VB6 - Listview Rows Backcolor (Without subclassing)

[aikidokid]

I have come across a piece of code that enables you to change the Backcolor property of any individual row, or rows, without the need for using subclassing. This is a big advantage for everybody, but especially those, like myself, with very limited knowledge of subclassing, but a better knowledge of the perils that it can bring.

I have used this code and altered it a bit to make a fully commented example project to show how easy it is to use.

It requires just the addition of a Picturebox control to your form and thats it, nothing more complicated than that.

It uses the Line Method to fill in the colour in the specified places in the picturebox, i.e. the rows.
See Here for information about the Line method (MSDN)

You would then add a hidden column to the listview to store the value of the Checkbox, which would then be saved to, and loaded from your database when loading the other columns in your listview. Simple

Limitations:
I have noticed that when you get to more that approx 200 records, the colouring or the rows starts to go outside of the lines for each row.
To try this, just change this line in the Form_Load event in the attached project:

'\\Load data into Listview
For i = 0 To 200  <--Change to 1000

The original author of this code is De ming Shang, who I give full credit to for such a simple, but effective alternative to subclassing.

Screenshot of Listview with coloured rows.

[Narayana83]

I have come across a piece of code that enables you to change the Backcolor property of any individual row, or rows, without the need for using subclassing. This is a big advantage for everybody, but especially those, like myself, with very limited knowledge of subclassing, but a better knowledge of the perils that it can bring.

I have used this code and altered it a bit to make a fully commented example project to show how easy it is to use.

It requires just the addition of a Picturebox control to your form and thats it, nothing more complicated than that.

It uses the Line Method to fill in the colour in the specified places in the picturebox, i.e. the rows.
See Here for information about the Line method (MSDN)

You would then add a hidden column to the listview to store the value of the Checkbox, which would then be saved to, and loaded from your database when loading the other columns in your listview. Simple

Limitations:
I have noticed that when you get to more that approx 200 records, the colouring or the rows starts to go outside of the lines for each row.
To try this, just change this line in the Form_Load event in the attached project:

'\\Load data into Listview
For i = 0 To 200  <--Change to 1000

The original author of this code is De ming Shang, who I give full credit to for such a simple, but effective alternative to subclassing.

Screenshot of Listview with coloured rows.

Thanks Its work for me.

[Narayana83]

Thank you very much this solution works form me.

[ajsha]

Thanks for posting.

To keep the row colouring aligned with the rows, see below. The following sub will highlight checked items up until the maximum allowable height of the picturebox.

Private Sub SetListBackground()
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lw As Single  'list width
    Dim lh As Single  'list height
    Dim rh As Single  'row height
    Dim t1 As Single  'top of row 1
    Dim ti As Single  'top of row i
    Dim bh As Single  'background height
    Dim col As Long   'colour of row
    Dim cnt As Long   'number of rows
    
    cnt = lvwBackColour.ListItems.Count
    
    If cnt > 0 Then
    
        picBG.Cls
        picBG.ScaleMode = Me.ScaleMode

        lw = lvwBackColour.Width
        
        t1 = lvwBackColour.ListItems(1).Top
        rh = lvwBackColour.ListItems(1).Height
        lh = rh * cnt
        
        picBG.Width = lw
        picBG.Height = lh
        
        bh = picBG.Height
        
        'note: picturebox has a maximum possible height
        '      if list is too long, bh < lh (items at end of list will not be coloured)
        
        For i = 1 To cnt
            ti = lvwBackColour.ListItems(i).Top - t1
            If ti > bh Then
                'past bottom of background picturebox.
                'Debug.Print "Row " & i & " onwards cannot be highlighted."
                Exit For
            Else
                If lvwBackColour.ListItems(i).Checked = True Then
                    col = &H80FFFF
                Else
                    col = &HFFFFFF
                End If
                picBG.Line (0, ti)-(lw, ti + rh), col, BF
            End If
        Next i
        
        lvwBackColour.Picture = picBG.Image
    Else
        lvwBackColour.Picture = Nothing
    End If
End Sub