GUIExtender - Deprecated version

[Melba23]

This UDF has been rewritten - the new version can be found here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[New version] - 28 Aug 16

Added: The UDF is now RTL sensitive.

Thanks to shai for the request.

New UDF and examples below.

Details of previous versions: 

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The GUIExtender UDF allows you to have multiple sections within your GUIs which can be either static or extendable. The extendable sections can be extended and retracted either by UDF created buttons or programmatically by other controls or HotKeys. The controls on the sections are fully functional and there is no overlap problem when retracted (see the details section if you want to know how). The UDF can be used in both MessageLoop and OnEvent modes and with both native and UDF created controls, as well as embedded objects and child GUIs.

Details of how the UDF works for those who are interested:

Spoiler

Each GUI initialised by the UDF stores the coordinates and other details of the various sections and their controls. These are all stored in a Global array which from which the UDF extracts the relevant data when required.

When a section is started, the UDF creates a small anchor label which it uses to keep track of where the section is currently located. If a section is retracted, the controls within it are moved to the right of the visible GUI and the subsequent sections moved up to fill the gap. The reverse happens when a section is extended - the section controls are moved back into the correct place in the GUI and subsequent sections moved down. In both cases the GUI is resized to fit the visible sections and the section controls are all moved relative to the section anchor. As the hidden controls are off the visible GUI, there is no overlap problem with the controls on the GUI.

Sections are static unless you set an action control. The UDF can create a button on the GUI automatically, but you can also action a section programatically using other controls or HotKeys. However, although the UDF button is automatically synchronised with the section state, if you use your own control you have to take care of that yourself - but there is a function which returns the current state to help you and the examples show how to do it . You can choose normal or push-style buttons as action controls, as well as the text to display. You can set invisible action controls if only progammatic action required for a section (see examples).

In OnEvent mode, the UDF automatically links these action controls to an internal function which activates the sections without user intervention - in MessageLoop mode, the GUIGetMsg return is passed to the UDF for checking and actioning if necessary (if you use multiple GUIs the the advanced parameter is useful).

You can have controls at the top of the GUI which do not need to be in a section (see the MultiRole example) but once you have started declaring sections, all subsequent controls must be within one or the UDF will not know that they exist and so will not be able to rearrange them when needed.

When dealing with UDF_created controls the UDF determines if the section containing the control is extended or retracted. If retracted the control is hidden - if extended the UDF calculates where the control should be depending on the state of the earlier sections and moves it to that point.

The UDF and plenty of commented examples are in the attached zip:

As always, happy to receive brickbats or bouquets.

M23

Edited March 9, 2017 by Melba23

[JScript]

Thank you my friend!

JS

[Crayfish]

Melba23

I love your extender but I found a bug with your UDF that mess up the layout when user switch shell style.

Is there a fix for this?

You can use any of your example have it open and change windows theme. all the section will go out of wack or blank out. Let me know how I can counter this.

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

Have you tried minimizing and then restoring the GUI? When I change style that seems to solve the problem.

M23

[Crayfish]

Melba23,

Sometime when windows refresh it trigger guiextender to move all control to hide leaving a gui with an empty blank out space. Yah I found out minimized and restore work but kinda odd to have to do that randomly when using GUI. It's only happen when there 2 or more sections. Changing style is my easiest way for you to trigger the glitch. Any other windows refresh or other application redraw can glitch out the position.

i.e. I can have my app open then I go to other apps minimize it and my app blank out randomly.

I was wonder what trigger it to lose the control position when your function seem to record it into array - It shouldn't change right?

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

I am not that surprised that changing the Windows theme causes problems as the entire screen is redrawn, but as to:

i.e. I can have my app open then I go to other apps minimize it and my app blank out randomly

this is not something I have ever seen or ever had reported.

Can you post the code of the GUI with which you have problems and explain in detail what I have to do to make it "glitch".

