winapi how to create command link in MinGW

Question

i'm programming in c++ winapi. My compiler is MinGW 7.3.0. Command button control:

This picture is snipped from Google. I can make command button with this code:

HWND hCmdLnk = 
CreateWindow("classname",
             "Example",
            BS_COMMANDLINK,
              hwnd, (HMENU)
              1, NULL, 
              NULL);

And error is:

'BS_COMMANDLINK' was not 
 declarated in this scope!

I included next libraries:

windows.h
commctrl.h

Why compiler says this error, if BS_COMMANDLINK, writed in microsoft documentation, defined in windows.h/commctrl.h?

Thanks for answers.

Answer 1

'BS_COMMANDLINK' was not declarated in this scope!

Since BS_COMMANDLINK require NTDDI_VERSION >= 0x06000000 in commctrl.h, a NTDDI version higher than 0x0600 is required.

You can define it in your source file like this:

#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0601

A working code example like this:

#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0601
    
#include <windows.h> 
#include <commctrl.h>
    
//...

int WINAPI wWinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPWSTR lpCmdLine, int nShowCmd)
{ 
    InitCommonControls();
   
    HWND hCmdLnk = CreateWindowW(
       L"BUTTON",  // Predefined class; Unicode assumed
       L"",        // Text will be defined later
       WS_VISIBLE | BS_COMMANDLINK,  // Styles
       200,        // x position 
       10,         // y position 
       200,        // Button width
       100,        // Button height
       NULL,     // Parent window
       NULL,       // No menu
       hInstance,
       NULL);      // Pointer not needed

    SendMessage(hCmdLnk, WM_SETTEXT, 0, (LPARAM)L"Command link 2");
    SendMessage(hCmdLnk, BCM_SETNOTE, 0, (LPARAM)L"Line 2");
    //... 

  } 

Compile it using MinGw like this:

i686-w64-mingw32-g++ hello.cpp -mwindows

Refer to "Using the Windows Headers" for more detailed informaton.

---

And in order to make the command link button display correctly the Comctl32 library need to be linked and an XML manifest specifying that version 6 of the Windows common controls library must be loaded by Windows, and embed it into your application as a resource with type "RT_MANIFEST".

The manifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity 
      type="Win32" 
      name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" 
      version="6.0.0.0" 
      processorArchitecture="*" 
      publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" 
      language="*"/>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
</assembly> 

The resource file (resource.rc):

#define CREATEPROCESS_MANIFEST_RESOURCE_ID  1
#define RT_MANIFEST  24

CREATEPROCESS_MANIFEST_RESOURCE_ID RT_MANIFEST "manifest.xml"

Compile the code and resource files and link them all into an executable application. Select UNICODE via -municode option.

i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -municode -c commandLinkTest.cpp -o commandLinkTest.o
windres -i resource.rc -o resource.o
i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -o commandLinkTest.exe commandLinkTest.o resource.o -s -lcomctl32 -Wl,--subsystem,windows -municode

The file list:

The command link button window will like this: