Popup menu opened at button's position?

[pablosl]

Hi,
I would like to create a menu that pops up at x= button's position but y=button's end, when pressing a button like Add to Favorites in Internet Explorer 11 (iexplore.exe) like this image:

www.winhelp.us/images/windows/ie9/ie9.favorites/ie9favorites21.jpg

Internet Explorer Add to Favorites

Very difficult to explain in words, but if you look at the image, you will get the idea.

Thank you,
-Pablo

[cundo]

So, you want to move the popup menu to be exactly below the button? same x position, and y = button height?

[Brandon Parker]

You will need to check out the TrackPopupMenu function. This will require you to create, fill, destroy your own menu, but it will allow you to have it pop up wherever you specify.

Have a quick peak at the Microsoft reference material and try it on your own first. When you have further questions just post what you have tried and we can go from there. I do this in a program all the time for the users and it works well. I am more than willing to help guide you along the way....


{:0)

Brandon Parker

[cundo]

Since the popup appears at the cursor position, what if we move the mouse cursor using API then show the popupmenu?... it's a workaround, not a nice solution but it works. The drawback is, we can't put the cursor back while the menu is on screen because the popup menu acts like a Wait statement.

[Brandon Parker]

Feb 5, 2019 20:43:09 GMT -5 cundo said:

Since the popup appears at the cursor position, what if we move the mouse cursor using API then show the popupmenu?... it's a workaround, not a nice solution but it works. The drawback is, we can't put the cursor back while the menu is on screen because the popup menu acts like a Wait statement.

That's why you use the TrackPopupMenu function.  Not only do you have full control of what goes into it, but you can also specify where it opens on the screen.


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Brandon Parker

[alincon]

Brandon, can you show us an LB program using the TrackPopUpMenu function?
The Microsoft article I found seems geared to some other language.

r.m.

[Chris Iverson]

Here's a quick example I created off the cuff.

open "needed window" for window as #test

hWnd = hwnd(#test)

dim items$(5)
For x = 1 to 5
   Input "Enter value for menu item ";x;": ";data$
   items$(x) = data$
Next x

Print
Print "Preparing menu..."
Print

hMenu = CreatePopupMenu()

for x = 1 to 5
   a = AppendMenuItemString(hMenu, x, items$(x))
next x

Input "Enter X coordinate to open menu at. ";x
Input "Enter Y coordinate to open menu at. ";y

response = TrackPopupMenu(hMenu, _TPM_NONOTIFY or _TPM_RETURNCMD, x, y, hWnd)

Print
Print "Menu item selected: ";items$(response)

a = DestroyMenu(hMenu)

close #test

Function CreatePopupMenu()
   CallDLL #user32, "CreatePopupMenu",_
   CreatePopupMenu as ulong
End Function

Function DestroyMenu(hMenu)
   CallDLL #user32, "DestroyMenu",_
   hMenu as ulong,_
   DestroyMenu as long
End Function

Function AppendMenuItemString(hMenu, ID, data$)
   CallDLL #user32, "AppendMenuA",_
   hMenu as ulong,_
   _MF_STRING as long,_
   ID as long,_
   data$ as ptr,_
   AppendMenuItemString as long
End Function

Function TrackPopupMenu(hMenu, uFlags, x, y, hWnd)
   CallDLL #user32, "TrackPopupMenu",_
   hMenu as ulong,_
   uFlags as ulong,_
   x as long,_
   y as long,_
   0 as long,_
   hWnd as ulong,_
   0 as long,_
   TrackPopupMenu as long
End Function

[pablosl]

@brandon Parker:
Thank you for the explanations.

@chris Iverson:
What if I need to add a menu separator?. Can you show this in some code snippet?. Thank you in advance!.

-Pablo

[Chris Iverson]

Add this new function to the group above:

Function AppendMenuItemSeparator(hMenu)
   CallDLL #user32, "AppendMenuA",_
   hMenu as ulong,_
   _MF_SEPARATOR as long,_
   0 as long,_
   0 as long,_
   AppendMenuItemSeparator as long
End Function

And call that function after you add the item that comes just before the separator. For example, if you want to add a separator between items 2 and 3, then call AddMenuItemSeparator() after you've added item 2.


As an example, modify the code above, to change the loop that adds all the menu items to the menu to this:

for x = 1 to 5
   a = AppendMenuItemString(hMenu, x, items$(x))
   if x = 2 then a = AppendMenuItemSeparator(hMenu)
next x

[Brandon Parker]

Here's another way of doing it - along with a couple extra functions that are handy, but not used here. This is how I normally do it which allows for easily creating the separator; shown as menu item 1 (second call to the InsertMenu() function).

There are different ways of doing things; this is just my way.