M23

[Crayfish]

Thank you Melba23 for looking into it.

expandcollapse popup

CreateGUIFunction()

; Create the GUI
Func CreateGUIFunction()
Local $LabelID, $LabelPWD
Local $iInfo_Section_Start, $iInfo_Section_Height
Local $iMain_Section_Start, $iMain_Section_Height
Local $iMore_Section_Start, $iMore_Section_Height


$Main = GUICreate("My GUI", 346, 257)
GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "On_Exit", $Main)

_GUIExtender_Init($Main, 0, 2)

;Group 1
$iMain_Section_Start = 0
$iMain_Section_Height = 50
$iMain_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($Main, $iMain_Section_Start, $iMain_Section_Height)
_GUIExtender_Section_Action($Main, $iMain_Section)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("", 5, $iMain_Section_Start, 335, 46)

_GUIExtender_Section_End($Main) ;Group 1 End

;#########GROUP 2#############################################################
$iInfo_Section_Start = $iMain_Section_Start + $iMain_Section_Height
$iInfo_Section_Height = 127
$iInfo_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($Main, $iInfo_Section_Start, $iInfo_Section_Height)
_GUIExtender_Section_Action($Main, $iInfo_Section)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("", 5, $iInfo_Section_Start + 5, 335, 119)

_GUIExtender_Section_End($Main)
;######################################################################


;Group 3
$iMore_Section_Start = $iInfo_Section_Start + $iInfo_Section_Height
$iMore_Section_Height = 80
$iMore_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($Main, $iMore_Section_Start, $iMore_Section_Height)
_GUIExtender_Section_Action($Main, $iMore_Section)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("More", 5, $iMore_Section_Start, 336, 76)

_GUIExtender_Section_End($Main) ;Group 3 End

_GUIExtender_Section_Extend($Main, $iMain_Section, False)
_GUIExtender_Section_Extend($Main, $iMore_Section, False)

GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)

While 1
Sleep(10)
WEnd

EndFunc

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

And what do I have to do to make it misbehave?

M23

[Crayfish]

LOL yah I was affraid you asked that hence I did a lot of self debug and stripped all code down to bare minimal and trigger everything to replicate the effect and the easiest way is to change style.

I suppose any app that do a screen refresh or redraw can trigger this.

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

I have been playing around and I can certainly reproduce the problem when changing styles. It seems to be the same problem that happens when you run through a MINIMIZE/RESTORE cycle as I explained here. You have love Windows when it causes the GUI to be misdrawn when redrawn.

The only thing I can think of at the moment to remedy this automatically would be to use a message handler to run the _GUIExtender_Restore function whenever the GUI is repainted. But I am loath to do that and so complicate the UDF.

What sort of apps are you using that need to redraw the screen and so provoke this problem?

M23

[Crayfish]

The process that causing the on screen stagger to refresh is a propriety bank software that have so many input boxes and fields and control lists. Everytime a new client open, it blank out my app randomly.

What my apps does it simply create new client input some name retrieve some name off the bank software.

I can send you the full code when I'm at home. Right now I'm at work watching your respond LOL.

Thanks melba23

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

Perhaps you could call WinList every now and again via Adlib to check when if the bank app has opened a new window and if so force a MINIMIZE/RESTORE cycle of your GUI - that might be a possible workaround.

M23

P.S. If it is not enough that they have screwed up the entire world economy, now the bloody banks are messing up my AutoIt UDFs!

[Crayfish]

I'll see to that LOL melba23 you are funny.

[Crayfish]

Crayfish,

Perhaps you could call WinList every now and again via Adlib to check when if the bank app has opened a new window and if so force a MINIMIZE/RESTORE cycle of your GUI - that might be a possible workaround.

M23

P.S. If it is not enough that they have screwed up the entire world economy, now the bloody banks are messing up my AutoIt UDFs!

If I try to AdlibRegister force minimize/restore, it will create funny effect animation. I think ill disable this UDF for now. Gosh I love your UDF such a annoy glitch.

[Melba23]

Crayfish,

Did you just force the cycle at regular intervals, or did you check for the "Everytime a new client open" and only cycle when that happened? I understood your comment to mean that the bank app opened a new window which you could detect with WinList - was I wrong?

If a new window is not opened, then what happens to the bank app which we could possibly detect? A colour change? A change of text? Anything detectable could then act as trigger and you would not get the "funny animation" when you cycle your GUI unnecessarily.

