Statusbar... "Illegal Function Call"

[dragonjim]

Interesting...

Amending the example from the help file, this seems to work...

' Constants for the StatusBar Panel Styles
Global Enum sbrText = 0, sbrFlat, sbrRaise, sbrCaps, sbrNum, sbrScroll, sbrIns, sbrDate
' Constants for Text alignment in StatusBar Panels
Global Enum sbrLeft = 0, sbrCenter, sbrRight
Ocx StatusBar sb
sb.Panels.Add , , "Part 1", sbrText
sb.Panels.Add , , "Part 2", sbrFlat
sb.Panels.Add , , "Part 3", sbrRaise
sb.Panels.Add , , "Caps", sbrCaps
sb.Panels.Add 2, , "Num", sbrNum  '<---- Num is moved into second in line
Panels.Add , , "Scroll", sbrScroll
sb.Panels.Add , , "INS", sbrIns
sb.Panels.Add , , "c", sbrDate
Do : Sleep : Until Me Is Nothing

...but we get a problem here...

' Constants for the StatusBar Panel Styles
Global Enum sbrText = 0, sbrFlat, sbrRaise, sbrCaps, sbrNum, sbrScroll, sbrIns, sbrDate
' Constants for Text alignment in StatusBar Panels
Global Enum sbrLeft = 0, sbrCenter, sbrRight
Ocx StatusBar sb
sb.Panels.Add 1, , "Part 1", sbrText  ' <--- This is fine
sb.Panels.Add 2, , "Part 2", sbrFlat  ' <--- Illegal function call here
sb.Panels.Add , , "Part 3", sbrRaise
sb.Panels.Add , , "Caps", sbrCaps
sb.Panels.Add , , "Num", sbrNum
sb.Panels.Add , , "Scroll", sbrScroll
sb.Panels.Add , , "INS", sbrIns
sb.Panels.Add , , "c", sbrDate
Do : Sleep : Until Me Is Nothing

...and here...

' Constants for the StatusBar Panel Styles
Global Enum sbrText = 0, sbrFlat, sbrRaise, sbrCaps, sbrNum, sbrScroll, sbrIns, sbrDate
' Constants for Text alignment in StatusBar Panels
Global Enum sbrLeft = 0, sbrCenter, sbrRight
Ocx StatusBar sb
sb.Panels.Add 1, , "Part 1", sbrText    ' <--- This is fine
sb.Panels.Add "2", , "Part 2", sbrFlat  ' <--- Illegal function call here
sb.Panels.Add , , "Part 3", sbrRaise
sb.Panels.Add , , "Caps", sbrCaps
sb.Panels.Add , , "Num", sbrNum
sb.Panels.Add , , "Scroll", sbrScroll
sb.Panels.Add , , "INS", sbrIns
sb.Panels.Add , , "c", sbrDate
Do : Sleep : Until Me Is Nothing

You have most certainly discovered an error here, but it seems rather random; I have tried other examples where everything seems to be going fine (the panels are being reordered as desired) and then I add one more number and either get the 'Illegal Function Call' error as you describe or the panels go back to being ordered as I input them, rather than in the order I specified. I'm guessing that GFA is getting confused when it is sending messages to reorder the panels on the status bar...but that is only a guess.

Could you post the code where it worked with "1" but not the number 1 in the index property?

[dragonjim]

Looking at the paucity of Messages provided by Windows for creating Panels on a StatusBar (or parts as they call them) and none pertaining to the index position of a Panel, I am guessing the problem is in the OCX file for GFABasic.

Windows sets the width using the SB_SETPARTS message which refers to an integer array containing the right hand coordinate of each succeeding Panel (I'll use the GFABasic term for now); it then uses the SB_SETTEXT message to set the Panel text and style; finally there is SB_SETTIPTEXT which sets the Tool Tip Text - these will all be used by GFABasic to create and modify the Panels. All other elements of the Panels used within GFABasic are managed within the OCX, including the key and index values and, I am assuming, kept in either a Hash Table or Collection. When adding a new Panel, I assume that GFABasic adds the details to its internal list in the position determined by index (or the next empty slot if index is not given) and then recreates the Panels en masse using SB_SETPARTS, before resetting all Text, styles and Tool Tip Text one by one from the stored information. From what I have seen of when the errors are raised, GFABasic is either throwing an error when inserting the data into its own internal list or when recreating the list - the error may even result from confusion caused by GFABasic ordering the Panels 1 to whatever, while Windows indexes them from 0 (zero) upwards. This may explain why, even when there is no error, the Panel position does not always reflect the index number given to it (try removing the 1 from the first index in the examples I gave before and changing the index of the second item to one - the second panel is still placed second; try giving the Panel containing 'Num' an index of one and it works fine.

The long and short of it is that, for whatever reason, it does not always work; furthermore, a possible workaround by trying to set the Panel index number after creation is scuppered by the fact that this is a read-only property; finally, trying to reorder the list manually using the Window SendMessage API would not work satisfactorily as, although the Panels will appear in the correct order, the object information linked to them within the GFA OCX object will not be affected and would therefore be incorrect, and any methods used would more than likely cause further and more colourful errors to be thrown.

Hence, your decision to sort out the appropriate order first and scrap the use of the index number is probably the best and only workaround at the moment.

PS: A slightly more up to date English Help File can be found here.