c++ winapi - 按下按钮时在同一 window 中的 2 组不同按钮/控件布局之间切换的最佳实践

Question

I'm a hobbyist programmer coming back to C++ after many years away from programming and new to winapi so sorry for the "basic" GUI question. I'm trying to find the best practice for implementing the following, very common, behaviour.

From a users perspective this is the behaviour I want to create. I have 1 window with some buttons in it. The user clicks on 1 of the buttons and the window contents appears to change to show different buttons/text fields etc. The user interacts with these controls then finally clicks a "back" button and they are returned to the first screen.

This behaviour is so common I thought it would be easy to find examples and best practices for implementing it but clearly I'm not asking the right questions in google. Not sure if the right way forward is a new window, a child window and how to set up winproc to capture the events in these 2 options, ie a winproc for each window or child or 1 massive winproc for everything. Hence the best practice question.

Can anyone help, either be explaining the best way to set this up with the WINAPI or by pointing me to some material online. I've spent days looking, plenty on creating 1 windows with controls. Very happy to follow tutorials and experiment to learn more.

Answer 1

Thanks jwezorek I got very close to your updated code last night but still couldn't get the child events to work. Finally cracked it using your updated code and putting the page switch buttons in the same pane as the other buttons so all clicks were handled on a pane basis in the child winproc. Thank you all for your help. Code below in case it's of interest/use to anyone else.

#include <windows.h>

#define PANE1_ID 101
#define BUTTON11_ID 102
#define BUTTON12_ID 103
#define BUTTON_TO_PAGE_1 104
#define PANE2_ID 201
#define BUTTON21_ID 202
#define BUTTON22_ID 203
#define BUTTON_TO_PAGE_2 204

LRESULT CALLBACK parentWndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);
LRESULT CALLBACK childWndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);

HINSTANCE g_hinst;
static HWND g_pane1;
static HWND g_pane2;

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
    g_hinst = hInstance;
    MSG msg = { 0 };

    // Parent window definition
    WNDCLASS parentWindow = { 0 };
    parentWindow.lpfnWndProc = parentWndProc;
    parentWindow.hInstance = hInstance;
    parentWindow.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_BACKGROUND);
    parentWindow.lpszClassName = L"MainWindow";
    if (!RegisterClass(&parentWindow))
        return 1;

    // Child window definition
    WNDCLASS childWindow = { 0 };
    childWindow.lpfnWndProc = childWndProc;
    childWindow.hInstance = hInstance;
    childWindow.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_BACKGROUND);
    childWindow.lpszClassName = L"Pane";
    if (!RegisterClass(&childWindow))
        return 1;

    // Create main window
    if (!CreateWindow(parentWindow.lpszClassName, L"grouped buttons", WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE, 0, 0, 640, 480, 0, 0, hInstance, NULL))
        return 2;

    while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0) > 0) {
        TranslateMessage(&msg);
        DispatchMessage(&msg);
    }

    return 0;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK parentWndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{

    switch (message)
    {
    case WM_CREATE:
        // create pane 2 with button then hide the pane and the button to switch to pane 1
        g_pane2 = CreateWindow(L"Pane", L"", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 20, 20, 250, 200, hWnd, (HMENU)PANE2_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Button 2.1", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 50, 10, 180, 35, g_pane2, (HMENU)BUTTON21_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Button 2.2", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 50, 40, 180, 35, g_pane2, (HMENU)BUTTON22_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Back to Page 1", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 50, 130, 180, 35, g_pane2, (HMENU)BUTTON_TO_PAGE_1, g_hinst, 0);
        ShowWindow(g_pane2, SW_HIDE);
        UpdateWindow(g_pane2);

        // create pane 1 with buttons and show it and the button to switch to pane 2
        g_pane1 = CreateWindow(L"Pane", L"", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 20, 20, 250, 200, hWnd, (HMENU)PANE1_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Button 1.1", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 10, 10, 180, 35, g_pane1, (HMENU)BUTTON11_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Button 1.2", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 10, 40, 180, 35, g_pane1, (HMENU)BUTTON12_ID, g_hinst, 0);
        CreateWindow(L"BUTTON", L"Go to page 2", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON, 10, 130, 180, 35, g_pane1, (HMENU)BUTTON_TO_PAGE_2, g_hinst, 0);
        ShowWindow(g_pane1, SW_SHOW);
        UpdateWindow(g_pane1);

        break;

    case WM_CLOSE:
        PostQuitMessage(0);
        break;
    default:
        return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
    }
    return 0;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK childWndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    if (message == WM_COMMAND) {
        switch (wParam) {
        case BUTTON_TO_PAGE_2: 
            {
            // MessageBox(hWnd, L"You pressed go to page 2", L"Button Pressed", MB_OK);
            ShowWindow(g_pane1, SW_HIDE);
            ShowWindow(g_pane2, SW_SHOW);
            }
            break;
        case BUTTON11_ID:
            MessageBox(NULL, L"Button 1.1", L"Page 1 Button", 0);
            break;
        case BUTTON12_ID:
            MessageBox(NULL, L"Button 1.2", L"Page 1 Button", 0);
            break;
        case BUTTON_TO_PAGE_1:
            {
            // MessageBox(hWnd, L"You pressed go to page 1", L"Button Pressed", MB_OK);
            ShowWindow(g_pane2, SW_HIDE);
            ShowWindow(g_pane1, SW_SHOW);
            }
            break;
        case BUTTON21_ID:
            MessageBox(NULL, L"Button 2.1", L"Page 2 Button", 0);
            break;
        case BUTTON22_ID:
            MessageBox(NULL, L"Button 2.2", L"Page 2 Button", 0);
            break;
        }
        return 0;
    }
    else {
        return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
    }
}

Answer 2

I'm a hobbyist programmer coming back to C++ after many years away from programming and new to winapi so sorry for the "basic" GUI question. I'm trying to find the best practice for implementing the following, very common, behaviour.

From a users perspective this is the behaviour I want to create. I have 1 window with some buttons in it. The user clicks on 1 of the buttons and the window contents appears to change to show different buttons/text fields etc. The user interacts with these controls then finally clicks a "back" button and they are returned to the first screen.

This behaviour is so common I thought it would be easy to find examples and best practices for implementing it but clearly I'm not asking the right questions in google. Not sure if the right way forward is a new window, a child window and how to set up winproc to capture the events in these 2 options, ie a winproc for each window or child or 1 massive winproc for everything. Hence the best practice question.

Can anyone help, either be explaining the best way to set this up with the WINAPI or by pointing me to some material online. I've spent days looking, plenty on creating 1 windows with controls. Very happy to follow tutorials and experiment to learn more.