Attach a Window child to Window Parent?

Desktop & Console Windows
1

Hi everyone - I figured I would broaden my audience on this forum topic from earlier today. Does anyone happen to have windows Declares to attach a window to a parent window so when you move the parent window the child window moves with it? Its what Christian has for OS X NSWindowMBS.AddChildWindow().

Thank you much in advance!
Mike

2

NSWindowMBS class is for macOS.

3

I think this would have to be done at the time the window is created (which is before you see any events / constructors in Xojo code)

The method CreateWindowEXW like


creates a new window with the supplied parent window as a child. Thereā€™s no way to access this directly from Xojo

The closest I could find it the SetParent which seems like it will make a window be a child of an existing window

However this still doesnt seem to be quite the same as macOS where children move as a group with their parents
You might have to use calls to TileWindows


to do this ā€œautomaticallyā€ as the parent window is moved
4

Thanks Norman! Im testing SetParent now. Will let you know what I find between that and TileWindows.

5

@npalardy et al.

Update on SetParent - It was an easy declare to make, but it didnā€™t glue the child to the parent.

TileWindows:
What do you normally do when Win32API calls for an array (Integer Type) but we canā€™t pass that to an external function using a declare (I get this message and Iā€™m new to declares on Win32API)?

Type: const HWND*

An array of handles to the child windows to arrange. If a specified child window is a top-level window with the style WS_EX_TOPMOST or WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW , the child window is not arranged. If this parameter is NULL , all child windows of the specified parent window (or of the desktop window) are arranged.

How would i pass this array to an external function? ā†’ I found this answer in @eugenedakinā€™s Declare eBook (http://scispec.ca/) Thanks Eugene!

Iā€™m getting a failed code 0 - Ill keep at it and post working code then.

Thanks!

6

really need to get Julian in here to comment :stuck_out_tongue:

7

If the Windows move together anyway, why not do it in ONE Window?

You could use a WindowSplitter, give different parts different background colours, etc

8

Thanks Markus, but in my case no - The UX for my app uses this to give a bootstrap feel. Ill post screen shots after Im done.

9

Hi Mike,

I am not close to my development computer. Sorry, I wonā€™t be able to comment for a while (week or so?).

10

Oh no need Eugene ā€“ I was saying that i answered my own question by reading your Declare book! :slight_smile:
To pass an array to an external source you need to create a memory block and pass it as a pointer :wink: Thank you for writing that book! Now getting that function to work is my next challenge :slight_smile:
Hope you are doing well @eugenedakin

1 Like
11

WHAT !!! ???
OMG PANIC Eugene is away from his computer ???
What has the world come to ? :stuck_out_tongue:

Hows the field ?
And ā€¦ where ?

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12

My apologies for my misunderstanding. LOL, its been a very long day - rewarding, just a long day.

13

Chuckle, Norm, you soooo know how this works :slight_smile: I canā€™t tell you how many times I have been asked a ā€˜rushā€™ question that quickly suffers from scope creep.

Its good - I canā€™t see the forest for the trees - literally :slight_smile:

Google maps says that I am near the Alberta Saskatchewan border, about 1.5 hours from nowhereā€¦ chuckleā€¦ I just have to make sure that my truck is full of fuel and my power cords can charge my portable equipment. Roads? I donā€™t need any roads where I am ā€¦ lolā€¦

14

In the oil business ??? Nawwwwwww
Been there done that and used to write software for a geophysical company and ā€¦
OMG !!!

Have fun !

1 Like
15

Success!!

Ok this took a few declares to attach a child window to a parent window (Move the parent and the child follows seamlessly). Here is the sample project I built.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ue5ayl9o5r7cfh6/ChildParentMoveTest.xojo_binary_project?dl=1

The View code is in ChildWindow.Open and the controller code is in the WindowsAPI module.

// SET PARENT OF THIS WINDOW TO MAIN WINDOW
Var setParentResultInt as Integer = WindowsAPI.setParent(Self.Handle, ParentWindow.Handle)

// SET CHILD BIT ON WINDOW STYLE
Var childStyle as Integer = WS_CHILDWINDOW
Var setWinStyleResultInt as Integer = WindowsAPI.SetWindowLong(Self.Handle, GWL_STYLE, childStyle)

// SET BORDER AROUND CHILD WINDOW
Var borderStyle as Integer = WS_BORDER
Var borderResultInt as Integer = WindowsAPI.SetWindowLong(Self.Handle, GWL_STYLE, borderStyle)

// SET CHILD X/Y POS  VARIABLES
Var newXpos as Integer = (ParentWindow.Width/2 - self.Width/2)
Var newYpos as Integer = (ParentWindow.Height/2 - self.Height/2)
Var newW as Integer = Self.Width
Var newH as Integer = Self.Height
Var moveWinResultInt as Integer = WindowsAPI.MoveWindow(Self.Handle, newXpos, newYpos, newW, newH, True)

// UPDATE PARENT
Var updateWinResultInt as Integer = WindowsAPI.UpdateWindow(ParentWindow.Handle)
16

Is there anything like this (with Declares) from macOS?
I tried to implement it with a Timer, but I snot working well.
Thanks !
Luciano

17

You can do it with MBS so you can possibly do it with declares.

The MBS code I tested this with is:

Dim nsWindowObj As NSWindowMBS

nsWindowObj = Self.NSWindowMBS

nsWindowObj.addChildWindow(myChildWindow, NSWindowMBS.NSWindowBelow)
18

That I know. I was looking for an alternative to MBS ā€¦

19

Not tested it but macOS lib seems to have those functions:

20

Thanks I managed to make a Declare based on the macOS lib that works well !
Thanks !