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How to add a button to title bar
I was wondering is there a way to get a button on the application title bar...more likely like the one in the firefox 4 and on opera latest browser.
Is it any possible to get a button like that or just a regular button on the title bar?...thought it will be nice to try it out in the programming :icon_smile:
I put together this example. It may need some tweaking but it appears to be working ok. Should at least give you some ideas.
You can draw the button anyway you like. This draws a visual style button if visual styles are supported.
Option Strict On
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Public Class Form1
Private Const WM_NCPAINT As Integer = 133
Private Const WM_NCMOUSEMOVE As Integer = 160
Private Const WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN As Integer = 161
Private Const WM_NCLBUTTONUP As Integer = 162
Private Const WM_NCLBUTTONDBLCLK As Integer = 163
Private Const WM_NCACTIVATE As Integer = 134
Private Const WM_NCMOUSELEAVE As Integer = 674
Private TitleBarButtonRectangle As Rectangle
Private TitleBarButtonState As ButtonState
Private TitleBarMouseIsDown As Boolean
Private Enum ButtonState As Byte
Normal
Hot
Pressed
End Enum
Sub New()
' This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
InitializeComponent()
' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call.
'Set the x and width of the button. Adjust the height and y position
'in the size button sub. The y position will need to change on window
'state changes.
TitleBarButtonRectangle = New Rectangle(30, 0, 75, 25)
SizeButton()
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
'Process the non client area messages here.
Select Case m.Msg
Case WM_NCPAINT, WM_NCACTIVATE, WM_NCMOUSELEAVE
'process the message and reset the button to the normal state
'and draw it. This will draw the initial button and repaint it
'if the title bar needs a paint update.
MyBase.WndProc(m)
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Normal
TitleBarMouseIsDown = False
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
Case WM_NCMOUSEMOVE
'The mouse is moving in the non client area.
If TitleBarButtonRectangle.Contains(GetNonClientPoint(CInt(m.LParam))) Then
'the mouse is in the button
'If the mouse is down then draw it pressed if not already
'If the mouse is not down then draw it hot if not already
If TitleBarMouseIsDown Then
If TitleBarButtonState <> ButtonState.Pressed Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Pressed
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
End If
Else
If TitleBarButtonState <> ButtonState.Hot Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Hot
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
End If
End If
Else
'The mouse is not in the button.
'If the mouse is down then draw it hot, when the
'mouse moves back into the button it will be redrawn pressed.
'Otherwise draw it normal if its not already.
If TitleBarMouseIsDown Then
If TitleBarButtonState <> ButtonState.Hot Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Hot
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
End If
Else
If TitleBarButtonState <> ButtonState.Normal Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Normal
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
End If
End If
End If
'When the mouse is down and it leaves the window
'it will remain in its hot or pressed state. when the
'mouse is let up outside the window and moved it will
'recieve a message to repaint.
'Process all the mouse moves.
MyBase.WndProc(m)
Case WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN
'Left mouse button has been held down in the non client area
'If the mouse is inside the button then change its state to pressed
'and redraw it. Store that the mouse is down.
If TitleBarButtonRectangle.Contains(GetNonClientPoint(CInt(m.LParam))) Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Pressed
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
TitleBarMouseIsDown = True
Else
'process the message it was clicked somewhere in the non client
'area but not in the button.
MyBase.WndProc(m)
End If
Case WM_NCLBUTTONUP
'Mouse is being released in the non client area
If TitleBarMouseIsDown AndAlso TitleBarButtonRectangle.Contains(GetNonClientPoint(CInt(m.LParam))) Then
'The mouse was down and the mouse is in the button.
'It has been pressed.
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Hot
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
MsgBox("You clicked the button on the title bar.")
Else
'Process the message and reset the button to normal if its not already.
MyBase.WndProc(m)
If TitleBarButtonState <> ButtonState.Normal Then
TitleBarButtonState = ButtonState.Normal
DrawButton(TitleBarButtonState)
End If
End If
'Reset that the mouse is down
TitleBarMouseIsDown = False
Case WM_NCLBUTTONDBLCLK
'Mouse has been double clicked in the non client area.
'If the cursor is in the button then don't process the double click
'If processed the form will change window states.
