Develop Reference

Cannot Populate TreeView Control with Win32 Messages in CSharp

I'm working with TreeView Control in Windows Forms in C#.
Since actual population part of TreeView Control takes a lot of time it freezes the UI. So I'm attempting to do the population using PostMessage Win32 API from a background thread but I found that the Treeview isn't getting inserted with Items.
So I moved the code from background thread to main thread. But then also the Insert Item Code is not working. I got similar code working with TreeView in C++ and trying to do the same thing with C# using interop routines.
I'm not going the usual C# way of treeView1.Nodes.Add("...") because it freezes the UI even if I follow the Delegate method and BackgroundWorker method for populating UI controls from another thread. I'm giving the code I use below. Can some one please help to find the issue with the code.
Also Please note for the TreeView Control I'm using my own simple class derived from TreeView class, where I have overriden the WndProc method to verify the flow of Windows Messages and I can see the messages(TVM_INSERTITEM) are actually getting through but still the item is not getting populated
Also I have got similar interop code working fine from Background Thread for ListView Control but my attempts with TreeView haven't succeeded so far.
Form Class Code
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace UpdateTreeViewFromAnotherThread
{
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public struct TVITEM
{
public uint mask;
public IntPtr hItem;
public uint state;
public uint stateMask;
public IntPtr pszText;
public int cchTextMax;
public int iImage;
public int iSelectedImage;
public int cChildren;
public uint lParam;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public struct TVINSERTSTRUCT
{
public IntPtr hParent;
public IntPtr hInsertAfter;
public TVITEM item;
}
public enum TreeViewInsert
{
TVI_ROOT = -0x10000,
}
[Flags]
public enum TreeViewItemMask
{
TVIF_TEXT = 0x0001,
}
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
const int TV_FIRST = 0x1100;
IntPtr tvInsItemPtr;
TVINSERTSTRUCT tvins;
IntPtr handleTreeView;
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool PostMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, IntPtr lParam);
public enum TreeViewMessage
{
TVM_INSERTITEM = TV_FIRST + 50,
}
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
handleTreeView = treeView1.Handle;
//treeView1.Nodes.Add("hello");
PopulateTree(handleTreeView);
}
public void PopulateTree(IntPtr handle)
{
tvins = new TVINSERTSTRUCT();
tvins.item.mask = (uint)TreeViewItemMask.TVIF_TEXT;
// Set the text of the item.
string productName = "Product";
string value = productName;
byte[] buffer = new byte[100];
buffer = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(value + "\0");
tvins.item.pszText = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(buffer.Length);
Marshal.Copy(buffer, 0, tvins.item.pszText, buffer.Length);
tvins.hParent = IntPtr.Zero;
tvins.hInsertAfter = (IntPtr)(TreeViewInsert.TVI_ROOT);
tvInsItemPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(tvins));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(tvins, tvInsItemPtr, true);
PostMessage(treeView1.Handle, (uint)TreeViewMessage.TVM_INSERTITEM, IntPtr.Zero, tvInsItemPtr);
//SendMessage(treeView1.Handle, (int)TreeViewMessage.TVM_INSERTITEM, 0, tvInsItemPtr);
}
}
}
MyTreeView Class Code
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace UpdateTreeViewFromAnotherThread
{
class MyTreeView:TreeView
{
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == 0x1132)
{
TVINSERTSTRUCT anotherTVInsertStruct;
anotherTVInsertStruct = (TVINSERTSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(TVINSERTSTRUCT));
string anotherNodeText = Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi(anotherTVInsertStruct.item.pszText);
}
if(m.Msg == 0x113F)
{
TVITEM anotherTVItem;
anotherTVItem = (TVITEM)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(TVITEM));
string anotherNodeText = Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi(anotherTVItem.pszText);
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
//Trace.WriteLine(m.Msg.ToString() + ", " + m.ToString());
}
}
}
Update_1
Prevented NM_CUSTOMDRAW for Treeview using the below code. Thanks to the code atlink.
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch (m.Msg)
{
case WM_REFLECT + WM_NOTIFY:
{
NMHDR nmhdr = (NMHDR)m.GetLParam(typeof(NMHDR));
switch ((int)nmhdr.code)
{
case NM_CUSTOMDRAW:
NMTVCUSTOMDRAW nmTvDraw = (NMTVCUSTOMDRAW)m.GetLParam(typeof(NMTVCUSTOMDRAW));
switch (nmTvDraw.nmcd.dwDrawStage)
{
case CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT:
m.Result = (IntPtr)CDRF_DODEFAULT;
break;
}
Marshal.StructureToPtr(nmTvDraw, m.LParam, false);
return;
}
break;
}
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
So Now If I change my earlier PopulateTree function (note Thread.Sleep()) and its invocation to a background thread as below it will not freeze the UI during the population process
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
handleTreeView = treeView1.Handle;
Thread backgroundThread = new Thread(() => PopulateTree(handleTreeView));
backgroundThread.Start();
}
public void PopulateTree(IntPtr handle)
{
for(int i =0; i< 1000; i++)
{
tvins = new TVINSERTSTRUCT();
tvins.item.mask = (uint)TreeViewItemMask.TVIF_TEXT;
// Set the text of the item.
string productName = "Product_" + i.ToString();
string value = productName;
byte[] buffer = new byte[100];
buffer = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(value + "\0");
tvins.item.pszText = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(buffer.Length);
Marshal.Copy(buffer, 0, tvins.item.pszText, buffer.Length);
tvins.hParent = IntPtr.Zero;
tvins.hInsertAfter = (IntPtr)(TreeViewInsert.TVI_ROOT);
tvInsItemPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(tvins));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(tvins, tvInsItemPtr, true);
PostMessage(handle, (uint)TreeViewMessage.TVM_INSERTITEM, IntPtr.Zero, tvInsItemPtr);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}

