High color icons for CPropertySheet

Sample Image - HighColorTab.png

Introduction

I wanted to add icons on property pages for my current project. After selecting a few icons, that happened to be in 24 bits, and upgrading my application, I had the unpleasant surprise of seeing that the icons were displayed in only 16 colors.

I checked the Microsoft Knowledge Base and looked around for articles on the web discussing this issue but with no success. After investigating a little bit with CPropertySheet and its dependencies CTabCtrl and CImageList, I came up with the solution presented in this article.

Also note that the solution provided works with the excellent CTreePropSheet[^] control, which is what I was actually using.

Using the code

Using the code is very straightforward. You have to create a new class derived from CPropertySheet in order to override OnInitDialog. Include "HighColorTab.hpp" into the .cpp file of your new property sheet. In the body of OnInitDialog, add the following line:

HighColorTab::UpdateImageList( *this );

That's it: you are done! The demo project provides an example.

How does it work?

The code is pretty straightforward and is located in a single function in HighColorTab.hpp. The function does the following:

Get the tab control (CTabCtrl) from the provided property sheet (or object having a similar interface),
Create the replacement image list (CImageList) using the provided trait,
Populate the image list using the icon information stored in each property page,
Replace the image list,
Destroy the old image list.

The workflow is such that if anything goes wrong during the image list creation process, the property sheet remains unchanged.

The image list to be used can be customized via the trait provided to UpdateImageListFull. The trait must implement a method with the following signature:

static std::auto_ptr<CImageList> CreateImageList();

UpdateImageList uses a default trait that creates an image list with ILC_COLOR32. Do not forget to set ILC_MASK too or you will end up with a black background for the icons.

History

02/27/2004, Initial release.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Yves Tkaczyk

President
ClearSquare Associates

United States

Member

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Works, thank you for your effort

xpmule

21:29 25 Feb '11

cool thanks got it working after a few tries..

im using the Treepropsheet class pulled out from emule
and all i had to do to get this to work is add the #include .hpp line
and add the function call to my ALREADY over-ridden oninitdialog function in TreePropSheet.cpp

almost forgot.. im using icons not bitmaps too
like this, TreePropSheet::CTreePropSheet::SetPageIcon( &wndName, IDI_ICON1 );

NOT like this, TreePropSheet::CTreePropSheet::SetPageIcon(&wndName, Images, 0);

hope this might help others to get this fix working.

wslong

20:57 17 Aug '09

thank you so much
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Great stuff!

Bernd Giesen

23:24 20 Jul '09

Simply made with great effect. Thanks a lot! It prevents me from a waste of time for creating my own solution.
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Thanks!

DarkWeaver5455

10:37 21 Feb '07

Although this is a fairly old article, I'd just like to say thanks; this has helped me loads with an app I'm making - CTreePropSheet is great but it just didn't look right.
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Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

stokos

5:13 18 Aug '05

Hi all,

I don't know if I'm missing something, but the instructions were perfectly clear. I included the HighColorTab.hpp file in my project, added a #include at the top of the file containing the OnInitDialog() function and added the line: HighColorTab::UpdateImageList( *this ); in the code.

I am using the original demo project for TreePropSheet, but I get an assertion in line 109 of file HighColorTab.hpp. Moving the HighColorTab line to other parts of the function makes no difference. I get no assertion in the demo project supplied with HighColorTab, or with TreePropSheetEx demo.

I haven't changed anything else in the original demo project. Does anyone have any idea why I am getting this assertion?

Thank you all very much for any replies.

--
/stokos

Re: Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

Yves Tkaczyk

12:53 18 Aug '05

I suggest that you step through the code to see why `bSuccess` gets set to `false`. The variable is used to gather all errors so it is hard to tell why you get the assertion. Regards, Yves Tkaczyk
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Re: Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

stokos

1:15 19 Aug '05

Hi Yves,

Thank you for the prompt reply.

