Monthly Archives: February 2009

Feb23

Catching Application Level Mouse Events in Winforms

Posted on February 23, 2009 by anoriginalidea

As part of my work on flick scrolling I’ve created an example of a class that can create mouse events for an entire Winforms application.

To use it, just declare it, like so:

Private WithEvents moAppMouseEvents As New ApplicationLevelMouseEvent

I’ve only implemented the MouseUp and MouseDown events, but these are consistent with the Form ones:


 
Private Sub moAppMouseEvents_MouseUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles moAppMouseEvents.MouseUp  
 
End Sub
Private Sub moAppMouseEvents_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles moAppMouseEvents.MouseDown
  
End Sub

The code uses an IMessageFilter in the tradtional fashion:


Public Class ApplicationLevelMouseEvents
    Implements IDisposable
    Implements IMessageFilter  
    Public Event MouseUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)
    Public Event MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)  
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Integer = &H202
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H201
    'Private Const WM_RBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H204
    'Private Const WM_MBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H207
    'Private Const WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &HA1
    'Private Const WM_NCRBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &HA4
    'Private Const WM_NCMBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &HA7
    Public Sub New()
        Application.AddMessageFilter(Me)
    End Sub  
    Public Function PreFilterMessage(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message) As Boolean Implements System.Windows.Forms.IMessageFilter.PreFilterMessage
        If (m.Msg = WM_LBUTTONDOWN) Then  
            Dim loArgs As New MouseEventArgs(MouseButtons.Left, 1, System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.X, System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.Y, 0)  
            RaiseEvent MouseDown(Me, loArgs)  
        ElseIf (m.Msg = WM_LBUTTONUP) Then
            Dim loArgs As New MouseEventArgs(MouseButtons.Left, 1, System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.X, System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Position.Y, 0)
            RaiseEvent MouseUp(Me, loArgs)
        End If
        Debug.WriteLine(m.Msg.ToString)
        Return False  
    End Function  
    Private disposedValue As Boolean = False        ' To detect redundant calls  
    ' IDisposable
    Protected Overridable Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
        If Not Me.disposedValue Then
            If disposing Then
                Application.RemoveMessageFilter(Me)
            End If
        End If
        Me.disposedValue = True
    End Sub  
#Region " IDisposable Support "
    ' This code added by Visual Basic to correctly implement the disposable pattern.
    Public Sub Dispose() Implements IDisposable.Dispose
        ' Do not change this code.  Put cleanup code in Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean) above.
        Dispose(True)
        GC.SuppressFinalize(Me)
    End Sub
#End Region  
End Class

The sample could be enhanced to support the full range of events such as mouse move, so feel free to take the sample and change it. If you post your code, please link back to this post.

Links

A Simple Scroll Controller for Winforms

Feb20

A Simple Scroll Controller for Winforms

Posted on February 20, 2009 by anoriginalidea

Standard

I am currently researching “flick” scrolling for Windows XP and over. As part of this I need the ability to scroll controls in code.

To do this I have created a wrapper around the scrolling apis to assist with this.

Here’s how to use it for an autoscrolling panel:


Dim loScrollIt As New ScrollController(Panel1)  
loScrollIt.VerticalScroll(20)

Here’s the code:


Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Public Class ScrollController  
    ' Scrollbar direction
    '
    Const SBS_HORZ = 0
    Const SBS_VERT = 1  
    ' Windows Messages
    '
    Const WM_VSCROLL = &H115
    Const WM_HSCROLL = &H114
    Const SB_THUMBPOSITION = 4  
    Private Declare Function GetScrollPos Lib "user32.dll" ( _
        ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, _
        ByVal nBar As Integer) As Integer  
    'Example: position = GetScrollPos(textbox1.handle, SBS_HORZ)
    Private Declare Function SetScrollPos Lib "user32.dll" ( _
        ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, _
        ByVal nBar As Integer, _
        ByVal nPos As Integer, _
        ByVal bRedraw As Boolean) As Integer  
    'Example: SetScrollPos(hWnd, SBS_HORZ, position, True  
    Private Declare Function PostMessageA Lib "user32.dll" ( _
        ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, _
        ByVal wMsg As Integer, _
        ByVal wParam As Integer, _
        ByVal lParam As Integer) As Boolean  
    'Example: PostMessageA(hWnd, WM_HSCROLL, SB_THUMBPOSITION _
    '                         + &H10000 * position, Nothing)  
    Private moControl As Control  
    Public Sub New(ByVal controlToScroll As Control)  
        moControl = controlToScroll
    End Sub
    Public Sub VerticalScroll(ByVal amount As Integer)
        Dim liHwnd As IntPtr = moControl.Handle
        Dim Position = GetScrollPos(liHwnd, SBS_VERT) + amount  
        If (SetScrollPos(liHwnd, SBS_VERT, Position, True) <> -1) Then  
            PostMessageA(liHwnd, WM_VSCROLL, SB_THUMBPOSITION + _
                                       &H10000 * Position, Nothing)
        End If  
    End Sub

End Class

Feb9

More VSTO fun : WindowActivate in Outlook/Word 2007 does not fire for Wordmail more than once

Posted on February 9, 2009 by anoriginalidea

Standard

Welcome to the horrible world of creating Outlook addins that work for both 2003 and 2007.

People have commented that wordmail has a horrible side effect in Word 2003, where toolbars used in Outlook inspectors show up in Word. See the this Kevin Slovak’s discussion of the problem in the links section.

Anyway, the workaround mentioned in the article doesn’t work (of course) in Outlook 2007. It is therefore necessary to check the version of Word (which doesn’t have toolbars) for the code to work for both versions.

It makes me wish Microsoft would hand out free office upgrades.

Anyway, here’s the complete code:


 
' Listen for inspector activate
Private WithEvents moWord As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application
Private moInspector As Inspector
Private Sub moWord_WindowActivate(ByVal Doc As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document, ByVal Wn As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Window) Handles moWord.WindowActivate  
     If Wn.EnvelopeVisible AndAlso moInspector IsNot Nothing Then
         mShowInspector(moInspector)
         moInspector = Nothing
         moWord = Nothing
         If Doc.AttachedTemplate IsNot Nothing Then Doc.AttachedTemplate.Saved = True
     End If  
End Sub
Private Sub moInspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector) Handles moInspectors.NewInspector  
     Dim lbRaiseEvents As Boolean = True  
     If Inspector.IsWordMail Then
         ' HACK: Wordmail does not work in the same way in 
         ' Word 2008 as it does in 2003.  I think this
         ' may be because of the lack of real toolbars
         ' in Word 2007. 
         If Val(Inspector.WordEditor.Application.Version) < 12 Then
             moInspector = Inspector
             moWord = Inspector.WordEditor.Application
             lbRaiseEvents = False
         End If
     End If
     If lbRaiseEvents Then mShowInspector(Inspector)  
End Sub