How to make a window in a plugin??

[dilbert627]

I'm trying to make a general plugin based on a standalone exe I have already made. The program has one window with 2 buttons on it. Maybe I'm missing something, but when I try to run it, nothing happens. I have all the CreateWindow() code in the init() function. I'm not that familiar with Windows programming (this is actually my first program written in C for Windows. I'm surprised the standalone version actually worked ). So my questions: How do you make a window in a DLL? Do you have to use a window class? Am I totally off and you can only use dialog boxes? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Cheesy]

something like this might work ... havent tested it

code:




// Begin - NeHe (for sizable window)

    DWORD dwExStyle=WS_EX_APPWINDOW | WS_EX_WINDOWEDGE;     // Window Extended Style

    DWORD dwStyle=WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW;



    RECT        WindowRect;             // Grabs Rectangle Upper Left / Lower Right Values

    WindowRect.left=(long)0;            // Set Left Value To 0

    WindowRect.right=(long)width;       // Set Right Value To Requested Width

    WindowRect.top=(long)0;             // Set Top Value To 0

    WindowRect.bottom=(long)height;     // Set Bottom Value To Requested Height

// End - NeHe



    {   // Register our window class

        WNDCLASS wc;

        memset(&wc,0,sizeof(wc));



        wc.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW | CS_OWNDC;  // And Own DC For Window.

        wc.lpfnWndProc = WndProc;                       // our window procedure

        wc.cbClsExtra   = 0;

        wc.cbWndExtra   = 0;

        wc.hInstance = this_mod->hDllInstance;          // hInstance of DLL

        wc.hIcon        = LoadIcon( NULL, IDI_APPLICATION );

        wc.hCursor      = LoadCursor( NULL, IDC_ARROW );

        wc.hbrBackground= NULL;                         // no background

        wc.lpszMenuName = NULL;                         // no menu

        wc.lpszClassName = szAppName;                   // our window class name

        

        if (!RegisterClass(&wc)) 

        {

            MessageBox(this_mod->hwndParent,"Error registering window class","Error",MB_OK);

            return 1;

        }

    }   



    if (!(hMainWnd=CreateWindowEx(  dwExStyle,                      // Extended Style For The Window

                                szAppName,                          // Class Name

                                this_mod->description,              // Window Title

                                dwStyle |                           // Defined Window Style

                                WS_CLIPSIBLINGS |                   // Required Window Style

                                WS_CLIPCHILDREN,                    // Required Window Style

                                config_x, config_y,                 // Window Position

                                WindowRect.right-WindowRect.left,   // Calculate Window Width

                                WindowRect.bottom-WindowRect.top,   // Calculate Window Height

                                this_mod->hwndParent,               // WinAmp Parent Window

                                NULL,                               // No Menu

                                this_mod->hDllInstance,             // DLL Instance

                                NULL)))                             // Dont Pass Anything To WM_CREATE

    {

        MessageBox(this_mod->hwndParent,"Window Creation Error.","ERROR",MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION);

        return FALSE;

    }

[tourettes]

I did try this code and it didn't create a window in Winamp 2.91. There wehe no errors during DLL compiling.

[Cheesy]

I think i forgot some things,

code:


    SetWindowLong(hMainWnd,GWL_USERDATA,(LONG)this_mod); // set our user data to a "this" pointer

	

    // show the window

    ShowWindow(hMainWnd,SW_SHOWNORMAL);

"this_mod" is your winamp vizualisation/plugin module

[tourettes]

Thanks, now it started to work. Now I only need to learn how to put some GUI-elements in that window. Could you show some URLs? Of course it would be best if I could design window with Visual Studio 6.0 resource editor and use .rc file.

[tourettes]

I'm still having problems with my new window. I'm creating it in plugin's init() and all I get is a window that doesn't paint itself. It just has a copy of screen from place where it was created.

[tourettes]

code:
	HWND DebugDlg;

	DebugDlg=CreateDialog(plugin.hDllInstance,MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDD_DebugDlg),plugin.hwndParent,DialogProcDebug);

	ShowWindow(DebugDlg, SW_SHOW);

I found this piece of code from DSP_example and it works in that dsp-plugin OK. But when I create own dialog in own plugin this piece of code creates dialog inside the Winamp's main window.

[Cheesy]

Have a look at the winamp visualization config procedure, here it creates a dialog outside winamp window.

code:


void config(struct winampVisModule *this_mod)

{

	DLGPROC  lpProcInstance;

	

	lpProcInstance = (DLGPROC) MakeProcInstance( (FARPROC) DialogProc,

		this_mod->hDllInstance ) ;

	DialogBoxParam(this_mod->hDllInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDD_DIALOG1),

		hMainWnd, lpProcInstance, (LPARAM)this_mod);

	FreeProcInstance( (FARPROC) lpProcInstance );

}

where "IDD_DIALOG1" is the name of your dialog in the resources and "DialogProc" is you callback function for the dialog e.g.

code:


BOOL CALLBACK DialogProc(HWND hDlg, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)

{

    static struct winampVisModule *this_mod;

	

    switch (uMsg)

    {

    case WM_INITDIALOG:        

        // initialisation stuff for this dialog...

        this_mod = (struct winampVisModule *)lParam;



        config_read(this_mod); // might want to read config for your plugin

        // and set the dialog to whatever the current config is like..

    break;

    case WM_PAINT:

	// on paint stuff

    break;

    case WM_CLOSE: // on closing dialog

        config_write(this_mod); // write your configuration if you must

        EndDialog(hDlg, TRUE);

        return ( TRUE );

    // lots of other WM_ messages....

    }



    return 0;

}

hMainWnd is also the 'HWND' of the main window of your application. (i.e. the variable you assigned CreateWindowEx(..) to earlier)

see if that helps...

[Cheesy]

oh by the way you can probably stop the dialog from apperaing inside the winamp window using your code you submitted earlier, and change it a bit.

it should work if you use 'hMainWnd' instead of 'plugin.hwndParent' then it should create the dialog inside your window instead of the winamp one if thats what you want...

[tourettes]

Now I have completely working dialog. I did it a littlebit different than your example, but thanks anyway.

Now I have a different problem. Normaly I have build all my Windows applicaiton using Borland's C++ builder. Borland differens much from MFC and now I would like to know is there any better way to add text in Editbox.

code:


SetDlgItemText(DebugDlg,IDC_EDIT1,DebugText);

This is how I can write text to Editbox, but it will replace all text that is already in Editbox. (of cource I could use one variable to store text in Editbox using SetDlgItemText but it isn't a really good way to do it.) In Borland's C++ builder I simply can use following method.

code:


Editbox1.AddLine("New line");