[Windows API] Tooltips w/o MFC

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Hey all

I have been trying the whole night long to write a program that would display a tooltip control at an arbitrary position on screen (without making it a child of an existing window), WITHOUT using these terrible MFC classes... I've scoured the net for code samples and stuff, but all that I've succeeded in coming up was something like this :

// don't forget to link with comctl32.lib when you compile this app
#include <windows.h>
#include <commctrl.h>

 
HWND CreateToolTip (HINSTANCE hInst, HWND hWndParent, const char *string)
{
   static HWND hWndToolTip = NULL;
   INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX iccex; 
   TOOLINFO ti;
 
   if ((string == NULL) || (string[0] == 0))
	  return (NULL); // reliability check
 
   // is a tooltip already displayed ?
   if (hWndToolTip != NULL)
   {
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0); // then destroy it first
	  hWndToolTip = NULL;
   }
 
   // initialize the Windows Common Controls library
   iccex.dwICC = ICC_WIN95_CLASSES;
   iccex.dwSize = sizeof (iccex);
   InitCommonControlsEx (&iccex);
 
   // create a tooltip window
   hWndToolTip = CreateWindow (TOOLTIPS_CLASS,  // common dialog style tooltip
							   NULL,			// title bar
							   WS_POPUP		 // popup window
							   | TTS_NOPREFIX   // prevents ampersand stripping
							   | TTS_BALLOON	// defined as 0x40 (but not featured in MSVC6 headers)
							   | TTS_ALWAYSTIP, // allows tip from inactive window
							   0, 0,			// left/top positions
							   0, 0,			// width/height of window
							   NULL,			// the parent window
							   NULL,			// no menu
							   hInst,		   // window handle
							   NULL);		   // no extra parameters
   if (hWndToolTip != NULL)
   {
	  ti.cbSize = sizeof (ti);
	  ti.uFlags = TTF_TRANSPARENT | TTF_CENTERTIP;
	  ti.hwnd = hWndParent;
	  ti.uId = 0;
	  ti.hinst = NULL;
	  ti.lpszText = (char *) string;
	  GetClientRect (hWndParent, &ti.rect);
 
	  // send an addtool message to the tooltip control window
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (long) &ti);
 
	  // the tooltip is delayed at default values. Hopefully this is enough
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_SETDELAYTIME, TTDT_AUTOMATIC, -1);
	  // sets a maximum width for the tool tip window (else it won't wrap lines at all, even with \n)
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_SETMAXTIPWIDTH, 0, 500);
 
	  // I don't understand what it does, but without this line the tooltip doesn't show
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_TRACKACTIVATE, TRUE, (long) &ti);
   }
 
   return (hWndToolTip); // finished, return the tooltip handle
}

 
int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, char *lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
   CreateToolTip (NULL, NULL, "testing 123\ntesting 456");
 
   _sleep (10000);
   return (0);
}

the problem with this one is that it displays my Tooltip in the top left corner and I don't know how to make it display elsewhere ! :'( I would want a tooltip that looks like the ones Windows displays above the systray icons when there's an alert. And another problem is that this tooltip doesn't seem to want to go away until the program exits...

What am I doing wrong ?

[botman]

In your CreateWindow() call you have...

0,0,		// left/top positions

Replace 0,0 with the client window's X,Y position.

botman

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

That doesn't work, botman... I already tried many combinations with left/top and width/height coordinates. The tooltip always show in the top left corner of the screen.

[Brainz]

just a little idea, have you tried moving the window after you've created it?

