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Generating MouseLeave Events for a Window
 Download the cMouseTrack class only (4kb)
Download the MouseLeave demonstration project (23kb)
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Before you Begin
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This project requires the SSubTmr.DLL component. Make sure you have loaded and registered this before trying the project.
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Introduction
Many of the more recent windows control support a feature often referred to as "Hot-Tracking" -
that is, when the control appears to highlight when the mouse moves over it, then returns to
normal when the mouse leaves. Common examples include flat toolbar buttons and the
Channel bar in IE (now defunct of course, otherwise better known as the "expensive kill Netscape
advertisement bar").
Getting a VB control to highlight when the mouse moves over it is very simple - you just detect
the MouseMove event. If you get one of these events, then the mouse is over the control.
However, how do you detect when the mouse leaves the control? You can't use MouseMove,
because it doesn't fire often enough to detect when the mouse is leaving the control. And you
can't (say) just detect mouse move events over the form the control is on, because the next
MouseMove event may occur over another control even if the mouse passes over the form when
it moves.
There are many possible solutions to this problem, from using a Timer (as suggested in the VB5
Owners Area on the Microsoft site...) to installing a Windows Hook procedure to give your
control a peek at all the Mouse Messages.
Built-in Tracking Support... Sometimes
The most irritating thing about doing a MouseLeave event properly is the fact that Microsoft
have fully implemented this feature, but only in certain OS. NT4 implements this method, as
does Win98 and the (possibly) forthcoming Win2000. In Windows 95 you can get at an
emulation of the method which is coded in COMCTL32.DLL, but only if IE3.02 or higher is installed.
So... if your application needs to support Win95 without a newer COMCTL32.DLL installed, or
if you need to run on NT3.51, you can't get OS support to code this correctly.
Here is a summary of what you get:
| OS |
MouseLeave Support? |
| NT4+, Win98+ |
Yes, using TrackMouseEvent in User32.DLL |
| Win95 with IE3.02 or higher |
Yes, using _TrackMouseEvent in COMCTL32.DLL. Note you can still
call _TrackMouseEvent in other OS which have the correct version of COMCTL32.DLL, in which case
it calls the OS method directly instead. |
| Win95 with no IE or old version, NT3.51 |
No support. In Win95 you can install the later version of COMCTL32.DLL without installing IE. |
To work around these problems, the code I provide here includes automatic detection of OS version
and (if required) COMCTL32.DLL version to determine which method to use, and includes a method
which will work regardless of OS version (provided the OS runs full Win32 or an emulation, at least!).
TrackMouseEvent, whether with an underscore or not
This method works by posting messages to your window when the mouse pointer leaves or hovers
over the window for a specified period of time. You first call TrackMouseEvent supplying
the window handle for Windows to start tracking mouse events. When Windows detects the
Mouse Leaves the control, it posts a WM_MOUSELEAVE message to the window and then
stops tracking the mouse. The TrackMouseEvent event call can then be made again.
This call can also be configured to post WM_MOUSEHOVER messsages too. Mouse Hover
is defined as the mouse staying within a specified rectangle for more than a certain length
of time. The rectangle and time to hover can be modified by a call to
SystemParametersInfo. This works in exactly the same way as MouseLeave does - when it
posts an event it then stops tracking.
How to Emulate TrackMouseEvent with SetCapture and ReleaseCapture
If you don't have TrackMouseEvent support, you can emulate the working of TrackMouseEvent.
using the SetCapture method. This
re-directs all mouse movement to a specified Window until it is either called again
or ReleaseCapture is called. This means that if you call SetCapture on a window,
and then move the mouse out of it, you will still receive a Mouse Move event when the cursor
leaves the control, and therefore you can detect that the mouse has left. There are two
things to note about this method:
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SetCapture is only applicable to the process that your application is working in - if the user switches to another application,
capture is automatically released and you loose Mouse Move events. This can cause problems
if the user alt-tabs whilst the mouse is over the control - the control can then get stuck
in a MouseOver state even though it isn't.
- VB will also cause SetCapture to be released whenever the user clicks on a control,
because VB internally calls SetCapture itself when you click the control and releases
it again when the mouse is released. This is why VB can provide you with X,Y coordinates
outside the control during the MouseMove event when the mouse is held down but not at
other times.
To emulates the operation of TrackMouseEvent method the code subclasses for
the following messages:
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WM_ACTIVATE on the parent of the control. By subclassing this message we can detect when
the form is deactivated and therefore raise a MouseLeave event if the mouse was over the control
before it happened (e.g. it the user uses one of the key codes to switch between applications,
such as Alt-Tab, Alt-Esc.)
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WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_RBUTTONUP and WM_MBUTTONUP. When these events occur,
the mouse button has been released and VB will internally call ReleaseCapture. This
allows the code to start checking for MouseLeave events again (if the mouse is released over
the control) or to raise a MouseLeave event if the mouse is released outside the control.
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WM_MOUSEMOVE. This is used to detect the mouse leaving the control.
How to Use the cMouseTrack class
The cMouseTrack exposes the following methods and properties:
| Method/Property |
Description |
| AttachMouseTracking (objTo as Object, Optional eForceMethod As EMouseTrackMethods) |
Initialises an instance of the cMouseTrack class for MouseLeave detection of a given object (objTo). The Object must have a hWnd property. You can optionally specify which MouseTracking method you want the object to use by filling in the last parameter. See also Method. |
| DetachMouseTracking |
Clears up the object and stops checking for MouseLeave messages. Called automatically when an instance of the class terminates. |
| Method |
Returns the type of Mouse tracking method being used by the class. |
| StartMouseTracking |
Starts checking for MouseLeave events. The class will continue checking until the MouseLeave or MouseHover event is fired. |
| Tracking |
Returns whether the class is tracking the mouse or not. |
The following code outline demonstrates how this class is used:
' Declare an instance of the cMouseTrack object:
Private WithEvents m_cPTM As cMouseTrack
Private Sub Form_Load()
' Initialise the object to detect the mouse leaving picTrack:
Set m_cPTM = New cMouseTrack
m_cPTM.AttachMouseTracking picTrack
End Sub
Private Sub picTrack_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, x As Single, y As Single)
' Tracking is initialised by entering the control:
If Not (m_cPTM.Tracking) Then
' Mouse has entered the control; highlight it hot here.
' And start checking for mouse leave:
m_cPTM.StartMouseTracking
End If
End Sub
' Respond to MouseHover and MouseLeave events
Private Sub m_cPTM_MouseHover(Button As MouseButtonConstants, Shift As ShiftConstants, x As Single, y As Single)
' Respond to Hover as required:
' When the Hover event is fired, mouse tracking stops, so tell the class to start
' checking again:
m_cPTM.StartMouseTracking
End Sub
Private Sub m_cPTM_MouseLeave()
' Mouse has left the control, remove the highlight:
End Sub
Conclusion
The cMouseTrack class encapsulates all you need to easily add a MouseLeave event to
a UserControl or standard VB control on your form. Its just up to you to use it to
do something better than my pop-up Ren and Stimpy sample supplied with the download code!
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