Windows API has a method called GetForegroundWindow.
But it considers the Desktop as a foreground window when you click on it.
We all know that when it happens the previous foreground window isn't superposed by it.
How to get the real foreground window handle?
I think you're overengineering your solution. If your application window is not the foreground window when you receive an update, then flash the window. The point of flashing is to capture the user's attention, and you have no way to determine if you have their attention programmatically.
It seems like what you really want to know is: "Is the portion of my window that changes currently visible to the user?" That's quite a complex question to answer, and even if you answer it correctly, you have no way to know if the user will notice the change.
Both the "desktop" (Explorers desktop listview on top of the real desktop window) and the taskbar are real windows where the user might be "working" (Tab'ing around, using menus etc)
If you want to find the "real" foreground window that bad you have find it yourself, your best bet is going for the window at the top of the z-order, maybe something like:
... enumfunc(hwnd,...)
{
if (GetClassName(hwnd)!= "Shell_TrayWnd")
{
if (IsWindowEnabled(hwnd) && IsWindowVisible(hwnd) && GetWindow(hwnd,GW_OWNER)==NULL)
{
DoSomethingWithRealForegroundWindow(hwnd)
return FALSE
}
}
}
EnumWindows(enumfunc,0)
TaskSwitchXP is a open source alt-tab replacement, it probably has a better algorithm that you can use...
Related
For the purpose of putting more actions on fewer buttons I was hoping to detect if a window has scrolling functions. For example when a pop-up is asking you if you want to save something or not it tends to default to No. That window does not have any functionality tied to the mouse wheel action. In that scope I was planning to have the mouse wheel up and down input up or down directions. Maybe there is a way to detect if the window has scrolling enabled? Or maybe there is another work-around such as that pop-up window having a specific windows class?
Look at the GetScrollBarInfo function in the answer here How I can check if a Window has visible scrollbars using his HWND? for some useful info, but in my view, easiest is to capture window classes and fire mouse wheels accordingly, just like the example in the help for #if except you will need a correct WinTitle (use class of pop up) instead of identifying the Taskbar, and you will send tab and alt+tab in your mousewheels instead of the volume controls:
#If MouseIsOver("ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd")
WheelUp::Send {Volume_Up}
WheelDown::Send {Volume_Down}
MouseIsOver(WinTitle) {
MouseGetPos,,, Win
return WinExist(WinTitle . " ahk_id " . Win)
}
https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/_If.htm
Hth,
I want to make Application where you can see only one window at a time in order to save memory. Let's say, we have one window, after pressing a button another window shows, but the previous is deleted. If the button pressing is handled in window callback function, is it safe to delete the window from inside of that window function and recreate it after the new window is closed? Something like that:
void callback(...) {
...
if (msgID == ENTER_KEY) {
deleteMyself();
showWindow2();
createMyself();
}
...
}
Could you suggest better approach if this one is not good?
I think this is generally on a desktop a bad idea. So you would loose everything the userinput. And depending on your application the user maybe confuses why an options dialog closes the main window.
However on a mobile device it is normal only to have just one window (except you use dialogs). But in those cases all inputs should be stored so that the window can be reovered to its old state.
In general if you have trouble with the memory managment better check if you leak somewhere memory in most cases the GUI does not need so much memory.
It is possible to use the SetWindowPos API on Windows to keep a windows always on top of other windows, and there are many questions on StackOverflow dealing with this.
It is possible to keep only part of a Window always visible? I.e. specify a clipping region inside an existing window, and keep only that part visible?
A use case would be the following (on Windows):
User clicks on icon to run app.
User highlights a portion of the screen to focus on (similar to the Snipping Tool on Windows 7)
The highlighted part of the screen remains always visible, even when other windows/programs are moved over the selected region.
I know the issues that would spring up with having other applications that are also set to being topmost. Just curious if this is even possible?
Even if you change part of your window to be transparent to what's below (with a clipping region) it's still going to take all the mouse clicks, etc. that occur over the transparent part.
