Designing a Window Procedure - Win32 Programmer's Reference

Custom Search

Designing a Window Procedure

The following example shows the structure of a typical window procedure. The window procedure uses the message argument in a switch statement with individual messages handled by separate case statements. Notice that each case returns a specific value for each message. For messages that it does not process, the window procedure calls the DefWindowProc function.

LRESULT CALLBACK MainWndProc(

HWND hwnd, // handle of window

UINT uMsg, // message identifier

WPARAM wParam, // first message parameter

LPARAM lParam) // second message parameter

{

switch (uMsg)

{

case WM_CREATE:

// Initialize the window.

return 0;

case WM_PAINT:

// Paint the window's client area.

return 0;

case WM_SIZE:

// Set the size and position of the window.

return 0;

case WM_DESTROY:

// Clean up window-specific data objects.

return 0;

// Process other messages.

default:

return DefWindowProc(hwnd, uMsg, wParam, lParam);

}

return 0;

}

The WM_NCCREATE messageis sent just after your window is created, but if an application responds to this message by returning FALSE, CreateWindowEx function fails. The WM_CREATE message is sent after your window is already created.

The WM_DESTROY message is sent when your window is about to be destroyed. The DestroyWindow function takes care of destroying any child windows of the window being destroyed. The WM_NCDESTROY message is sent just before a window is destroyed.

At the very least, a window procedure should process the WM_PAINT message to draw itself. Typically, it should handle mouse and keyboard messages as well. Consult the descriptions of individual messages to determine whether your window procedure should handle them.

Your application can call the DefWindowProc function as part of the processing of a message. In such a case, the application can modify the message parameters before passing the message to DefWindowProc, or it can continue with the default processing after performing its own operations.

A dialog box procedure receives a WM_INITDIALOG message instead of a WM_CREATE message and does not pass unprocessed messages to the DefDlgProc function. Otherwise, a dialog box procedure is exactly the same as a window procedure.

Last news from Greatis Software

    Nostalgia .Net     .Net is powerful, but not all-powerful, so sometimes we need to use Win32 API for our .Net applications. It's simple enough with Platform Invoke if you have Win32 skill, but we do not always have time to dig the ancient documentation, declare the special types that are compatible with Win32, find the values of the Win32's constants and so on. Nostalgia .Net offers several simple-to-use classes, and components that will allow you to forget about the headache of Win32 and just use the power of Win32 in your application the same way as you use the native. Net classes. More »

Recommended software for developers

    Ultimate Pack     Component pack for Delphi and C++ Builder that contains runtime form designer, runtime object inspector, print suite and much more for the very special price. More »

    Form Designer .Net     Unique runtime form design solution that allows to edit any form in .Net WinForms application at runtime with full source codes for only 300 euro! More »

    Print Suite .Net     Print Suite .Net is a set of components for easy printing texts, images and grids from your WinForms applications. Full C# source codes are available More »

    Gradient Controls .Net     Gradient Controls .Net offers controls with gradient background feature. Labels, panels and so on... Full C# source codes are available More »

    Greatis iGrid     iGrid plots drawing grid right over your desktop, so you can use it everywhere, with any drawing application without any special plugins for different graphic editors. More »

All the contacts and projects

Dmitry Vasiliev (just.dmitry)

More Online Helps

Win32 Programmer's Reference
Win32 Multimedia Programmer's Reference
OLE Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Sockets 2 Reference
Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) Programmer's Reference
Unix Manual Pages

greatis just4fun network