Moving a Form

[Nina]

Hello,

for a program I'm currently working on, I need to know, when my form is moved.
I haven't been able to find a solution (event, which indicates that my form is being/was moved) so far, although I've been looking around on the Internet and MSDN.

Maybe anyone of you can give me any tips??
Thanks

[RealisticGraphics]

Put this is a module:

Global FormTop As Integer
Global FormLeft As Integer

Public Function HasFormMoved()
If Form1.Top <> FormTop Or Form1.Left <> FormLeft Then
    'Do something if it has been moved
    MsgBox "Form has been moved"
    'reset values if you'd like
    FormTop = Form1.Top
    FormLeft = Form1.Left
Else
    'Do something if it hasn't been moved
    MsgBox "Form has not been moved"
End If
End Function

Put this in your form_load event:

FormTop = Form1.Top
FormLeft = Form1.Left

Whenever you want to know if your form has moved, just call the HasFormMoved function.

[Nina]

that's not really what I need ...
but thanks for trying to help me

the program consists of 2 forms which are displayed together (I can't put into just one form), next to each other ...

... so when one form is moved, I want the other form to be moved too, and placed directly next to the first form

... as there is no FormMove event I'm looking for some code which tells when the form is moved

how would that work?
how would you call it, when the form was moved?
you would have to put it in a form_move event, one does not exist...

[Jamie_Dowd]

Just use the code posted above, but you would add code to move your second form whenever the first form is moved. If you want the second form right next to the first form on it's right had side then just do this:

'add this to the code above

frmSecond.Left = frmFirst.left + frmFirst.width
frmSecond.Top = frmFirst.Top


this will attach the second form to the right hand side of the first form.

[RealisticGraphics]

Well... Off the top of my head I cann't think of anything that would be super affective. You could use a timer to check on the form position using the same code I gave you however it would not be real accurate and it would each memory. Give me a few minutes and I'll what I kind find for you.

[Jamie_Dowd]

Response to Dennis' question:

You would just stick it into a do until loop.

Public Sub CheckForMovement()


do until HasFormMoved

doevents

loop

'can write code here to do stuff if the form has moved.


'then call the sub recursively
CheckForMovement

end sub

[RealisticGraphics]

denniswrenn:

That code works fine as long as it doesn't need to be an instantanious change. I've used it before to save the position to the registry and to open other windows in relation to that window. But you're right, we need a form_move event.

[Nina]

I know, I really would like to avoid using a timer...

... I found something about hooks just a few minutes ago - with them I should be able to do it ... but I haven't been using the API a lot ... only easy functions
... so right now I don't really know what to do ... but I'm working on it

maybe anyone of you knows a little bit about it???

Does your form use a title bar? If you use a label to move the form, you can easily detect if its moving .

[Yonatan]

This is kinda tough to explain (so just accept it!), and it may crash if you debug your code and press the End button from the toolbar, or if you use the End statement anywhere in your code.
Form code:

Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Call HookUsUpScotty
End Sub

Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
    Call HookUsDownScotty
End Sub

Public Sub Form_FormMove()
    ' What??? FormMove???
    ' Yes!!! Woo hoo!!!
    ' Just leave it as a Public Sub, will you? This one doesn't like being Private.
End Sub

Don't get excited yet. This lovely module code will work if the above form is called Form1, but that can easily be changed.

Option Explicit

Declare Function CallWindowProc Lib "user32" Alias "CallWindowProcA" (ByVal lpPrevWndFunc As Long, ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal Msg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long

Public Const GWL_WNDPROC = (-4)

Public Const WM_MOVE = &H3
Public Const WM_MOVING = &H216

Dim lpfnPrevWndProc As Long

Public Sub HookUsUpScotty()
    lpfnPrevWndProc = SetWindowLong(Form1.hWnd, GWL_WNDPROC, AddressOf WindowProc)
End Sub

Public Sub HookUsDownScotty()
    Call SetWindowLong(Form1.hWnd, GWL_WNDPROC, lpfnPrevWndProc)
End Sub

Public Function WindowProc(ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal uMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
    If (uMsg = WM_MOVE) Or (uMsg = WM_MOVING) Then Call Form1.Form_FormMove
    WindowProc = CallWindowProc(lpfnPrevWndProc, hWnd, uMsg, wParam, lParam)
End Function

I HAVEN'T TESTED IT! So I am not sure whether or not it works. But I think it does.

