Alternatives and detailed information of ListEx

List control for MFC applications

Introduction
Installation
Create
- Manually
- In Dialog
Tooltips
Sorting
Public Methods
- SetHdrColumnIcon
- SetSortable
Structures
Notification Messages
Expand
Example
Appearance

Introduction

IListEx class is basically an extension of the standard MFC CMFCListCtrl class with many improvements.

The main features of the IListEx:

Set tooltips for individual cells that show up on mouse hover
Set popup menu for the individual cells as well as for the whole list control
Set background and text color for individual cells
Set additional item data for individual cells
Many options to set individual colors for lots of list aspects with LISTEXCOLORSTRUCT
Set header height and font, as well as color for individual header columns
Innate ability to sort list columns with no additional efforts
Dynamically change list font size with Ctrl+MouseWheel

Installation

The usage of the control is quite simple:

Copy ListEx folder into your project's folder.
Add all files from ListEx folder into your project.
Add #include "ListEx/ListEx.h" where you suppose to use the control.
Declare IListExPtr variable: IListExPtr myList { CreateListEx() };

IListExPtr is a pointer to the IListEx class wrapped in std::unique_ptr. This wrapper is used mainly for convenience, so you don't have to bother about object lifetime, it will be destroyed automatically. That's why there is a call to the factory function CreateListEx(), to properly initialize a pointer.

Control uses its own namespace LISTEX. So it's up to you, whether to use namespace prefix before declarations:

LISTEX::

or to define namespace in the source file's beginning:

using namespace LISTEX;

Create

Manually

Create is the main method to create list control. It takes reference to the LISTEXCREATE structure.

Below is a simple example of the control's creation:

IListExPtr myList { CreateListEx() };
.
.
LISTEXCREATE lcs;
lcs.pParent = this;
lcs.uID = ID_MY_LIST;
lcs.rect = CRect(0, 0, 500, 300);

myList->Create(lcs);

With LISTEXCREATE structure you can adjust a plethora of list’s aspects:

Color of the list text and bk (background). Bk is set separately for odd and even rows
Color of the list header
Height of the list header
Font of the list header, and font of list itself
Color of individual header's columns
Color of tooltip's window text and bk
Color of the text and bk of a cell that has tooltip
Color of list grid, and even its width
Color of row when it's selected
Make list sortable

In Dialog

To create the control in a Dialog you can manually do it with the Create method.

But most of the times you prefer to place a standard List Control onto the Dialog's template, by dragging it from the Toolbox within Visual studio.
To use the latter approach follow these steps:

Put standard List Control from the toolbox onto your dialog template. Give it appropriate ID (IDC_LISTEX) and make it desirable size.
Declare IListExPtr member varable within your dialog class: IListExPtr m_myList { CreateListEx() };
In your OnInitDialog method call m_myList->CreateDialogCtrl(IDC_LISTEX, this); function.

Tooltips

To set a tooltip for a given cell, just write:

myList->SetCellTooltip(0, 1, L"Tooltip text", L"Tooltip caption:");

This will set a tooltip for cell (0, 1) with the text: Tooltip text, and the caption Tooltip caption.

Sorting

To enable sorting set the LISTEXCREATE::fSortable flag to true. In this case, when you click on the header, list will be sorted according to the clicked column. By default IListEx performs lexicographical sorting.

To set your own sorting routine use SetSortable method.

Public Methods

IListEx class also has a set of additional public methods to help customize your control in many different aspects.

