CommonControls (Replacement of the MS common controls)

[Krool]

Is it possible to set the RTB background to transparent?

The following seems to work for the original Rich Text Box, but for some reason not the new one:

SetWindowLong richtextbox1.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_TRANSPARENT

It actually works. But, as there is a underlying UserControl under the RichTextBox it will always show the background of the UserControl. Thus it is not visible transparent. But again, the actual RichTextBox is indeed transparent with this.

I could make a 'Transparent' property for the RichTextBox which would do two things.
1. Set the WS_EX_TRANSPARENT extended style to the RichtTextBox control.
2. Make the background of the UserControl a replica of the underlying background to simulate transparency.

[Krool]

Update released.

[stum]

Update released.

Hey Krool,

Is it free for commercial use as well ?

[Krool]

Hey Krool,

Is it free for commercial use as well ?

Feel free to use it for commercial use. But only embedded in an application. Not the controls on its own.

[ishalom]

very cool controls 1 thing i noticed that is missing (which i use alot)
RightToLeft Property

[ishalom]

{{Ok I have noticed that the separator work as a placeholder, but the separator doesn’t exist}}
After Playing around i noticed that Separator and Placeholder are the same depending on the CustomWidth. Also the toolbar Style hast to be Flat In order to see the divider Line


A bug in the ocx version is on the buttons property page keeps messing things up.

[Krool]

A bug in the ocx version is on the buttons property page keeps messing things up.

The bug was in the 1.1 OCX version. It is now fixed.
Thanks for this.

I also fixed another problem; that the HighLighted property of a Button in the ToolBar control did not consider the design time state at run time.

[Krool]

Update released.

[ishalom]

I have been using visual basic since version 3, I now use version 6 and I can say it does (almost) everything a good programming language needs.
It does although happen that I need to browse around the internet for custom control code, most of the time, I need to tinkle with the code to make it bug free, and to suite my needs
EXCEPT: for these controls, they are very comprehensive and delivers the FULL set of tools. No bugs. I am now including your OCX with all my applications. Just using the compiled version, no need to play around with the code.
Thank you!
What credits should I include in my compile applications, you deserve it?
PS. Do you have any plans to add any controls to the collection?

[Krool]

What credits should I include in my compile applications, you deserve it?

Not any mandatory one. Maybe you can just add a link to this thread.

Do you have any plans to add any controls to the collection?

What do you mean exactly?

[ishalom]

Not any mandatory one. Maybe you can just add a link to this thread.

i think it's a decent thing to do..

What do you mean exactly.

Any plans for a Splitter Control, Property List or to Create a combobox with the AutoComplete interface

[Krool]

Create a combobox with the AutoComplete interface

You can already do this. By using my AutoComplete (Using the IAutoComplete interface) and pass the .hWndEdit of the ComboBoxW to it.

[Krool]

Update released.

Info: The bugfix for the internal CheckHeaderControl function in the ListView control is relevant when changing the 'View' property at run time. The CheckHeaderControl function assures that the header related properties are set accordingly when the 'View' property was set back and forth from/to 'Report'. Prior to bugfix this worked only once.

[Thierry76]

Download doesn't work for me...
Trying to unzip without success, a message box say (in french) :
[Window Title] : Dossiers compressés
[Content] :Insérez le dernier disque de l’ensemble multi-volumes, et cliquer sur OK pour continuer.

In my poor english it's the same problem with a rar file ... with multi files ... when you got only the first one...

[Krool]

You need to cut off the ".zip" extension and then open the .rar file. (e.g. with WinRAR)

[Thierry76]

Thanks a lot for your answer and ... for this great code !

[ashian]

Hi,
thank you for your work. I'm not familiar with VB, and I have a problem hope I can find a solution for it here.
We have an old VB6 application, which uses mscomct2.ocx to show date picker. we don't have it's source code. is it possible that without change it's code, replace mscomct2.ocx reference with your controls?
Main problem is we want to change Calendar to support a local calendar which not include in MS windows. so hope with your date picker we can customize date and month view. Can we make an ocx with all mscomct2.ocx functionality with your control to replace this ocx file?

Best regards
Mehdi

[ishalom]

What is DoubleBuffer on the Toolbar Control

[Krool]

What is DoubleBuffer on the Toolbar Control

It reduces the flickering.

[ishalom]

Is there a way to automaticly upgrade all Microsoft common control in a project to use the controls from here?

[Krool]

Is there a way to automaticly upgrade all Microsoft common control in a project to use the controls from here?

Not really. But you can do it like this:

1. Include all the controls you want to your project.
2. Open the .frm file in the notepad editor (like by .txt files) and do a 'Replace All', for instance: VB.TextBox with [Your project name here].TextBoxW (e.g. "Project1.TextBoxW").

[ishalom]

2. Open the .frm file in the notepad editor (like by .txt files) and do a 'Replace All', for instance: VB.TextBox with [Your project name here].TextBoxW (e.g. "Project1.TextBoxW").

Yes. I thought of that, but it wouldn't work on toolbar, statusbar, imagelist

Also. if you have set the font property, you have to change

BeginProperty Font

as

BeginProperty Font {0BE35203-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}

[Krool]

Yes. I thought of that, but it wouldn't work on toolbar, statusbar, imagelist

Yes. The property bag is not compatible. For those you need to remove and create new from scratch.

[Krool]

Update released.

I included the IMEMode property in the TextBoxW control.
I did some tests (e.g. japanese Hiragana <> Katakana) and it worked.
But maybe someone who is more familiar with this at whole can do tests and report me when something is done wrong or so. Would be grateful.

[TomasEss]

Hi, and thanks for excellent work.

I'm evaluating the statusbar control. I seem unable to change panel widths from code. It says "383 Property is write only" whenever I try. This happens regardless of the panel autosize setting. I assumed that at least the autosize=None should allow width changes from code like I'm used to.

I was also looking for the ability to have individual font settings (like bold) in the panels so that panel 1 is bold while the others are not. I have found the workaround using the picture property with a picture containing the bold text, but it would be nicer to have it done directly by the control. Would that be possible?

[Krool]

I seem unable to change panel widths from code. It says "383 Property is write only" whenever I try. This happens regardless of the panel autosize setting. I assumed that at least the autosize=None should allow width changes from code like I'm used to.

I was also looking for the ability to have individual font settings (like bold) in the panels so that panel 1 is bold while the others are not. I have found the workaround using the picture property with a picture containing the bold text, but it would be nicer to have it done directly by the control. Would that be possible?

For adjusting the panel width you can use the MinWidth property. (Width property is meant to only receive the actual width)

The panels on my StatusBar control are owner drawn. So yes it would be possible do include a 'Bold' property. You want this? ;-)

[TomasEss]

Thanks. I was able to get it working using the MinWidth property. This is however not the same as with the MS StatusBar Control where Width is writable. No problem for me though, so no worries.
I also thought about using the backcolor set to black, but noticed that there's no forecolor so I got black on black.
So, to be usable for me, yes I would like to have a bold property aswell as a forecolor or ultimately the ability to set the back and font color separately per pane.

[Thierry76]

Dear Krool,
I was working last week on a VBA OCX version... an i was quite happy with it, it work with few changes of your code...
Is there anybody working/interesting to the same target ?
Thousand thanks
Thierry

PS1 I still got problem with the properties pages of all usercontrol (except the imagelist), do you have a clue ?
PS2 At this time I working on a mecanism to selftregister it on HKCU on a very protected version of Windows (LUA, GPO etc)
PS3 Could I share the resulte of my work here ?

[Krool]

I was working last week on a VBA OCX version... an i was quite happy with it, it work with few changes of your code...
Is there anybody working/interesting to the same target ?

PS3 Could I share the resulte of my work here ?

Yes and Yes.

[Krool]

Update released.

All controls in VBCCR10.OCX and VBCCR11.OCX are now marked as "Safe for Initialization and Scripting" by the IObjectSafety interface.
The Std-EXE project is untouched as it is not necessary to implement this.

[lrd_VB6]

hello

I'm a little annoyed. I can not seem to install "VBCCR11.OCX" version 9!
Attached is a picture of the problem during installation.
Attachment 119627
There are special handling to do?
I think a "OLEGuids.tlb" in particular.

I replaced the old with the new, but it does not work ...

kind regards

[Krool]

hello

I'm a little annoyed. I can not seem to install "VBCCR11.OCX" version 9!
Attached is a picture of the problem during installation.
Attachment 119627
There are special handling to do?
I think a "OLEGuids.tlb" in particular.

I replaced the old with the new, but it does not work ...

kind regards

The OLEGuids.tlb is not needed to run VBCCR11.OCX. It is just needed to compile it.
The only change between v8 and v9 is the new IObjectSafety interface. Can you please search in your registry if you can find the clsid of IObjectSafety?

Maybe just put the v8 again in place. Unregister it and replace with v9 and then register.

Does anybody else have the same problem?

[lrd_VB6]

The OLEGuids.tlb is not needed to run VBCCR11.OCX. It is just needed to compile it.
The only change between v8 and v9 is the new IObjectSafety interface. Can you please search in your registry if you can find the clsid of IObjectSafety?

Maybe just put the v8 again in place. Unregister it and replace with v9 and then register.

Does anybody else have the same problem?

I had already tried the method

REGSVR32 / u VBCCR11_v7.OCX
REGSVR32 VBCCR11_9.OCX

but it does not work

here is the part of the register of the object IObjectSafety

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface\{CB5BDC81-93C1-11CF-8F20-00805F2CD064}]
@="IObjectSafety"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface\{CB5BDC81-93C1-11CF-8F20-00805F2CD064}\NumMethods]
@="5"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface\{CB5BDC81-93C1-11CF-8F20-00805F2CD064}\ProxyStubClsid32]
@="{B8DA6310-E19B-11D0-933C-00A0C90DCAA9}"

I was too confident!
I forgot to make a copy of version 8.
It works very well, only V9 gives me problems!

[Krool]

I think I know the problem. When a interface is implemented into a UserControl then this makes no dependancy. But when a interface is implemented into a class module, like the CommonDialog.cls, then this interface is somehow dependant. Thus indeed the correct OLEGuids.tlb were necessary to run the latest VBCCR10.OCX and/or VBCCR11.OCX.
In order to solve this (to be independent to the OLEGuids.tlb) it is necessary to remove this new IObjectSafety from the CommonDialog.cls.
So we have then to live with the situation that only the actual controls are now marked as "safe".

I updated the OCX projects accordingly.

@lrd_VB6,
does the new OCX versions now work?

[lrd_VB6]

I just test it has now, everything seems to work normally.
Sorry for the delay, but without electricity, it is not easy

[lrd_VB6]

hello,

Just a question:
Why keep the VBCCR10.OCX version?

I wrote (quickly) a converter to go from version 1.0 to 1.1.
I have used it to transform my sources without much effort.
This requires that be improved!

Kind regards.

[Krool]

I have a added a .reg file on the post of each OCX version that will mark the CommonDialog class also "Safe for Initialization and Scripting".
It is necessary to do like this as contrary to the controls it is not possible to include the IObjectSafety interface in the CommonDialog class and to be also independent of the OLEGuids.tlb.

[lrd_VB6]

hello

I wish I could have access to the positioning of the box CommonDialog
I refer in particular to the message INIT_DIALOG (I think).
Is that possible?

Or a simpler something like a variable "StartupPosition"
CenterScreen or CenterWindow.
But the first idea allows more thing!

kind regards

[Elroy]

Say Krool,

FANTASTIC work. I love the idea of having absolutely no OCX dependencies, without losing programming features.

I saw a comment above though about Unicode on the standard button. Actually, this is no biggie at all. I've attached a small project that does it. The BAS module even has several other calls for doing Unicode things.

Also, it's not in there, but it's quite easy to write a CTL control based on little more than the button that saves Unicode from the IDE. There are two tricks to getting this done: 1) You have to save the .Caption property into a byte array in the PropertyBag so that it's coerced into the .FRX file when you do a save. The .FRM files are strictly ASCII so you can't save Unicode properties in them. The second trick is that the actual Property Window won't handle Unicode either, so you have to design a custom property window for the button .Caption property using the RTF control with its Unicode turned on.

However, neither of those is terribly difficult.

Take Care,
Elroy
UnicodeButton.zip

Edit: Ahhh, and I've actually done this but not cleaned it up for distribution. In my opinion, if you're going to write a custom user control for a Unicode button, it should have the RTF box (for the Unicode property) actually on the control itself (in other words, no extra forms as support for the control). Maybe you'll be motivated to do this with your API version of the RTF box. Again, great work though.

[ScriptBASIC]

Hi Krool,

Outstanding job with the common controls replacement OCX. It works great (.exe) on XP, Win7 and Win10. I'm trying to use your OCX with ActiveX form contols I access with Script BASIC via it's COM OLE interface. Can the OCX be used in this way?

John Spikowski
Script BASIC open source project manager
www.scriptbasic.org