Group Controls?

[Cyri]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to group controls together. I see there is a groupbox, but it's not a real groupbox. The controls in the groupbox aren't bound to it. If you hide the groupbox the controls that were on it still show. I also started looking at layered windows, but the main problem I had with that is when clicking a control (or even an empty space) in the layered window causes the layered window to take focus.

I'm trying to create a wizard install where the main window is static except for the main section of the window. In that section I just show or hide the appropriate screen (with pre-populated controls) when a user clicks next or back. Anyone know of a better way to create a wizard install? I'm trying to avoid a bunch of extra code and logic each time someone clicks back or next. Grouping the controls for each screen and then just showing and hiding the appropriate screen seems like the best way to do that.

[Melba23]

Cyri,

The ControlIDs for every control you create are consecutive numbers, so if you create a group of them one immediately after another you can then use a small loop to hide/show them as one:

$hGroup = GUICtrlCreateGroup ( "Select Item", 10, 10, 130, 180);200)
Opt("GUICoordMode",0); Relative coords
$Radio_Array[0] = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Radio 1",  5, 15, 110, 20)
$Radio_Array[1] = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Radio 2",  -1, 20, 110, 20)
...
$Radio_Array[n] = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Radio n",  -1, 20, 110, 20)
Opt("GUICoordMode",1); GUI coords

For $i = $hGroup To $Radio_Array[n]
    GUICtrlSetState($i, $GUI_HIDE)
Next

I have used this in the past to "group" controls with some success. You could even save the first and last ControlIds in a 2-D array which would give you a nice way of setting the loop parameters - each group could then be hidden/shown using For $i = $array[$group_number][0] To $array[$group_number][1].

Hope this is helpful,

M23

[Cyri]

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of using an array to control this. I should be able to use a 2-d array with one element being the control itself and the second element an index of what screen it's part of. I also found another post on the boards that showed using the dummy control. Here is a link to it:

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...rt=#entry526183

This would work, but would be more code than using an array.

[Melba23]

Cyri,

All the dummy control does is to eat up a ControlID so that you have a start and end point defined. If you are going to use the controls later - which is normally the case - you are probably going to assign the IDs to variables when you create them and therefore they are available to use directly.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, really.

M23

[YellowLab]

I use dummy controls for doing this. Yes, it eats up a ControlID, but something like this:

$hLabelStart=GUICtrlCreateDummy()
GUICtrlCreateLabel(blah,blah)
GUICtrlCreateLabel(Blah,Blah)
GUICtrlCreatelabel(Blah,Blah)
GUICtrlCreateButton("Enter",blah)
$hLabelEnd=GUICtrlCreateDummy()

A group can now quickly be hidden:

For $i=$hLabelStart+1 To $hLabelEnd-1
GUICtrlSetState($i,$GUI_HIDE)
Next

and even the button can be ID'd without an explicit variable name as $hLabelEnd-1 If there are only a couple of items then dummy controls might not be efficient, but for completely changing large portions of your GUI I find it helpful.

Bob

EDIT: Guess I should have read the link as I nearly restate rasims post.

Edited February 3, 2009 by YellowLab

[martin]

I use dummy controls for doing this. Yes, it eats up a ControlID, but something like this:

$hLabelStart=GUICtrlCreateDummy()
 GUICtrlCreateLabel(blah,blah)
 GUICtrlCreateLabel(Blah,Blah)
 GUICtrlCreatelabel(Blah,Blah)
 GUICtrlCreateButton("Enter",blah)
 $hLabelEnd=GUICtrlCreateDummy()

A group can now quickly be hidden:

For $i=$hLabelStart+1 To $hLabelEnd-1
 GUICtrlSetState($i,$GUI_HIDE)
 Next

and even the button can be ID'd without an explicit variable name as $hLabelEnd-1 If there are only a couple of items then dummy controls might not be efficient, but for completely changing large portions of your GUI I find it helpful.

Bob

EDIT: Guess I should have read the link as I nearly restate rasims post.

What are the dummy controls for? Why not just write

$hLabelStart=GUICtrlCreateLabel(blah,blah)
 GUICtrlCreateLabel(Blah,Blah)
 GUICtrlCreatelabel(Blah,Blah)
 $hLabelEnd=GUICtrlCreateButton("Enter",blah)

[Cyri]

What are the dummy controls for? Why not just write

$hLabelStart=GUICtrlCreateLabel(blah,blah)
 GUICtrlCreateLabel(Blah,Blah)
 GUICtrlCreatelabel(Blah,Blah)
 $hLabelEnd=GUICtrlCreateButton("Enter",blah)

That's OK if all your doing is performing an action against the entire block. In a wizard you may perform an action against just one of those elements at one point and then against all of them at another. By using the code above you lose the ability to control them individually as well as in a group.

[YellowLab]

That's OK if all your doing is performing an action against the entire block. In a wizard you may perform an action against just one of those elements at one point and then against all of them at another. By using the code above you lose the ability to control them individually as well as in a group.

Not true. Even if the control isn't explicitly assigned to a variable name, it still has a control id. All controls are created in increasing order thus the first control created will have the control id 1, the next one will have control id 2. It gets dangerous using the above method if you start deleting these controls because new ones created after old ones have been deleted will take the next open number. For instance, if you create three controls they will be numbered 1,2 and 3. If you delete the 2nd one and make a new one it will not be numbered 4 but rather 2.

If you have a starting point, you can always get the control id by adding 1 to each subsequent control id until you reach the one you are looking for. It means keeping better track of how your controls are created.

@martin

I guess you could do the same thing without the dummy controls, but in my non-programming mind it looks neater.

Bob