- using code, rather than the mouse or any such thing

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Thanks for the tip, that worked

// these #define's apply to balloon tooltips and are not present in the MSVC 6 headers
#define TTS_BALLOON	 0x40
#define TTM_SETTITLE	(WM_USER + 32)
#define TTI_NONE		0
#define TTI_INFO		1
#define TTI_WARNING	 2
#define TTI_ERROR	   3

HWND CreateToolTip (HWND hWndParent, long icon_type, const char *title, const char *text, char is_balloon)
{
   // this function creates a tooltip
 
   static HWND hWndToolTip = NULL;
   INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX iccex; 
   TOOLINFO ti;
   long window_style;
   int screen_width;
   int screen_height;
 
   // is a tooltip already displayed ?
   if (hWndToolTip != NULL)
   {
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0); // then destroy it first
	  hWndToolTip = NULL;
   }
 
   // initialize the Windows Common Controls library
   memset (&iccex, 0, sizeof (iccex));
   iccex.dwSize = sizeof (iccex);
   iccex.dwICC = ICC_WIN95_CLASSES;
   InitCommonControlsEx (&iccex);
 
   // prepare the tooltip window style
   window_style = WS_POPUP		 // popup window
				  | TTS_NOPREFIX   // prevents ampersand stripping
				  | TTS_ALWAYSTIP; // allows tip from inactive window
 
   if (is_balloon)
	  window_style |= TTS_BALLOON; // add the balloon flag if we want a balloon tooltip
 
   // create a tooltip window
   hWndToolTip = CreateWindow (TOOLTIPS_CLASS,  // common dialog style tooltip
							   NULL,			// title bar
							   window_style,	// window style flags
							   CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, // left/top positions
							   CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, // width/height of window
							   NULL,			// the parent window
							   NULL,			// no menu
							   NULL,			// window handle
							   NULL);		   // no extra parameters
 
   if (hWndToolTip != NULL)
   {
	  memset (&ti, 0, sizeof (ti)); // mama says: reset your structure before touching it.
	  ti.cbSize = sizeof (ti);
	  ti.hwnd = hWndParent;
	  ti.lpszText = (char *) text;
	  GetClientRect (hWndParent, &ti.rect);
 
	  // send an addtool message to the tooltip control window
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (long) &ti);
 
	  // set the icon and the title for the tooltip window
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_SETTITLE, icon_type, (long) title);
 
	  // delay the tooltip with the default delay values
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_SETDELAYTIME, TTDT_AUTOMATIC, -1);
 
	  // sets a maximum width for the tool tip window (else it won't wrap lines at all)
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_SETMAXTIPWIDTH, 0, 500);
 
	  // I dunno why, but I must call this to display the window (it wont work without)
	  SendMessage (hWndToolTip, TTM_TRACKACTIVATE, TRUE, (long) &ti);
 
	  // is this tooltip NOT associated with another window ?
	  if (hWndParent == NULL)
	  {
		 // then move it somewhere instead of letting it into that top left corner
 
		 // get the screen size
		 GetClientRect (GetDesktopWindow (), &ti.rect);
		 screen_width = ti.rect.right;
		 screen_height = ti.rect.bottom;
 
		 // now get the popup size and place the popup at the center of the screen
		 GetClientRect (hWndToolTip, &ti.rect);
		 SetWindowPos (hWndToolTip, HWND_TOPMOST,
					   screen_width / 2 - ti.rect.right / 2,
					   screen_height / 2 - ti.rect.bottom / 2,
					   0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE);
	  }
   }
 
   return (hWndToolTip); // finished, return the tooltip handle
}

I'm still however wondering why I can only set the window position AFTER it has shown up... and also why on earth does it need that TTM_TRACKACTIVATE message to show up ? ???

[Brainz]

ahh, have to pass that one. I'm a complete n00b when it comes to anything more advanced than QBASIC...

[botman]

TTM_TRACKACTIVATE allows the tooltip to track the mouse position and disply the tooltip window when the mouse is over the item.

See the MSDN webpage about it...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ckactivate.asp

botman

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I know that botman.. looking it up in the MSDN was the first thing I did, but still it doesn't tell me WHY I need this message... since all I want is a topmost-level tooltip not child of any other window (but the desktop window) that I could pop up at an arbitrary location.

I prolly *hate* when I use a piece of code that I don't understand.

Thanks for taking the time to search it anyway