Tech Articles


Resizing a Response Window or User Object


Here is a technique you can use to resize a response window or userobject as needed. It makes use of the GetWindowLong and SetWindowLong Windows API methods. The oldest reference I found to this is from Eric Aling back in 2000.

In a nutshell, you are changing the border around the object to one which Windows allows to be resized. What's even nicer about this is the standard resize events are triggered so you can reposition/change objects within the window as well (PFC resize service for example). From Eric's original post:

"The Get function retrieves the complete definition of the window in 
a big long variable. All the bits in this long value describe the window. 
So there are bits for the type of border (which indicates if a window is 
resizable), menu, colors etc.etc. We can modify this long value, altering 
the design of the window. Using the SetWindowLong() we update the window with 
our specific modifications."

I used this in ancestor code of a userobject I use to create visible panels within the main window.

// Unicode declarations, used 'A' for ANSI
function long GetWindowLongW (long hWindow, integer nIndex) Library "user32.dll"
function long SetWindowLongW (long hWindow, integer nIndex, long dwNewLong) library "user32.dll"

// code in my post constructor event
n_cst_numerical lnv_num // PFC numeric service
long        ll_Styles
boolean        lb_Control

constant long    WS_THICKFRAME = 262144
constant long    WS_SYSMENU = 524288

ll_styles = GetWindowLongw(handle(THIS), -16)
if ll_styles <> 0 then

    ll_styles = lnv_num.of_BitWiseOr(ll_styles, WS_THICKFRAME)
// don't need control menu but leave this for reference 
//    if ab_Control then 
//        ll_styles = lnv_num.of_BitWiseOr(ll_styles, WS_SYSMENU)
//    end if

    SetWindowLongW(handle(THIS), -16, ll_styles)
end if
At first my UO cannot be resized.

Non resizable window

 

 

 

Now it can!

Resizable window

 

 

 

I've seen other references to these API calls for manipulating windows for other things but I have not investigated further.

Comments (0)
There are no comments posted here yet

Find Articles by Tag

Automated Testing OrcaScript Event Encoding Database Table Data Syntax Charts JSON Configuration DataType Testing Deployment Event Handler ActiveX Database Object Bug RibbonBar Builder Variable Array Web API Linux OS BLOB Resize UI Modernization DataWindow RibbonBar Design Messagging License COM Expression TreeView PDFlib PowerBuilder (Appeon) Export Debug Installation .NET DataStore SqlExecutor Authorization Service OAuth 2.0 RichTextEdit Control Data PBVM Class GhostScript Icon CoderObject External Functions WebBrowser Export JSON SQL Server Debugger Source Control TLS/SSL Filter PowerServer Web Event Handling Android JSONGenerator Import HTTPClient TFS SOAP .NET Std Framework Database Database Painter PostgreSQL Branch & Merge SnapDevelop PFC REST SVN Database Table ODBC Repository DevOps PowerServer Mobile Database Connection InfoMaker MessageBox OLE Trial UI XML PowerScript (PS) Debugging WinAPI SnapObjects Visual Studio PostgreSQL ODBC driver PDF Transaction Web Service Proxy File SqlModelMapper Open Source Source Code Interface Excel PBDOM Validation SQL Error Platform .NET Assembly Script CrypterObject Database Table Schema Oracle PowerBuilder Encryption Database Profile Import JSON DataWindow JSON RESTClient DragDrop Graph UI Themes 32-bit API Authentication C# PowerBuilder Compiler Windows 10 Icons Mobile IDE JSONParser Windows OS Text Git Window Performance 64-bit SDK Migration NativePDF Menu Jenkins iOS DLL Application PBNI OAuth Azure CI/CD Stored Procedure Sort Model Elevate Conference TortoiseGit Outlook