Thanks Jimi and MikiD I was able to produce same non-freezing UI behaviour using the BeginUpdate and BeginInvoke approach. I changed my code as below
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
await Task.Run(() => PopulateTree());
}
private async void PopulateTree()
{
for(int i = 0;i< 1000;i++)
{
treeView1.BeginInvoke( (MethodInvoker)delegate ()
{
treeView1.BeginUpdate();
treeView1.Nodes.Add("Product_" + i.ToString());
treeView1.EndUpdate();
}
);
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}

How to force ComboBox to scroll to top?

I have a winforms ToolStripComboBox with a ComboBox property. By default, it seems to auto-scroll to the selected index. See screenshot below:
On form load, I'm setting SelectedIndex to 1, which is what needs to happen. But I want the first item in the list (SelectedIndex 0) to be visible, or in other words auto-scroll to the very top. I can't find any way to force the combobox to scroll to the top by default, or to do so programmatically. There is an AutoScrollOffset property on ComboBox which I have experimented with, but it seems to do nothing, no matter what I set it to.
As seen in my screenshot above, I want to force the combobox (either via property or method call) to appear like the 2nd pic in which the top item (All - All Categories) is visible, while still leaving index 1 selected.
How can this be done?

When you open the dropdown, a LB_SETTOPINDEX message will be sent to the list which is in the dropdown menu. This message is responsible to setting the top index in the list.
You can handle this message and change its WParam to Intptr.Zero to always use 0 as top index.
Native Methods
Here is a class which contains native methods, structures and constants to manipulate the combo box for this purpose:
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;
public class NativeMethods
{
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct COMBOBOXINFO
{
public int cbSize;
public RECT rcItem;
public RECT rcButton;
public int stateButton;
public IntPtr hwndCombo;
public IntPtr hwndEdit;
public IntPtr hwndList;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct RECT
{
public int Left; public int Top; public int Right; public int Bottom;
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool GetComboBoxInfo(IntPtr hWnd, ref COMBOBOXINFO pcbi);
public class ListBoxHelper : NativeWindow
{
private const int LB_SETTOPINDEX = 0x0197;
public ListBoxHelper(IntPtr hwnd) { this.AssignHandle(hwnd); }
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == LB_SETTOPINDEX)
m.WParam = IntPtr.Zero;
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
}
ComboBox
Here is a ComboBox which its dropdown always opens showing item 0 as top item:
public class MyComboBox : ComboBox
{
NativeMethods.ListBoxHelper listBoxHelper;
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
var info = new NativeMethods.COMBOBOXINFO();
info.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf(info);
NativeMethods.GetComboBoxInfo(this.Handle, ref info);
listBoxHelper = new NativeMethods.ListBoxHelper(info.hwndList);
}
}
ToolStripComboBox
ToolStripComboBox hosts a ComboBox inside. So the solution is similar:
public class MyToolStripComboBox : ToolStripComboBox
{
public MyToolStripComboBox()
{
this.Control.HandleCreated += Control_HandleCreated;
}
NativeMethods.ListBoxHelper listBoxHelper;
private void Control_HandleCreated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
base.OnVisibleChanged(e);
var info = new NativeMethods.COMBOBOXINFO();
info.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf(info);
