Skip to main content

Solution to being able to use ItemTips smartly in Listboxes.

A few months ago, I posted a problem on the Foxite forum about a problem with FoxPro listboxes and ItemTips.

ItemTips, for those who weren't aware, is a property that when turned on, will show the entire item text when there isn't sufficient space in the width of a listbox.

The problem arises however if you are using two (or more) columns with the listbox and the total width of the list is sufficient but the first column doesn't.

Example
x = createobject("Form")
x.addobject("listbox","listbox")
x.listbox.columncount = 2
x.listbox.columnwidths = "125,50"
x.listbox.additem("This is my long item in my listbox")
x.listbox.additem("This is my longer item in my list")
x.listbox.additem("This is my short item")
x.listbox.visible = .t.
x.listbox.itemtips = .t.
x.listbox.width = 200
x.show()

If you move your mouse over the first item, you will see the tip.
If you move your mouse over the second item, you won't - because the actual text WOULD fit into the text box if you weren't using 2 columns.

Here's the BEFORE picture:

The only solution I had come up with was to pad the text of the items in the list with a bunch of spaces and then some final text, which looks completely bizarre.

Thanks to Rod Lewis of Data Developers - the solution was Found!

It all comes back to the super duper ability to Hide columns. Usually FoxPro developers are used to hiding a column that they want to use as a primary key field but don't want to show it. As in:

listbox.addItem("My company name")
listbox.list(1,2) = "XIFIDSIS"
listbox.columnwidths = "200,0"
listbox.boundcolumn = 2

But this time, think about reversing the logic! When adding the items to your list, add a column before anything else and make the width 0.

Using the previous example:

x = createobject("Form")
x.addobject("listbox","listbox")
x.listbox.columncount = 3
x.listbox.columnwidths = "0,125,50"
x.listbox.additem("This is my long item in my listbox")
x.listbox.additem("This is my longer item in my list")
x.listbox.additem("This is my short item")
x.listbox.list(1,2) = x.listbox.List(1,1)
x.listbox.list(2,2) = x.listbox.List(2,1)
x.listbox.list(3,2) = x.listbox.List(3,1)

x.listbox.visible = .t.
x.listbox.itemtips = .t.
x.listbox.width = 200
x.show()

Et voila!

The ItemTip will reference the very first column which isn't really hidden - but has a width of 0 so it is invisible.

Here's a picture showing the tip:


One gotcha here: it's a good idea to keep the first part of the hidden column the same as your visible column so users can still use the auto-search with the first few letters.


Foxite.COM Visual FoxPro Forum - www.foxite.com - The Home Of The Visual FoxPro Experts

Comments

Peter said…
Sorry Andrew, it does not work for me
:-)

Peter
pac@cortiel.com
Andrew MacNeill said…
What version of VFP are you using?

I just tried it in both VFP 9 and 8 without a problem.

Did you just copy and paste the code?
Andrew MacNeill said…
I just updated it with images to show.
Anonymous said…
I have tried it on VFP8 CZ, but it doesnt work in both cases. In the first and also in the second example the tip is shown on the first line (because the last "x" of text is out of listbox frame) but is NOT shown on the second line (because the text is shorter than width of listbox - although longer than first column and thus not fully visible)
Andrew MacNeill said…
Note that you do HAVE to make sure the first column is wider than the entire width of the listbox.

Popular posts from this blog

Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com

MS has just introduced their portal and it's pretty comprehensive. Nothing quite like learning that some people use AIM instead of MSN messenger, or that there really may be a need for supporting 4 monitors ( Cyrus Complains ) However, it's really a great sign that MS is serious about supporting the blogging community which seems to have um, exploded in size in the past year. Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com

FoxInCloud Stats

FoxInCloud sent this link a while back about their statistics regarding visits to their site: http://foxincloud.com/blog/2017/12/27/VFP-community-lessons-from-foxincloud-site.html What's interesting here is the breakdown of people. Yes, I think it's understandable that the Fox community is getting older. Another factor is the growth of the mobile and web environments taking over development. These environments really do push people towards the newer non-SQL or free SQL/hosted environments but more towards hosted storage options like Amazon and Google. A tool like FoxInCloud that helps MOVE existing applications to the cloud inherently competes with those environments. But FoxInCloud also allows developers to extend their application further by giving them a starting point using Javascript and the basic CSS (such as Bootstrap). If you're not rebuilding your application from scratch, it's certainly a great step forward. FoxPro VFP

5 Great Reasons to attend Virtual FoxFest

What's coming up? Virtual FoxFest is coming up soon (sessions start October 14th). Like last year, the conference is entirely virtual yet includes great breakdown rooms and sessions to add that nice one-on-one feel that you get in person. It's also staggered so you can choose which days you want to attend - October 14th, 20th and 26th. This is great if you can't break away for a consecutive three days. But really, I've gone through the sessions and I see five great sessions that I'm eager to check out. 1. A Decade of Thor (Rick Schummer) Thor has been an extension for Visual FoxPro that many developers swear by, yet many don't know even exists. Visual FoxPro's built-in extensions are great but Jim Nelson's Thor supercharges your IDE. I can't believe it's been ten years - so Rick's session should be able to not just whet your appetite but give you all the reasons you should be using it. 2. VFP C++ compiler.  Last year, we saw DotNetX as well