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WinNativeCommonCtls Package — Working Notes

See WIP.md for the cross-package maintenance guide.

A VB6-compatible replacement for Microsoft Common Controls 6.0 (MSCOMCTL.OCX), written on top of the Win32 ComCtl32 controls (COMCTL32.DLL / MSFTEDIT.DLL). Ships eight controls that mirror the MSCOMCTL surface name-for-name where possible. It is independent of, but co-versioned with, the VB compatibility package.

Each control is a large <Name>BaseCtl (where every event / method / property is implemented, tagged [COMCreatable(False)] + [EventsUseDispInterface]) plus a thin <Name> leaf (Inherits <Name>BaseCtl, tagged [WindowsControl("/miscellaneous/ICONS??/<Name>??.png")]). The leaf adds only a Class_BeforeFirstMethodAccess that calls [_HiddenModule].EnsureContainerIsLoaded(Me). CEF and the VB controls use the same <Name>BaseCtl / <Name> leaf split.

Eight controls (one .twin per pair):

File <Name>BaseCtl inherits Role
DTPicker.twin VB.BaseControlFocusable Date / time picker — calendar drop-down, single-date Value, custom format strings
ImageList.twin VB.BaseControlNotFocusable Off-screen image collection — feeds ListView / TreeView icons via Icons / ImageList properties
ListView.twin VB.BaseControlFocusable Multi-column list — four View modes (Icon / SmallIcon / List / Report), label-edit, checkboxes
MonthView.twin VB.BaseControlFocusable Full-month calendar grid — multi-select, bold-day callbacks, week-number / today display
ProgressBar.twin VB.BaseControlNotFocusable2 Standard / Smooth / Marquee progress indicator with three visual states (Normal / Error / Paused)
Slider.twin VB.BaseControlFocusableNoFont Trackbar / slider — tick marks, range selection, vertical or horizontal orientation
TreeView.twin VB.BaseControlFocusable Hierarchical tree of Node objects — sorting, label-edit, checkboxes, image lists
UpDown.twin VB.BaseControlFocusableNoFont Spin control (up / down arrows) — pure Increment / Min / Max / Value; no auto-buddy binding

Every <Name>BaseCtl carries [WithDispatchForwarding] Implements Control (where Control is Private Interface in Interfaces.twin, marked [COMExtensible] — essentially an Object alias that makes the dispatch forwarding behave). They also implement VB.IWindowsControl, VB.IWindowElementEventsCommon, VB.IWindowElementEventsCommonControls, VB.IWindowElementEventsUC and VB.IWindowElementEventsAX — the VB-package event-dispatch interfaces. Do not show them in the docs. Each control also implements one private Tb<Name>Private interface (declared [ComImport(True)] inside the same .twin). The package's collection sub-objects use it to refcount and reach internal state without a strong reference. No doc page for those.

Public user-facing surface

The eight leaf classes DTPicker, ImageList, ListView, MonthView, ProgressBar, Slider, TreeView, UpDown are what user code references at design time (via [WindowsControl(...)]) and at run time (Dim lv As ListView). The <Name>BaseCtl base classes are the implementation half: [COMCreatable(False)], not user-instantiable, but the entire user-visible surface is declared on them. Document on the leaf's name (ListView.md), describe the full surface, and do not show the <Name>BaseCtl split.

The package also surfaces eight sub-object classes — collection plus item:

Class Reached via Notes
ListImages ImageList.ListImages (Get-only) Enumerable; Item(Index or Key) default member; Add, Remove, Clear, Exists
ListImage element of ListImages (returned from Add, indexed) Index (read-only), Key, Picture, Tag, plus Draw(hDC, x, y, Style) and ExtractIcon
ListItems ListView.ListItems (Get-only) Enumerable; Item(Index or Key) default member; Add, Remove, Clear
ListItem element of ListItems Text (default), SubItems(Index), Icon, SmallIcon, Checked, Selected, Ghosted, Bold, BackColor, ForeColor, Tag, ToolTipText, EnsureVisible, Left / Top / Width / Height, Index (RO), Key, CreateDragImage ([Unimplemented])
ColumnHeaders ListView.ColumnHeaders (Get-only) Same shape as ListItems; Add(Index, Key, Text, Width, Alignment, Icon) returns ColumnHeader
ColumnHeader element of ColumnHeaders Text (default), Width, Left (RO), Alignment (typed ListColumnAlignmentConstants), Position, SubItemIndex, Icon, Index (RO), Key, Tag
Nodes TreeView.Nodes (Get-only) Enumerable; Item(Index or Key) default; Add(Relative, Relationship, Key, Text, Image, SelectedImage) returns Node
Node element of Nodes Text (default), Parent, Child, Next, Previous, Root, FirstSibling, LastSibling, Children (count), Expanded, Selected, Checked, Bold, BackColor, ForeColor, Image, SelectedImage, Tag, FullPath, Visible (RO), Sorted, SortOrder, SortType, EnsureVisible, Index (RO), Key

Every sub-object is [COMCreatable(False)] — its constructor takes a <Name>BaseCtl reference, so user code never instantiates these directly. They are returned from container methods (Add, Item) and reached through container properties.

Container cross-references (typed as the <Name>BaseCtl parent, since the controls accept either the base or the leaf — but document the parameter as the leaf):

  • TreeView.ImageList / Let / Set — typed As ImageListBaseCtl; the user assigns an ImageList.
  • ListView.Icons / Let / Set, ListView.SmallIcons / Let / Set, ListView.ColumnHeaderIcons / Let / Set — all three typed As ImageListBaseCtl; the user assigns an ImageList.

ListView.BorderStyle is unusually typed As TreeBorderStyleConstants (declared in TreeViewPublic, not in a ListView* module) — the enum is shared across both controls. Surface this on the BorderStyle entry without trying to rationalise it.

Per-control highlights

Points to put on each control's page that are not obvious from a flat property list:

  • DTPicker — the only control where most behaviour is in the calendar drop-down, not the inline display. The Calendar* colour properties (CalendarBackColor, CalendarForeColor, CalendarTitleBackColor, CalendarTitleForeColor, CalendarTrailingForeColor) act on the dropped-down month grid via DTM_SETMCCOLOR. Format (DTPickerFormatConstants) chooses between long-date / short-date / time / custom; when set to dtpCustom, the picker pulls CustomFormat (a GetDateFormat-style picture string). The control exposes Year / Month / Week / Day / Hour / Minute / Second accessors that decompose the current Value. Value is Variant — it can be Null (no date selected) when CheckBox = True and the user unchecks the box. Events Format, FormatSize, CallbackKeyDown fire when Format = dtpCustom and the format string contains a callback token.
  • ImageList — purely off-screen; Visible does nothing user-meaningful (it's a "store of pictures" control). The ImageWidth / ImageHeight properties are read/write only while empty — once any image is added, the setter raises run-time error 35611 ("Property is read-only if image list contains images"). ColorDepth is fixed at construction time. MaskColor + UseMaskColor = True makes the masked pixels transparent when rendered into a control that consumes the image list. Overlay(Key1, Key2) composes two list-images into a single StdPicture. Bound-count tracking: an ImageList cannot be modified (clear / remove) while any control has it bound as Icons / SmallIcons / ColumnHeaderIcons / ImageList, throwing error 35617.
  • ListView — the largest of the eight. View switches the visual mode (lvwIcon / lvwSmallIcon / lvwList / lvwReport); Arrange (lvwNone / lvwAutoLeft / lvwAutoTop) auto-flows the icon mode; Report mode is the only one that shows the ColumnHeaders. LabelEdit defaults to lvwAutomatic — F2 / click-and-wait edits a label in place; lvwManual requires StartLabelEdit() and lvwDisabled blocks editing. TextBackground (lvwTransparent / lvwOpaque) acts on the item text rendering: lvwOpaque draws item text on the control's BackColor (LVM_SETTEXTBKCOLOR), lvwTransparent sets it to CLR_NONE. Since BETA 1005 BackColor and TextBackground both go through ColorsChanged, and every colour property of ListView, ListItem, ProgressBar and ImageList validates its value with VB.CommonValidateColorOrRevert: a value OleTranslateColor refuses (-1) raises 380 and keeps the old colour, so ListItem.BackColor = -1 (its default, CLR_NONE) cannot be assigned back after a colour. MultiSelect = True enables Ctrl+click / Shift+click range selection. CheckBoxes = True adds a leading checkbox per row and fires ItemCheck. AllowColumnReorder only matters in Report view. BorderStyle is TreeBorderStyleConstants (ccNone / ccFixedSingle). The control surfaces hWnd and hWndHeader (the embedded SysHeader32 window) separately. Scroll is [Unimplemented] per the source. GetFirstVisible() As ListItem, SelectedItem / SelectedItemIndex — the latter is read-only (assign through ListItem.Selected = True instead).
