SAMPLE: Drawing a Bitmap in a Foundation Class Dialog Box

ID: Q141863

The information in this article applies to:
This is the 32-bit version of this sample.

SUMMARY

In a Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) Libraried application for Windows, it is occasionally useful to be able to display a bitmap larger than a normal icon in a dialog box. This can either be done using the resource editor or at run time.

To display a bitmap using the resource editor place a picture control on a dialog template. Bring up the properties dialog for the picture control and associate the control with a bitmap type (SS_BITMAP style) and an image by specifying a bitmap resource ID. If you want to associate a bitmap resource ID with the picture control only at run time or if you would like to change the bitmap at run time then use the function CStatic::SetBitmap(). To display a bitmap at runtime, the following are the four possible methods:

The sample BDLG32 demonstrates these four methods for placing a bitmap on a dialog box. BDLG32 can be found in the Microsoft Software Library by searching on the word BDLG32, the Q number of this article, or S14421. The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:
~ Bdlg32.exe
For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services
NOTE: Use the -d option when running BDLG32.EXE to decompress the file and re-create the proper directory structure.


MORE INFORMATION

The following four methods, implemented in the BDLG32 sample, demonstrate some possible ways to display a bitmap in a dialog box using the Microsoft Foundation Classes.

Method 1: BitBlt() in OnDraw()

The first method uses a simple BitBlt(), when the dialog box receives a WM_PAINT message, to paint a bitmap in a hard-coded location on a dialog box. This method demonstrates the following:

Because this is a common technique, a basic version of the few steps needed to draw a bitmap on a dialog box using MFC are listed below. These steps assume you have already created a C++ class, named CMyDlg, and that it has been associated with either a dialog box template created in App Studio or with a dialog editor.

  1. Add a bitmap resource with an ID of IDB_MYBITMAP (or whatever ID you want) to your project. With App Studio, you can do this by either creating a new bitmap resource and setting the ID, or by choosing Resource, Import, and importing an already created bitmap with a .BMP extension.


  2. Add a WM_PAINT handler to your CMyDlg class. With Visual C++ 1.0, just use Class Wizard to add an OnPaint() handler to your dialog box class.


  3. Now, your OnPaint() function will have to load and use BitBlt() to paint the bitmap in your resource onto the dialog box. The code to do this is the following: 
    
      void CMyDlg::OnPaint()
      {
         CPaintDC dc( this ); // Device context for painting

         CBitmap bmp, *poldbmp;
         CDC memdc;

         // Load the bitmap resource
         bmp.LoadBitmap( IDB_CORPLOGO );

         // Create a compatible memory DC
         memdc.CreateCompatibleDC( &dc );

         // Select the bitmap into the DC
         poldbmp = memdc.SelectObject( &bmp );

         // Copy (BitBlt) bitmap from memory DC to screen DC
         dc.BitBlt( 10, 10, 47, 47, &memdc, 0, 0, SRCCOPY );

         memdc.SelectObject( poldbmp );

         // Do not call CDialog::OnPaint() for painting messages
      }
    After adding this code and adding an OnPaint entry to the message map for your CMyDlg class, you should see the bitmap image displayed in the dialog box at run time.


Note that the first four parameters to CDC::BitBlt() depend on your program and the size of the bitmap resource. The first two (10, 10) position the upper-left corner where the bitmap will be drawn on the dialog box's client area. The second two (47, 47) specify the width and height of the bitmap area to copy over in logical units. These dimensions can be less than the size of the actual bitmap. The sixth and seventh parameters specify the upper-left corner of the bitmap in the memory DC to start copying from.

One other thing to note is that the CDC and CPaintDC objects in the code above are created on the stack so you do not need to call the Windows API functions DeleteDC() and ReleaseDC() on the memory and paint DC objects, respectively.

For more information about bitmaps and device contexts, refer to the documentation for the Windows API and MFC versions of BitBlt(), SelectObject(), and CreateCompatibleDC(). For a more complete example of this, please see the BDLG32 sample.

Method 2: BitBlt() or StretchBlt() in "Static" Frame Control

The second method uses StretchBlt() and, using techniques similar to those in the "Paint" dialog box, draws the bitmap in the client area of a "static" picture frame control.

The BDLG32 sample uses the Class Wizard to associate a CStatic member variable with the static control using its "Edit Variables" capability. Besides the above techniques, it demonstrates calculating the client area of a child control. Note that subclassing the CStatic member (after using Class Wizard to associate the control, just change the type in the header from CStatic to a class you've derived from CStatic) would allow you to have the subclassed control paint a bitmap in its client area when it itself received a WM_PAINT.

Method 3: BitBlt() or StretchBlt() in OnEraseBkgnd()

The third method StretchBlt's the bitmap onto the background of a dialog box in the dialog box's WM_ERASEBKGND handler, OnEraseBkgnd(). It also demonstrates handling WM_CTLCOLOR messages and returning background brushes from that handler (transparent in this case).

Method 4: CBitmapButton as Picture Control

The fourth and last method uses a CBitmapButton class to CBitmapButton::AutoLoad() a bitmap into a disabled owner-draw button on a dialog box. It is probably the simplest method of the four, although it does not allow for much flexibility or changing of what is being painted to reflect changes in the dialog box.

Please note the following when creating your resources for using a CBitmapButton class. When you add the button to your dialog box template, which you will later be associating with a CBitmapButton, the ID is relatively unimportant, but the button must be set as owner-draw and the caption text will be used to load your bitmap. If your button caption text is "BITB", you should create your bitmap and give it an ID of "BITBU". Your bitmap ID MUST have the double quotation marks or it will be saved as just a numeric ID and fail to load when you use CBitmapButton::AutoLoad(). See the documentation for CBitmapButton for more information.

Additional query words: BDLG 4.0 4.00 4.1 4.10 4.2 4.20 


Keywords          : kbcode kbfile kbsample kbMFC KbUIDesign kbVC kbVC400 kbVC500 kbVC600 StretchBlt 
Version           : 4.0 5.0 6.0
Platform          : NT WINDOWS 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: July 9, 1999