NativeMethods.GetComboBoxInfo(this.Control.Handle, ref info);
listBoxHelper = new NativeMethods.ListBoxHelper(info.hwndList);
}
}

Use of NativeWindow for ComboBox causes exception in Dispose-method

In C# Windows.Forms I want to intercept the paste-windowmessage for a combobox. As this doesn't work by overriding the WndProc-method of the combobox, because I would need to override the WndProc of the textbox inside the combobox, I decided to create a custom class of type NativeWindow which overrides the WndProc. I assign the handle and release it, when the combobox-handle gets destroyed. But when Dispose for the combobox is called the problem is that I get an InvalidOperationException saying that an invalid cross-thread operation occured and that the combobox was accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on. Any ideas what is going wrong here?
In the following you'll see, how my classes look like:
public class MyCustomComboBox : ComboBox
{
private WinHook hook = null;
public MyCustomComboBox()
: base()
{
this.hook = new WinHook(this);
}
private class WinHook : NativeWindow
{
public WinHook(MyCustomComboBox parent)
{
parent.HandleCreated += new EventHandler(this.Parent_HandleCreated);
parent.HandleDestroyed += new EventHandler(this.Parent_HandleDestroyed);
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
// do something
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
private void Parent_HandleCreated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MyCustomComboBox cbx = (MyCustomComboBox)sender;
this.AssignHandle(cbx.Handle);
}
private void Parent_HandleDestroyed(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.ReleaseHandle();
}
}
}

Per Hans' suggestion, I modified the code to use CB_GETCOMBOBOXINFO from one of his own examples.
public class PastelessComboBox : ComboBox {
private class TextWindow : NativeWindow {
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct RECT {
public int Left;
public int Top;
public int Right;
public int Bottom;
}
private struct COMBOBOXINFO {
public Int32 cbSize;
public RECT rcItem;
public RECT rcButton;
public int buttonState;
public IntPtr hwndCombo;
public IntPtr hwndEdit;
public IntPtr hwndList;
}
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SendMessageW", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessageCb(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, out COMBOBOXINFO lp);
public TextWindow(ComboBox cb) {
COMBOBOXINFO info = new COMBOBOXINFO();
info.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf(info);
SendMessageCb(cb.Handle, 0x164, IntPtr.Zero, out info);
this.AssignHandle(info.hwndEdit);
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
if (m.Msg == (0x0302)) {
MessageBox.Show("No pasting allowed!");
return;
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
private TextWindow textWindow;
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e) {
textWindow = new TextWindow(this);
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
}
protected override void OnHandleDestroyed(EventArgs e) {
textWindow.ReleaseHandle();
base.OnHandleDestroyed(e);
}
}

Adding filter boxes to the column headers of a ListView in C# and WinForms

In Windows Explorer (at least in Win7) when you hover the mouse over a column header, a filter box with an arrow appears that lets you filter the results in the ListView, so for example you can only show files starting with "A" or files > 128 MB. Can this feature be enabled in the basic ListView control in C# without subclassing or modifying the ListView?