Having stepped through the code, bSuccess is set to false because

apILNew->Add(pPage->m_psp.hIcon)

returns -1 inside the first 'if' statement. The code then doesn't go inside the second if statement. hIcon is not NULL nor is apILNew (the image list).

I don't know what else is wrong. I'm using VC++ .NET 2003 on WinXP Pro SP2, if that's any help.

Thanks again.

--
/stokos

Re: Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

stokos

23:21 24 Aug '05

Hi again,

I don't know if this helps but, still relating to the original TreePropSheet demo, if I replace the CTreePropSheet with a normal MFC CPropertySheet and comment out the specific TreePropSheet function calls from 'TreePropSheetDemo.cpp'("SetEmptyPageText", "SetTreeViewMode", "SetTreeDefaultImages", "DestroyPageIcon"), the assertion no longer occurs!

I hope this helps a little, because I still haven't found the reason behind the assertion. Note I am using the original TreePropSheet demo program with no modifications or customisations from the original code.

Fix for --> Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

Warren D Stevens

7:13 13 Mar '06

Stokos,

I had the exact same problem (not getting the full-colour images with the original TreePropSheet class). Were you loading images from a bitmap, instead of from a file stored as an icon? That's what I was doing, and I think that's why it wasn't working.

If anyone is interested in what I did to work around the issue was:

1) Add a (public) member to CTreePropSheet:
CImageList* m_pExternalImageList;

2) swap out the imagelist for the tab. Modify the function:

BOOL CTreePropSheet::OnInitDialog() 

...

if (m_bTreeImages)

{

   if(NULL!=m_pExternalImageList){

      CTabCtrl* pTabCtrl = GetTabControl();

      if(NULL!=pTabCtrl){

         pTabCtrl->SetImageList(m_pExternalImageList);

      }else { ASSERT(false); }

   }

   m_pwndPageTree->SetImageList(&m_Images, TVSIL_NORMAL);

   m_pwndPageTree->SetImageList(&m_Images, TVSIL_STATE);

}

...

3) In your code (after you create the sheet, but before the DoModal() call)

a) add a helper function:

void CYourClass::AddPage(

   TreePropSheet::CTreePropSheet& propSheetToAddTo, 

   CImageList& imageList,

   CImageList& externalImageList, 

   CPropertyPage* pPageToAdd,

   int imageIndex)

{

   // imageIndex parameter is an index into the bitmap

   TreePropSheet::CTreePropSheet::SetPageIcon(pPageToAdd, imageList, 0);

   externalImageList.Add(imageList.ExtractIcon(imageIndex));

   propSheetToAddTo.AddPage(pPageToAdd);

}

b) use the following to load up the imagelist
**** NOTE *** do NOT use the CImageList::Create that takes a IDB_BITMAP because
this will not be full-colour

CImageList externalImageList;
externalImageList.Create(16,16, ILC_COLOR32|ILC_MASK, 0, 9);

CImageList Images;
Images.Create(16,16, ILC_COLOR32|ILC_MASK, 0, 9);
CBitmap bm;
bm.LoadBitmap(IDB_OPTIONS_TREE); // YOUR BITMAP HERE
Images.Add(&bm, RGB(0, 0, 0));

TreePropSheet::CTreePropSheet sht( _T("Options") );
CPropertyPage page_0;
CPropertyPage page_1;
CPropertyPage page_2;

// last parameter is an index into the bitmap
AddPage(sht, Images, externalImageList, &page_0, 8);
AddPage(sht, Images, externalImageList, &page_1, 0);
AddPage(sht, Images, externalImageList, &page_2, 7);

// set the external image list pointer
sht.m_pExternalImageList = &externalImageList;

Hopefully this is of use to someone...
Big Grin | :-D

Warren

You can solve it this way

testgames

6:27 16 May '06

What you need to do is replace the original method with the following: BOOL CTreePropSheet::SetPageIcon(CPropertyPage *pPage, UINT unIconId) { HICON hIcon = AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon( unIconId ); if (!hIcon) return FALSE; return SetPageIcon(pPage, hIcon); } Hope it helps.....
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Re: Can't make it work with original TreePropsheet

sankking

20:34 26 Nov '07

I got the same problem: stokos wrote: I am using the original demo project for TreePropSheet, but I get an assertion in line 109 of file HighColorTab.hpp. The assertion occurs if no icon is setted for any of the propertypages.
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How to control the CPropertySheet tab colours?