M23

[Kyan]

with examples is even more simple thank you Melba23

[careca]

Hey there, so i tried this, and my objective is to hide the middle section, but whatever i do, i can't it hides the middle and the bottom section, the examples are not very clear to me, here's what i got:

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include "GUIExtender.au3"
#include <SendMessage.au3>
Opt("GUIOnEventMode", 1)

$hGUI_1 = GUICreate("Vertical", 300, 250, 100, 100)
GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "On_Exit")

_GUIExtender_Init($hGUI_1)

_GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI_1, 0, 120)
$hButton_1 = _GUIExtender_Section_Action($hGUI_1, 2, "", "", 270, 40, 15, 15, 0, 1) ; Normal button
GUICtrlCreateGroup("1", 10, 2, 250, 68)
_GUIExtender_Section_End($hGUI_1)

$iMore_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI_1, 120, 180)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("2", 10, 78, 280, 80)
$hInput = GUICtrlCreateInput("Your input goes here", 40, 110, 180, 20)
_GUIExtender_Section_End($hGUI_1)

_GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI_1, 180, 240)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("3", 10, 162, 280, 80)
$hButton_3 = GUICtrlCreateButton("OK", 100, 210, 60, 20)
_GUIExtender_Section_End($hGUI_1)

_GUIExtender_Section_Extend($hGUI_1, 4, False)

GUISetState()

While 1
    Sleep(10)
WEnd

Func On_Exit()
    Exit
EndFunc

[Melba23]

careca,
 
A couple of reasons why the code does not work as you expect:
 
- 1. You are using the worng coordinates in the _GUIExtender_Section_Start call.  From the function header:

; Syntax.........: _GUIExtender_Section_Start($hWnd, $iSection_Coord, $iSection_Size)
; Parameters ....: $hWnd - Handle of GUI containing the section
;                  $iSection_Coord - Coordinates of left/top edge of section depending on orientation
;                  $iSection_Size  - Width/Height of section

So as your section is only 60 pixels deep, you need:

$iMore_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI_1, 120, 60)

You initially had 120, 180 - that made the section as deep as the GUI and so you retracted the third part as well.

- 2. As you have stored the index of the retractable section, why not use it in the _GUIExtender_Section_Extend call?  Where did the 4 come from?  

_GUIExtender_Section_Extend($hGUI_1, $iMore_Section, False)

When I make those changes the code works as I expect. All clear?

M23

Edited May 24, 2015 by Melba23
Fixed tag

[careca]

Hi, thanks for your help, i've made some changes and got a somewhat working code, but, and im not sure fif it was supposed to work like this, i had to recreate the bit that disappeared..

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include "GUIExtender.au3"
Opt("GUIOnEventMode", 1)
Local $Button, $iThis_Section
$hGUI = GUICreate("Vertical", 300, 320, 100, 100)
GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "On_Exit")

_GUIExtender_Init($hGUI)

$iThis_Section = _GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI, 0, 0)
$Button = _GUIExtender_Section_Action($hGUI, $iThis_Section + 1, "", "", 270, 40, 15, 15, 0, 1)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("1", 10, 2, 250, 70)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("3", 10, 78, 280, 70)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("4", 10, 162, 280, 70)
_GUIExtender_Section_End($hGUI)

_GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI, 0, 75)
Local $LV = GUICtrlCreateListView("2", 10, 78, 280, 70)
GUICtrlCreateListViewItem('123', $LV)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("3", 10, 162, 280, 70)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("4", 10, 235, 280, 70)
_GUIExtender_Section_End($hGUI)

GUISetState()

While 1
    Sleep(100)
WEnd

Func On_Exit()
    Exit
EndFunc

[Melba23]

careca,

 

That code makes no sense at all.  You define the section as beginning at 0 and 0 pixels deep and yet seemingly expect it to contain a button created by _GUIExtender_Section_Action 40 pixels into the GUI.

 

Let me see if I can explain how the coordinates work visually:

GUI coords - created 200 deep

0    +--------+  - GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI, 0, 50)
     |        |        This section starts at 0 and is 50 pixels deep
     |        |
50   +--------+  - GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI, 50, 100)
     |        |         This section starts at 50 and is 100 pixels deep You can see that the "Start" value is the sum of the "Start" and "Depth" from the previous section
     |        |
100  |        |
     |        | 
     |        | 
150  +--------+  - GUIExtender_Section_Start($hGUI, 150, 50) 
     |        |          This section starts at 150 and is 50 pixels deep You can see that the "Start" value is the sum of the "Start" and "Depth" from the previous section
     |        | 
200  +--------+         And you can see that the final depth of the GUI is the sum of the "Start" and "Depth" of the final section

Does that make it clearer?

 

M23