Listview extended tile mode

UI Development for Windows Vista

BrerRabbit

Hi folks,

I'm having no luck trying to get the new extended-tile view mode to work. It seems as soon as I call SetTileViewInfo with LVTVIF_EXTENDED flag, the tiles expand to the width of the control, but refuse to show any sub-items. I tried calling SetTileInfo for each item, but the best I could achieve was to show some of the column header titles in the second column of the tile, but no sub-item data. Another problem is that I can't get the view to scroll vertically, the tiles are always stacked horizontally.

Can someone point me to some meaningful documentation for this feature, or maybe some sample source code


Cheers,
Alex.
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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

I'd like to know this, too.

TiKu




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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

Etan Bukiet

It seems to me that the new features for the windows common controls in vista haven't really been documented well, or been added to the SDK. Some code examples from MS would be really nice right about now. I feel that this is especially true for the new features of the listview control. I know that I have posted about ownerdata and groups, and just today TiKu posted about AsyncDraw and constants missing from the SDK. We want our applications to take advantage of the new features, but you have to let us know how to use them first!

Help us out Microsoft! Please!

Etan Bukiet

PS. I ditto what TiKu said


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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

I've the impression Microsoft tries to force us away from the unmanaged world. I'm also working on a managed project that uses XAML. My questions about XAML in the WPF forum are answered within minutes/few hours. But almost all my questions about the new Win32 stuff are ignored.
Also documentation of .net seems to be pretty good. But documentation of the new Win32 stuff is nothing more than a bad joke. Many things are undocumented and the docs for the rest are often simply wrong or useless one-liners.

I remember someone from Microsoft publicly demanding the developers to make their apps ready for Vista. This was during the Beta phase of Vista.
I ask Microsoft (again): How are we supposed to make our apps ready for Vista if you're neither willing to give us good documentation nor answer our questions I don't own a crystal ball.
At the moment I'm doing reverse engineering in the hope to get a bit more working. But what did Jeffrey Tan from MSFT write in microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ui on Dec 15th 2006 about reverse engineering
If it's undocumented you can't use it. If you try anyway, a lawyer will eventually get in touch with you.
Great! Writing software for Windows becomes more fun with every day. I wonder if the developers of Windows Explorer are sued for using tons of undocumented stuff.

TiKu




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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

Hmm, maybe we should send mails to the European Union about Microsoft refusing to document important APIs, what do you think




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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

Peter Donnelly - MSFT UE

All your comments about deficiencies in the current documentation for common controls have been noted, and we're doing what we can to remedy them. Thanks.





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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

eDamo

Any new developments on this topic




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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

I don't think so. A new version of Windows SDK has been released, but the "documentation" for Extended Tile Mode (and all the other new stuff across shell32 and comctl32) is still the same, i. e. nothing more than something like "Yes, extended tile mode exists. Good luck if you want to use it."

Looks like Microsoft doesn't want us to develop software for Windows. Well, there are other operating systems...





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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

I found something out: In extended tile view mode you must handle the LVN_GETDISPINFO notification to set the text for the sub-items. The tiles then look like this (assuming that 3 [which is the maximum] sub-item lines are activated for tile view):

Code Block

[Icon ] item text col caption #2 sub-item text col #2

[32x32] sub-item text col #1 col caption #3 sub-item text col #3

Concerning the LVCFMT_* flags you can set via LVITEM, I had no luck so far. But I didn't try that hard and Windows SDK states "Not implemented".

TiKu





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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

Peter Donnelly - MSFT UE

There is a short example at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb774736.aspx#Using_Extended_Tiles . However, at the moment support for extended tiles in non-owner-data list view is somewhat limited,





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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

That's interesting. So far I had much more success with extended tiles in non-owner-data listviews than in owner-data listviews.

Is there some sample code available that shows how extended tiles are to be used in owner-data listviews

Thanks in advance

TiKu

P.S.: My previous post has some errors in it: extended tiles are not limited to 3 sub-item lines. This limitation I saw was caused by using a 32x32 imagelist instead of a larger one. Also the layout I posted is correct for a 32x32 imagelist only.





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Re: UI Development for Windows Vista Listview extended tile mode

TiKu

I did some tests with extended tiles in owner-data listviews. I gave the listview the styles LVS_AUTOARRANGE and LVS_OWNERDATA and attached a 48x48 imagelist. I've sent LVM_SETTILEVIEWINFO with the following struct:

Code Block

LVTILEVIEWINFO tileInfo = {0};

tileInfo.cbSize = sizeof(LVTILEVIEWINFO);

tileInfo.dwMask = LVTVIM_COLUMNS | LVTVIM_TILESIZE;

tileInfo.dwFlags = LVTVIF_EXTENDED | LVTVIF_AUTOSIZE;

tileInfo.cLines = 6;

Then I've inserted 7 columns and set the virtual item count to 50. My LVN_GETDISPINFO handler sets the image, the item and sub-item texts and 6 tile columns (LVIF_COLUMNS) for each item. That's all.

I get tiles with the expected content (the header line and the five detail lines). However, the tiles don't use multiple columns like in this sample (BTW, I get multiple columns in a non-owner-data listview). Instead I get only a single column like in classic tiles view. If I set a fixed tile size of e. g. 600x50, the content isn't wrapped to a second column, but just clipped.

In my LVN_GETDISPINFO handler I've experimented with handling LVIF_COLFMT requests by setting e. g. the 3rd sub-item's format to LVCFMT_LINE_BREAK, but this didn't change anything.

Peter, is this the expected behavior for extended tiles in owner-data mode If so, what is the difference between extended tiles and normal tiles in owner-data mode

TiKu





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