Visual Basic > Forms

Displaying a custom right click popup menu in a textbox

Displaying a custom right click popup menu in a textbox

The following code demonstrates how to display a custom right click popup menu in a VB textbox without using subclassing.

Private Declare Function LockWindowUpdate Lib "user32" (ByVal hwndLock As Long) As Long

'Purpose     :  Shows a custom right click menu for a textbox
'Inputs      :  Button              The button pressed by the user
'               txtControl          The textbox to display the new popup menu in.
'               oPopMenu            The popup menu to display
'Outputs     :  Returns True if a popup menu was displayed
'Notes       :  Prevents the default content menu from begining displayed.


Function TextBoxRightClickMenu(Button As Integer, txtControl As TextBox, oPopMenu As Object) As Boolean
    On Error GoTo ErrFailed
    If Button = vbRightButton Then
        'Lock the window updating to prevent the control being displayed as disabled
        LockWindowUpdate txtControl.hWnd
        'Disable the control
        txtControl.Enabled = False
        'Show the popup
        PopupMenu oPopMenu
        'Enable the control
        txtControl.Enabled = False
        'Restore the window updating
        LockWindowUpdate 0&
        'Return success
        TextBoxRightClickMenu = True
    End If
    Exit Function

ErrFailed:
    Debug.Print "Error in TextBoxRightClickMenu: " & Err.Description
    TextBoxRightClickMenu = False
End Function

'Demonstration routine, where MnuPop is a menu containing at least on visible sub menu.
Private Sub Text1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
    TextBoxRightClickMenu Button, Text1, MnuPop
End Sub