VB 6 : Find out if Cursor is Inside a Form

[Danial]

I needed this in one of my project, so i thought it might be useful for others.

'Description : Tells if the cursor/mouse pointer is inside a form.
'Input : Form Name
'Output : Boolean (True/False)
'Requirements: Place a timer control inside the form.
 
'Example Code:
 
 
Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, lpRect As RECT) As Long
 
Private Type RECT
    Left As Long
    Top As Long
    Right As Long
    Bottom As Long
End Type
 
Private Type POINTAPI
    X As Long
    Y As Long
End Type
 
Private Const WM_USER As Long = &H400
Private Const SB_GETRECT As Long = (WM_USER + 10)
 
Function IsInside(frmName As Form) As Boolean
    Dim X As Long
    Dim X1 As Long
    Dim Y As Long
    Dim Y1 As Long
        
    Dim Win As RECT
    Dim Cur As POINTAPI
    
    GetWindowRect frmName.hWnd, Win
    
    GetCursorPos Cur
        
    If Cur.X > Win.Left And Cur.X < Win.Right And Cur.Y > Win.Top And Cur.Y < Win.Bottom Then
        IsInside = True
    Else
        IsInside = False
    End If
    
End Function
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Timer1.Enabled = True
    Timer1.Interval = 100
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    If IsInside(Me) Then
        Me.Cls
        Print "The Cursor is Inside the form"
    Else
        Me.Cls
        Print "The Cursor is Outside the form"
    End If
    
End Sub

[manavo11]

This can be generalised for all controls with an hwnd

[Danial]

Originally posted by manavo11
This can be generalised for all controls with an hwnd

Can you explain further. Look at this thread for more background on why I needed it.

Thanks.

Danial

[manavo11]

If you change this line :

Function IsInside(frmName As Form) As Boolean

and you change the "As Form" to "As Object" (you might also want to change the name of the variable) you can check weather the mouse is over/in an object as long as it has an hwnd (like the form). This would work for a command button but not for a label... So you could either use some error trapping to see if there is an hwnd property for the object you passed to the function or use this...

[cjqp]

Or you could pass an HWND itself, then find the window cordinate's that are associated with it, and procede from there.

cjqp

[Danial]

Originally posted by manavo11
If you change this line :

Function IsInside(frmName As Form) As Boolean

and you change the "As Form" to "As Object" (you might also want to change the name of the variable) you can check weather the mouse is over/in an object as long as it has an hwnd (like the form). This would work for a command button but not for a label... So you could either use some error trapping to see if there is an hwnd property for the object you passed to the function or use this...

OK, i think you didnt understand why i needed to write this function like that.

Let me an example, In one of my project i needed to minimize my application after n minute of inactivity. So to do that i needed to know if the Mouse was inside the form. Now i could have used MouseMove property of the form, but since the form will be covered by other controls, i wont be able to use that. Thats why I used above method.

I am sure there are other ways of doing it, but i found this to be the most suitable.

Thanks

Danial

[cjqp]

We're just saying how this could be expanded to meet other people's needs.

cjqp

[Danial]

Originally posted by cjqp
We're just saying how this could be expanded to meet other people's needs.

cjqp

Sorry, if my answer came across like that. I was just trying to explain why i choose that particular method. Not discouraging posting alternatives.

Danial

[manavo11]

I see what you mean I was just suggesting how you can improve it for more general usage that might help other users as cjqp also said