Flashing

[JoshUK]

hey, how can i make my program flash when the text inside a text box changes, like chat programs when you have a message?

cheers

EDIT: and also how do i disable the X in the top right hand corner?

[Hack]

hey, how can i make my program flash when the text inside a text box changes, like chat programs when you have a message?

Private Declare Function GetActiveWindow Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function FlashWindow Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wActive As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dMilliseconds As Long)
 
Private Sub Text1_Change()
Dim i As Integer
Dim handle As Long ' Handle for the active window
Dim rval As Long
handle = GetActiveWindow()  'Get the handle of active window
For i = 1 To 10  ' Flash five times
    rval = FlashWindow(handle, 1)  'Flash the window
    Sleep 500  ' Delay the execution for 1/2 minute
Next
rval = FlashWindow(handle, 0) ' Bring the window to normal position

EDIT: and also how do i disable the X in the top right hand corner?

Private Const SC_CLOSE As Long = &HF060&
Private Const MIIM_STATE As Long = &H1&
Private Const MIIM_ID As Long = &H2&
Private Const MFS_GRAYED As Long = &H3&
Private Const WM_NCACTIVATE As Long = &H86
 
Private Type MENUITEMINFO
    cbSize As Long
    fMask As Long
    fType As Long
    fState As Long
    wID As Long
    hSubMenu As Long
    hbmpChecked As Long
    hbmpUnchecked As Long
    dwItemData As Long
    dwTypeData As String
    cch As Long
End Type
 
Private Declare Function GetSystemMenu Lib "user32" ( _
    ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal bRevert As Long) As Long
 
Private Declare Function GetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" Alias _
    "GetMenuItemInfoA" (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, _
    ByVal b As Boolean, lpMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SetMenuItemInfo Lib "user32" Alias _
    "SetMenuItemInfoA" (ByVal hMenu As Long, ByVal un As Long, _
    ByVal bool As Boolean, lpcMenuItemInfo As MENUITEMINFO) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
    "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _
    ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
 
Private Declare Function IsWindow Lib "user32" _
    (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
 
' Enables / Disables the close button on the titlebar and in the system menu
' of the form window passed.
' Return Values:
'
'    0  Close button state changed succesfully / nothing to do.
'   -1  Invalid Window Handle (hWnd argument) Passed to the function
'   -2  Failed to switch command ID of Close menu item in system menu
'   -3  Failed to switch enabled state of Close menu item in system menu
 
Public Function EnableCloseButton(ByVal hWnd As Long, Enable As Boolean) 
As Integer
    Const xSC_CLOSE As Long = -10
    ' Check that the window handle passed is valid    
    EnableCloseButton = -1
    If IsWindow(hWnd) = 0 Then Exit Function    
    ' Retrieve a handle to the window's system menu    
    Dim hMenu As Long
    hMenu = GetSystemMenu(hWnd, 0)    
    ' Retrieve the menu item information for the close menu item/button    
    Dim MII As MENUITEMINFO
    MII.cbSize = Len(MII)
    MII.dwTypeData = String(80, 0)
    MII.cch = Len(MII.dwTypeData)
    MII.fMask = MIIM_STATE
    
    If Enable Then
        MII.wID = xSC_CLOSE
    Else
        MII.wID = SC_CLOSE
    End If
    
    EnableCloseButton = -0
    If GetMenuItemInfo(hMenu, MII.wID, False, MII) = 0 Then Exit Function    
    ' Switch the ID of the menu item so that VB can not undo the action itself    
    Dim lngMenuID As Long
    lngMenuID = MII.wID
    
    If Enable Then
        MII.wID = SC_CLOSE
    Else
        MII.wID = xSC_CLOSE
    End If
    
    MII.fMask = MIIM_ID
    EnableCloseButton = -2
    If SetMenuItemInfo(hMenu, lngMenuID, False, MII) = 0 Then Exit Function    
    ' Set the enabled / disabled state of the menu item    
    If Enable Then
        MII.fState = (MII.fState Or MFS_GRAYED)
        MII.fState = MII.fState - MFS_GRAYED
    Else
        MII.fState = (MII.fState Or MFS_GRAYED)
    End If
    
    MII.fMask = MIIM_STATE
    EnableCloseButton = -3
    If SetMenuItemInfo(hMenu, MII.wID, False, MII) = 0 Then Exit Function     
    SendMessage hWnd, WM_NCACTIVATE, True, 0    
    EnableCloseButton = 0    
End Function
 
'Usage
Private Sub Form_Load()
        'enabled
        EnableCloseButton Me.hWnd, True      
 End Sub
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
      'disabled
       EnableCloseButton Me.hWnd, False
End Sub

[JoshUK]

neither of them seemed to work, do they work in VB5?

[JoshUK]

Bump

[dglienna]

I guess not. Just make it visible and not every 50 milliseconds. It should flash.

Change the border stype to 0. No border.

[JoshUK]

i mean say on MSN when you receive a message when the message window is minimized or behind another program the bar on the task bar flashes, how would i gio about doing that?

[Hack]

neither of them seemed to work, do they work in VB5?

According to AllAPI.Net, this API calls should work in VB4(32 bit), VB5 and VB6 (although I've no way of testing them in anything but VB6)

What happens when you run that code?

[westconn1]

the flash window worked for me, but when i put it in the form load event i flashed the calling window, maybe he wants it to change color, like yahoo's and keeps flashing till it gets focus

disable the X in the top right hand corner

you can set me.controlbox to false to hide the X and the other controls, or you can put code in the form unload event to make it do something else, Cancel = True, will stop the unload process
pete

[JoshUK]

the flash window worked for me, but when i put it in the form load event i flashed the calling window, maybe he wants it to change color, like yahoo's and keeps flashing till it gets focus

thats exactly what i need!, do you have to code for it?

[westconn1]

nope, probably have to send message to titlebar,
someone else may be able to tell you how it is done now they know what you want

pete

[westconn1]

have a look here, there is 3 example to flashing the window

vbnet

rgds pete

[JoshUK]

http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?code/forms/index.html
this one does exactly what i want it to do, but i can't seem to impliment it into my program, on txtmain_change