If Not TitleBarButtonRectangle.Contains(GetNonClientPoint(CInt(m.LParam))) Then
MyBase.WndProc(m)
End If
Case Else
'Process the regular messages
MyBase.WndProc(m)
End Select
End Sub
Private Function GetNonClientPoint(ByVal lParam As Integer) As Point
'The lo word in the lparam is the x coordinate and the hi word is the y.
'The coordinates are in screen coordinates so subtract the location of the
'form to get the location on the title bar. This will have to be adjusted.
'There will be issues on mdi forms.
Dim ScreenPoint As New Point(CInt(lParam And Short.MaxValue), CInt(lParam >> 16))
Return ScreenPoint - CType(Me.Location, Size)
End Function
Private Sub DrawButton(ByVal buttonState As ButtonState)
'Gets the graphics to the entire window.
'Draws a visual style button.
'Draw your own graphics here.
'If using the visual style renderer then you will need
'any alternate drawing mode in case the renderer is not
'supported. ControlPaint will draw a button without
'visual styles.
Dim EntireWindowGraphics As Graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(GetWindowDC(Me.Handle))
Dim StrFrmt As New StringFormat
StrFrmt.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center
StrFrmt.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center
StrFrmt.FormatFlags = StringFormatFlags.NoWrap
StrFrmt.Trimming = StringTrimming.EllipsisCharacter
Select Case buttonState
Case Form1.ButtonState.Normal
If VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer.IsSupported Then
Dim VisualRenderer As New VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer(VisualStyles.VisualStyleElement.Button.PushButton.Normal)
VisualRenderer.DrawBackground(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle)
Else
ControlPaint.DrawButton(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle, Windows.Forms.ButtonState.Normal)
End If
Case Form1.ButtonState.Hot
If VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer.IsSupported Then
Dim VisualRenderer As New VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer(VisualStyles.VisualStyleElement.Button.PushButton.Hot)
VisualRenderer.DrawBackground(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle)
Else
ControlPaint.DrawButton(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle, Windows.Forms.ButtonState.Normal)
End If
Case Form1.ButtonState.Pressed
If VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer.IsSupported Then
Dim VisualRenderer As New VisualStyles.VisualStyleRenderer(VisualStyles.VisualStyleElement.Button.PushButton.Pressed)
VisualRenderer.DrawBackground(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle)
Else
ControlPaint.DrawButton(EntireWindowGraphics, TitleBarButtonRectangle, Windows.Forms.ButtonState.Pushed)
End If
End Select
EntireWindowGraphics.TextRenderingHint = Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.ClearTypeGridFit
EntireWindowGraphics.DrawString("Click Me", Me.Font, Brushes.Black, TitleBarButtonRectangle, StrFrmt)
EntireWindowGraphics.Dispose()
StrFrmt.Dispose()
End Sub
Private Sub SizeButton()
'This is hard coded for a sizable 3d window border.
'Other properties of the systemInformation class can
'adjust for fixed and single borders.
'SystemInformation.BorderSize
'SystemInformation.FixedFrameBorderSize
'if the window is maximized then its sizing border will not be
'displayed so the y is set to the bordersize and the height of the button
'is set to the caption height. If its not maximized the y is set to
'0 and the button height is set to the caption height plus the border size.
If Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal Then
TitleBarButtonRectangle.Y = 0
TitleBarButtonRectangle.Height = SystemInformation.CaptionHeight + SystemInformation.HorizontalResizeBorderThickness
Else
TitleBarButtonRectangle.Y = SystemInformation.HorizontalResizeBorderThickness
TitleBarButtonRectangle.Height = SystemInformation.CaptionHeight
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_SizeChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.SizeChanged
'Change the size of the button.
'May have been maximized or normalized
SizeButton()
End Sub
'Gets the graphics to the entire window.
<DllImport("user32.dll")> _
Public Shared Function GetWindowDC(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr) As IntPtr
End Function
End ClassVery strange result with the code. It appears to be exactly what I need, but - the button itself is being clipped to the area of the client window, so that just the bottom edge of the button is showing at the top of the client area. Or maybe the titlebar is being draw after/on top of the button? The button itself is functional.
The strange part is the very first time I ran it, this didn't happen. I swear I saw the whole button draw properly in the titlebar, although as implied above, it's a little wider than the title bar so the bottom part of the button spilled over into the client region. So then I started to work with the example to meet my specific requirements and since then I get only the behavior described in the first paragraph.
Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!
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