Custom Control Not Painting

[Mark Newman]

Hello again, I'm back with more DDT-Custom Control questions. Actually, I have only one:
Why doesn't it paint?! Here's the setup:

The control won't paint anything except the background color (white). The control sends
& receives messages, responds to events and executes functions but no painting! For example,
if I right-click on the control area, it sends the SHOW_PROPERTIES_PAGE message, telling me
that the user wants to see the Properties page. But when I call the "ShowPropertiesPage()"
function the properties page doesn't show up!

Spy++ shows that the control is created, has a hWnd, a Thread ID, a parent hWnd and as I
mentioned processes events & messages OK. The control window has the WS_GROUP, WS_VISIBLE,
WS_TABSTOP and %WS_CHILD attributes, nothing unnusual there.

Here's the DDT control-creation line I'm using:

   Control Add "ClassName", hfrmMain, %ID_CUSTOM, "Title", 1,50,370,180, _
      %WS_GROUP Or %WS_VISIBLE Or %WS_TABSTOP Or %WS_CHILD, %WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE

The control itself handles all painting issues and has it's own window message procedure,
so there's very little for the host app to do. So I'm puzzled (certainly not the first time )
as to why there's no painting.

Any ideas on what might be causing this, or how I could investigate further?

Thanks!


------------------
Mark Newman

[Borje Hagsten]

Think we need to see some code. If big, maybe just your WM_PAINT
procedure will do. Do you use InvalidateRect and UpdateWindow to
actually force it to repaint when needed, like after adding/changing
stuff in the control? Have you checked your DC's in WM_PAINT, if that
is where all painting takes place?


------------------

[Mark Newman]

Okay, the code follows. But to answer your questions first: According to the demo program source
and the documentation, there's no need to handle the WM_PAINT message in the main program message
pump. Since all interaction with the control is handled via function calls to the control, it
can handle all the painting tasks. I presume that the window procedure of the control is seeing
the messages it needs to accomplish that task. The only window-related message handling that I've
seen in the demo C source is WM_SIZE.

Having said that, I'll try using the InvalidateRect and UpdateWindow functions to see if that makes
any difference.

Onto the source: This is a pared-down version of the actual code I'm running, though not by much.
The control itself is a charting component, if that helps. The function names have been changed
enough to protect the copyright holder . The core logic is lifted straight from a C demo program.

#Compile Exe "demo.exe"
#Dim All
#Register None

#Include  "win32api.inc"

' Charting component declares, UDTs, equates, etc.
Declare Function ChartCreate Lib "CHART.DLL" Alias "ChartCreate" () As Dword 
Declare Function ChartAttachWindow Lib "CHART.DLL" Alias "ChartAttachWindow" (hChart As Dword, hWnd As Long) As Long
Declare Function ChartDataCreateFromFile Lib "CHART.DLL" Alias "ChartDataCreateFromFile" (sFile As Asciiz, sErrBuff As Asciiz) As Dword
Declare Sub ChartSetValues Cdecl Lib "CHART.DLL" Alias "ChartSetValues" (hChart As Dword, _
	lProp As Long, lValue As Dword, lNull As Long)
Declare Sub ChartCallAction Lib "CHART.DLL" Alias "ChartCallAction" (hChart As Dword, Action As Long, X As Long, Y As Long)  

%CHART_REPAINTED               = %WM_USER + 3001
%CHART_PROPERTIES              = %WM_USER + 3007

Type ChartCallbackStruct
   X                           As Long 					' --read only--
   Y                           As Long              ' --read only--
End Type

' For comparison, here's the original C declares for the above:
'
' typedef struct HCHART__ { int unused; } FAR* HCHART;
' typedef struct DataHandle__ { int unused; } FAR* DataHandle;
'
' extern __declspec( dllimport ) HCHART ChartCreate(void);
' extern __declspec( dllimport ) BOOL   ChartAttachWindow(HCHART, HWND);
' extern __declspec( dllimport ) DataHandle       ChartDataCreateFromFile(char *, char *);
' extern __declspec( dllimport ) void   CDECL ChartSetValues(HCHART handle, ... );
' extern __declspec( dllimport ) void   ChartCallAction(HCHART handle, long action, long x, long y);

' Control DDT ID
%ID_CHART                      = 125

' Program functions
Declare Callback Function FormProcess
Declare Sub ShowDialog(ByVal hParent As Long)

Global hDlg                    As Long
Global ghChart                 As Dword 
Global my_data                 As Dword 

' *************************************************************

Function PbMain
'
' Program start
'
   Local lCount As Long
	
   ShowDialog 0

   Do
      Dialog Doevents To lCount
   Loop Until lCount = 0
	
   ' Free allocated memory
   ChartDestroy ByVal ghChart

End Function

' *************************************************************

Sub ShowDialog(ByVal hParent As Long)

   Local lStyle As Long, lExStyle As Long
   
   lStyle = %WS_POPUP Or %DS_MODALFRAME Or %WS_CAPTION Or %WS_MINIMIZEBOX Or %WS_SYSMENU Or %DS_CENTER
   lExStyle = 0

   Dialog New hParent, "Charting Demo Using PB", 0, 0, 379,  246, lStyle, lExStyle To hDlg
    
   ' Add the Charting control
   Control Add "ChartClassName", hDlg, %ID_CHART, "Chart", 1,50,370,180, _
      %WS_GROUP Or %WS_VISIBLE Or %WS_TABSTOP Or %WS_CHILD, %WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE
	
   Dialog Show Modeless hDlg , Call frmMain_DLGPROC
	
End Sub

' *************************************************************

Callback Function FormProcess
   
   Local  lCallback    As ChartCallbackStruct Ptr
   Static hwndChart    As Long
   
   Select Case CBMSG
      Case %WM_INITDIALOG		
         Control Handle hDlg, %ID_CHART To hwndChart 
	
         ' Creates the chart structures, returns a handle to them
         ghChart = ChartCreate()
		  	  	
         ' Attaches the chart structures to the chart window
         lTmp = ChartAttachWindow(ByVal ghChart, ByVal hwndChart)
		  	
         ' Loads a demo chart X-Y data file, returns a handle to the data
         my_data = ChartDataCreateFromFile("mm63.dat", $NUL)
		
         ' Attaches the loaded data to the chart
         ChartSetValues ghChart, %CHART_DATA, ByVal my_data, %NULL


      Case %WM_SIZE
         Local lWidth As Long, lHeight As Long, lTmp As Long
         Local hRect As RECT
			
         lWidth = LoWrd(Cblparam)
         lHeight = HiWrd(Cblparam)
	
         lTmp = GetWindowRect(hwndChart, hRect)
		
         lTmp = SetWindowPos(hwndChart, %NULL, hRect.nleft, hRect.ntop, _
	     lWidth - 3, lHeight - hRect.ntop + 190, %SWP_NOMOVE)


      Case %CHART_REPAINTED
         ' Message is sent AFTER the control has been repainted; according to the documentation
         ' no action is required here. 
					

      Case %CHART_PROPERTIES
         ' Message is sent when a right-mouse click occurs within the control's area;
         ' requests that the Properties Page be displayed. CBLPARAM holds a pointer to a 
         ' ChartCallbackStruct UDT (defined above)
         lCallback = CBLPARAM
			
         ' Display the Properties Page at the X-Y coordinates (from the callback)
         ChartCallAction ByVal ghChart, ByRef %CHART_ACTION_PROPERTIES, @lCallback.X, @lCallback.Y 
			
			      
      Case %WM_CLOSE
         ' Close the chart data 
         ChartDataDestroy my_data
      	

      Case %WM_DESTROY
         PostQuitMessage 0
      	
			
      Case %WM_PAINT

      Case %WM_COMMAND
      
      Case Else
   		
   End Select

   ' Allow the default processor to run, even though it slows things down a bit
   FUNCTION = %FALSE
	
End Function

------------------
Mark Newman

[This message has been edited by Mark Newman (edited March 29, 2001).]

[Borje Hagsten]

Okay, now I remember. It was an external DLL. Well, I see one thing:

Type ChartCallbackStruct
  hdc           As Long                                  ' --read only--
  rectDamaged   As RECT              ' --read only--
End Type
 
Local  lCallback As ChartCallbackStruct Ptr
 
Case %CHART_PROPERTIES
  lCallback = CBLPARAM
  ChartCallAction ByVal ghChart, ByRef %CHART_ACTION_PROPERTIES, @lCallback.X, @lCallback.Y

Now - where is X and Y in ChartCallbackStruct?
Try @lCallback.rectDamaged.nRight, @lCallback.rectDamaged.nBottom
or, maybe @lCallback.rectDamaged.nLeft, @lCallback.rectDamaged.nTop

Also, providing full path and filename to a file is usually safer.


------------------

[Mark Newman]

Oops! In my "sanitizing" of the code I copied the wrong structure. The correct one
does have just an X and Y value (code sample has been edited). The actual X-Y values
are reasonable, following the mouse position perfectly.

Also, the data file is being loaded okay; the function returns a NULL on any errors
and the return value is always non-NULL. I checked it with an invalid filename and
it did return NULL.

Thanks for looking at the code!


------------------
Mark Newman

[Borje Hagsten]

Just a thought - did you translate the headers yourself? Should not
some members there be declared as "BYVAL handle AS LONG", etc? Also,
that final FUNCTION = %FALSE for entire callback looks strange.
Maybe only needed in the actual %CHART_ events?


------------------

[Mark Newman]

Yes, indeed I did translate the headers. Are they correct? Who knows?!

I thought that using DWORDs in place of LONGs for things like window handles
was "technically preferable" though in reality it shouldn't matter in most cases.

I've been experimenting with BYVAL and BYREF - kinda odd, in some functions the
control wants the handle passed BYVAL, in others BYREF. Hmmm.

As to the window proc returning %FALSE, I thought that allowing the default
Windows message proc to run regardless of actions taken in the callback procedure
wasn't harmful, just consumed extra time. I'll try enabling the default processor
only for unhandled messages.

Thanks!


------------------
Mark Newman