HOWTO: Use ON_EVENT_RANGE Macro

ID: Q183080

The information in this article applies to:

The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), included with:
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 5.0, 6.0

SUMMARY

The following is copied from the Visual C++ online documentation regarding the usage of the ON_EVENT_RANGE macro:

PfnHandler Pointer to a member function that handles the event. This function should have a BOOL return type, a first parameter of type UINT (for the control ID), and additional parameter types that match the event's parameters (see vtsParams). The function should return TRUE to indicate the event was handled; otherwise FALSE.

VtsParams A sequence of VTS_ constants that specifies the types of the parameters for the event. The first constant should be of type VTS_I4, for the control ID. These are the same constants that are used in dispatch map entries such as DISP_FUNCTION.

The vtsParams argument is a space-separated list of values from the VTS_ constants. One or more of these values separated by spaces (not commas) specifies the function's parameter list. For example:

VTS_I2 VTS_BOOL specifies a list containing a short integer followed by a BOOL.

According to this specification, the pfnHandler should have at least one parameter. In addition, the first parameter must be a UINT data type for the control ID. Therefore, the first VTS_ constant for vtsParams must be VTS_I4 (UINT data type).

If pfnHandler has some additional parameters besides the UINT of the control ID, then each VTS_ constant for vtsParams after VTS_I4 must match the data types of these additional parameters of pfnHandler.

To better illustrate the usage of the ON_EVENT_RANGE macro, a simple sample is shown below.

MORE INFORMATION

The sample code below illustrates the use of the ON_EVENT_RANGE() macro in an MFC dialog-based application. CTestDlg is a CDialog-derived class. In the sample code below, TestOnProblem is the pfnHandler and it has two parameters: a control ID of type UINT and an additional parameter of type short. Thus, vtsParams should be:


   VTS_I4 VTS_I2

VTS_I4 and VTS_I2 match the data type of the first and second parameters of TestOnProblem(), respectively.

For instance, the function prototype for pfnHandler is below:


   BOOL CTestDlg::TestOnProblem(UINT CtrlID, short Param)
   {
      TRACE("control id = %u, Second parameter = %d\n", CtrlID, Param);
      return TRUE;  // returns TRUE to indicate the event was handled;
   }

Then, the event map should look similar to the following:


   BEGIN_EVENTSINK_MAP(CTestDlg, CDialog)
       //{{AFX_EVENTSINK_MAP(CTestDlg)
       //}}AFX_EVENTSINK_MAP
       ON_EVENT_RANGE(
           CTestDlg,      // Class to which this event sink map belongs.
           IDC_FIRSTCTRL, // ID of the first control in the range.
           IDC_LASTCTRL,  // ID of the last control in the range.
           1,             // Dispatch ID of event fired by the control.
           TestOnProblem, // Function for handling events.
           VTS_I4 VTS_I2) // VTS_I4 and VTS_I2 are the first and second
                          // parameters of TestOnProblem() function.
   END_EVENTSINK_MAP()

It is important to note that ON_EVENT_RANGE must be added outside of ClassWizard's comment ("//") lines. Otherwise, ClassWizard will give you an error message box whenever you open the dialog box resource template. This is because ClassWizard doesn't recognize the syntax of the ON_EVENT_RANGE macro.

Also, make sure the controls whose events are being handled have IDs within the contiguous range of IDs listed in ON_EVENT_RANGE. Check the Ids by clicking View on the Resource Symbols toolbar in Visual C++ 5.0. Note that the IDs of the controls may be different than expected, depending on the order in which they were created on the dialog box template.

Although one can't create an ON_EVENT_RANGE handler using ClassWizard, it is possible to create an ON_EVENT handler using ClassWizard. Please be aware that in creating an ON_EVENT handler using ClassWizard, the return type of the handler created may be void. This is a bug in ClassWizard. The documentation for both ON_EVENT and ON_EVENT_RANGE is still correct when it says "This function should have a BOOL return type." Returning void usually works correctly, however, so this is not a big problem.

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1998, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Yeong- Kah Tam, Microsoft Corporation.

Additional query words: event sink ocx map

Keywords : kbole kbMFC kbVC kbVC500 kbVC600
Version : WINNT:5.0, 6.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbhowto