Thread: Creating a Group Box

I dont see what the hell im doing wrong in attempting to create a groupbox in staright Win32 api. I create the group box passing it the parent windows hwnd as the parent, and specify the BS_GROUPBOX on creation of the groupbox but it shows up as a freeking push button. Only styles specified are WS_CHILD and BS_GROUPBOX

WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_GROUPBOX
is what i create my groupboxes with and they seem to work just fine.

I added WS_VISABLE and still im getting a push button as the control. I simply dont see WTF is going on, as the class name im using "BUTTON" as the documentation says, and only using WS_VISABLE | WS_CHILD | BS_GROUPBOX, if I change the BS_GROUPBOX to BS_PUSHBUTTON same exact button pops up. Im not using any extended styles or anything fancy.

Code:

hControl = CreateWindowEx(NULL, "BUTTON", strText.c_str(), WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP | BS_GROUPBOX, XPos, YPos, XSize, YSize, hParentWnd, (HMENU)(cCONTROLID),hInst,NULL);

strText = "GroupBoxTest" and it shows up in the middle of the group box as it would on a push button.

WS_TABSTOP seems to be a superfluous style for a groupbox. The first parameter to CreateWindowEx is a numeric type (DWORD), not a pointer so you should use zero for that and not NULL. Other than that it looks okay(I can't test it as I'm not using windows just now).

Using WS_TABSTOP is a habit of mine when creating controls Anyways I tracked the bug down finally to a default value that was being set in the controls initialization of its class. But onto another question do group boxes need to be owner drawn?

No, but sometimes it might be useful to create them with the WS_EX_TRANSPARENT extended window style, and/or WS_CLIPSIBLINGS window style.

Hmm, well I got the group box to create but its completly transparent showing what is under the window when it was created (i.e. its showing the part of visual stuidio in it, only styles used are BS_GROUPBOX, WS_CHILD, and WS_VISIBLE.

Interesting, the main window was not initially visable so when the group box is created it was having an issue in creation making it transparent, adding WS_VISIBLE to the main window fixed the problem.

Im now encountering a new problem with my group box. When the application is minimized and brought back up the group box has become transparent.

Hmm, added WS_EX_TRANSPARENT like you said ken and boom no more problems with it becoming transparent, but I just dont understand why in the hell you would have to do that any insight?

It's the order in which controls are drawn - if you have time/can be bothered make a small, test application and add controls one at a time within a groupbox with various styles and extended styles and observe the behavior. Creating other controls with WS_CLIPSIBLINGS is possibly an option, too, particularly if they're to be grouped within or near a groupbox.