Show tooltip of a different control on demand

[BOB MECHLER]

I want to force users to fill in required fields before filling in fields that depend on the required fields. I can show and hide of course to get this effect but was wondering if I can just use the tooltip of the required control when someone clicks on another field before it is time.

In superclassed controls I can trap wm_killfocus and validate the data and prevent moving to another control from getting focus. What I would like to do is to popup the tooltip of the required control when the user clicks any other control on the form in an attempt to set focus to a control other than the required one. Is this possible?

The only way I can think of at the moment is to programmatically move the mouse to hover over the required control and let 'that' popup the tooltip.

I'll have the handle at the point of time that I want to do this so I could get the ctrlid and the location, convert to pixel coordinates and move the mouse. Seems like a lot of work.

I tried the ShowBallonText sample for on demand balloon style help popups but it didn't work well on my gradient screen and eventually gpf'd.

Bob Mechler

[Chris Holbrook]

...was wondering if I can just use the tooltip of the required control when someone clicks on another field before it is time.

this might help http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ight=createtip

[Cliff Nichols]

Bob,
Until I can find to use the tips from Chris, here is a lil gift for you.

(Chris, a quick look (not fully checked out yet) shows me that you may solve a problem I have with a similar idea that my instructions are not on the window that needs to be dealt with depending on the requirements for tooltips to work on an OS that is)

I would like to give credit where credit is due, but honestly I lost track of where I got this tidbit of code (that obviously I am in the midst of working on to do what I want but)

Mouse.inc

FUNCTION LeftButtonPressed() AS LONG
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
    DIM ButtonState AS LONG
    ButtonState = (GetAsyncKeyState(%vbKeyLButton) AND &H8000)
    SELECT CASE ButtonState
        CASE %False
            ButtonState = %False
        CASE ELSE
            ButtonState = %True
    END SELECT
    FUNCTION = ButtonState
    EXIT FUNCTION
ErrHandler:
    StartTrace
    ErrorCheck ERR
    EndTrace
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION RightButtonPressed() AS LONG
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
    DIM ButtonState AS LONG
    ButtonState = (GetAsyncKeyState(%vbKeyRButton) AND &H8000)
    SELECT CASE ButtonState
        CASE %False
            ButtonState = %False
        CASE ELSE
            ButtonState = %True
    END SELECT
    FUNCTION = ButtonState
    EXIT FUNCTION
ErrHandler:
    StartTrace
    ErrorCheck ERR
    EndTrace
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION MiddleButton() AS LONG
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
    DIM ButtonState AS LONG
    ButtonState = (GetAsyncKeyState(%vbKeyMButton) AND &H8000)
    SELECT CASE ButtonState
        CASE %False
            ButtonState = %False
        CASE ELSE
            ButtonState = %True
    END SELECT
    FUNCTION = ButtonState
    EXIT FUNCTION
ErrHandler:
    StartTrace
    ErrorCheck ERR
    EndTrace
END FUNCTION

