I am sure I have seen a tooltip bubble from a tray icon actually
contain a clickable link (like a blue underlined URL). Does anyone
know how this done? I would like to give a user several action choices
from the bubble.

Thanks!
-mhd

In a new project, set Form1.BorderStyle to None, BackColor to Tooltip, and
add the following code:

Private Sub Form_Click()
    Unload Me
End Sub

Use Me.Move to relocate and size the form anywhere. You could but a Label
with blue underline font to simulate a hyperlink.



Show quoteHide quote

Show quote Hide quote I am looking for a way to use the real tooltip's API in this manner as
I am sure I have seen it done, just not sure how it was done.

BTW, I do know how to create bubble tooltips so I am not looking for
general info.

-mhd

You already have coupled the TrayIcon to the form? Then just capture the
mouse events and display a menu


Show quoteHide quote

No mouse events are involved in the scenario driving my wish list. It
is hardware monitoring events that would benefit from a balloon
tooltip since I use them anyway for other events that do not require a
response. I do not want to pop forms or menus, just the same old tray
balloon, but this time with 2 or 3 options to click. I thought I saw
this done before and thought it was an API hack.

-mhd

If it's mentioned anywhere, then it's at the following URL:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/commctls/tooltip/usingtooltips.asp

Make sure that you check what minimum OS and IE version required to use
these advanced features. Also, if you don't already know, you can show a
popup menu anywhere by using a line like the following:

Form1.PopupMenu Form1.mnuTray

In this example, Form1 is hidden and has an invisible Tray menu that has
several sub menus, including "Exit". The popup menu will show up just like
most try icons do. PopupMenu method has several optional parameters so make
sure that you check them out.



Show quoteHide quote

I assume by "bubble" you mean a balloon tooltip.

I don't know that I ever recall seeing any kind of link in a tray icon's
balloon tooltip.  You can receive a message when the user clicks anywhere in
a tray icon balloon tooltip, however, and then perform whatever action you
want. This is only possible under WinXP and later, though.  From the
Platform SDK for the Shell_NotifyIcon function:

a.. If a user passes the mouse pointer over an icon with which a balloon
ToolTip is associated, the version 6.0 Shell (Windows XP) sends the
following messages:
  a.. NIN_BALLOONSHOW - Sent when the balloon is shown (balloons are
queued).
  b.. NIN_BALLOONHIDE - Sent when the balloon disappears—when the icon is
deleted, for example. This message is not sent if the balloon is dismissed
because of a timeout or mouse click by the user.
  c.. NIN_BALLOONTIMEOUT - Sent when the balloon is dismissed because of a
timeout.
  d.. NIN_BALLOONUSERCLICK - Sent when the balloon is dismissed because the
user clicked the mouse.

Given your last sentence, it seems to me you're better off providing a
right-click menu for the tray icon, providing information and short
instructions in the tooltip (be it a balloon or "normal" tooltip).  Or, when
the user clicks the tooltip to dismiss it, show a form which provides
whatever actions are appropriate. But again, this latter action (clicking a
balloon tooltip) is only possible under WinXP and later.  If you have
Win2000 users, then you'd need to have the right-click menu regardless; and,
if you have Win9x users, you can't even have a tray icon balloon tooltip at
all.  At least for those respective users. There's no reason you can't write
functionality in your app to best support whatever version of Windows your
app is being run under.  IOW, under WinXP, show a balloon tooltip that users
can click.  Under Win2000, show a balloon tooltip and provide a menu.  Under
Win9x, show a regular tooltip and provide a menu.

Yes, that's the word :-)
My program monitors hardware and I wanted to give some subtle options
based on a hardware event. I have avoided giving these options so far
(they are not critical - just helpful) simply because I didn't want to
pop a form. I like the subtlety of the balloon tooltip plus my users
are used to seeing one for other events. I really thought I have seen
balloon tooltips used this way and assumed they were heavily API
hacked. I think the application I saw had an URL to click for extra
info in the tray balloon.

-mhd

This would be non-standard interface programming. The bubble tip is
designed to show a message, and perform an action if clicked. If you
add functionality to the bubble, or clone it using a VB form, then you
will confuse users with your non-standard interface. It would be like
putting buttons on menus or menus on subforms.

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