Visual Basic - multiline tooltip class is slow

Author

multiline tooltip class is slow

John

2006-01-30, 6:55 pm

Hi,

I'm using as class to create multiline tooltips. I have a screen with more
than 1000 little frames and they all have a multiline tooltip. Because of
the tooltips the program is very slow. I'm creating the tooltips at the
start of the program. Is there a way to make it faster? Maybe create the
tooltips when needed?

Tia
John

This is the class

Option Explicit

Private Const SWP_NOMOVE = &H2
Private Const SWP_NOACTIVATE = &H10
Private Const SWP_NOSIZE = &H1

Private Const WM_USER = &H400
Private Const WM_PAINT = &HF
Private Const WM_PRINT = &H317

Private Const TTF_SUBCLASS = &H10

Private Const TTM_ADDTOOLA = (WM_USER + 4)
Private Const TTM_SETMAXTIPWIDTH = (WM_USER + 24)
Private Const TTM_SETTIPBKCOLOR = (WM_USER + 19)
Private Const TTM_SETTIPTEXTCOLOR = (WM_USER + 20)

Private Const TTS_ALWAYSTIP = &H1
Private Const TTS_BALLOON = &H40

Private Const TOOLTIPS_CLASSA = "tooltips_class32"
Private Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1

Private Declare Function CreateWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "CreateWindowExA"
_
(ByVal dwExStyle As Long, _
ByVal lpClassName As String, _
ByVal lpWindowName As String, _
ByVal dwStyle As Long, _
ByVal X As Long, _
ByVal Y As Long, _
ByVal nWidth As Long, _
ByVal nHeight As Long, _
ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
ByVal hMenu As Long, _
ByVal hInstance As Long, _
lpParam As Any) As Long

Private Declare Function DestroyWindow Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long

Private 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

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" _
(ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any) As Long

Private Declare Function GetClientRect Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hWnd As Long, lpRect As RECT) As Long

Private Type RECT
Left As Long
Top As Long
Right As Long
Bottom As Long
End Type

Private Type TOOLINFO
cbSize As Long
uFlags As Long
hWnd As Long
uid As Long
RECT As RECT
hinst As Long
lpszText As String
lParam As Long
End Type

Public Function Add(hTarget As Long, sMessage As String, Optional
lBackgroundColor As Variant, Optional lForegroundColor As Variant, Optional
lBalloon As Boolean) As Long
Dim TipWindow As Long
Dim ti As TOOLINFO
Dim RECT As RECT

TipWindow = CreateWindowEx(0&, TOOLTIPS_CLASSA, "", _
TTS_ALWAYSTIP Or IIf(lBalloon, TTS_BALLOON, 0), _
0, 0, 0, 0, hTarget, 0&, App.hInstance, 0&)

Add = TipWindow

SetWindowPos TipWindow, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, _
SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE Or SWP_NOACTIVATE

GetClientRect hTarget, RECT

With ti
.cbSize = Len(ti)
.uFlags = TTF_SUBCLASS
.hWnd = hTarget
'.hinst = App.hInstance
.uid = 0
.lpszText = sMessage
.RECT = RECT
End With

SendMessage TipWindow, TTM_ADDTOOLA, 0, ti

SendMessage TipWindow, TTM_SETMAXTIPWIDTH, 0, 0

If IsMissing(lBackgroundColor) = False Then _
SendMessage TipWindow, TTM_SETTIPBKCOLOR, lBackgroundColor, 0

If IsMissing(lForegroundColor) = False Then _
SendMessage TipWindow, TTM_SETTIPTEXTCOLOR, lForegroundColor, 0

End Function

Public Function Remove(TipWindow As Long) As Long
If TipWindow <> 0 Then _
DestroyWindow TipWindow
End Function

Ken Halter

2006-01-30, 6:55 pm

"John" <dummy@dummy.be> wrote in message
news:OMNBDzcJGHA.1288@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I'm using as class to create multiline tooltips. I have a screen with more
> than 1000 little frames and they all have a multiline tooltip. Because of
> the tooltips the program is very slow. I'm creating the tooltips at the
> start of the program. Is there a way to make it faster? Maybe create the
> tooltips when needed?
>
> Tia
> John

You're creating 1000 tooltips whether they show or not? 1000 frames? Sheesh
<g>

Yes... definitely... don't create any until you need them and then create
only one. Populate it's "text" on the fly.

--
Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB - Please keep all discussions in the groups..
DLL Hell problems? Try ComGuard - http://www.vbsight.com/ComGuard.htm
Freeware 4 color Gradient Frame? http://www.vbsight.com/GradFrameCTL.htm

Tom Esh

2006-01-30, 6:55 pm

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:40:34 +0100, "John" <dummy@dummy.be> wrote:

>I'm using as class to create multiline tooltips. I have a screen with more
>than 1000 little frames and they all have a multiline tooltip. Because of
>the tooltips the program is very slow. I'm creating the tooltips at the
>start of the program. Is there a way to make it faster? Maybe create the
>tooltips when needed?

Probably because (it appears anyway) you're creating a new tooltip
window for each tip and 1000+ would chew up a lot of system resources.
A single tooltip window can supply all your tips. Create one, and then
add individual tips with TTM_ADDTOOL.

Also worth mentioning (though I'm not sure this would make much
difference in performance) you can use the control in callback mode
(iow respond to TTN_NEEDTEXT) which places the burden of storing /
fetching the tip string data on the app.

-Tom
MVP - Visual Basic
(please post replies to the newsgroup)

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