SUB MoveMouseToControl (hWnd AS LONG)
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
    %tmr = 250 ' 0.25 sec
    %ii_min = 10 ' 0.5 sec
    %ii_max = 40 ' 2 sec
    %ii_ave = 20 ' 1 sec
    EnableWindow GetParent(hWnd), %False
    LOCAL rc AS RECT, pt1 AS POINTAPI, pt2 AS PointApi, MovingPt AS PointApi
    LOCAL i AS LONG, ii AS LONG, dx AS LONG, dy AS LONG
    LOCAL p AS PointApi
    GetWindowRect hWnd, rc              'Get position of control
    GetCursorPos pt1                    'Get current position
'    dx = 0.5 * (rc.nLeft + rc.nRight) - pt1.x                   'Get distance in x to go
'    dy = 0.5 * (rc.nTop + rc.nBottom) - pt1.y                   'Get distance in y to go
    p.x = rc.nLeft
    p.y = rc.nTop
    ScreenToClient HwndMain, p
'    MSGBOX STR$(p.x) + $CR + STR$(p.y)
    dx = 0.5 * (rc.nLeft + rc.nRight) - pt1.x                   'Get distance in x to go
    dy = 0.5 * (rc.nTop + rc.nBottom) - pt1.y                   'Get distance in y to go
'msgbox str$(dy)
'    dx = dx - (30)
'    dy = dy - (85)
'msgbox str$(dy)
'MSGBOX "Top = " + STR$(rc.nTop) + $CR + "Bottom = " + STR$(rc.nBottom) + $CR + "From = " + STR$(pt1.y) + $cr + "Distance = " + str$(dy)
    ii = MAX(GetSystemMetrics(%SM_CXSCREEN) / %ii_ave / dx, _
    GetSystemMetrics(%SM_CYSCREEN) / %ii_ave / dy)
'MSGBOX "Max = " + STR$(ii)
    ii = MIN(ii, %ii_max)
'MSGBOX "Min = " + STR$(ii)
    ii = MAX(ii, %ii_min)
'MSGBOX "Max = " + STR$(ii)
    FOR i = 1 TO ii
        pt2.x = pt1.x + i * dx / ii
        pt2.y = pt1.y + i * dy / ii
'MSGBOX STR$(pt1.x) + "," + STR$(pt1.y) + $CR + STR$(pt2.x) + "," + STR$(pt2.y) + $CR + STR$(dx) + "," + STR$(dy) +$CR + STR$(ii)
        SetCursorPos pt2.x, pt2.y
        SLEEP 40
    NEXT

'    SendMessage hwnd, %BM_SETSTATE, 1, 0: SLEEP %tmr
'    PostMessage hWnd, %BM_SETSTATE, 0, 0
'    PostMessage hWnd, %BM_CLICK, 0, 0
'    FOR i = ii TO 0 STEP -1
'        pt2.x = pt1.x + i * dx / ii
'        pt2.y = pt1.y + i * dy / ii
'        SetCursorPos pt2.x, pt2.y
'        SLEEP 40
'    NEXT
'    SetCursorPos pt1.x, pt1.y
    EnableWindow GetParent(hWnd), %True
    EXIT SUB
ErrHandler:
    StartTrace
    ErrorCheck ERR
    EndTrace
END SUB

FUNCTION IsMouseOverControl(hWnd AS LONG)AS LONG
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
     LOCAL p AS PointApi
     LOCAL R AS Rect
     GetCursorPos(p)
     GetWindowRect hWnd, R
     SELECT CASE p.x
          CASE R.nLeft TO R.nRight
               SELECT CASE p.y
                    CASE R.nTop TO R.nBottom
                         FUNCTION = %TRUE
                    CASE ELSE
                         FUNCTION = %FALSE
               END SELECT
          CASE ELSE
               FUNCTION = %FALSE
     END SELECT
    EXIT FUNCTION
ErrHandler:
    StartTrace
    ErrorCheck ERR
    EndTrace
END FUNCTION

Bob, if you combine this with what Chris posted, I am sure you will get what you need...(and if you beat me to the punch, I would appreciate if you post the inc (or multiple inc's) in the source code forum

Dang...now that I offered the code, it looks like a space-race challenge
Game ONNnnnnnn

[BOB MECHLER]

In my SuperClassed control that has focus but is not yet valid I put this code to force it to stay in the control and move the cursor over the left part of the control which triggers the previously defined tooltip when the user attemps to click in any other field.

Learned some TTM_SETDELAYTIME AND TTS_BALLOON tips, much appreciated.