bool Create(const LISTEXCREATE& lcs);
void CreateDialogCtrl(UINT uCtrlID, CWnd* pwndDlg);
BOOL DeleteAllItems();
BOOL DeleteColumn(int nCol);
BOOL DeleteItem(int nItem);
void Destroy();
[[nodiscard]] ULONGLONG GetCellData(int iItem, int iSubitem)const;
[[nodiscard]] LISTEXCOLORS GetColors()const;
[[nodiscard]] EListExSortMode GetColumnSortMode(int iColumn)const;
[[nodiscard]] int GetSortColumn()const;
[[nodiscard]] bool GetSortAscending()const;
void HideColumn(int iIndex, bool fHide);
[[nodiscard]] bool IsCreated()const;
void ResetSort();
void SetCellColor(int iItem, int iSubitem, COLORREF clrBk, COLORREF clrText = -1);
void SetCellData(int iItem, int iSubitem, ULONGLONG ullData);
void SetCellTooltip(int iItem, int iSubitem, std::wstring_view wstrTooltip, std::wstring_view wstrCaption = L"");
void SetColors(const LISTEXCOLORS& lcs);
void SetColumnColor(int iColumn, COLORREF clrBk, COLORREF clrText = -1);
void SetColumnSortMode(int iColumn, bool fSortable, EListExSortMode enSortMode = { });
void SetFont(const LOGFONTW* pLogFontNew);
void SetHdrHeight(DWORD dwHeight);
void SetHdrFont(const LOGFONTW* pLogFontNew);
void SetHdrColumnColor(int iColumn, COLORREF clrBk, COLORREF clrText = -1);
void SetHdrColumnIcon(int iColumn, const LISTEXHDRICON& stIcon);
void SetHdrImageList(CImageList* pList);
void SetRowColor(DWORD dwRow, COLORREF clrBk, COLORREF clrText = -1);
void SetSortable(bool fSortable, PFNLVCOMPARE pfnCompare = nullptr, EListExSortMode enSortMode = EListExSortMode::SORT_LEX);

SetSortable

void SetSortable(bool fSortable, PFNLVCOMPARE pfnCompare = nullptr, EListExSortMode enSortMode = EListExSortMode::SORT_LEX)

Parameters:

bool fSortable
Enables or disables sorting

PFNLVCOMPARE pfnCompare
Callback function pointer with type int (CALLBACK *PFNLVCOMPARE)(LPARAM lParam1, LPARAM lParam2, LPARAM lParamSort) that is used to set your own comparison function. If it's nullptr IListEx performs default sorting.
The comparison function must be either a static member of a class or a stand-alone function that is not a member of any class. For more information see official MSDN documentation.

EListExSortMode enSortMode
Default sorting mode for the list.

SetHdrColumnIcon

void SetHdrColumnIcon(int iColumn, int iIconIndex, bool fClick = false);

Sets the icon index in the header's image list for a given iColumn. To remove icon from column set the iIconIndex to -1.
Flag fClick means that icon is clickable. See LISTEX_MSG_HDRICONCLICK message for more info.

Structures

LISTEXCREATE

struct LISTEXCREATE
{
    LISTEXCOLORS stColor { };             //All control's colors.
    CRect        rect;                    //Initial rect.
    CWnd*        pParent { };             //Parent window.
    LOGFONTW*    pListLogFont { };        //List font.
    LOGFONTW*    pHdrLogFont { };         //Header font.
    UINT         uID { };                 //List control ID.
    DWORD        dwStyle { };             //Control's styles. Zero for default.
    DWORD        dwListGridWidth { 1 };   //Width of the list grid.
    DWORD        dwHdrHeight { };      //Header height.
    bool         fDialogCtrl { false };   //If it's a list within dialog.
    bool         fSortable { false };     //Is list sortable, by clicking on the header column?
    bool         fLinkUnderline { true }; //Links are displayed underlined or not.
    bool         fLinkTooltip { true };   //Show links' toolips.
    bool         fHighLatency { false };  //Do not redraw window until scrolling completes.
};

LISTEXCOLORS

struct LISTEXCOLORS
{
    COLORREF clrListText { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOWTEXT) };       //List text color.
    COLORREF clrListTextLink { RGB(0, 0, 200) };                  //List hyperlink text color.
    COLORREF clrListTextSel { GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT) }; //Selected item text color.
    COLORREF clrListTextLinkSel { RGB(250, 250, 250) };           //List hyperlink text color in selected cell.
    COLORREF clrListTextCellTt { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOWTEXT) }; //Text color of a cell that has tooltip.
    COLORREF clrListBkRow1 { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW) };         //List Bk color of the odd rows.
    COLORREF clrListBkRow2 { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW) };         //List Bk color of the even rows.
    COLORREF clrListBkSel { GetSysColor(COLOR_HIGHLIGHT) };       //Selected item bk color.
    COLORREF clrListBkCellTt { RGB(170, 170, 230) };              //Bk color of a cell that has tooltip.
    COLORREF clrListGrid { RGB(220, 220, 220) };                  //List grid color.
    COLORREF clrTooltipText { GetSysColor(COLOR_INFOTEXT) };      //Tooltip window text color.
    COLORREF clrTooltipBk { GetSysColor(COLOR_INFOBK) };          //Tooltip window bk color.
    COLORREF clrHdrText { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOWTEXT) };        //List header text color.
    COLORREF clrHdrBk { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW) };              //List header bk color.
    COLORREF clrHdrHglInact { GetSysColor(COLOR_GRADIENTINACTIVECAPTION) };//Header highlight inactive.
    COLORREF clrHdrHglAct { GetSysColor(COLOR_GRADIENTACTIVECAPTION) };    //Header highlight active.
    COLORREF clrNWABk { GetSysColor(COLOR_WINDOW) };              //Bk of Non Working Area.
};

This struct is also used in SetColor method.

