The Status Bar Control DLL is a shareware product. I welcome any suggestions, comments or questions you may have on this product. The source code is also available. Please direct all requests to the address or telephone number below.
Jean-Marc Krikorian
525 Sandy Lane
Libertyville, IL 60048
(708) 816-3314
The Status Bar DLL contains three files:
1.) STSBAR.LIB. This is the import library that has to be link in with your exe.
2.) STSBAR.EXT. This is the external header file that contains the message IDs and the function prototypes.
3.) STSBAR.DLL. This is the Status Bar DLL. Make sure it resides in your current directory or in a directory pointed to by your PATH environmental variable.
A sample application SBTEST.* is included along with its source. Refer to it when building your application. The sample application comes with a makefile to show how to link with the Status Bar DLL.
Introduction:
The Status Bar control defines a new window class. This window class as the name implies creates a status bar. The status bar is used to display messages to the user and/or to display current information. For an example refer to Microsoft Word for Windows. As long as the user does not interact with the menu bar the status bar displays such information as the page number and section number. However, when the user interacts with the menu bar the status bar displays more verbose information specific to each menu option.
Technical Issues:
The Status Bar by virtue of it being a control was implemented such that it is re-entrant. This means that the programmer can create multiple Status Bar controls within one application and that more than one application can have a Status Bar control. Think of the Status Bar control as a pushbutton. A dialog box can have many pushbuttons within it yet each pushbutton is unique in the sense that different actions can occur by selecting different pushbuttons. The way to differentiate between the different controls is through either their unique IDs or unique handles. To get a Status Bar the user must perform a CreateWindow() call using the class name "StatusBar" and a unique ID. Each CreateWindow() call will return a unique handle for that particular Status Bar control. As a result, by storing these handles the user can access multiple Status Bars.
The Status Bar attributes of Face Style, Face Color and Text Color will only work on a monitor that is 16 color VGA or better. The reason is that on monitors of lesser resolution and color capabilities the dithering causes the Status Bar Face Styles to be rather unattractive. Therefore, for these monitors, the Status Bar exhibits a white flat face and black text.
Status Bar Features:
With the Status Bar control you are able to:
1.) Choose a location for the control (Top, Bottom or Moveable)
2.) Pick the Face Style (3D, 2D or Flat)
3.) Pick the Face Color (Any RGB value)
4.) Pick the Font Family and Point Size
5.) Pick the Text Color (Any RGB value)
6.) Pick the Text Attributes (Bold, Italic, Underline and/or StrikeOut)
7.) Receive mouse click notification messages
Accessing the Status Bar Control:
To access the Status Bar control the following steps have to be taken:
1.) Include the header file "STSBAR.EXT". This header file contains the function prototypes that are needed and all the various messages and message parameters that are available.
2.) Before creating the window class make a call to StatusBarInit(hInstance). This function registers the Status Bar class if it is not already registered.
3.) Call the Windows function CreateWindow() and use the class name "StatusBarClass". Also, make sure to pass in a unique ID number, since this will be used to access notification messages that are passed back. The Status Bar window can be created with one of two styles:
a.) the SBS_BOTTOM style creates a Status Bar that will always be at the bottom of the parent's client area.
b.) the SBS_TOP style creates a Status Bar that will always be at the top of the parent's client area.
c.) the SBS_MOVEABLE style creates a Status Bar which can have a user chosen y-origin. (see related information in the SBM_SETFONT and SBM_SIZE messages).
4.) In the WM_SIZE message send the Status Bar an SBM_SIZE message and pass in the parent's size (which is contained in the lParam) as the lParam to the SendMessage() call. (i.e. SendMessage(hStatusBar, SBM_SIZE, 0, lParam)). (For a Status Bar created with the SBS_MOVEABLE style, the wParam should contain the Status Bar's y-origin.)
5.) In the WM_DESTROY message make a call to StatusBarUnInit(hInstance). This function will unregister the Status Bar class.
Status Bar Messages
SBM_DISPLAYTEXT
This message is used to display text inside the Status Bar.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Contains text attributes that can be 'Or'ed together. The values are
1.) SBTA_BOLD
2.) SBTA_ITALICS
3.) SBTA_UNDERLINE
4.) SBTA_STRIKEOUT
lParam
Contains a LPSTR to the text to be displayed.
Example
SendMessage(hStatusBar, SBM_DISPLAYTEXT, (WORD)(SBTA_BOLD | SBTA_UNDERLINE), (LONG)(LPSTR)"This is some text.");
Comments
The font used to display the text will be the current system font in use by Windows.
The Status Bar control will store its own copy of the text, so that the user does not have to bother with repaints to the Status Bar.
The default is to display the text without any of these attributes.
