SHARE

Flat (cool look) buttons (2)

Flat look (cool) toolbar buttons have been well covered. But what about including the same sort of button in a Dialog (or form or dialog bar)? This is not supported by the new common controls, so you have to do it yourself. Here is a class that does flat-look buttons for you. Just like a […]

Written By

CodeGuru Staff

Nov 24, 1998

1 minute read

CodeGuru content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Flat look (cool) toolbar buttons have been well covered. But what about
including the same sort of button in a Dialog (or form or dialog bar)?
This is not supported by the new common controls, so you have to do it
yourself.

Here is a class that does flat-look buttons for you. Just like a toolbar,
the buttons get borders when the mouse moves over them. The code uses
DrawState to draw the buttons.

This class can be (I’ll send further articles when I get some time 🙂
enhanced to include check-style, optional standard looks, icons as well as
text, change cursor as mouse moves over, color change (for links), 3D text,
size text to fit etc etc. But this is a good starting point 🙂

class CMyFlatButton : public CButton {
     DECLARE_DYNAMIC(CMyFlatButton)
private:
     bool m_bRaised;
     bool m_bDrawBackground;
public:
     CMyFlatButton()
          : CButton()
          , m_bRaised(false)  // internal only
          , m_bDrawBackground(true)      // internal only
     {}

// drawing
protected:
virtual void DrawText(CDC* pDC, const CRect& rect, LPCTSTR text, UINT state=0);
virtual void DrawBorders(CDC* pDC, CRect& rect, UINT state=0);
virtual void Draw(CDC* pDC, const CRect& rect, UINT state=0);

protected:
//{{AFX_MSG(CMyFlatButton)
afx_msg BOOL OnEraseBkgnd(CDC* pDC);
afx_msg void OnMouseMove(UINT nFlags, CPoint point);
afx_msg LONG OnMouseLeave(WPARAM, LPARAM);
//}}AFX_MSG
//{{AFX_VIRTUAL(CMyFlatButton)
virtual void PreSubclassWindow();
virtual void DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDIS);
//}}AFX_VIRTUAL
DECLARE_MESSAGE_MAP();
};

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CMyFlatButton, CButton)
//{{AFX_MSG_MAP(CMyFlatButton)
ON_WM_ERASEBKGND()
ON_WM_MOUSEMOVE()
ON_MESSAGE(WM_MOUSELEAVE,OnMouseLeave)
//}}AFX_MSG_MAP
END_MESSAGE_MAP()
IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC(CMyFlatButton,CButton)

// this routine uses DrawState to draw the text approriately.
// it automatically centres the text within the button border

void CMyFlatButton::DrawText(CDC* pDC, const CRect& rect, LPCTSTR text, UINT state) {
// we want transparent text
int nBkModeOld = pDC->SetBkMode(TRANSPARENT);
// setup text color
COLORREF textcol = ::GetSysColor(COLOR_BTNTEXT);
COLORREF oldTextColor = pDC->SetTextColor(textcol);
// centre the text
CSize textSizeClient = pDC->GetTextExtent(text,strlen(text));
int x = rect.left+(rect.Width()-textSizeClient.cx)/2;
int y = rect.top+(rect.Height()-textSizeClient.cy)/2;
// draw the text
pDC->DrawState(CPoint(x,y), rect.Size(), text,
(state & ODS_DISABLED?DSS_DISABLED:DSS_NORMAL), true, 0, (HBRUSH)NULL
);
// restore dc
pDC->SetTextColor(oldTextColor);
pDC->SetBkMode(nBkModeOld);
}

// this routine (optionally) draws the borders on the button
// flat buttons use only single-pixel borders, so we cannot use
// DrawFrameControl.

void CMyFlatButton::DrawBorders(CDC* pDC, CRect& rect,UINT state) {
if (state & ODS_SELECTED) {
pDC->Draw3dRect(rect,::GetSysColor(COLOR_3DSHADOW),
::GetSysColor(COLOR_3DHILIGHT));
rect.DeflateRect(1,1);
} else if (! m_bRaised && ! (state & ODS_FOCUS)) {
// no border – flat look
rect.DeflateRect(1,1);
} else {

pDC->Draw3dRect(rect,::GetSysColor(COLOR_3DHILIGHT),
::GetSysColor(COLOR_3DSHADOW));
rect.DeflateRect(1,1);
}
rect.DeflateRect(1,1);
if (state & ODS_SELECTED) {
rect.OffsetRect(1,1); // offset image when pressed
}
}

// Here we draw the appropriate parts of the button

void CMyFlatButton::Draw(CDC* pDC, const CRect& inrect, UINT state) {
CRect rect = inrect;
DrawBorders(pDC,rect,state);
CString text;
GetWindowText(text);
if (! text.IsEmpty()) {
DrawText(pDC,rect,text,state);
}
}

// Overrides
void CMyFlatButton::PreSubclassWindow() {
SetButtonStyle(GetButtonStyle() | BS_OWNERDRAW | BS_NOTIFY);
}

// we use m_bDrawBackground flag to allow us to
// repaint behind the button before drawing on top

void CMyFlatButton::DrawItem(LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDIS) {
if (m_bDrawBackground) {
m_bDrawBackground = false;
// if not redrawing the whole thing,
CWnd* pParent = GetParent();
CRect rect; GetWindowRect(rect);
pParent->ScreenToClient(rect);
pParent->InvalidateRect(rect);
pParent->UpdateWindow();
} else {
m_bDrawBackground = true;
CDC* pDC = CDC::FromHandle(lpDIS->hDC);
ASSERT_VALID(pDC);
CRect rectClient = lpDIS->rcItem;
Draw(pDC,rectClient,lpDIS->itemState);
}
}

// Messages
BOOL CMyFlatButton::OnEraseBkgnd(CDC*) {
return true; // we don’t do any erasing when owner drawn
}

// the m_bRaised flag inidicates whether or not to
// draw the borders. If the mouse is over the button
// the borders are drawn. We use TrackMouseEvent to
// detect when the mouse leaves the button so we can
// turn off the flag

void CMyFlatButton::OnMouseMove(UINT, CPoint) {
if (! m_bRaised) {
// draw with button borders
m_bRaised = true;
Invalidate();
// remember to remove button borders when we leave
TRACKMOUSEEVENT trackmouseevent;
trackmouseevent.cbSize = sizeof(trackmouseevent);
trackmouseevent.dwFlags = TME_LEAVE;
trackmouseevent.hwndTrack = GetSafeHwnd();
trackmouseevent.dwHoverTime = HOVER_DEFAULT;
_TrackMouseEvent(&trackmouseevent);
}
}

LONG CMyFlatButton::OnMouseLeave(WPARAM, LPARAM) {
// remove button borders
m_bRaised = false;
Invalidate();
return 0;
}

Last updated: 13 May 1998