LISTEXCOLOR

struct LISTEXCOLOR
{
    COLORREF clrBk { };
    COLORREF clrText { };
};
using PLISTEXCOLOR = LISTEXCOLOR*;

LISTEXHDRICON

struct LISTEXHDRICON
{
    POINT pt { };              //Point of the top-left corner.
    int   iIconIndex { };      //Icon index in the header's image list.
    bool  fClickable { true }; //Is icon sending LISTEX_MSG_HDRICONCLICK message when clicked.
};

EListExSortMode

Enum showing sorting type for list columns.

enum class EListExSortMode : short
{
    SORT_LEX, SORT_NUMERIC
};

Notification Messages

These messages are sent to the parent window in form of WM_NOTIFY windows message.
The lParam will contain pointer to NMHDR standard windows struct. NMHDR::code can be one of the LISTEX_MSG_... messages described below.

LISTEX_MSG_GETCOLOR

When in virtual mode, sent to the parent window to retrieve cell's color. Expects pointer to the LISTEXCOLOR struct in response, or nothing to use defaults.

void CListDlg::OnListExGetColor(NMHDR* pNMHDR, LRESULT* /*pResult*/)
{
    const auto pNMI = reintepret_cast<NMITEMACTIVATE*>(pNMHDR);

    //For column number 1 (all rows) set color to RGB(0, 220, 220).
    if (pNMI->iSubItem == 1)
    {
        static LISTEXCOLOR clr { RGB(0, 220, 220), RGB(0, 0, 0) };
        pNMI->lParam = reinterpret_cast<LPARAM>(&clr);
    }
}

LISTEX_MSG_GETICON

void CListDlg::OnListExGetIcon(NMHDR* pNMHDR, LRESULT* /*pResult*/)
{
    //Virtual data icons.
    const auto pNMI = reinterpret_cast<NMITEMACTIVATE*>(pNMHDR);
    ...
	
    pNMI->lParam = SomeIndex; //Icon index in list's image list.
}

This message is used in Virtual List mode to obtain icon index in list image list.

LISTEX_MSG_LINKCLICK

List embedded hyperlink has been clicked. WM_NOTIFY lParam will point to the NMITEMACTIVATE struct.
NMITEMACTIVATE::lParam will contain wchar_t* pointer to the link text of the clicked hyperlink. The iItem and iSubItem members will contain indexes of the list item/subitem the link was clicked at.

Hyperlink syntax is: L"Text with the <link="any_text_here" title="Optional tool-tip text">embedded link</link>"
If no optional title tag is provided then the link text itself will be used as hyperlink's tool-tip.
Link and title text must be quoted "".

LISTEX_MSG_HDRICONCLICK

Header icon that previously was set by SetHdrColumnIcon call has been clicked.
Example code for handling this message:

BOOL CMyDlg::OnNotify(WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam, LRESULT* pResult)
{
    const auto pNMI = reinterpret_cast<LPNMITEMACTIVATE>(lParam);

    if (pNMI->hdr.code == LISTEX_MSG_HDRICONCLICK && pNMI->hdr.idFrom == IDC_MYLIST)
    {
    	const auto pNMI = reinterpret_cast<NMHEADERW*>(lParam);
    	//pNMI->iItem holds clicked column index.
    }
    ...

Example

Let’s imagine that you need a list control with a non standard header height, and yellow background color. Nothing is simpler, see code below:

LISTEXCREATE lcs;
lcs.rect = CRect(0, 0, 500, 300)
lcs.pParent = this;
lcs.dwHdrHeight = 50;
lcs.stColor.clrListBkRow1 = RGB(255, 255, 0);
lcs.stColor.clrListBkRow2 = RGB(255, 255, 0);

myList->Create(lcs);

myList->InsertColumn(...);
myList->InsertItem(...);

Here, we set both - even and odd rows (clrListBkRow1 and clrListBkRow2) to the same yellow color.

Appearance

With the Ctrl+MouseWheel combination you can dynamically change list's font size.

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