Question

BringToFront, SendToBack, but no BringForward or SendBackward?

Asked by: xyzzer

I found that there are only two methods for arranging z-order of windows in Windows Forms. There are no more advanced ones that would make it easier to arrange controls on a form, especially regarding their docking behaviour. I might call the methods for  a specific set of controls to get the move-one-layer backward/forward behaviour, but there's no way to check the actual z-order?
A quick browse on google came with win api SetWindowPos for setting any z-order, but still no method to get the z-order to find the control on neighbouring layer.
Please help?

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Asked On
2004-12-04 at 03:36:37ID21230203
Tags

bringtofront

,

sendtoback

Topic

Windows Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
250
Comments
2

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Answers

 

by: jaime_olivaresPosted on 2004-12-04 at 10:45:25ID: 12744990

You have to build a "list" of neighbours using GetNextWindow() function. Then, you have the list of control in specific Z-Order, when you want to "bring forward", just find next window to use as reference in SetWindowPos.
Have a look to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/getnextwindow.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/setwindowpos.asp

 

by: xyzzerPosted on 2004-12-06 at 03:26:20ID: 12752984

Hi and thanks. The solution works fine.
A few tips for others who have the same problem. GetNextWindow didn't work for me - DllImport said there's no such function as GetNextWindow, so it's probably just a buffer name for GetWindow used in user32.lib import library. As the documentation said though - GetWindow works just about the same and can be easily imported in C#.

[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetWindowPos")]
public static extern bool SetWindowPos(
      IntPtr hWnd, // window handle
      IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, // placement-order handle
      int X, // horizontal position
      int Y, // vertical position
      int cx, // width
      int cy, // height
      uint uFlags); // window positioning flags
public const uint SWP_NOSIZE = 0x1;
public const uint SWP_NOMOVE = 0x2;
public const uint SWP_SHOWWINDOW = 0x40;
public const uint SWP_NOACTIVATE = 0x10;

[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetWindow")]
public static extern IntPtr GetWindow(
      IntPtr hWnd,
      uint wCmd);
public const uint GW_HWNDFIRST = 0;
public const uint GW_HWNDLAST = 1;
public const uint GW_HWNDNEXT = 2;
public const uint GW_HWNDPREV = 3;

public static void ControlBringToFront(Control control)
{
      bool s = SetWindowPos(
            control.Handle,
            GetWindow(GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDFIRST), GW_HWNDPREV),
            0, 0, 0, 0,
            SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
}

public static void ControlSendToBack(Control control)
{
      bool s = SetWindowPos(
            control.Handle,
            GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDLAST),
            0, 0, 0, 0,
            SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
}

public static void ControlBringForward(Control control)
{
            if (GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDFIRST) == control.Handle)
                  return;
            SetWindowPos(
                  control.Handle,
                  GetWindow(GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDPREV), GW_HWNDPREV),
                  0, 0, 0, 0,
                  SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
}

public static void ControlSendBackward(Control control)
{
            if (GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDLAST) == control.Handle)
                  return;
            SetWindowPos(
                  control.Handle,
                  GetWindow(control.Handle, GW_HWNDNEXT),
                  0, 0, 0, 0,
                  SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
}

---------------------------------------------
What is interesting, .NET's Control class' Controls property returns the collection of controls ordered in their Z-Order, so after you design the whole collection you can store it in some resource file in the order from Control.Controls and when you read the form back - the controls will be in the same Z-Order you designed them to be in.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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