limit of 64 ownerdraw createwindow buttons - showmodaldialog

Question

I want to create an array of 256 colored buttons with the owner draw extended style to a dialog box created with the visual studio dialog design tool. I added a loop to the WM_INITDIALOG message handler in the dialog procedure to do this:
for (i=0; i<=255; i++)
{
int xp, yp;
HWND status;
xp = rect_pos.left+16*(i%16);
yp = rect_pos.top+16*(i>>4);
status = CreateWindow (
TEXT("button"),
"\0",
WS_CHILD|WS_VISIBLE|BS_OWNERDRAW|BS_PUSHBUTTON,
xp,
yp,
15,
15,
hDlg,
(HMENU) 5000+i, // id used to report events
hInst,
NULL
);
if (status == NULL)
xp =7;
}
I added a message handler for the WM_CTLCOLORBTN message.
case WM_CTLCOLORBTN:
{
int zz;
zz = GetWindowLong ((HWND) lParam, GWL_ID); // window identifier
zz -= 5000;
if ((zz >= 0) && (zz <= 255))
{
HBRUSH BS;
SetTextColor ((HDC) wParam, Collector.Color);
SetBkColor ((HDC) wParam, Collector.Color);
return ((LRESULT) Collector.Brush);
}
break;
}
It more or less works but only the first 64 buttons are displayed. I intend to use a different brush to color each button but for debug puproses, I substituted a single well defined brush. I've debugged the code and satisfied myself the x/y coordinates are proper for each button and that the ID provided in the hMenu createwindow call is proper. I watched all 256 buttons get colored in the WM_CTLCOLORBTN handler. I included a check to make sure the createwindow call does not return failure (NULL). I can get either 4 rows of 16 buttons or 4 columns of 16 buttons by interchanging the x/y parameters on the createwindow call.
If I remove the BS_OWNERDRAW bit from the createwindow call, all 256 buttons are drawn.
It's as if there a limit of 64 buttons with BS_OWNERDRAW :-(
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
TIA, Mike

Answer 1

Are you handling the WM_DRAWITEM message in conjunction with the BS_OWNERDRAW style?
In your case, it seems surprising to me that any buttons are displayed while using the BS_OWNERDRAW style, while BS_PUSHBUTTON is set.
As mentioned in the following link to the documentation for BS_OWNERDRAW, you need to handle WM_DRAWITEM and avoid specifying any other BS_ button styles.
Button Styles from MSDN
Also curious is that the WM_CTLCOLORBUTTON message may be received and then ignored for buttons containing the BS_PUSHBUTTON style. Check out the following link for the documentation on that window message.
WM_CTLCOLORBUTTON from MSDN
From what I can see in your code snippet, most likely you will want to do the following:
Set BS_OWNERDRAW when creating the child buttons.
Handle WM_DRAWITEM on the dialog and draw the button in its correct state. Note that you don't have to handle WM_CTLCOLORBUTTON, just use the Brushes and Fonts and modify the DC as you wish inside your WM_DRAWITEM handler.
Also, depending on your application, you might benefit from making your own window class to represent a grid of buttons on your own, and just drawing the items to taste. This is preferable if you're just displaying internal state and not really looking for the user to manage or interact with a grid of buttons.

Answer 2

Thanks to all who gave advice and help. I now have this working to my satisfaction. I have successfully colored the buttons and surrounded them with a black outline if selected or if they have the input focus. I'll add some code snippets below to show the final state of things but here is synopsis. First, I believe there is some legacy code in my system which makes owner drawn buttons respond to the WM_CTLCOLORBTN for the first child 64 buttons created. Second, I believe the only thing one needs to do is create the buttons, respond properly to the WM_DRAWITEM and WM_COMMAND/BN_CLICKED messages.
Here are the code snippets from my dialog box handler.
In the WM_INITDIALOG code -- create the buttons
for (i=0; i<=255; i++)
{
int xp, yp;
HWND status;
xp = rect_pos.left+16*(i&0x0F);
yp = rect_pos.top+16*(i>>4);
status = CreateWindow
(
TEXT("button"),
"\0",
WS_CHILD|WS_VISIBLE|WS_TABSTOP|BS_OWNERDRAW,
xp,
yp,
15,
15,
hDlg,
(HMENU) (5000+i), // id used to report events
hInst,
NULL
);
if (status == NULL)
xp =7;
SetFocus (status);
}
Respond to the WM_DRAWITEM message
case WM_DRAWITEM: // Owner drawn botton
{
LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT lpDrawItem;
HBRUSH BS, BS_Old;
HPEN PN_Old;
int sz=15;
int cntl;
cntl = LOWORD (wParam) - 5000;
lpDrawItem = (LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT) lParam;
if (lpDrawItem->CtlType != ODT_BUTTON)
return FALSE;
BS = CreateSolidBrush (ColorRef[cntl]);
if (lpDrawItem->itemState & (ODS_SELECTED | ODS_FOCUS))
{
sz = 14;
PN_Old = (HPEN) SelectObject(lpDrawItem->hDC, GetStockObject(BLACK_PEN));
}
else
PN_Old = (HPEN) SelectObject(lpDrawItem->hDC, GetStockObject(NULL_PEN));
BS_Old = (HBRUSH) SelectObject(lpDrawItem->hDC, BS);
Rectangle (lpDrawItem->hDC, 0, 0, sz, sz);
SelectObject(lpDrawItem->hDC, PN_Old);
SelectObject(lpDrawItem->hDC, BS_Old);
DeleteObject (BS);
return true;
}
and finally in the WM_COMMAND code
if (HIWORD(wParam) == BN_CLICKED)
{
if ((LOWORD(wParam) >= 5000) && (LOWORD(wParam) <=5255))
{
Color[0] = ColorRef[LOWORD(wParam)-5000] & 0xFF;
Color[1] = (ColorRef[LOWORD(wParam)-5000] >> 16) & 0xFF;
Color[2] = (ColorRef[LOWORD(wParam)-5000] >> 8 ) & 0xFF;
InvalidateRect (hDlg, NULL, TRUE);
goto Set_Color;
}
}