Shraddhan

6:57 15 Jun '05

I notice with great interest the two images of a CPropertySheet, one with what I might call Windows 98 coloring, the other with more modern color style.

How to get the nice white/pale grey and orange? I have several programs using CPropertySheet. Most use the drab brown colours, but one I wrote two weeks ago happened to use the new off-white. Today, my latest coding shows it in brown again. Why this one should be a nice colour and the rest all horrible, I really don't know.

Any clues?

Shraddhan

Re: How to control the CPropertySheet tab colours?

Yves Tkaczyk

14:32 15 Jun '05

Shraddhan, The coloring is the Windows XP theme. It is only available in Windows XP and theming must be enabled. To enable theming, you must include a manifest file. This can be done either in your resource file or as an extra file. There is a tool on code project (MakeXP[^] by Ernesto D.) that let you easily upgrade an application with the manifest file. Hope this helps. Regards, Yves Tkaczyk
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No high color in W2K

ckskodadf

12:04 3 Nov '04

I run the demo program under Windows XP and it worked great. However, when I tried it on several W2K machines, it displayed only 16 colors. I have set display effects to "Show icons using all possible colors" in display properties. I have also set the registry "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon BPP" to 24 instead of 16. But none of them helps. If anyone knows how to solve the problem please let me know.

Thanks!

Re: No high color in W2K

Yves Tkaczyk

14:17 3 Nov '04

Jian, I have used the code on Windows 2000 and it worked. Could you try the demo from http://www.codeproject.com/property/TreePropSheetEx.asp[^] and see if it works or if you are having the same problem. We can go from there. Yves
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Re: No high color in W2K

ckskodadf

3:03 4 Nov '04

Yves,

Thanks for your quick response. I actually have not written any code yet. I have downloaded your projects (both HighColorTab and TreePropSheetEx_Demo from The Code Project web site) and got the precompiled exe programs from the Release directories. I tried them on my develop computer which is Dell 420MT workstation with NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/600 PCI adapter. Also tried on IBM with Intel 82545G/GL video card. They both set to 32bit color and 1280 X 1024 resolution. It must be my computers that some switches may not set right. There is no problem when run program under Windows XP. However, under Windows 2000, I can only see 16 color and unpleasant images.
jz

Unicode

mkg

8:37 22 Oct '04

Nice Code. Works great for me. Just a little kink for Unicode though. The following line doesn't compile: bSuccess &= ( -1 != apILNew->Add( AfxGetApp()->LoadIcon( pPage->m_psp.pszIcon) ) ); ofcourse this is nothing that a little A2T can't fix.
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Just the tab control

sammyc

19:38 17 Jun '04

Yves,

Thanks for your article. It wasn't quite what I wanted but after reading your code I realized my mistake was in just one line of code.

I wanted to add true color bitmaps to my tab control (CTabCtrl) - not a property sheet. I realize now that the ICL_MASK flag when creating the image list is VERY important.

So, for anyone else who is just using a plain old CTabCtrl, you can add your images like this:

CImageList m_tabImageList;

CTabCtrl m_tabCtrl;

m_tabImageList.Create(16, 16, ILC_COLOR32|ILC_MASK, 3, 3);	

m_tabImageList.Add( ::LoadIcon(::AfxGetApp()->m_hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON1)) );

m_tabCtrl.SetImageList(&m_tabImageList);

m_tabCtrl.InsertItem(0, _T("tab 1"), 0);

I'm using icons to store each image, but you can just as easily use a bitmap.

Well, hope that helps some folks out.

Sam. Big Grin | :-D