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Frame Control
The frame control is simply a box with text in the upper edge. It is often used to enclose controls within a group (such as option controls) but does not act as a parent of child controls. It only provides a visual grouping of controls.

The label font/color can be changed but the bounding line and body color are not under programmatic control.

• Syntax:
  

  Control Add Frame, hDlg, id&, txt$, x, y, xx, yy, _
                                      style&, extsytle& CALL callback
  

• Source Code Example:
  This short example creates a complete application with a single frame. This tutorial page discusses most of the statements used, however the DDT, Controls, Messages, and Callback tutorials provide background information that may be helpful in understanding the example.

     #Compile Exe
     Global hDlg As Dword
     Function PBMain() As Long
        Dialog New Pixels, 0, "Frame Test",300,300,200,200, _
                                        %WS_SysMenu, 0 To hDlg
        Control Add Frame, hdlg, 100, "Frame Example", 20,20,150,90, %BS_Left
        Dialog Show Modal hDlg
     End Function
  

  An additional example of a callback function is provided further down this page.

• Visual Examples:
  And here are a few examples of what you can do with frames in PowerBASIC. Variations on the Control Add Frame statement were used to create the examples. In some cases, other Control statements were used to modify the results.

  

  As you can see, there's really not much you can do with a button - change the font, change the justification of the text, and multi-line content is about it.

Arguments
The Control Add statement is used to create all new controls. Here are the statement's arguments and any special significance to the frame control.

• hDlg
  The dialog handle to which the frame control is to be added. The value was returned by the DIALOG NEW statement.

• id&
  The id& argument is a control identifier assigned by the programmer. It must be a value of 1-65535. Values of 100+ are suggested, as PowerBASIC pre-assigns identifiers with special meaning. Numeric equates are suggested over the use of literal values.

• txt$
  An ampersand can be included in txt$, such as "&Stop", to specify a hot key Alt-S. But since a frame control cannot get focus, using the hotkey will give focus to the next control in the tab order. In WinXP, the hotkey underline will not appear until the Alt key is pressed.

• x,y and xx,yy
  The integer x,y and xx,yy dimensions use the same units as the parent dialog. (x,y) is the upper/left coordinates of the control. (xx,yy) is the width/height of the control.

• style& and extstyle&
  The style& and extstyle& arguments (listed below) are optional. If not supplied, default values are used (see the table below). If values are supplied, they completely replace default values (i.e., the entered values are not in addition to the default values).

• CALL
  The "CALL callback" section is optional. If not supplied, the callback function of the parent dialog is used. An example callback function for frame controls is provided further down this page. The #MESSAGE COMMAND compiler directive can be used to prevent sending %WS_NOTIFY messages to the callback function. By default, both %WS_NOTIFY and %WS_COMMAND messages are sent.

Frame transparency is not a built-in feature.

Usage Notes
Some of these comments refer to the ComboBox-specific statement in the next section below.

The PowerBASIC frame is not a parent control (as it is in some implementations). If you want the appearance of child controls in the frame, draw the frame first and the "child" controls last.

Changing line color/thickness and frame body color are not supported by PowerBASIC.

Frame-Specific PowerBASIC Statements
Although PowerBASIC provides control-specific statements for some controls (Treeview, Imagelist, ...), there are no FRAME PowerBASIC statements.

Messages, Notifications, Styles, and ExtSstyles
There are four types of named constants in the following table. All are pulled from the MSDN web site.

• Notifications - event notifications a control receives
• Messages - controls may send these
• Styles - affect the visual look of a control
• ExtStyles - additional values that affect the visual look

The first column contains control-specific named constants and the second column contains generic window named constants (frames are windows).

Since the PowerBASIC frame control is derived from the Windows button class, the first column contains MSDN button control constants.

Also, if the PowerBASIC Help file has an entry on the value, it is highlighted in yellow. If the value was noted in PowerBASIC Help as a default value, it is also shown in bold text.

In the values for notifications, descriptions starting with -n and -c refer to events received through the %wm_notify and %wm_command messages. By default, PowerBASIC controls can receive both of these messages.

