Sheet window question

[Former Member]

I want to force a MDI sheet window to come to the front and become the active sheet. I have tried to use SetFocus and BringToTop but they don't work.

I have a toolbar with First/Next/Prior/Last buttons and I want to be able to skip through the many sheet windows using the buttons.

Here is the First button code:

lw_sheet = gw_frame.GetFirstSheet()

If IsValid(lw_sheet) Then

   ???

End If

[arnd_schmidt]

Hi Roland,

so BringToTop=TRUE  does not work?

MDI related - Sybase: PowerBuilder - Tek-Tips

Outch..

GetFiirstSheet () :

Obtains the top sheet in the MDI frame, which may or may not be active.

So this code brings the mdi sheet window behind the current first sheet to top.

window lw_sheet
lw_sheet = gw_frame.GetFirstSheet()

If IsValid(lw_sheet) Then
    lw_sheet = gw_frame.GetNextSheet ( lw_sheet )
    If IsValid(lw_sheet) Then
        lw_sheet.BringToTop = True
    end if
End If

hth

Arnd

[Former Member]

BringToTop works, the problem is the GetFirstSheet & GetNextSheet walk thru the sheet windows in z-order, not open order like I expected.

[Former Member]

Roland - When you open the sheet are you keeping an array of window handlers?  If so you can just loop through this instead.

Chris

[Former Member]

Good idea. I had thought of that but I ran out of time before the demo. For now they can clickCascade, click the window they want and then click Layer.

[arnd_schmidt]

How about selecting the window from the "built-in"  list of opened sheets in the menu or using <Ctrl>+<Tab> to swtich to the next sheet?

[Former Member]

I forgot about CTRL-TAB, thanks.

The menu is hidden and I have a tab control that forms a Ribbon style control.

[Former Member]

Yep ... a MS standard since Windows 3.1.  

That is going to make it hard though in your tabbed pane design if someone uses the keyboard standards as tabbing through tab pages is also supported with this keyboard short-cut. So the next thing will be if a user uses the Ctrl+Tab are they changing panes (tab pages) or MDI_Child (sheet) windows?

Food for thought. 

[Former Member]

I tested it and the Ctrl-Tab switches the sheet windows. The tabs don't change even if make the tab in focus.

[Former Member]

Hi Roland;

  Yes, I stand corrected - you are correct about the Ctrl+Tab behaviour. Tab Pages are controlled via the left / right arrows once a Tab Control has focus.

   I need more Tim Horton's coffee! 

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member]

Roland,

lw_Sheet.BringToTop = True should work. Did you check to see if first sheet is indeed the sheet you would expect? Was the sheet window opened using OpenSheet?

[Former Member]

It looks like GetFirstSheet is the same as GetActiveSheet. I was expecting it would be the first one opened. GetFirstSheet and GetNextSheet go in z-order, not opened order which means the buttons will just jump between the two top most windows.

[Former Member]

This is interesting. Even I was under the impression that the stack would would be in the order in which the sheets were opened and GetFirstSheet would give the first sheet on the stack. But we are wrong. PB help says that GetFirstSheet will return the sheet on the top (which may or may not be the current sheet) and GetNextSheet will get the sheet after whatever sheet you specify.

In your case you need to somehow push the previously active sheet to the bottom of the stack.

If you are using PFC, then iterate thru the sheetmanager.inv_sheet array.

[Former Member]

I was working on an GUI concept demo that will be used to upgrade an existing PFC app. If the new concept is accepted, I could look into using sheet manager.

[Former Member]

OpenSheet again on the sheet you want active - I think should work.