[RESOLVED] [2005] Drag & Drop Multiple Selections from a ListBox

[Nihilistic Mystic]

I have a form with several Listboxes. Two of them are setup as MultiSelect and I have coded DragDrop events to move objects between them, which all works great when a single item is selected.
The problem I am having is that the listbox control changes selection when the left mouse button goes down, clearing other selected items. I can drag multiple items if I right click drag the selection, but this seems counter intuitive for the user.
Does anyone have any suggestions on changing this behavior? I assume this could be changed in a custom derived listbox control, but I am not sure how to go about doing that.

[.paul.]

could you post your code?

[Nihilistic Mystic]

could you post your code?

Here is a simple demo of the issue. it's not a problem with the drag drop drop code, it's the Listbox itself. It appears that *before* the mousedown event of a left click the listbox selection changes making it impossible to drag multiple selections with the left mouse button. You can drag multiple selections with the right button.
Add 2 listboxes to a form and try it out.

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub ListBox1_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles ListBox1.MouseDown
        ListBox1.DoDragDrop(ListBox1.SelectedItems, DragDropEffects.Move)
    End Sub
    Private Sub ListBox2_DragDrop(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs) Handles ListBox2.DragDrop
        For Each item As Object In (e.Data.GetData(GetType(ListBox.SelectedObjectCollection)))
            ListBox2.Items.Add(item)
        Next
    End Sub
    Private Sub ListBox2_DragOver(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs) Handles ListBox2.DragOver
        If (e.Data.GetDataPresent(GetType(ListBox.SelectedObjectCollection))) Then
            e.Effect = DragDropEffects.Move
        Else
            e.Effect = DragDropEffects.None
        End If
    End Sub
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim items() As String = {"ONE", "TWO", "THREE", "FOUR", "FIVE"}
        ListBox1.Items.AddRange(items)
        ListBox1.SelectionMode = SelectionMode.MultiExtended
    End Sub
End Class

[.paul.]

thats a difficult one.
you might be able to catch the listbox mousedown message in a wndProc, and deal with it there

[Nihilistic Mystic]

I have managed to get pretty close to what I wanted. The only issue now is if you have a mulitple selection and want to select a single item within that selection you have to double click or click on another item outside of the selection because it seems that after a DoDrapDrop you can no longer see the WM_LBUTTONUP message. I think I can live with that, hopeuflly I dont get any user complaints.

Public Class MultiSelListBox
    Inherits ListBox
    Private MouseOverIndex As Integer
    Private DownOnIndex As Integer
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H201
    Private Const WM_RBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H204
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Integer = &H202
    Private Const WM_RBUTTONUP As Integer = &H205
    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
        Select Case m.Msg
            Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                DownOnIndex = MouseOverIndex
                If Me.SelectedItems.Count >= 1 And Me.SelectedIndices.Contains(MouseOverIndex) Then
                    Me.DoDragDrop(Me.SelectedItems, DragDropEffects.Move)
                    Return
                Else
                    MyBase.WndProc(m)
                End If
            Case WM_LBUTTONUP
                If DownOnIndex = MouseOverIndex Then
                    Dim down As New Message()
                    down.HWnd = m.HWnd
                    down.Msg = WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                    down.WParam = m.WParam
                    down.LParam = m.LParam
                    down.Result = IntPtr.Zero
                    MyBase.WndProc(down)
                End If
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
            Case Else
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
        End Select
    End Sub
    Protected Overrides Sub OnMouseMove(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)
        MouseOverIndex = Me.IndexFromPoint(e.Location)
        MyBase.OnMouseMove(e)
    End Sub
End Class

[.paul.]

thanks for posting it.
i couldn't work it out.
i'll have another look at it later

[Nihilistic Mystic]

I think I got it now. Moved the DoDragDrop so that it only fires if the mouse is down and moving so I can still receive the LBUTTONUP message

