How to preven my scrollable tabs from grabbing focus?

[E1M1]

Hi!

My goal is to make tabs that I can scroll. As I understand there there is no correct way of doing it so I have to use trick that uses child windows to do this.

I use M23's code for my include:

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#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include "GUIScrollbars_Ex.au3"

Dim $tabWindows[2]


$hGui = GUICreate("Scrollable tabs", 640, 480, -1, -1, $WS_CLIPCHILDREN + $WS_MINIMIZEBOX + $WS_CAPTION + $WS_POPUP + $WS_SYSMENU)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label on main gui", 5, 5, Default, 20)
$tabs = GUICtrlCreateTab(5, 25, 630, 450)

$tab1 = GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 1")
$tab2 = GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 2")

$pos = ControlGetPos($hGui, "", $tabs)

$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Hello World!",10,10)

$tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label", 10, 10, 25, 25)
GUICtrlSetTip(-1, "Label hint")


GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $hGui)
_GUIScrollbars_Generate($tabWindows[1], 500, 1000)


; This is the current active tab
$iLastTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])

$lastLabelIndex = -1


While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
        Case $tabs
            $currentTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
            If $currentTab <> $iLastTab Then
                GUISetState(@SW_HIDE, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])
                GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$currentTab])
                $iLastTab = $currentTab ;
            EndIf
    EndSwitch
WEnd

However when I click on labels under tabs then those child windows grab focus from parent. And whenever I switch tabs, parent window flashes focus. Is there way to prevent this or even better, add scrollbars directly to tabs instead of using GUIs to wrap content?

[pixelsearch]

Hi E1M1
I got a result which looks promising, based on pure Child windows (the ones created with $WS_CHILD style)
As you noticed, the other kind of Child windows (the ones created with $WS_EX_MDICHILD extended style) grab focus when you click on controls they contain, which seems a normal behavior as they are totally separate windows.

Here is a reworked version of your script. There's a hidden button when you scroll down in Tab2 :

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#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include "GUIScrollbars_Ex.au3"

Dim $tabWindows[2]

$hGui = GUICreate("Scrollable tabs", 640, 480, -1, -1, _
    $WS_CLIPCHILDREN + $WS_MINIMIZEBOX + $WS_CAPTION + $WS_POPUP + $WS_SYSMENU)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label on main gui", 5, 5, Default, 20)

Local $iXtabs = 5, $iYtabs = 25
$tabs = GUICtrlCreateTab($iXtabs, $iYtabs, 0 ,0)
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 1")
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 2")
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("") ; end tabitem definition

$pos = ControlGetPos($hGui, "", $tabs)
Local $iHtabs = $pos[3]

$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", 600, 400, $iXtabs +2, $iYtabs + $iHtabs +1, $WS_CHILD, -1 , $hGUI)
GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Hello World!", 10, 10)

$tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", 600, 400, $iXtabs +2, $iYtabs + $iHtabs +1, $WS_CHILD, -1 , $hGUI)
GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label", 10, 10, 30, 25)
GUICtrlSetTip(-1, "Label hint")
$idButton = GUICtrlCreateButton("Hidden", 290, 650, 80, 30)

_GUIScrollbars_Generate($tabWindows[1], 800, 1000)

GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $hGui)

; This is the current active tab
$iLastTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])

While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
        Case $tabs
            $currentTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
            If $currentTab <> $iLastTab Then
                GUISetState(@SW_HIDE, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])
                GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$currentTab])
                $iLastTab = $currentTab
            EndIf
        Case $idButton
            MsgBox($MB_TOPMOST, "Hidden Button", "Pressed")
    EndSwitch
WEnd

To make it convenient for our readers, I attach below Melba23's original UDF named GUIScrollbars_Ex.au3 (original dated 05/13/2018) as found in his thread.

GUIScrollbars_Ex.au3

[E1M1]

Thanks!

 

It took me a while to figure out why simply updating window styles didnt fix it. Does anyone know why this new code requires GUICtrlCreateTab to be width = 0 and  height = 0? And why now windows appear below it if I make it size 100,100 for example? Like previously they appeared on top of tab container.

[pixelsearch]

9 hours ago, E1M1 said:

It took me a while to figure out why simply updating window styles didnt fix it.

Probably because child windows created with $WS_EX_MDICHILD or $WS_CHILD don't behave the same way at all.
The script below corresponds to your initial script, plus 2 label controls added (1 in each Tab control)

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#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include "GUIScrollbars_Ex.au3"

Dim $tabWindows[2]

$hGui = GUICreate("Scrollable tabs", 640, 480, -1, -1, _
    $WS_CLIPCHILDREN + $WS_MINIMIZEBOX + $WS_CAPTION + $WS_POPUP + $WS_SYSMENU)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label on main gui", 5, 5, Default, 20)

$tabs = GUICtrlCreateTab(5, 25, 630, 450)
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 1")
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label in Tab1", 100, 100)
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("Tab 2")
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label in Tab2", 150, 150)
GUICtrlCreateTabItem("") ; end tabitem definition

$pos = ControlGetPos($hGui, "", $tabs)

$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
; $tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)

GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label in Child1",10,10)

$tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
; $tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)

GUISetBkColor(0xffffff)
GUICtrlCreateLabel("Label in Child2", 10, 50)
GUICtrlSetTip(-1, "Label hint")

GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $hGui)
_GUIScrollbars_Generate($tabWindows[1], 500, 1000)

; This is the current active tab
$iLastTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])

While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
        Case $tabs
            $currentTab = GUICtrlRead($tabs)
            If $currentTab <> $iLastTab Then
                GUISetState(@SW_HIDE, $tabWindows[$iLastTab])
                GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $tabWindows[$currentTab])
                $iLastTab = $currentTab ;
            EndIf
    EndSwitch
WEnd

1) When you run the script like this :

$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
; $tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)
...
$tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
; $tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)

Then the labels displayed are the Child windows labels and the scrollbar is visible in Tab2, which means that the child windows created with $WS_EX_MDICHILD are in the foreground. Unfortunately they grab focus from parent and you don't want this behavior in your 1st post.

2) When you run the script like that :

; $tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)
...
; $tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $hGui)
$tabWindows[1] = GUICreate("test", $pos[2] - 10, $pos[3] - 30, 7, 50, $WS_CHILD, -1, $hGUI)

Then the labels displayed are the Tab labels and the scrollbar is not visible in Tab2, which means that the child windows created with $WS_CHILD are in the background, covered by the Parent Tab control.

This gave me the idea to create a Tab control having width = 0 and height = 0, so there will be no overlapping at all between the Tab control and the $WS_CHILD windows. Gladly it worked fine and the "grab focus" issue was solved too.

9 hours ago, E1M1 said:

And why now windows appear below it if I make it size 100,100 for example? Like previously they appeared on top of tab container.

This is because you use a constant (50) for the Y position of the Child Windows, while I use the variable $iHtabs (Tab control height) to calculate precisely the Y position of the Child windows, so they won't overlap the Tab control :

$pos = ControlGetPos($hGui, "", $tabs)
Local $iHtabs = $pos[3]
$tabWindows[0] = GUICreate("test", 600, 400, $iXtabs +2, $iYtabs + $iHtabs +1, $WS_CHILD, -1 , $hGUI)

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by pixelsearch
typo