posted 03-06-2008 12:50 AM         

I'm very confused. I have a couple of different projects I'm working on. One that's been around for a year and a half or so and the other is brand new. On the old one when I click on %ez_ownerdraw for a button in the designer, it generates Ez_ODButton as we would expect. In the new project it generates the Ez_Button instead. I must be missing something, but I can't figure it out. There's no pre-processing used in the new project.

posted 03-06-2008 09:12 AM         

If the problem does not disappear after that, email me a copy of the problem form so I can check it.

posted 03-06-2008 09:57 AM         

On another subject, I am experimenting with using the standard xp theme on a project. Themes don't seem to allow a control like a radio box to have the invisible attribute. Is that what you have found as well? Is there a way to beat it? I like the look of some of the themed controls, but it would still be nice to draw my own background.

posted 03-06-2008 10:16 AM         

Personally, I don't like the themes because of this.

As an example, when a progressbar is themed, you can no longer select a color for it.

posted 03-06-2008 08:24 PM         

I don't know if this will help you directly, but I ran into a version of this problem when using a theme and the tab control in WinXP. With a theme, XP uses a gradient background on the tab control. Setting a radio button or check box control to transparent (invisible) background produces a nice black box in place of a transparent control. Not satisfactory.

My first solution was to determine a "middle" color that was a close match to the gradient color and simply re-color the control to match. However, someone using XP with the classic Windows interface (or using Windows 2000) gets a control with a white background on an otherwise gray tab control.

Here's the fix I used that worked for me:

First, create a custom color that matches the background color of your themed parent control or form (I made this color for the gradient tab control one of the permanent custom controls in the EZGUI Designer).

code:

EZ_DefColorL 36, &HF8F8F8

(This is an off-white that closely matches the background of the themed tab control in XP.)

Next, create a global variable to hold information about the O/S on the user's machine and initialize it as follows:

code:

   gOS& = EZ_GETOS(0)
   IF gOS& > 500 THEN
      gOS& = VAL(ReadRegistryString$(%HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _
        "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager", _
        "ThemeActive"))
   ELSE
      gOS& = 0
   END IF

This segment determines if the user has Windows XP (or a different O/S) and if the user has XP whether themes are enabled or not. If the classic interface is being used, no re-coloring of the control will take place.

Next, in the %EZ_Loading event for each of your problem controls (such as the check box or radio button), add this:

code:

   CASE %EZ_Loading
      LoadColor(gOS&)

And finally, include this macro:

code:

MACRO LoadColor(x)
   IF x > 0 THEN
      EZ_COLOR 0, 36
   ELSE
      EZ_COLOR -1, -1
   END IF
END MACRO

Just substitute the color number (36 in my example) for the custom color you need for drawing your background. If themes are being used, you'll get your themed color, otherwise, you get Windows' famous battleship gray.

One additional step: you could modify the macro as follows:

code:

MACRO LoadColor(fg, bg)
   IF gOS& > 0 THEN
      EZ_COLOR fg, bg
   ELSE
      EZ_COLOR -1, -1
   END IF
END MACRO

This will let you set both the foreground and background of each "problem" control specifically for whatever color scheme you decide on. You would only have to define the colors you want to use in your initialization code.