  • MonthView — MonthColumns / MonthRows lay out a grid of side-by-side month panels (ResizeToFit auto-sizes the control to fit them). Day / Month / Week / Year are the same decomposition pattern as DTPicker. MaxSelCount is the upper bound of a multi-day selection (default 7, max ≈ 366 per the Win32 control); SelStart and SelEnd are the inclusive range. MinDate / MaxDate bound the navigable range. Value is the current selection's start date (same as SelStart when MultiSelect = False). The control fires both Click (any click) and DateClick (only when a date cell is hit, with the date passed as a parameter); same split for DblClick / DateDblClick. GetDayBold is an event-driven callback — the control fires it for each visible month asking for a State() array of which days to render bold; this is the mechanism for highlighting holidays, schedule entries, etc. DayBold is an alternative per-date setter. GetMonthRange(IncludeTrailing, StartDate, EndDate) returns the visible date span.
  • ProgressBar — three orthogonal axes. Min / Max / Value are the standard range. Step + StepIt() advances the bar by Step units (typical loop pattern: Min = 0, Max = N, then StepIt() per iteration). Scrolling = PrbScrollingStandard (default) animates the bar in segments; PrbScrollingSmooth is the continuous block; PrbScrollingMarquee is the indeterminate animation (drive with MarqueeAnimation = True + MarqueeSpeed). State (PrbStateNormal / Error / Paused) tints the bar red / yellow per the OS theme. Orientation is PrbOrientation (Horizontal / Vertical). The control has Click / DblClick / Mouse* events but no Change despite the declaration — verify with the source if surfaced (Change is declared in the events region but not fired by any Win32 progress-bar notification).
  • Slider — Min / Max / Value like a scrollbar; SmallChange is the arrow-key step, LargeChange is the PgUp / PgDn step. SelStart + SelLength create a highlighted selection range (visible when SelectRange = True). TickFrequency controls how often tick marks appear; TickStyle (sldBottomRight / sldTopLeft / sldBoth / sldNoTicks) chooses which side(s) of the channel they render on. TextPosition (sldAboveLeft / sldBelowRight) is for the optional tip text. HideThumb = True removes the draggable indicator. ShowTip = True enables the floating tooltip showing the current value during drag. Orientation is OrientationConstants (the shared horizontal / vertical enum used also by UpDown).
  • TreeView — the second-largest control. Style (TreeStyleConstants, 8 values) is a composite of show / hide flags for tree-lines / plus-minus boxes / icons / text — the values name what's shown. LineStyle chooses tvwRootLines (lines from root nodes) or tvwTreeLines (lines only from children). Sorted / SortOrder / SortType apply at the root level; each Node has its own per-subtree Sorted / SortOrder / SortType. LabelEdit is the same gating as ListView.LabelEdit (tvwAutomatic / Manual / Disabled). CheckBoxes = True adds per-node checkboxes; FullRowSelect extends the selection highlight across the full row width. Indentation is in twips. HitTest(x, y) returns the Node at a point (for hover effects, drag-drop). SelectedItem (Get / Let / Set) and DropHighlight (Get / Let / Set) are both Node-typed. StartLabelEdit() for Manual mode. GetVisibleCount() returns how many full nodes the visible area shows. Scroll event new to tB.
  • UpDown — pure spin control: Min / Max / Value / Increment. Orientation is OrientationConstants (horizontal pair of arrows or vertical, the more common). Events are Change (any time Value changes), UpClick, DownClick. There is no auto-buddy / partner-control facility in this version (the Win32 UDS_AUTOBUDDY flag is in the source enums but not exposed) — user code wires UpClick / DownClick to update the partner control manually.

Common surface across every control: Public Opacity As Double = 100 (with the "REQUIRES TARGET OS 6.2+ FOR CHILD CONTROLS." description), Public TransparencyKey As OLE_COLOR = -1 (same OS requirement), and (where FEATURE_OLEDRAGDROP is enabled at compile time) Public OLEDropMode As VBRUN.OLEDropConstants plus the OLECompleteDrag / OLEDragDrop / OLEDragOver / OLEGiveFeedback / OLESetData / OLEStartDrag events. Public OLEDrag() method on every control. Public Property Get Parent() As Object and Public Property Get Object() As Object on every control. The inherited surface from VB.BaseControl* includes Name, Left, Top, Width, Height, Anchors, Dock, Visible, Enabled, BackColor / ForeColor / Font (where focusable), Appearance, MousePointer / MouseIcon, ToolTipText, DragMode / DragIcon, Drag(), Refresh(), SetFocus() (focusable variants), ZOrder(), CausesValidation, TabIndex / TabStop (focusable variants), VisualStyles, hWnd, HelpContextID / WhatsThisHelpID.

