MDI Child in parent client rect

[monoceres]

I'm trying to have a MDI child overlay the parent's client area. The documentation says that when specifying $WS_EX_MDICHILD the position is relative to the client rect of the parent window, this however doesn't seem to be true since when specifying 0,0 the child appears outside the parent windows client area.

Sample code that demonstrate the problem below.

#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>
#include <windowsconstants.au3>

$MainhWnd = GUICreate("Welcome", 400, 300)
GUISetBkColor(0)
GUISetState()

$childhwnd = GUICreate("", 400, 300, 0, 0, $WS_POPUP+$WS_CHILD, $WS_EX_TOPMOST + $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $MainhWnd)
GUISetBkColor(0xFF0000)
GUISetState()
WinSetTrans($childhwnd, "", 128)


Do
Until GUIGetMsg()=-3

As you might guess the goal is to have the semi transparent red color covering the entire client rect of the parent window.

Anyone know how to fix?

[martin]

I'm trying to have a MDI child overlay the parent's client area. The documentation says that when specifying $WS_EX_MDICHILD the position is relative to the client rect of the parent window, this however doesn't seem to be true since when specifying 0,0 the child appears outside the parent windows client area.

Sample code that demonstrate the problem below.

#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>
  #include <windowsconstants.au3>
  
  $MainhWnd = GUICreate("Welcome", 400, 300)
  GUISetBkColor(0)
  GUISetState()
  
  $childhwnd = GUICreate("", 400, 300, 0, 0, $WS_POPUP+$WS_CHILD, $WS_EX_TOPMOST + $WS_EX_MDICHILD, $MainhWnd)
  GUISetBkColor(0xFF0000)
  GUISetState()
  WinSetTrans($childhwnd, "", 128)
  
  
  Do
  Until GUIGetMsg()=-3

As you might guess the goal is to have the semi transparent red color covering the entire client rect of the parent window.

Anyone know how to fix?

Not sure if a workaround is what you want because I think you would already have considered this, but just in case-

#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>
 #include <windowsconstants.au3>
 
 $MainhWnd = GUICreate("Welcome", 400, 300)
 GUISetBkColor(0)
 GUICtrlCreateButton("kjk",50,100,100,22)
 GUISetState()
 $iHeight = DllCall('user32.dll', 'int', 'GetSystemMetrics', 'int', 4);$SM_CYCAPTION)
 $childhwnd = GUICreate("", 400, 300, 0, $iHeight[0],BitOr($WS_POPUP, $WS_CHILD), BitOr($WS_EX_TOPMOST, $WS_EX_MDICHILD), $MainhWnd);
 GUISetBkColor(0xFF0000)
 GUISetState()
 WinSetTrans($childhwnd, "", 128)
 
 Do
 Until GUIGetMsg()=-3

I see the note in the on-line help about a midichild being created relative to the client area of the parent, but I don't see it in the help suplied with AutoIt download.

Edited June 6, 2009 by martin

[GEOSoft]

Which on-line help Martin?

[martin]

Which on-line help Martin?

This one.

[GEOSoft]

This one.

Outdated

Try This one. It's kept current to the release version, not Beta. I removed the Beta versions a long time ago and I can't decide if I should put them back up or not.

[monoceres]

Thanks martin for the suggestion, it indeed looks nice, however it does feel like an ugly hack to do something that should be done automatically. The problem I had directly when testing this in my application is that my main window changes styles depending on user input, making the offset different. I guess I can hardcode the required calculations for each style, but it seems weird.

The note in the documentation I mentioned is still in the latest version, just check the remarks section of GUICreate().

Anyway, maybe a bug report is in place? In any case the documentation doesn't match the behaviour.

[martin]

Thanks martin for the suggestion, it indeed looks nice, however it does feel like an ugly hack to do something that should be done automatically. The problem I had directly when testing this in my application is that my main window changes styles depending on user input, making the offset different. I guess I can hardcode the required calculations for each style, but it seems weird.

The note in the documentation I mentioned is still in the latest version, just check the remarks section of GUICreate().

Anyway, maybe a bug report is in place? In any case the documentation doesn't match the behaviour.

Yes, the documentation is quite clear so I agree that it's a bug and should be reported. I saw it in the in-line help but missed it in the supplied help. The offset obviously takes into account the border or lack of it, width but somewhere the caption height is forgotten or misused.

The other annoying thing about the simulated MIDI child is that the x,y position is only relative to the parent client when you cretae it. If you move it with WinMove the coordinates are screen based and not like a child window.

[monoceres]

Yes, the documentation is quite clear so I agree that it's a bug and should be reported. I saw it in the in-line help but missed it in the supplied help. The offset obviously takes into account the border or lack of it, width but somewhere the caption height is forgotten or misused.

The other annoying thing about the simulated MIDI child is that the x,y position is only relative to the parent client when you cretae it. If you move it with WinMove the coordinates are screen based and not like a child window.

Thanks again, I submitted a bug report and mention both problems. Hopefully this can be solved soon