And here is a short description of many of the named constants corresponding to notifications, styles, and extstyle - particularly those discussed in the PowerBASIC Help topics.

    bcn_dropdown          -n click on drop down arrow on control
    bcn_hotitemchange     -n mouse enters/leaves client area
    bn_clicked            -c mouse click
    bn_dblclk             -c mouse doubleclick
    bn_disable            -c (n/a - win3.0 only)
    bn_doubleclicked      -n mouse doubleclick
    bn_hilite             -c (n/a - win3.0 only)
    bn_killfocus          -c focus is lost
    bn_paint              -c control should be painted
    bn_pushed             -c (n/a - win3.0 only)
    bn_setfocus           -n focus is received
    bn_unhilite           -c when highlight should be removed 
    bn_unpushed           -c (n/a - win3.0 only)
    bs_bottom             - text at bottom
    bs_center             - center text horizontally
    bs_default            - heavy black border, ENTER selects, 1 per dialog
    bs_defpushbutton      - same as bs_default
    bs_left               - text on left side
    bs_multiline          - wrap text
    bs_notify             - allows bn_killfocus/bn_setfocus messages
    bs_pushlike           - toggle between raised/sunken
    bs_right              - text on right side
    bs_top                - text at top
    bs_vcenter            - center text vertically
    nm_customdraw         -n custom draw operation
    wm_ctlcolorbtn        - before drawing owner-drawn control
    ws_border             - use thin line border
    ws_disabled           - initially disabled (no user input)
    ws_ex_left            - generic left-aligned properties
    ws_ex_right           - generic right-aligned properties
    ws_ex_transparent     - draw controls/windows beneath control first
    ws_group              - starts/ends group. use ws_tabstop style.
    ws_tabstop            - allows receipt of keyboard focus

Callback Function
A frame control does not send messages and does require/support a callback function.

CONTROL Statement Syntax
The following table lists the various Control statements (except the ADD statements). Most, but not all, can be used with the frame control. A one-line description of the statement and then its syntax are presented.

CONTROL DISABLE	disable
	hDlg, id&
CONTROL ENABLE	enable	hDlg, id&
CONTROL GET CHECK	check state	hDlg, id& TO iResult1&
CONTROL GET CLIENT	top/left location	hDlg, id& TO wide&, high&
CONTROL GET LOC	top/left location	hDlg, id& TO x&, y&
CONTROL GET SIZE	width/height	hDlg, id& TO width&, height&
CONTROL GET TEXT	text	hDlg, id& TO txt$
CONTROL GET USER	get user data	hDlg, id&, index& TO retvar&
CONTROL HANDLE	window handle for control id	hDlg, id& TO hCtl&
CONTROL KILL	remove control	hDlg, id&
CONTROL POST	put message in queue (non-blocking)	hDlg, id&, Msg&, wParam&, lParam&
CONTROL REDRAW	schedule redraw of control	hDlg, id&
CONTROL SEND	send message to control, wait for processing	hDlg, id&, Msg&, wParam&, lParam& TO iResult2&
CONTROL SET CHECK	set check for 3state or checkbox	hDlg, id&, checkstate&
CONTROL SET CLIENT	change size to specific client area size	hDlg, id&, wide&, high&
CONTROL SET COLOR	set fg/bg color	hDlg, id&, fgcolor&, bgcolor&
CONTROL SET FOCUS	set focus	hDlg, id&
CONTROL SET FONT	select font for a control	hDlg, id&, fonthandle&
CONTROL SET LOC	relocate control within dialog	hDlg, id&, x&, y&
CONTROL SET OPTION	set check state of option control	hDlg, id&, minid&, maxid&
CONTROL SET SIZE	change control size	hDlg, id&, width&, height&
CONTROL SET TEXT	change control text	hDlg, id&, text$
CONTROL SET USER	set user data	hDlg, id&, index&, uservalue&
CONTROL SHOW STATE	toggle visibility	hDlg, id&, showstate& TO iResult3&

If you have any suggestions or corrections, please let me know.