Per-control nested enums (fold onto the declaring control's page)

These enums are declared inside each <Name>BaseCtl (Enum <Name> without Public, which still surfaces because the enclosing class is public). Following the CustomControls convention for WaynesSlider.SliderDirection, document each on its declaring control's page rather than under Enumerations/:

Enum Declared on Members
ImageListColorDepth ImageListBaseCtl ColorDepth4Bit = 4, ColorDepth8Bit = 8, ColorDepth16Bit = 16, ColorDepth24Bit = 24, ColorDepth32Bit = 32
ListViewConstants ListViewBaseCtl lvwIcon = 0, lvwSmallIcon = 1, lvwList = 2, lvwReport = 3
ListArrangeConstants ListViewBaseCtl lvwNone = 0, lvwAutoLeft = 1, lvwAutoTop = 2
ListTextBackgroundConstants ListViewBaseCtl lvwTransparent = 0, lvwOpaque = 1
ListLabelEditConstants ListViewBaseCtl lvwAutomatic = 0, lvwManual = 1, lvwDisabled = 2
ListColumnAlignmentConstants ColumnHeader lvwColumnLeft = 0, lvwColumnRight = 1, lvwColumnCenter = 2
PrbOrientation ProgressBarBaseCtl PrbOrientationHorizontal = 0, PrbOrientationVertical = 1
PrbScrolling ProgressBarBaseCtl PrbScrollingStandard = 0, PrbScrollingSmooth = 1, PrbScrollingMarquee = 2
PrbState ProgressBarBaseCtl PrbStateNormal = 1, PrbStateError = 2, PrbStatePaused = 3
TickStyleConstants SliderBaseCtl sldBottomRight = 0, sldTopLeft = 1, sldBoth = 2, sldNoTicks = 3
TextPositionConstants SliderBaseCtl sldAboveLeft = 0, sldBelowRight = 1

Source-side spelling note: every enum is named <Name> (no Public modifier) but the member names use the historical VB6 prefix conventions — lvw for ListView, tvw for TreeView, sld for Slider, dtp for DTPicker, Prb for ProgressBar, cc for cross-control. Mixed casing in member names (SldAboveLeft literal in the source defaults vs sldAboveLeft declaration) is a source-side issue; surface members with the declared casing.

Module-level enums (under Enumerations/)

Five <Name>Consts.twin modules in SUPPORT/ hold Win32 SDK plumbing (message IDs, notification IDs, style flags, Win32 types like NMHDR / SYSTEMTIME / LVCOLUMNW) plus a few user-facing enums. User code cannot reach the plumbing (mostly inside Private Module …Consts). The user-facing enums are in a separate Public Module (TreeView) or share an effectively public bare Module with the plumbing (the rest). Either way, document only the user-facing enums:

Enum Declared in / module Members
DTPickerFormatConstants DTPickerConsts.twin (module DTPickerConsts) dtpLongDate = 0, dtpShortDate = 1, dtpTime = 2, dtpCustom = 3
TreeBorderStyleConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (Public Module TreeViewPublic) ccNone = 0, ccFixedSingle = 1
TreeLabelEditConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) tvwAutomatic = 0, tvwManual = 1, tvwDisabled = 2
TreeLineStyleConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) tvwTreeLines = 0, tvwRootLines = 1
TreeStyleConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) 8 members: tvwTextOnly, tvwPictureText, tvwPlusMinusText, tvwPlusMinusPictureText, tvwTreelinesText, tvwTreelinesPictureText, tvwTreelinesPlusMinusText, tvwTreelinesPlusMinusPictureText
TreeRelationshipConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) tvwFirst = 0, tvwLast = 1, tvwNext = 2, tvwPrevious = 3, tvwChild = 4
TreeSortOrderConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) tvwAscending = 0, tvwDescending = 1
TreeSortTypeConstants TreeViewConsts.twin (TreeViewPublic) tvwBinary = 0, tvwText = 1
OrientationConstants Misc.twin (Private Module Miscellaneous) ccOrientationHorizontal = 0, ccOrientationVertical = 1 — used by both Slider and UpDown
ImlDrawConstants ImageListConsts.twin (Private Module ImageListConsts) ImlDrawNormal = 1, ImlDrawTransparent = 2, ImlDrawSelected = 4, ImlDrawFocus = 8, ImlDrawNoMask = 16 — flag combination; used as [TypeHint(ImlDrawConstants)] on ListImage.Draw's Style parameter