Public Class MultiSelListBox
    Inherits ListBox
    Private MouseOverIndex As Integer
    Private MouseDownIndex As Integer
    Private bMouseDownonSelection As Boolean
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H201
    Private Const WM_RBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H204
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Integer = &H202
    Private Const WM_RBUTTONUP As Integer = &H205
    Private Const WM_MOUSEMOVE As Integer = &H200
    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
        Select Case m.Msg
            Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                MouseDownIndex = MouseOverIndex
                If Me.SelectedItems.Count >= 1 And Me.SelectedIndices.Contains(MouseOverIndex) Then
                    bMouseDownonSelection = True
                    Return
                Else
                    MyBase.WndProc(m)
                End If
            Case WM_MOUSEMOVE
                If bMouseDownonSelection Then
                    Me.DoDragDrop(Me.SelectedItems, DragDropEffects.Move)
                End If
                bMouseDownonSelection = False
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
            Case WM_LBUTTONUP
                If MouseDownIndex = MouseOverIndex Then
                    Dim down As New Message()
                    down.HWnd = m.HWnd
                    down.Msg = WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                    down.WParam = m.WParam
                    down.LParam = m.LParam
                    down.Result = IntPtr.Zero
                    MyBase.WndProc(down)
                End If
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
            Case Else
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
        End Select
    End Sub
    Protected Overrides Sub OnMouseMove(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)
        MouseOverIndex = Me.IndexFromPoint(e.Location)
        MyBase.OnMouseMove(e)
    End Sub
End Class

[.paul.]

have you tried it with multisimple selection?

[Nihilistic Mystic]

Wow, that does't work at all, and I have noticed it messes up Ctrl Clicking in MutliExtended... Is there anyway of getting the modifier key state from the WndProc?

[.paul.]

modifier keys can be got with

Public Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState Lib "user32" Alias "GetAsyncKeyState" (ByVal vKey As Integer) As Integer

[Nihilistic Mystic]

Actually I found out they are in the WParam property of the message. I also figured out how to get the mouse location from the LParam property so I got rid of the hacky MouseOver override. I fixed it so that it works with MultiSimple as well.

Public Class MultiSelListBox
    Inherits ListBox
 
    Private MouseDownOnIndex As Integer
    Private bMouseDownOnSelection As Boolean
    Private bMouseDownOutsideSelection As Boolean
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN As Integer = &H201
    Private Const WM_LBUTTONUP As Integer = &H202
    Private Const WM_MOUSEMOVE As Integer = &H200
    Private Const MK_LBUTTON As Integer = &H1&
 
    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
        Select Case m.Msg
            Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                Dim pt As New Point(m.LParam.ToInt32)
                MouseDownOnIndex = Me.IndexFromPoint(pt)
                If Me.SelectedItems.Count >= 1 _
                And Me.SelectedIndices.Contains(MouseDownOnIndex) _
                And m.WParam = MK_LBUTTON Then
                    bMouseDownonSelection = True
                    Return
                Else
                    bMouseDownOutsideSelection = True
                    MyBase.WndProc(m)
                End If
            Case WM_MOUSEMOVE
                If bMouseDownonSelection Then
                    Me.DoDragDrop(Me.SelectedItems, DragDropEffects.Move)
                End If
                bMouseDownonSelection = False
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
            Case WM_LBUTTONUP
                Dim pt As New Point(m.LParam.ToInt32)
                If MouseDownOnIndex = Me.IndexFromPoint(pt) _
                And m.WParam = 0 And Not bMouseDownOutsideSelection Then
                    Dim down As New Message()
                    down.HWnd = m.HWnd
                    down.Msg = WM_LBUTTONDOWN
                    down.WParam = m.WParam
                    down.LParam = m.LParam
                    down.Result = IntPtr.Zero
                    MyBase.WndProc(down)
                End If
                bMouseDownOutsideSelection = False
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
            Case Else
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
        End Select
    End Sub
End Class

[.paul.]

excellent. i reckon you can mark that resolved