Custom Msgbox function

Hi,

Is it possible to give the msgbox function custom buttons in stead of the standard buttons like Ok, Cancel etc. or do I have to create my own with a form and buttons?
I want to give the user the option to select eg. This, That or Cancel.

Any input highly appreciated. Thanks.

You'll need to create your own custom form for this.

You can do a custom form as DSJ told you or you can use subclassing

The hook will need to know a few things, first of all,
where is the hook coming from? We can get that by making a call to GetWindowLong API function, specifying
that we need the instance of our window.
Another thing it needs to know is the thread that's calling it. For this we use the GetCurrentThreadID API.

Finally we need to specify where it should send the messages to, and that would be a function we wrote.
We now have everything to make the call. When calling, we specify that we are setting up a CBT hook, and
off we go.

Once we have the hWnd, we can search for buttons. Since a button is actually a window of the class
button, we can use the FindWindowEx API to find them. Once we have it, we can change the text using the
SetWindowText API.

After we done the processing, we need to release the hook. If we don't release the hook, our program can
just disappear. Resulting is a possible loss of data, and a memory leak. Also, when debugging, NEVER place
a break between the place where you place your hook and release it, because this will probably result in
the same effect as above.

This can also be applied to the InputBox. The example code shows both. The MSGBOX function will still
return the selected value, so if you change the Yes button to "Yeah", it will still return vbYes (and not
vbYeah ;)

The INPUTBOX function returns the text entered, so basically nothing changes on the use, you just add a bit
of a preparation.

Since we are able to get the hWnd of the box and the
buttons, we could easely use most of the WIndow APIs on it.

Code:

---

'module
' used for placing the hook

Public Declare Function UnhookWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" (ByVal hHook As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetCurrentThreadId Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Public Declare Function SetWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowsHookExA" (ByVal idHook As Long, ByVal lpfn As Long, ByVal hmod As Long, ByVal dwThreadId As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal cx As Long, ByVal cy As Long, ByVal wFlags As Long) As Long

Public Const GWL_HINSTANCE = (-6)
Public Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1
Public Const SWP_NOZORDER = &H4
Public Const SWP_NOACTIVATE = &H10
Public Const HCBT_ACTIVATE = 5
Public Const WH_CBT = 5

Public hHook As Long

' used for locating and changing the buttons
Public Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hwndParent As Long, ByVal hwndChildAfter As Long, ByVal lpszClass As String, ByVal lpszWindow As String) As Long
Public Declare Function SetWindowText Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String) As Long
Public Declare Function GetClassName Lib "user32.dll" Alias "GetClassNameA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long) As Long

Public ButtonText(0 To 3) As String

' function called by hook
Public Function Manipulate(ByVal lMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

    Dim Btn(0 To 3) As Long
    Dim ButtonCount As Integer
    Dim T As Integer
   
    If lMsg = HCBT_ACTIVATE Then
               
        Btn(0) = FindWindowEx(wParam, 0, vbNullString, vbNullString)
       
        Dim cName As String, Length As Long
        For T = 1 To 3
            Btn(T) = FindWindowEx(wParam, Btn(T - 1), vbNullString, vbNullString)
            ' no more windows found
            If Btn(T) = 0 Then Exit For
        Next T
       
        For T = 0 To 3
            If Btn(T) <> 0 And Btn(T) <> wParam Then
                cName = Space(255)
                Length = GetClassName(Btn(T), cName, 255)
                cName = Left(cName, Length)
                Debug.Print cName
                If UCase(cName) = "BUTTON" Then
                    ' a button
                    SetWindowText Btn(T), ButtonText(ButtonCount)
                    ButtonCount = ButtonCount + 1
                End If
            End If
        Next T
        'Release the CBT hook
        UnhookWindowsHookEx hHook
    End If
    Manip = False

End Function


'form
'add list with list values
'0 - vbOkOnly
'1 - vbOkCancel
'2 - vbAbortRetryIgnore
'3 - vbYesNoCancel
'4 - vbYesNo
'5 - vbRetryCancel