For OrientationConstants and ImlDrawConstants (declared Public Enum inside a Private Module): user code cannot name the enclosing module, but the enum members are reachable. [TypeHint] tags them on the consuming method's parameter, and the IDE's "implicit member visibility" shows them. User code writes Slider1.Orientation = ccOrientationVertical and ListImage.Draw(hdc, 0, 0, ImlDrawTransparent Or ImlDrawSelected). Document the enum and don't worry about qualification — the user's call site never needs Module.Enum.Member form.

The remaining <Name>Consts.twin modules (ImageListConsts, ListViewConsts, ProgressBarConsts, TreeViewConsts.TreeViewConsts (the private half), UpDownConsts, SliderConsts, MonthViewConsts, DTPickerConsts non-DTPickerFormatConstants content) are package-internal — Win32 message IDs, style flags, notification structures (NMHDR, NMLISTVIEW, NMDATETIMECHANGE, …) that the controls use to talk to ComCtl32 but that the user never references. No doc pages for those; do not document LVMessages, TVMessages, MonthViewMessages, SliderMessages, UpDownMessages, DTPickerMessages and the associated *Notifications / *Styles enums.

Private classes (no doc page)

  • Private Class ListViewHeaderSubclasser (in ListView.twin) — subclasses the embedded SysHeader32 window to intercept HDM_LAYOUT notifications for the column-resize handler. Implementation detail.
  • Private Class TreeViewNodeCheckState / ListViewNodeCheckState / TreeViewNodeClick / TreeViewNodeDblClick (in TreeViewNodeCheckState.twin) — four IScheduledCallback-implementing dispatch helpers that the controls schedule onto the message loop to fire NodeCheck / ItemCheck / NodeClick / DblClick events at the right point in the click-handling sequence. Same role as the …Internal classes in WinNamedPipesLib; no doc page.
  • Class ImageListPropertyPage (in ImageListPropertyPage.twin) — [FormDesignerId] [PredeclaredId] [COMCreatable(False)] Form class that's the IDE's design-time property editor for ImageList (the "Custom Properties..." button). Invoked from ImageListBaseCtl.HandleInvokePropertyExtension. Pure design-time tooling, never appears at run-time; no doc page.
  • Private Interface Control / IScheduledCallback / ITwinBasicDesignerExtensions (in Interfaces.twin) — internal interfaces. Control is the empty marker interface that [WithDispatchForwarding] resolves names through. No doc pages.
  • Private Module Miscellaneous (in Misc.twin) — StrPtrSafe, CommonTreeViewGetNodeFromHandle, SyncBorderStyle — internal helpers. OrientationConstants does surface from this module (see above) but the module itself doesn't get a doc page.
  • Private Module ImagesHelper (in ImagesHelper.twin) — GetBitsPerPixelFromPic. Internal helper. No doc page.
  • The …Consts modules (private, or the bare Module DTPickerConsts / MonthViewConsts / SliderConsts / UpDownConsts, which are effectively public but Win32 plumbing only) — see Module-level enums; no per-module doc page.

[Unimplemented] and [Hidden] members to flag

  • DTPicker.RightToLeft — tagged [Unimplemented]; flag with > [!NOTE].
  • MonthView.RightToLeft — same.
  • ListView.Scroll event — tagged [Unimplemented]; flag on the event entry.
  • ListItem.CreateDragImage — tagged [Unimplemented]; flag with > [!NOTE].
  • ListImages.ControlDefault — tagged [Unimplemented] and [Hidden]; do not document ([Hidden] means the IDE intentionally suppresses it).
  • ListView.AllowColumnReorder — implemented but only takes effect in Report view; surface as a note on the property.

Layout: folder-style for ImageList/, ListView/, TreeView/ (each has 2–4 sub-object companions — ListImage + ListImages; ListItem + ListItems + ColumnHeader + ColumnHeaders; Node + Nodes — that are 1:1 with the container, same pattern as CustomControls/WaynesButton/WaynesButtonState.md). Single-file for the remaining five (DTPicker.md, MonthView.md, ProgressBar.md, Slider.md, UpDown.md). An Enumerations/ folder holds the 10 module-level / shared enums; the 11 per-control nested enums fold onto their declaring control's page.

Cross-references on the site