Comments on: The Missing .NET #1: Cue Banners in Windows Forms (EM_SETCUEBANNER, Text Prompt)

By: Alexander Klimov

Alexander Klimov — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:37:44 +0000

You can to using CB_SETCUEBANNER message for ComboBox instead of call GetComboBoxInfo and COMBOBOXINFO. It is simplier

comboBox1.Items.Add(”Dollar”);
comboBox1.Items.Add(”Euro”);
comboBox1.Items.Add(”Rubel”);
// set banner
SendMessage(comboBox1.Handle, CB_SETCUEBANNER, 0, “Choose…”);

By: The Missing .NET #4: Cue Banner in WPF (I mean, Watermark in WPF) | a geek trapped in a cool guy’s body

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:28:33 +0000

[...] regular reader would know I’m quite enamoured with the Cue Banner as UI tool. Once again, in WPF, Microsoft missed something fairly obvious for inclusion; and really [...]

By: Jaya Labo

Jaya Labo — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:40:27 +0000

Actually the message should have read like this
Hi
Thanks a lot !! You are simply great.
It worked. I changed the sendmessage code to

” _
Public Shared Function SendMessage(ByVal hWnd As HandleRef, ByVal Msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByVal lParam As String) As IntPtr
End Function”

By: Jaya Labo

Jaya Labo — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:37:36 +0000

Hi
Thanks a lot !! You are simple great.
It worked. I changed the sendmessage code to

_
Public Shared Function SendMessage(ByVal hWnd As HandleRef, ByVal Msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByVal lParam As String) As IntPtr
End Function

By: jason

jason — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:28:32 +0000

@Jaya Labo: OK, we found the problem I think: SendMessageA uses ANSI text. The string for EM_SETCUEBANNER must be Unicode. Try one of the following in your declaration of SendMessage:

Declare Function SendMessage Lib “user32.dll” Alias “SendMessage” (…)

Declare Function SendMessage Lib “user32.dll” Alias “SendMessageW” (…)

Either of those should work, however, let me recommend the first one. In general you want the Function name to correspond to the Alias name to keep them clear in your mind. Hopefully this works for you!

By: Jaya Labo

Jaya Labo — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:23:26 +0000

I forgot one line in the previous reply

Declare Function SendMessage Lib “user32.dll” Alias “SendMessageA” (ByVal hWnd As HandleRef, ByVal Msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByVal lParam As String) As IntPtr

Sorry for that.

By: Jaya Labo

Jaya Labo — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:10:06 +0000

Thanks for the immediate response !
It is on a 32 bit processor and the relevant code in VB.net is

Public Class LabelTextBox
Inherits TextBox

Private Shared ECM_FIRST As UInteger = 5376
Private Shared EM_SETCUEBANNER As UInteger = ECM_FIRST + 1

Private _promptText As String = [String].Empty

_
_
_
Public Property PromptText() As String
Get
Return _promptText
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
_promptText = value
UpdatePrompt()
End Set
End Property

Private Sub UpdatePrompt()
If Me.IsHandleCreated Then
SendMessage(New HandleRef(Me, Me.Handle), EM_SETCUEBANNER, New IntPtr(1), _promptText)
End If
End Sub
End Class

By: jason

jason — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:24:29 +0000

@Jaya Labo: The problem in Windows XP isn’t that the cue banner shows up in an East Asian Language; it’s that if an East Asian language pack is installed, then the cue banner doesn’t show up at all. Essentially, you have to pick one or the other.

If you’re seeing the cue text, but it shows up as a different language, it might be an encoding problem. Are you running on a 32-bit or 64-bit processor?

Post the relevant code, and I might be able to help you.

By: Jaya Labo

Jaya Labo — Sat, 24 May 2008 15:23:26 +0000

Fantastic !!
I am using VS 2008 on Vista Ultimate. It gives the same problem as for Win XP, i.e. it shows Cue Text in some East Asian language. I have checked my system. No language pack has been installed. Otherwise it works fine especially your tip for wparam. Can you help ?

By: The Missing .NET #3: An AutoComplete TextBox in WPF, Part 2 - Making it reusable | a geek trapped in a cool guy’s body

Tue, 13 May 2008 11:08:26 +0000

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