Let the drawing begin!

The control will not be visible at run time but we want it to have a decent look
in the VB IDE environment, add a icon with 32 by 32 pixels of dimension to the
Picture property of the User Control.
Change the the fowling subs UserControl_Paint and UserControl_Resize:
 

Private Sub UserControl_Paint()
    'Draw a 3D raised border on the control using the Win32 API
    Dim rct As RECT

    'First retrieve the control's dimensions into a RECT structure
    GetClientRect UserControl.hwnd, rct

    'Use the DrawEdge Function to draw the 3D border
    DrawEdge UserControl.hdc, rct, BDR_RAISED, BF_RECT
End Sub

Private Sub UserControl_Resize()

UserControl.Size 32 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX, 32 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

End Sub

 

We have restricted the User Control size to 32 by 32 pixels so that it cant be resized, and in the UserControl_Paint
sub the DrawEdge function will draw a border around the controls, the size of the border is defined in a RECT data type
that defines the rectangle our user control occupies, the GetClientRect gets its size automatically, the RECT data type
basically is equal to getting a rectangle from Top, Left, Height, Width VB properties. The RECT.Bottom is equal to the Height
less the Top and the RECT.Right is equal to Width less the Left. The Top and  Left are the same as the VB ones.

Its not nice to leave dead icons in the system tray area so we always try to delete it from the tray are when
our User Control is destroyed, event if the program that uses the control didn't

Private Sub UserControl_Terminate()
DeleteFromTray
End Sub
 

A Dialog box to the world who we are!
 

Public Function ShowAbout()
MsgBox "MaxTrayCtrl V0.1 By MaximusVB" & vbCrLf & "Build date: 15/04/03" _
    & vbCrLf & "Home Page: http://maximusvb.angelcities.com" & vbCrLf & _
    "Email: maximussoftware@hotmail.com", vbOKOnly + vbInformation, "About"
End Function

 

Select Tools, Procedure Attributes, in the name Combo box select ShowAbout, click in the Advanced
button in the Procedure ID Combo box select AboutBox, click in the OK.
This will make appear a (About) property in the VB properties box and if we click in it the Show About function
is executed, we mapped that function to be the About box of our control.
 

[ TrayControl ] [ Create Custom Interface Members ] [ The API Declarations ] [ Code Please! ] [ Let the drawing begin! ] [ The Control in use ]