CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++winapi
user2225284
user2225284

Reputation:

Keyboard messages from child controls

I am currently developing a user interface DLL that uses the WIN32 API. The DLL must work for numerous platforms, XP, WIN CE, etc. I have managed to incorporate docking, anchoring and so on but appear to have a problem regarding owner-drawn buttons. I can draw the button's correct state, focus, clicked, default. However, I cannot receive key notifications. I specifically want to perform a click operation on a button that currently has focus, should the user press enter.

Note that I am using a windows message loop rather than a dialog message loop. I use windows hooks to hook into the window creation and set the user data to 'point' to my control instance. If I test for WM_KEYDOWN in the main message loop I can get a handle to my button control instance and could forward the message to the relevant control. Unfortunately, I am dealing with a lot of legacy code and this may not be an ideal solution.

So, my question is what is the best way forward. Is subclassing the button control's window procedure a viable option or is there an easier way?

Many thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2019

Answers (2)

Adrian McCarthy
Adrian McCarthy

Reputation: 48019

The comments above are correct. The button with focus should be getting the key messages. But buttons don't (by themselves) respond to Enter--they respond to Space. It sounds like what you're missing is the typical dialog keyboard navigation, like Tab key moving the focus and Enter activating the "default" button.

If you've got a typical Windows message pump, and you want the keyboard behavior normally associated with dialogs, then you need to use the IsDialogMessage API in your message loop. This means your window is essentially a "modeless dialog".

Upvotes: 4

Scott Jones
Scott Jones

Reputation: 2906

Looks like standard window proc subclassing should do the trick. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms633591(v=vs.85).aspx for details.

Upvotes: 0

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