Click Only Combo

[czardas]

I'm having problems with combo box styles. The program I am making is a music program, and in such programs it is generally standard proceedure to have click only type controls. I think the reason for this is because many music terms and symbols are either difficult to spell or imposssible to type using a standard computer keyboard. I had abandoned the idea of doing it any other way several months ago, but for some (perhaps insane) reason I wanted the user to have more control over the program using keyboard input.

I have made several attempts to customize the combo box control here =>

(has several flaws)

And here =>

(following someone's suggestion)

Despite these attempts I still feel I'm swimming against the tide. In some cases validation is dependant on input within other controls. In other words there are several levels of validation required, and some of my combo boxes are paired together, checking data within each other. I recently saw someone combine the combo box styles $CBS_DROPDOWN and $CBS_SIMPLE. This appears to result in a read only combo box. However I'm not certain if this is the way it should be done. I still haven't fully made up my mind which styles of combo box to use on each of my different GUIs. I somehow feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do I break music program design convention, or do I break standard coding proceedures?

QUESTION

Is there a correct way to create a read only combo using combo box control styles?

Edited June 14, 2011 by czardas

[guinness]

Is there a correct way to create a read only combo using combo box control styles?

Yes >>

#include <ComboConstants.au3>
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>

_Main()

Func _Main()
    GUICreate("Read-Only Combo", 370, 110)
    GUICtrlCreateCombo("", 5, 5, 200, 25, BitOR($WS_VSCROLL, $CBS_DROPDOWNLIST))
    GUICtrlSetData(-1, "Example1|Example2|Example3")
    GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)

    While 1
        Switch GUIGetMsg()
            Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
                Exit

        EndSwitch
    WEnd
EndFunc   ;==>_Main

[Melba23]

czardas,

I always use $CBS_DROPDOWNLIST for a "click-only" combo. The description of the style in the Help file is less than perfect (it is taken directly from MSDN) but it gives you this:

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <ComboConstants.au3>

$hGUI = GUICreate("Test", 500, 500)

GUICtrlCreateCombo("", 10, 10, 200, 20, $CBS_DROPDOWNLIST)
GUICtrlSetData(-1, "One|Two|Three|Four|Five")

GUISetState()

While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
    EndSwitch
WEnd

Is that what you are looking for?

M23

Edit: Morning, guinness!

Edited June 14, 2011 by Melba23

[guinness]

Morning Melba! I beat you YES

I used the style $WS_VSCROLL just in case you have a lot of items and need a vertical scrollbar. But as Melba said (which is how I saw his post because I was editing mine) that $CBS_DROPDOWNLIST is the style to do this.

[czardas]

Thanks a lot, both of you. I learn so much by trying things out myself, but some of the simpler things seem to ellude me (quite often).

Edited June 14, 2011 by czardas