'add 2 options optMsgBox and optInputBox

Private Sub cmdShow_Click()
   
    Dim hInst As Long
    Dim Thread As Long
    Dim Buttons As Integer
   
   
    ' if none selected, we just keep 0 (vbOkOnly)
    If lstButtons.Text <> "" Then Buttons = Left(lstButtons.Text, 1)
   
    ' fill array with button text
ButtonText(0) = "Iouri 0"
ButtonText(1) = "Iouri 1"
ButtonText(2) = "Iouri 2"
ButtonText(3) = "Iouri 3"
   
    'Set up the CBT hook
    hInst = GetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_HINSTANCE)
    Thread = GetCurrentThreadId()
    hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CBT, AddressOf Manipulate, hInst, Thread)
   
    'Display the box
    Dim Retval As Variant
'optMsgBox - is option to show either MsgBox or InputBox
    If optMsgBox.Value Then
        Retval = MsgBox("Message Text", Buttons, "Title for Msgbox")
        Select Case Retval
        Case vbYes
            Retval = Retval & " - Yes"
        Case vbNo
            Retval = Retval & " - No"
        Case vbCancel
            Retval = Retval & " - Cancel"
        Case vbIgnore
            Retval = Retval & " - Ignore"
        Case vbAbort
            Retval = Retval & " - Abort"
        Case vbRetry
            Retval = Retval & " - Retry"
        Case vbOK
            Retval = Retval & " - Ok"
        End Select
    Else
        Retval = InputBox("My Prompt", "My Title")
    End If
End Sub

---

Iouri told it the correct (and a little more complex) way. But if you need a custom msgbox in a standar exe, you can do it easily declaring a Public Function msgBox in a module in your vb project, executing which you can show your own modal form. You can insert all parameters you want (usually it is a good idea to mirror the original function) and evem add your optional own to add the behaviour you need...
As the public function in a standard module is less general than the function in Vba module, it will shadow that function (as long as you are inside your project) and be called instead of the Vba.msgBox function without needing to hook...
Have a nice day,

Cesare

I haven't read the whole text, just skimmed it, but I think this pdf could help you too...

http://www.devx.com/premier/mgznarch...r97/balena.pdf

(it is an old one, but it might be helpfull)

Peter

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Cimperiali
Iouri told it the correct (and a little more complex) way. But if you need a custom msgbox in a standar exe, you can do it easily declaring a Public Function msgBox in a module in your vb project, executing which you can show your own modal form. You can insert all parameters you want (usually it is a good idea to mirror the original function) and evem add your optional own to add the behaviour you need...
As the public function in a standard module is less general than the function in Vba module, it will shadow that function (as long as you are inside your project) and be called instead of the Vba.msgBox function without needing to hook...
Have a nice day,

Cesare

---

I need to have a custom msgbox in my standard exe application, but I am not a very experienced coder and am not exactly sure what I have to do. Any chance of a small example? Sorry to be a pain. Thanks in advance.

[old]codeguru.earthweb.com/vb/articles/2064.shtml[/old]
http://www.codeguru.com/vb/controls/...cle.php/c3483/
You can download code there.
It may seems complex, but you will really enjoy it.

Hi,

Main thing I need to do is name the buttons with something other than the standard Yes No Cancel etc. My program is going to write a report, I want to give the options "Text" "Html" "Cancel". Doens't matter if the response is the same as YesNoCancel, just need the button text to be different.

Can I do that with that code? I can ony see a way of resizing and repositioning the msgbox.

/me is super noob, appreciate your time

Here (but it is not all that easy)
http://www.pacificdb.com.au/MVP/Code/XMsgBox.htm

Thanks for that, it does look rather complex, not sure I will work it out, but thanks for the help.

No ... way beyond me :(

Thanks anyway.

Tested:
It seems to work, but you cannot put large text as button caption
:rolleyes:

Thanks for that ... I got a million errors trying to do it myself, very much appreciated :D