navigational issues with a mp3 player i was making... but now ive decided to go full out and make a clone of Finder for windows. After using mac's so much at college I really enjoy using the interface that Finder provides. So far ive managed to get pretty much all the code together except this one part. Its looking great so far!

Im not sure if this is possible... but.. can you make an ocx of some sort in C++ and then I could use it as a control ocx inside VB? If not, im not sure how you translate code over from one to the other... i would have to hand that over to you!

Again, i know im thanking you alot, but this should really get me out of hours of hair pulling! THANK YOU!

heh

[Theros]

I hate the way that mac interface looks sooo damned swish... sheeexy...

Anyhows, yeah most of the ocx that are in VB are made in C++ anyhows Hell of a lot less overhead... Ill see what I can do in VB first, im just digging out my Visual studio CD's

Ill see what I can do and let you know tomorrow afternoon...

[technominds]

how do you spell I O U? hah

[ericlingus]

cool I live in CT too ethan. Come to my house and help me treat my room. lol

[frederic]

Lucky you guys. I wanted to make a "simple" Explorer.exe replacement, and couldn't get past "hello world". Was trying to make an idiot-proof kiosk based on XP Pro.

LMAO

A programmer I am not.

[Rod Gervais]

Originally Posted by ericlingus

cool I live in CT too ethan. Come to my house and help me treat my room. lol

Eric,

where are you in CT?

Rod

[ericlingus]

willimantic



you?

[Theros]

Hmmmm I think I have a way of doing this, although im not entirely sure I can get the icons to stay when dragging....

The dragging, real easy... Hook the list box window, and get the window boundaries, then test which item we are over with the mouse using API, then while we are in Mouse_down, we just update the list when we drag up or down, changing the list index of the one we were over.

The icons I would do using a hook to the listwindow, steal the msg's sent to it by windows, and use our own wndProc to control the redraw on the window, then its a case of every WM_PAINT or WM_REDRAW message, we use the API function of DrawIconEX with the listbox HDC, draw your icon, then manually put the text in. Throw any other messages that dont involve the draw back to the API, and away we go...

Hmmmm, nothing ever turns out that simple tho does it?

[Theros]

Originally Posted by frederic

Lucky you guys. I wanted to make a "simple" Explorer.exe replacement, and couldn't get past "hello world". Was trying to make an idiot-proof kiosk based on XP Pro.

LMAO

A programmer I am not.

Heck, the work you guys do with electronics amazes me that stuff must be waaay harder then typing some random crap Plus, when you mess up with programming, no one dies

[technominds]

Originally Posted by Theros

Hmmmm I think I have a way of doing this, although im not entirely sure I can get the icons to stay when dragging....

The dragging, real easy... Hook the list box window, and get the window boundaries, then test which item we are over with the mouse using API, then while we are in Mouse_down, we just update the list when we drag up or down, changing the list index of the one we were over.

The icons I would do using a hook to the listwindow, steal the msg's sent to it by windows, and use our own wndProc to control the redraw on the window, then its a case of every WM_PAINT or WM_REDRAW message, we use the API function of DrawIconEX with the listbox HDC, draw your icon, then manually put the text in. Throw any other messages that dont involve the draw back to the API, and away we go...

Hmmmm, nothing ever turns out that simple tho does it?

Sounds like a plan. My version at the moment is kind of a similar but novelty version.

I used the MouseDown and DragOver events so that the items 'snap' to grids that ive placed down... but its not very list like... its more 'free-roaming'... i can put any list item whereever and it will just stay there.. not really what im looking for!

See what you can do with the API hooking, sounds like your already way ahead of me!