Bringing transparent control to front (over video)

[Nmitton239]

Hi all, I'm trying to bring a transparent user control (being used as a drawing layer) to the front, over a page that will be playing video. Me.BringToFront() didn't seem to work, and when I tried Me.SetTopLevel(true) in the load, this gave me an InvalidOperationException. Here's what I have so far, sorry for the commented lines.. lots of trial and error (I'm very new, just an intern at the moment)

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class ucDrawingSurface
    Dim myBrush As New SolidBrush(Color.Blue)
    Dim myPen As New Pen(myBrush, 8)

    Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
        Dim g As Graphics = e.Graphics
        g.DrawLine(myPen, 0, 0, Me.Height, Me.Width)
        ' Me.BringToFront()
    End Sub

    Private Const WS_EX_TRANSPARENT As Int32 = &H20

    Declare Sub mouse_event Lib "user32" Alias "mouse_event" (ByVal dwFlags As Int32, ByVal dx As Int32, ByVal dy As Int32, ByVal cButtons As Int32, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Int32)


    Private Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN As Integer = &H2
    Private Const MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP As Integer = &H4
    Private Const MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN As Integer = &H8
    Private Const MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP As Integer = &H10

    Public Sub DoMouseClick()
        Const zero As Integer = 0
        Const one As Integer = 1
        Dim x As Int32 = Cursor.Position.X * 65535 / System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width
        Dim y As Int32 = Cursor.Position.Y * 65535 / System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN Or MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, x, y, zero, one)
    End Sub

    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()

        'This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
        InitializeComponent()


        ' This allows the control to be transparent
        Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.SupportsTransparentBackColor, True)
        Me.UpdateStyles()
        Me.BackColor = Color.Transparent

    End Sub

    Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As CreateParams
        Get
            Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
            cp.ExStyle = cp.ExStyle Or WS_EX_TRANSPARENT

            Return cp
        End Get
    End Property

    Protected Overrides Sub OnPaintBackground(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)

    End Sub

    Private Sub ucDrawingSurface_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        'Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = False
        ' Me.SetTopLevel(True)
    End Sub

    Private Sub ucDrawingSurface_MouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles Me.MouseClick
        Me.Hide()
        DoMouseClick()
        'Me.Show()
        'Me.Enabled = True
        bgw.RunWorkerAsync(Me)
        'bgw.ReportProgress(0, "Show")
    End Sub

    Private Sub bgw_DoWork(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles bgw.DoWork
        ' CType(e.Argument, ucDrawingSurface).Show()
        'CType(e.Argument, ucDrawingSurface).Focus()
        Threading.Thread.Sleep("10")
        showMe()
    End Sub

    Private Sub bgw_ProgressChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs) Handles bgw.ProgressChanged
        If Not e.UserState = Nothing Then
            If e.UserState = "Show" Then
                Me.Show()
            End If
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub showMe()
        If Me.InvokeRequired = True Then
            Me.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(AddressOf showMe))
        Else
            Me.Show()
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

[Nmitton239]

Also: The brush being used is just me drawing a test line over the user control. I needed to make the control so that you can click through pure transparency (to click a button, etc) and so that you may not click through something that you have drawn on the transparent surface (clicking on a drawn object will allow the user to edit / move the drawn object they've clicked on.)

[boops boops]

You may find it interesting to look at this thread for another way of getting the effect you want. BB

[Nmitton239]

I looked over that thread but it didn't really seem to have the answer I'm looking for. I've been at this road block for a while and in narrowing down possibilities for a solution, people keep pointing to WPF, though i'm not sure if that is a valid way of doing what I'm trying to do. Any new suggestions?