Full-Screen Caption Bar

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

Environment: VC6 SP5, NT4 SP3, Win9x, Win2k, and WinXP

Introduction

After working with Remote Desktop from Microsoft, I saw the full-screen caption bar that came on top. The FullScreenHeader is a lookalike of that caption; it is made in Win32 and I’ve tried to make it somewhat customized.

This is my first Win32 app every released, and it may be errors in it. Please point out any errors that I may have made.

Why did I made this? Well, it is the really good opensource utility called RealVNC (http://www.realvnc.com). It is a “remote desktop” freeware with very nice clones. Check them out at UltraVNC (http://www.ultravnc.com) and TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com). Many features have been added and I’ve already implemented the caption in each of these versions. Hopefully, this will be integrated in feature releases of every VNC. If not, you can download all the versions from my Web site: http://lars.werner.no.

Using the Code

You need to add five resources to your project, plus one context menu, as shown in the following code snippet.

void CTitleBar::LoadPictures()
{
  hClose=LoadBitmap(hInstance,    MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_CLOSE));
  hMaximize=LoadBitmap(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_MAXIMIZE));
  hMinimize=LoadBitmap(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_MINIMIZE));
  hPinUp=LoadBitmap(hInstance,    MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_PINUP));
  hPinDown=LoadBitmap(hInstance,  MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDB_PINDOWN));
}

These pictures are included in the demo project. All pictures should be the same size, but you decide the width and height. See the “Customize” section for more info.

You also need to add a context menu to the resource; the default name is IDR_tbMENU. If you have set the tbLastIsStandard=TRUE, you have to add three “default” entries to the menu. From the bottom, they are Close, Minmize, and Restore. All IDs used on each item can be set to eg: IDC_NULL because it is not in use. The tbWMCOMMANDIDStart/End flag sets the range for the IDs used internally in a context menu.

If you want to add other entries to the context menu, you can add them above the three default entries if you’re using them. The parent will get an WM_USER+tbWMUSERID+nItem sent to its message queue. (See the “Customize” section for options that are available to you.)

Implementing in MFC

//Header
CTitleBar *TitleBar;

//Eg in OnInitDialog() procedure
TitleBar=new CTitleBar(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), this->GetSafeHwnd());

//Eg on OnCancel()
delete TitleBar;

You can also declare it without pointers:

//Header
CTitleBar TitleBar;

//Eg in OnInitDialog() procedure
Title.Create(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), this->GetSafeHwnd());

Here is a simple Win32 example. It uses the desktop hwnd to create a child toolbar.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "res\\Resource.h"
#include "FullScreenTitleBar.h"

CTitleBar *TitleBar;

int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,
                     HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                     LPSTR     lpCmdLine,
                     int       nCmdShow)
{
  // TODO: Place code here.

  TitleBar=new CTitleBar(hInstance, ::GetDesktopWindow());

  MSG msg;

  //Wait until loop is finished
  while ( GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0,0) )
  {
    DispatchMessage(&msg);
  }

  //Delete and quit program
  delete TitleBar;

  return 0;
}

This ends the section on how to implement the captionbar in Win32/MFC. Here are the rest of the public variables:

• void Create(HINSTANCE hInst, HWND ParentWindow)—Create a new caption bar
• void SetText(LPTSTR TextOut)—Set a headertext
• void DisplayWindow(BOOL Show, BOOL SetHideFlag=FALSE)—Displaywindow is an alternative to showwindow. It adds the “slide” of the window. The option “SetTheHideflag” is a override; when it is true, the window will scroll to the top and it will call a ShowWindow(m_hWnd, SW_HIDE)
• HWND GetSafeHwnd()—Returns the HWND for the main window

Customizing

There are several options that might be changed at compile time for the captionbar. Here is a complete list:

All other variables (private) should not be tweaked; it may cause failure in other procedures in the program. Modify these at your own risk.

Known Issues

Sometimes, when you delete the caption bar, a destroywindow is called. Because the window is made as a child, it will send a message to the parent asking it to be closed. This might cause the parent to close also. A solution to this problem is to create the caption bar at run time, hide it, and show it as you need it. And, when the main program closes, you can destroy the object. This bug will be sorted out in a later version.

If you encounter the situation where no messages are being sent to your parent window, please check the tbDefault variable. If the user presses the context menu, it will send a “click” to any of the buttons in the parent, and use the parameters used for the buttons.

Version History

First release (non-public): V1.0
First release: v1.1

Downloads

Download demo project – 75 Kb

Download source – 8 Kb