Tip strip

[ASTDan]

Is there anyway to force the tip strip on in LabVIEW when you want to?

I have been looking on NI's website, the tip strip seems to be a function of Windows. Is there an Active X or .net way to have more control over the tip strip? I think it is called the ToolTip. However when trying to google this I get tips on tools for windows. :headbang:

Dan

[Darren]

QUOTE (ASTDan @ Aug 22 2008, 10:29 AM)

Is there anyway to force the tip strip on in LabVIEW when you want to?

I have been looking on NI's website, the tip strip seems to be a function of Windows. Is there an Active X or .net way to have more control over the tip strip? I think it is called the ToolTip. However when trying to google this I get tips on tools for windows. :headbang:

I don't know how to control the tip strip from an OS level, but I do have a colleague who didn't like the way control/indicator tip strips behaved, so he made his own. It's a 2D-style string control with a black border and pale yellow background that he shows/hides and programmatically moves around as needed, and looks pretty darn close to what a real tip strip looks like. The only limitation I remember seeing in his implementation was that (obviously) his tip strip couldn't go beyond the bounds of the front panel window, whereas a native tip strip can do this.

-D

[Aristos Queue]

QUOTE (Darren @ Aug 22 2008, 10:59 AM)

I don't know how to control the tip strip from an OS level, but I do have a colleague who didn't like the way control/indicator tip strips behaved, so he made his own. It's a 2D-style string control with a black border and pale yellow background that he shows/hides and programmatically moves around as needed, and looks pretty darn close to what a real tip strip looks like. The only limitation I remember seeing in his implementation was that (obviously) his tip strip couldn't go beyond the bounds of the front panel window, whereas a native tip strip can do this.

I've seen implementations where the tipstrip is a borderless VI (no menu bar, no title bar, no scrollbars, etc) that just displays a string control. That VI's front panel can be shown and hidden as needed and it can cross the boundaries of the front panel that it is over. Similar tactics have been done for custom popup menus prior to the facility being part of LabVIEW. This isn't as much of a hack as it might seem -- the tipstrip and popup menus in the OS are just separate windows with parts hidden.

[PaulG.]

I think the native LV tip-strip is pretty worthless. As alread said, you can make your own. I've made a vi that "popped up" and closed a "tip strip.VI" that displayed the information in the tip strip when the user right-clicked within the boundaries of a control. I just shut tip strips off in my application and used my LV version of it.

[mje]

As the others have mentioned, there are ways of implementing your own from within LV. As Aristos mentioned, it's not really that much of a hack...tooltips themselves are just another window that gets shown and moved around as necessary.

The main reason you won't be able to control it from the OS level is most controls don't actually derive from a Windows window (that is a the window class defined by the Windows OS) if I recall. Since they're not a "real" window, they won't have an hWnd, there won't be a native tool tip class to display, let alone the inability to actually post the corresponding message to the window (TTM_ACTIVATE) or call whatever .NET voodoo would do the same.

Now, if you're talking about an ActiveX window, or something that actually has an hWnd, there might be a slim chance of wrangling up some code...

[crelf]

QUOTE (MJE @ Aug 22 2008, 03:32 PM)

The main reason you won't be able to control it from the OS level is most controls don't actually derive from a Windows window (that is a the window class defined by the Windows OS) if I recall. Since they're not a "real" window, they won't have an hWnd, there won't be a native tool tip class to display...

:arrow: Clarification: LabVIEW front panels are real windows and have hWnd references.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (ASTDan @ Aug 22 2008, 08:29 AM)

Is there anyway to force the tip strip on in LabVIEW when you want to?

I have been looking on NI's website, the tip strip seems to be a function of Windows. Is there an Active X or .net way to have more control over the tip strip? I think it is called the ToolTip. However when trying to google this I get tips on tools for windows. :headbang:

Dan

You mean you want to show the tip strip without the user having to hover the mouse over a control? If so then it's not really a tip strip is it? Sounds like just a floating text you can programmaticly position. Can you elaborate on what kind of control you want?

[jbrohan]

The tip-strip is controllable through a property node. If you set the value of the tip strip to blank then it does not show up.

Best wishes

John

[ASTDan]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Aug 22 2008, 08:59 PM)

You mean you want to show the tip strip without the user having to hover the mouse over a control? If so then it's not really a tip strip is it? Sounds like just a floating text you can programmaticly position. Can you elaborate on what kind of control you want?

I have a graph and I want a tip strip to display the plot name when I hover over the plot. I have gotten this to work the only thing I don't like is the tip strip comes and goes when it feels like it.

I think the solution is to create my own custom dialog and pop it up where and when I want. I was hoping for an easier way...

Dan

[ASTDan]

QUOTE (Darren @ Aug 22 2008, 11:59 AM)

but I do have a colleague who didn't like the way control/indicator tip strips behaved, so he made his own.

Is he willing to share?

Dan

[Yair]

QUOTE (ASTDan @ Aug 25 2008, 01:29 AM)

I have a graph and I want a tip strip to display the plot name when I hover over the plot.

You could try using an annotation of or a cursor and control it using property nodes, but I have a feeling that the pop up will look better and be easier to write.

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (Yair @ Aug 25 2008, 07:32 PM)

but I have a feeling that the pop up will look better and be easier to write.

And you can do wonderful things with the pop-up like making the window semi-transparent. looks quite need.

Ton