[Nina]

Hi Yonatan,
thanks for your help.
Yesterday evening I was also able to find something that works - even if I don't exactly how ...
On the website of VbAccelerator is an example, using Windows Hooks, for keystrokes and mouse moves.
I modified it a little so now it works quite well for my purpose.

Option Explicit

Implements IWindowsHook

Private Type POINTAPI
   x As Long
   y As Long
End Type

Dim xi, yi As Long
'-----------------------
Private Function IWindowsHook_HookProc(ByVal eType As EHTHookTypeConstants, ByVal nCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long, bConsume As Boolean) As Long
   Dim ctlOver As Control
   Dim bS As Boolean
   Dim lC As Long
   Dim lhWNd As Long
   Dim bSkip As Boolean
   Static ctlIgnore As Control

   With MouselParam(lParam)
      Select Case wParam
         Case WM_MOUSEMOVE
            If Me.Left <> xi Or Me.Top <> yi Then
               If frKalibrBericht.Visible Then
                  frKalibrBericht.Left = Me.Left
                  frKalibrBericht.Top = Me.Top
               End If
               If frKalibrSet.Visible Then
                  frKalibrSet.Left = Me.Left
                  frKalibrSet.Top = Me.Top
               End If
               If frStammDatenShow.Visible Then
                  frStammDatenShow.Left = Me.Left - frStammDatenShow.Width
                  frStammDatenShow.Top = Me.Top
               End If
            End If
            xi = Me.Left
            yi = Me.Top
   
         Case WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_LBUTTONDOWN
            xi = Me.Left
            yi = Me.Top
      End Select
   End With
End Function
'-----------------------
Private Sub Form_Load()
   xi = Me.Left
   yi = Me.Top
   
   InstallHook Me, WH_MOUSE
End Sub
'-----------------------
Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
   RemoveHook Me, WH_MOUSE
End Sub

You just need to have their DLL in your system32 directory
(http://vbaccelerator.com/codelib/hook/vbalhook.htm)

[Yonatan]

I always hate distributing any kind of DLL with my applications. If you want that exact same code with no DLL requirement, try this:
Form code:

Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load()
    xi = Left
    yi = Top
    
    Call InstallHook
End Sub

Private Sub Form_QueryUnload(Cancel As Integer, UnloadMode As Integer)
    Call RemoveHook
End Sub

Module code:

Option Explicit

Declare Function SetWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowsHookExA" (ByVal idHook As Long, ByVal lpfn As Long, ByVal hmod As Long, ByVal dwThreadId As Long) As Long
Declare Function UnhookWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" (ByVal hHook As Long) As Long
Declare Function CallNextHookEx Lib "user32" (ByVal hHook As Long, ByVal nCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

Public Const WH_MOUSE = 7

Public Const WM_MOUSEMOVE = &H200
Public Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN = &H201
Public Const WM_LBUTTONUP = &H202

Dim hHook As Long

Public xi As Long, yi As Long

Public Sub InstallHook()
    hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE, AddressOf MouseProc, App.hInstance, App.ThreadID)
End Sub

Public Sub RemoveHook()
    Call UnhookWindowsHookEx(hHook)
End Sub

' The "ByVal lParam As Long" should really be "lParam As MOUSEHOOKSTRUCT"
' but we don't need to access lParam so we can just use a pointer and skip the type declarations.
Public Function MouseProc(ByVal nCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
    Select Case wParam
    Case WM_MOUSEMOVE
        ' Replace Form1 with the naForm1 of the form
        ' in which you put the code from the beginning of this post.
        If Form1.Left <> xi Or Form1.Top <> yi Then
            If frKalibrBericht.Visible Then
                frKalibrBericht.Left = Form1.Left
                frKalibrBericht.Top = Form1.Top
            End If
            If frKalibrSet.Visible Then
                frKalibrSet.Left = Form1.Left
                frKalibrSet.Top = Form1.Top
            End If
            If frStammDatenShow.Visible Then
                frStammDatenShow.Left = Form1.Left - frStammDatenShow.Width
                frStammDatenShow.Top = Form1.Top
            End If
        End If
        xi = Form1.Left
        yi = Form1.Top
    Case WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_LBUTTONDOWN
        xi = Form1.Left
        yi = Form1.Top
    End Select
    ' If lParam wasn't a Long pointer, then the ByVal wouldn't have been here:
    MouseProc = CallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, ByVal lParam)
End Function