The text passed in can be any length, however, it will be clipped within the client area of the Status Bar.
Return Value
None
Status Bar Messages continued...
SBM_FACECOLOR
This message is used to change the color of the display face of the Status Bar.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Not used.
lParam
Can contain either one of the Status Bar color defines in the header file, currently these are:
1.) SBCLR_RED
2.) SBCLR_GREEN
3.) SBCLR_WHITE
4.) SBCLR_BLACK
5.) SBCLR_GRAY
Yet, if you look at the definitions for these constants you will see that they are actually instances of the Windows macro RGB(r,g,b). As a result, the lParam can contain this RGB() macro with any values in it and these values will be used to display the face color.
This message is sent to the Status Bar to tell it to tell it to display a particular font and point size.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Only used with a Status Bar created with the SBS_MOVEABLE style. If the control is defined with such a style then the wParam should contain the y-origin.
lParam
Contains the address to a LOGFONT structure that contains the font information. When the Status Bar is first created and if no particular font is selected, then the Status Bar selects the default system font to display text.
To reset the Status Bar so that it uses the default system font set lParam to zero.
Only two fields in the log font structure are used these are:
1.) lf.lfHeight
2.) lf.lfFaceName
Return Value
None
Status Bar Messages continued...
SBM_SIZE
This message is sent to the Status Bar to tell it to resize itself. This message should be sent from inside the WM_SIZE message of the parent, since the Status Bar sizes itself with respect to the width of the parent.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Only used with a Status Bar created with the SBS_MOVEABLE style. If the control is defined with such a style then the wParam should contain the y-origin.
lParam
Contains the new width and height of the client area of the window. Refer to WM_SIZE in the SDK manual.
If this message is called from within the parent's WM_SIZE pass in the lParam, since it already contains the parent's size. Otherwise you must determine the size of the parent and pass that value in.
This message is used to change the color of the display text inside the Status Bar.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Not used.
lParam
Can contain either one of the Status Bar color defines in the header file, currently these are:
1.) SBCLR_RED
2.) SBCLR_GREEN
3.) SBCLR_WHITE
4.) SBCLR_BLACK
5.) SBCLR_GRAY
Yet, if you look at the definitions for these constants you will see that they are actually instances of the Windows macro RGB(r,g,b). As a result, the lParam can contain this RGB() macro with any values in it and these values will be used to display the text color.
The font used to display the text will be the current system font in use by Windows.
The Status Bar control will store its own copy of the text, so that the user does not have to bother with repaints to the Status Bar.
The default text color is black.
Return Value
Returns the previous text color.
Status Bar Notification Messages
SBN_LBUTTONDBLCLK
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a left button double-click. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_LBUTTONDBLCLK code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_LBUTTONDBLCLK:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Notification Messages continued...
SBN_LBUTTONUP
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a left button up message. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_LBUTTONUP code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_LBUTTONUP:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Notification Messages continued...
SBN_MBUTTONDBLCLK
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a middle button double-click. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_MBUTTONDBLCLK code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_MBUTTONDBLCLK:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Notification Messages continued...
SBN_MBUTTONUP
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a middle button up message. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_MBUTTONUP code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_MBUTTONUP:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Notification Messages continued...
SBN_RBUTTONDBLCLK
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a right button double-click. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_RBUTTONDBLCLK code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_RBUTTONDBLCLK:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Notification Messages continued...
SBN_MBUTTONUP
This code specifies that the Status Bar control received a right button up message. The parent receives this code through the WM_COMMAND message from the control.
Parameter
Description
wParam
Specifies the control ID of the Status Bar.
lParam
Contains the SBN_RBUTTONUP code in the high-order word.
Example
...
case WM_COMMAND:
{
switch(wParam)
{
case STATUSBAR_ID:
switch(HIWORD(lParam))
{
case SBN_RBUTTONUP:
/* processing occurs here */
break;
}
}
}
...
Comments
None
Return Value
None
Status Bar Example Code
#include "stsbar.ext"
#define ID_STATUSBAR 2000
int PASCAL WinMain(...)
{
.
.
.
hWndParent = CreateWindow(...);
// Initialize the Status Bar control
StatusBarInit(hInstance);
// Create the Status Bar control
hStatusBar = CreateWindow( "StatusBarClass",
NULL,
WS_CHILD | SBS_BOTTOM,
0,0,0,0,
hWnd,
ID_STATUSBAR,
hInstance,
NULL);
// The default styles for the Status Bar control are:
// Flat Face Style, White Face Color, and Black Text
// To change any of these styles before showing the Status Bar
// use SendMessage() calls to change any or all of these attributes
// and make sure not to use WS_VISIBLE when creating the Status Bar
// For example, the following calls change the Status Bar to have a