Your best bet is to create a new smaller window and make it top-most while hiding the main one.
My application is a Windows Forms one.
I tried using the windows wallpaper, but this depends on the "Fill", "Stretch", "Fit" or "Tile" settings.
I just need the image as it is on the desktop, but including the part "under" the taskbar, because this part is visible in case of transparent taskbar.
Why I need this?
Because I have a tray application which slides from under the taskbar when opening. And I need to set a mask there, so it can't be seen sliding, until it reaches the top of the taskbar. Again, this is only a problem when the taskbar is transparent.
I am not sure if I understood your question correctly. But to me, it seems that you need the image that has created wallpaper. If it seems easier, take a look at registry entries at following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
This will give you the path, size, tile/no tile etc. information for the wallpaper.
There is a Win32 function called PaintDesktop you could try but unless I'm misunderstanding things you should be able to just adjust the height of your window so it is never really behind the taskbar...
Why I need this? Because I have a tray application which slides from under the taskbar when opening. And I need to set a mask there, so it can't be seen sliding, until it reaches the top of the taskbar. Again, this is only a problem when the taskbar is transparent.
The problem here is that you're starting the slide up from the bottom of the entire screen, rather than starting from the bottom of the screen's working area (i.e., the top of the taskbar). That's why you're seeing the pop-up window slide up behind a transparent taskbar.
Luckily, the solution is much simpler than obtaining the desktop background and/or doing any type of masking. It's also much faster, and it's always good that your eye candy isn't unnecessarily taxing the user's computer.
All you need to do is determine the coordinates of the screen's working area, which is defined by Windows as the area that can be used by applications, not including the taskbar and other side bars. You can obtain this information easily in WinForms by querying the Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea property. This will return a Rectangle that corresponds to the primary screen's working area. Since you know that the taskbar is always displayed on the primary screen, this is exactly what you want.
Once you have the coordinates of the primary screen's working area, start your pop-up window's slide from the bottom of that.*
This is a good lesson of why you should always include an explanation of why you want to accomplish something. There's often an even better way that you haven't thought of.
*Of course, I'm ignoring the fact that a user might not have their taskbar positioned at the bottom of the screen. You can put it on either side or even on top. It sounds to me like you haven't considered this in your question, either. If this is an app that you're writing only for yourself or for a controlled environment where you can be sure that no one has their taskbar in non-default positions, that might be OK. But if you're writing software to distribute to a wider audience, you will need to take this into account. The rcWork coordinates will be correct, regardless of where the taskbar is positioned, of course, but you will need to know whether to start the pop-up window's slide from the bottom, the left side, the right side, or the top.
I am facing a little annoying design problem. Not easy to give a title of my question.
I must display two windows, one over another one. The first one is a Cocoa window, the second is made with Qt. In the second window, an action is performed, but the user can choose to close this window. He must fall back on the first window.
To display my first window, which is actually a SFAuthorizationPluginView, I do:
[myview displayView];
then, to display the window made with Qt on top of first window:
QWidget* w = openMyScreen();
NSView* v = (NSView*)w->winId();
[[v window] setLevel:2003];
This works well, however there is a small delay before the second window is displayed. We can thus see for a very short time the first window.
I need that the second window stays on top of the first window, because the user can close the second window and must have access to the first window.
Any ideas on a trick how to hide the first window, just the time, the second window appears?
Thanks in advance
NSDisableScreenUpdates and NSEnableScreenUpdates (link) might be useful in this situation. The documentation says:
You typically call this function so that operations on multiple windows appear atomic to the user.
which seems to describe your situation.
A word of unrelated advice though: Don't go setting window levels willy-nilly. A window level of 2003 will likely cause the window to appear over things like the dock or even the menu bar, which would definitely be strange. You should stick to the standard levels declared in NSWindow.h unless you have good reason. NSFloatingWindowLevel might be appropriate (although I'm not sure what level the SFAuthorizationPluginView window is displayed at).
Starting with MacOS 10.4, you can use :
[NSWindow disableScreenUpdatesUntilFlush];