Cannot for the life of me get win32 tooltips working

Code:

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void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent)
{
        INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ic;
 ic.dwSize = sizeof(INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
 ic.dwICC = ICC_TAB_CLASSES;
 InitCommonControlsEx(&ic);

    // Create a ToolTip.
    HWND hwndTT = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOPMOST,
        TOOLTIPS_CLASS, NULL,
        WS_POPUP | TTS_NOPREFIX | TTS_ALWAYSTIP,               
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        hwndParent, NULL, hInst,NULL);

    SetWindowPos(hwndTT, HWND_TOPMOST,
        0, 0, 0, 0,
        SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);

    // Set up "tool" information.
    // In this case, the "tool" is the entire parent window.
    TOOLINFO ti = { 0 };
    ti.cbSize = sizeof(TOOLINFO);
    ti.uFlags = TTF_SUBCLASS;
    ti.hwnd = hwndParent;
    ti.hinst = hInst;
    ti.lpszText = TEXT("This is your ToolTip string.");;
    GetClientRect (hwndParent, &ti.rect);

    // Associate the ToolTip with the "tool" window.
    SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (LPARAM) (LPTOOLINFO) &ti);       
        SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ACTIVATE, true, NULL);
}

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That function is directly from msdn. I pass it my main hwnd after I create the main window. Yet no tooltips ever appear. I feel like there's some message I'm not handling/sending but I haven't been able to figure out what.

Code:

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#pragma comment(lib, "user32.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "comctl32.lib")

#include <windows.h>
#include <commctrl.h>

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent);

HINSTANCE hInst;

int WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                        LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow )
{
  MSG  msg ;   
  WNDCLASS wc = {0};
  wc.lpszClassName = "Tooltip" ;
  wc.hInstance    = hInstance ;
  wc.hbrBackground = GetSysColorBrush(COLOR_3DFACE);
  wc.lpfnWndProc  = WndProc ;
  wc.hCursor      = LoadCursor(0, IDC_ARROW);

  hInst = hInstance;
 
  RegisterClass(&wc);
  CreateWindow( wc.lpszClassName, "Tooltip",
                WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE,
                100, 100, 200, 150, 0, 0, hInstance, 0); 

  while( GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0)) {
    TranslateMessage(&msg);
    DispatchMessage(&msg);
  }
  return (int) msg.wParam;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc( HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
  switch(msg) 
  {
    case WM_CREATE:
            CreateToolTipForRect(hwnd);
        break;
    case WM_DESTROY:
        PostQuitMessage(0);
        break;
  }
  return DefWindowProc(hwnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
}

void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent)
{
        INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ic;
 ic.dwSize = sizeof(INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
 ic.dwICC = ICC_TAB_CLASSES;
 InitCommonControlsEx(&ic);
    // Create a ToolTip.
    HWND hwndTT = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOPMOST,
        TOOLTIPS_CLASS, NULL,
        WS_POPUP | TTS_NOPREFIX | TTS_ALWAYSTIP,               
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        hwndParent, NULL, hInst,NULL);
    SetWindowPos(hwndTT, HWND_TOPMOST,
        0, 0, 0, 0,
        SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
    // Set up "tool" information.
    // In this case, the "tool" is the entire parent window.
    TOOLINFO ti = { 0 };
    ti.cbSize = sizeof(TOOLINFO);
    ti.uFlags = TTF_SUBCLASS;
    ti.hwnd = hwndParent;
    ti.hinst = hInst;
    ti.lpszText = TEXT("This is your ToolTip string.");;
    GetClientRect (hwndParent, &ti.rect);
    // Associate the ToolTip with the "tool" window.
    SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (LPARAM) (LPTOOLINFO) &ti);       
        SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ACTIVATE, true, NULL);
}

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Still no tooltip.

Shouldn't the hInst be NULL?

I think if the hInst is valid, the lpszText member is used as a resource ID (for a string in the exe).

Check the returns.

Tooltips can be tricky. But there are 3rd party implementations that can take care of that.
But you failed to mention if you're writing C or C++?
I know of one particular implementation I use, but it's C++.

I'd be interested to know how to get them working properly in C/API. I know I tried and failed a while back working from the MSDN example.

I think there are two kinds of tooltips. One are connected to other controls and others are related to arbitrary rectangles. If I remember correctly, I quickly gave up when I tried these second type tooltips, so now I use only tooltips attached to other controls.

Anyway, Raymond Chen had several articles about quirks with tooltips. They should help you:
- Coding in-place tooltips
- Using custom-draw in tooltips to adjust the font
- Multiplexing multiple tools into one in a tooltip
- Generating tooltip text dynamically
- Why can't I display a tooltip for a disabled window?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Viper187

I'd be interested to know how to get them working properly in C/API. I know I tried and failed a while back working from the MSDN example.

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Tooltips work obviously fine in C & Win32 api.
All C PSDK samples work perfectly, even those which are 13 years old..
Their source code in comctl32.dll is in pure C code in v5 and in C++ in v6.