Shape-Changing Progress Control

CSuperProgressCtrl Sample


     SP_FILL_VERTGRAD                  SP_FILL_VERT

CSuperProgressCtrl Fill Styles

     SP_FILL_HORZGRAD                  SP_FILL_HORZ

Environment: Windows 95, Visual C++ 4

While browsing through the CodeGuru site, I came across a number
of articles on progress controls that do gradient shading and even
bitmap shading, similar to Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator. I
have not come across one piece of code, however, that allows a
program to change the shape of a progress control. This progress
indicator can be shaded in one of four different ways: solid
horizontally, solid vertically, gradient horizontally and gradient
vertically. All four are shown above, with the appropriate #define’d
value to pass to SetFillStyle(). The colours used for shading are
fully customizable, as is the background colour. The default background
colour is the background colour of a dialog box, so it can be used
in a dialog box with minimum overhead. The most interesting feature,
however, is the ability to form the progress control into any shape,
given by a bitmap.

The shape is passed to the Create() member function in the hbmArea
parameter. This can be a colour or monochrome bitmap. Any colour
that is non-white is used to form the progress control. Pixels that
are white are transparent areas, and are not shaded. The bitmap
is converted to a region, using a function from an article by
Jean-Edouard Lachand-Robert. This region is then expanded by one
pixel in both the horizontal and vertical directions. For this
reason, make sure that the bitmap has a 2 pixel (at least) white
border around any non-white pixels. This region is passed to the
SetWindowRgn() function. The advantage of this is that we don’t
have to perform much clipping, and any windows underneath that are
under the transparent areas can still be seen. The Create() function
uses the width and height of the bitmap as the width and height of
the progress control, so make your bitmap the same size as you would
like the progress control to be.

Except for the Create() function. The progress control is designed
to operate exactly as the CProgressCtrl MFC class, with a few
additions. These additions are for setting the fill style and colours.
I added a function that implements a MFC-compatible message loop.
This function can be called regularly during a long operation, so
that your program does not appear to have crashed. If a WM_QUIT
message is received during this message loop, the function returns
FALSE so that you can exit your processing loop, otherwise it returns
TRUE.

NOTE: Before using this class, make sure you call the RegisterClass()
function, to register the window class used by this control. This is
a static member, so it can be called in CYourApp::InitInstance()
(for example)

Please consult the source code and demo project for more information
on this class.

Downloads

Download demo project – 30 Kb
Download source – 8 Kb

More by Author

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Developer Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Must Read