         CASE %WM_KILLFOCUS 
           Tlen = GetWindowTextLength(CBHNDL) 'get the text length
           IF Tlen < FieldLen(ActnrID&) THEN
             SetFocus CBHNDL 
             DIALOG GET SIZE GetParent(CBHNDL) TO tot_x&,tot_y&
             DIALOG GET CLIENT GetParent(CBHNDL) TO cli_x&,cli_y&
             DIALOG UNITS GetParent(CBHNDL),tot_x& - cli_x&,tot_y& - cli_y& TO PIXELS non_client_x&,non_client_y&
             DIALOG GET LOC GetParent(CBHNDL) TO MOUSE_X&,MOUSE_Y&
             DIALOG UNITS GetParent(CBHNDL), MOUSE_X&,MOUSE_Y& TO PIXELS P_MOUSE_X&,P_MOUSE_Y&
             CONTROL GET LOC GetParent(CBHNDL),ActnrID& TO TV_X&,TV_Y&
             DIALOG UNITS GetParent(CBHNDL), TV_X&,TV_Y& TO PIXELS P_TV_X&,P_TV_Y&
             SetCursorPos P_MOUSE_X& + P_TV_X& + 10, P_MOUSE_Y& + P_TV_Y& + non_client_y& + 9
             
             EXIT FUNCTION 'stay in field until there is a valid account
           END IF

Bob Mechler

[Dominic Mitchell]

Well, I guess this method might be appropriate in this case, but the mouse does
not have to be anywhere near an object in order to force a tooltip to be displayed
over or near the object. It seems to me that a tracking tooltip with absolute positioning
is a better option.

[BOB MECHLER]

Thanks Dominic. What I came up with was based on what I know, which isn't much about tooltips. It's a sledgehammer approach I used once before to position the cursor over the last selected item in a treeview when a menu program was run after returning from a called program.

I'm not satisfied with this method.

I'd actually like to have two or three tooltips per control, some to be called when the mouse hovers over the control and others on demand to point attention to a problem in the field contents, either with allowed characters or logical content based on the value of other fields. (Ex. some transaction codes would be inappropriate for certain types of financial transactions etc)

Tooltips seem like a built in way to do this.

The other option for tooltips might be a form level validation that would run through a check list and popup a demand tooltip until all information on a form was valid for the field and for the function of the transaction.

I tried to use Semen's ShowBallonText example as a substitute but it gpf'd when called in the wm_killfocus event. It worked fine though in other events where I would move focus from one field to another using Up,Down,Tab,Shift-Tab and Return.

Bob Mechler

[Michael Mattias]

FUNCTION IsMouseOverControl(hWnd AS LONG)AS LONG
    ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
     LOCAL p AS PointApi
     LOCAL R AS Rect
     GetCursorPos(p)
     GetWindowRect hWnd, R
     SELECT CASE p.x
          CASE R.nLeft TO R.nRight
               SELECT CASE p.y
                    CASE R.nTop TO R.nBottom
                         FUNCTION = %TRUE
.....

=>

FUNCTION IsMouseOverControl(hWnd AS LONG)AS LONG
     LOCAL p AS PointApi
     LOCAL R AS Rect

     GetCursorPos (p)
     GetWindowRect hWnd, R
     FUNCTION =  PtInRect (R, pt.x, pt.y)

MCM

[Cliff Nichols]

Not to hijack, but maybe a possible cause of GPF (I have not had a chance to test yet but....)

Just before end of day, I had a user come to me about "Getting rid of ALLLLlll these dialog boxes"???? So I thought to myself I better go look because they could not explain it.

I went and looked, and only 2 programs open, so I had them show me where these "Dialog Boxes" were????

I watched and they kept looking back as if to show me...and I finally asked, "Did you mean the yellow box that shows up if the mouse sits still a moment or two??"

The reply was yes.....and how to get rid of it??!?!?!?! (Their computer at home they just disable it......as it turns out its a MAC)

Anyways, I figured out a registry key to turn off tooltips....but now wondering, if tooltips are turned off (for whatever reason) If it would cause a GPF? or just not do anything when you purposely coded in routines to show tooltips?

Just a thought

[Michael Mattias]

I'd actually like to have two or three tooltips per control, some to be called when the mouse hovers over the control and others on demand to point attention to a problem in the field contents

TTM_UPDATETIPTEXT

TTM_UPDATE

WM_NOTIFY/TTN_GETDISPINFO (req Toolinfo.lpszText = %LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACK)