BUG: Transparent Label on Transparent Control Does Not Display

I have create a user control.
I require the background to be transparent.
If I do this then I can't have a label on my control with a thransparent backgorund...it just disappears at design time.
When editing the usercontrol. I can seethe l;abel, but once dropped onto a form it vanishes.
Also, I can't use the DarwText API on a transparent control :(
Not happy.

Woof

Hi Woka,

Tried this before and its difficult as I remember.

This is a piece of code that you may be to implement,its for a form normally

See if its any use to you.

Cheers

This a registered bug...and MS have no fix :(

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=179052

Will take a peek at your code now.
This is a silly problem that SHOULD be fixed! :(

Woof

I see.
U mean set the usercontrols backcolor to be transparent at runtime...
The code you posted, that was messed up in the txt file was:

VB Code:

Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "User32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "User32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "User32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal crey As Byte, ByVal bAlpha As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long
Private Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Private Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000
Private Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2&
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim LEVEL As Byte
    LEVEL = 120
    Call SetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, GetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE) Or WS_EX_LAYERED)
    Call SetLayeredWindowAttributes(Me.hwnd, 0, LEVEL, LWA_ALPHA)
End Sub

Simple alpha bending code.

Will try it oooot.

MS Sucks.

Doesn't work :(
It sets ALL controls that are in the container to be 100% transparent too...not just the background...

Arrrghhhh...transparent label on transparent usercontrol MUST be a serious bug!!! How the hell are you supposed to create decent usercontrols :(

Arrrghhhh.....:D

Woof

Seems like it Woka.

Will have a look through some old code samples I had on Transparent and see if we can nail the sucker.

Cheers

Woka,

What if you leave the Usercontrol backstyle to Opaque and then add the label to it and make that transparent but make sure the label is the same size as the usercontrol background that will work won,t it or am i missing something.

Because if you add a normal label and set the backstyle to transparent you get the same result at runtime

Cheers

No. That doesn't work.
You will only see the background of the usercontrol.
So if you have a pic on the usercontrol then this will not be blocked by the label...well it's text obviously, but not it's grey background.
That's why I need the usercontrol to be transparent also, since I have a pic on my form.

This really sucks.

Cheers for helping.

Woof

Got ya, oh well lets see how thing go.

Cheers

Are you prepared to eschew the label control in favour of some hairy CreateWindowEx() ...windows style is WS_STATIC type behaviour?

I tried replacing the label by drawing text, using API, onto the control, but since it's background is transparent then it doesn't show up :(

What do you have in mind?

Woka

There's a short answer and a long answer to this:

Short answer: use a TrueType font in your label.

Long answer: The way that lightweight controls are implemented on transparent usercontrols is a bit ropey- it relies on the usercontrol creating a clipping region for them then drawing the lightweight controls onto their respective clipped area using the standard TextOut type API.

Unfortunately TextOut does not add to a path for non TrueType fonts...

Did it work?

Is there any solution for that bug?

This is an old thread. eeek.
I am afraid I can'r even remember asking this question :D
Which also means I can't work out if I got it working :(

Woka