Dim myItems$(2)

'Create the struct for the screen coordinates
'I store coordinates from different functions so
'I have the need to have them available across
'said functions
Struct point, x As long, _
             y As long

Struct rect, left   As long,_
            top    As long, _
            right  As long, _
            bottom As long

Open "Test Window" For Window As #Test
#Test "TrapClose quit"

For i = 0 to 2
   Input "Enter value for menu item ";i;": ";data$
   myItems$(i) = data$
Next i

hMenu = CreatePopupMenu()

result = InsertMenu(hMenu, 0, _MF_BYPOSITION Or _MF_STRING,  0, myItems$(0))
result = InsertMenu(hMenu, 1, _MF_BYPOSITION Or _MF_SEPARATOR, _NULL, "")
result = InsertMenu(hMenu, 2, _MF_BYPOSITION Or _MF_STRING,  1, myItems$(1))
result = InsertMenu(hMenu, 3, _MF_BYPOSITION Or _MF_STRING,  2, myItems$(2))

Input "Enter X coordinate to open menu at. ";x
Input "Enter Y coordinate to open menu at. ";y

'Get the position of the Window Rectangle
result = GetWindowRect(Hwnd(#Test))

'Offset the Point x/ y by the window position plus the user's choice.
point.x.struct = (rect.left.struct + x)
point.y.struct = (rect.top.struct + y)

result = TrackPopupMenu(hMenu, _TPM_RETURNCMD Or _TPM_LEFTALIGN Or _TPM_TOPALIGN Or _TPM_LEFTBUTTON, Hwnd(#Test))

Print
Print "Menu item selected: ";result

'You can use the result that is returned from TrackPopupMenu; it will be the number
'you sent via the fourth parameter in the InsertMenu function to track which
'menu item is selected and trigger something to happen accordingly.
Select Case result
   Case 1
       Print myItems$(1)
   Case 4
       Print myItems$(4)
   Case 15
       Print myItems$(15)
End Select
result = DestroyMenu(hMenu)
Wait

Sub quit handle$
   Close #handle$
   End
End Sub

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function CreatePopupMenu()
       CallDLL #user32, "CreatePopupMenu", CreatePopupMenu As ulong
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function DestroyMenu(hMenu)
       CallDLL #user32, "DestroyMenu", hMenu        As ulong, _
                                       DestroyMenu  As long
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function DeleteMenu(hMenu, uPosition, uFlags)
       CallDLL #user32, "DeleteMenu", hMenu        As ulong, _
                                      uPosition    As ulong, _
                                      uFlags       As ulong, _
                                      DeleteMenu   As long
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function EndMenu()
       CallDLL #user32, "EndMenu", EndMenu As long
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function InsertMenu(hMenu, uPosition, uFlags,  uIDNewItem, lpNewItem$)
       lpNewItem$ = lpNewItem$ + chr$(0)
       CallDLL #user32, "InsertMenuA", hMenu       As ulong, _
                                       uPosition   As ulong, _
                                       uFlags      As ulong, _
                                       uIDNewItem  As ulong, _
                                       lpNewItem$  As ptr, _
                                       InsertMenu  As long
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function TrackPopupMenu(hMenu, uFlags, hWnd)
       xPos = point.x.struct
       yPos = point.y.struct
       CallDLL #user32, "TrackPopupMenu", hMenu            As ulong, _
                                          uFlags           As ulong, _
                                          xPos             As long, _
                                          yPos             As long, _
                                          _NULL            As long, _
                                          hWnd             As ulong, _
                                          rect             As struct, _
                                          TrackPopupMenu   As long
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   Function GetWindowRect(hWnd)
       'Get WindwRectangle
       CallDLL #user32, "GetWindowRect", hWnd          As ulong, _
                                         rect          As struct, _
                                         GetWindowRect As ulong
   End Function

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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Brandon Parker

[pablosl]

Chris & Brandon,

Thank you so much!!!.

-Pablo

[Brandon Parker]

No problem...

When you get really comfortable with it you can build whatever you want on the fly.  The menu shown below (minus the green rectangles - redacted for legal purposes) is a menu that is built on the fly and displayed above whichever power plant (bitmap button on a map) the user right-clicks on.  Menu items are included/ not included based off of many different things, but building them on the fly was a necessity for me.

And yes...the program is written in Liberty BASIC; started it nine years ago and it has been running and constantly upgraded/ expanded ever since.



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Brandon Parker

Attachments:

[alincon]

Thanks Chris and Brandon. You are both amazing.

r.m.

[alincon]

On second thought, if you need to call so many functions, should you be using another language?
I like to use native LB code as much as possible, so I might have used just a small window containing only a list box
to serve as a pop-up menu in this case.

r.m.

[Brandon Parker]

Nope....

That's not actually "a lot" of function calls ....

I find that Liberty BASIC suits my needs for the project so there's no reason to migrate it anywhere else. When you start leveraging the power that the operating system has to offer and Liberty BASIC has access to, you can do many more things than before. Once I have functions written for a certain task, all I have to do is call those functions as I have set them up. There's no real difference from that to other languages; when the language doesn't offer the abilities natively and the operating system does....there's no reason not to leverage that.

I would much rather program in Liberty BASIC than some other languages; that's just me though. To each his own....

{:0)

Brandon Parker