Thread: Allocating extra memory for a dialog

hey,
I'm tryin to figure out how to allocate extra memory for a dialog-window,
such as setting the cbWndExtra-field of the WNDCLASSEX structure.
I'm creating the dialog using CreateDialog() from a dialog template and it would be nice to be able to set this in the template.
..or somewhere else
Maybe I just should create a structure containing the
bytes I need and use SetWindowLong() to point to an instance
of that structure? Any suggestions?

thanks a lot
/btq

In my opinion, allocating a structure and referencing it using SetWindowLong is the more appropriate way of storing data. Be sure to free it when processing the WM_DESTROY or WM_NCDESTROY message.

ok, I've been trying to get a hold of the WNDCLASSEX structure of the dialog-box for a day now but it's kinda poorly documented on the web. So, I put together some kind of an article about it.
I'm posting it here if someone is having the same problem =)


======================================the start
Ok, this is how to get a hold of the WNDCLASSEX structure when
createing a dialogbox.
This assumes visual studio 7 but may work on others too (haven't tested).
First off, create a dialogbox-template in the resource editor. Then
view the properties of the first node in the directory-tree:

myProject
+myProject.rc <-- this one
+Dialogs

and set the 'MFC mode' to false.
This allows us to specify a 'Class Name' in the dialog editor properties. If
'MFC mode' is true this field is dissabled.
For the sake of the example code listed below we set this field to 'myDialogClass' (without the ' ' )
NOTE: you can also do this by editing the .rc file as text and typing ' CLASS "myDialogClass" ' at the right place .

Now do whatever you want with the dialogbox(add buttons etc) and
now we're set to code this baby.
Normally when creating a dialog we just use CreateDialog (or one of the other 'Create dialog'-functions)
like this:

Code:

int err;
HWND hDlg = CreateDialog(hInstance,MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDD_DiALOG1),hWnd,ptfnDialogProc);
err = GetLastError();

with the changes we've made this GetLastError() will now return the #1407 which means "Can't find window class",
or something similar (we here assume that our dialog id is IDD_DIALOG1) .
This is,off course, because we added a 'Class Name' in the dialog-template, which is supposed
to be a 'window class'-name. As you may know, CreateDialog(..) (and the other functions) calls CreateWindowEx
to create the dialog, and now the CreateWindowEx is trying to create a window built on a window-class not
yet registered. What we need to do is to register this window-class using RegisterClassEx.
We do this by first calling the function GetClassInfoEx(..) to fill up a WNDCLASSEX structure with the standard dialog info.
Then we alter this structure as we want and set the szClassName-field to the class-name specified in the resource template.
So the code would look a little something like this:

Code:

	HWND hDlg=NULL;
	WNDCLASSEX wnd;
	ATOM aTom;	
	GetClassInfoEx(NULL,"#32770",&wnd);
	
	wnd.cbWndExtra=DLGWINDOWEXTRA; 
	wnd.hInstance=hInstance; //the handle to the instance
	wnd.cbSize=sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
	wnd.lpszMenuName="";
	wnd.hIcon = LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(ID_ICON));
	wnd.lpszClassName="myDialogClass";  //we set the Class Name in the template to this, remember ?
	wnd.lpfnWndProc=DefDlgProc;
	/*..
               set other members if you wish
        */
	aTom = RegisterClassEx(&wnd); //aTom equals 0 if function fails
	
	if(hDlg==NULL && aTom!=0)
		hDlg = CreateDialog(hInstExe,MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDD_DIALOG1),hWnd,MainDialogProc);
	else
		//some error code here..

Now, CreateDialog(..) calls CreateWindowEx(..) and since we've registered our window-class it finds it
and creates the dialog based on our WNDCLASSEX structure.
A little thing about the "#32770" argument in the GetClassInfoEx call: this is the window-class that
CreateDialog(..) (and again the other dialog-functions) would use if the class name wan't specified.
I'll bet there are excepions but I don't know of any =)
Well, that was that..


=================== the end

this "article" probably has lotsa misses and errors in it but it's something anyway
Hope this will help someone.

/btq

oh, and if you find any errors or something that I've not understood please tell me. I'd really appriciate it .

Windows reserves 4 bytes of space for every window (not just dialog boxes) that allows you to use them in any manner. The offset is GWL_USERDATA.

You can put a pointer to a structure and retrieve it easily within the dialog procedure:

Code:

// example 
ptr=(void*)GetWindowLong(hwnd,GWL_USERDATA);
// example 
SetWindowLong(hwnd,GWL_USERDATA,(LPARAM)ptr);

or, if you're programming for 64-bit Windows:

Code:

// example 
ptr=(void*)GetWindowLongPtr(hwnd,GWLP_USERDATA);
// example 
SetWindowLongPtr(hwnd,GWLP_USERDATA,(LONG_PTR)ptr);

actually..if you put pointers or handles in there you should call Get/SetWindowLongPtr(..) all the time..
but what did this have to do with that ?

/btq