Here's some code to play with. Add a new class to your project and paste the code shown below. Compile. Drop the new ListViewEx control from the top of the toolbox onto your form. In the form constructor, call the SetHeaderDropdown() method to enable the button. Implement the HeaderDropdown event to return a control to display. For example:
public partial class Form1 : Form {
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
listViewEx1.SetHeaderDropdown(0, true);
listViewEx1.HeaderDropdown += listViewEx1_HeaderDropdown;
}
void listViewEx1_HeaderDropdown(object sender, ListViewEx.HeaderDropdownArgs e) {
e.Control = new UserControl1();
}
}
The below code has a flaw, the popup is displayed in a form. Which can't be too small and takes the focus away from the main form. Check this answer on hints how to implement a control that can be displayed as a toplevel window without needing a form. The code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class ListViewEx : ListView {
public class HeaderDropdownArgs : EventArgs {
public int Column { get; set; }
public Control Control { get; set; }
}
public event EventHandler<HeaderDropdownArgs> HeaderDropdown;
public void SetHeaderDropdown(int column, bool enable) {
if (column < 0 || column >= this.Columns.Count) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("column");
while (HeaderDropdowns.Count < this.Columns.Count) HeaderDropdowns.Add(false);
HeaderDropdowns[column] = enable;
if (this.IsHandleCreated) SetDropdown(column, enable);
}
protected void OnHeaderDropdown(int column) {
var handler = HeaderDropdown;
if (handler == null) return;
var args = new HeaderDropdownArgs() { Column = column };
handler(this, args);
if (args.Control == null) return;
var frm = new Form();
frm.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.FixedSingle;
frm.ShowInTaskbar = false;
frm.ControlBox = false;
args.Control.Location = Point.Empty;
frm.Controls.Add(args.Control);
frm.Load += delegate { frm.MinimumSize = new Size(1, 1); frm.Size = frm.Controls[0].Size; };
frm.Deactivate += delegate { frm.Dispose(); };
frm.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;
var rc = GetHeaderRect(column);
frm.Location = this.PointToScreen(new Point(rc.Right - SystemInformation.MenuButtonSize.Width, rc.Bottom));
frm.Show(this.FindForm());
}
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e) {
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
if (this.Columns.Count == 0 || Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major < 6 || HeaderDropdowns == null) return;
for (int col = 0; col < HeaderDropdowns.Count; ++col) {
if (HeaderDropdowns[col]) SetDropdown(col, true);
}
}
private Rectangle GetHeaderRect(int column) {
IntPtr hHeader = SendMessage(this.Handle, LVM_GETHEADER, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
RECT rc;
SendMessage(hHeader, HDM_GETITEMRECT, (IntPtr)column, out rc);
return new Rectangle(rc.left, rc.top, rc.right - rc.left, rc.bottom - rc.top);
}
private void SetDropdown(int column, bool enable) {
LVCOLUMN lvc = new LVCOLUMN();
lvc.mask = LVCF_FMT;
lvc.fmt = enable ? LVCFMT_SPLITBUTTON : 0;
IntPtr res = SendMessage(this.Handle, LVM_SETCOLUMN, (IntPtr)column, ref lvc);
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
Console.WriteLine(m);
if (m.Msg == WM_NOTIFY) {
var hdr = (NMHDR)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(NMHDR));
if (hdr.code == LVN_COLUMNDROPDOWN) {
var info = (NMLISTVIEW)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(NMLISTVIEW));
OnHeaderDropdown(info.iSubItem);
return;
}
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
private List<bool> HeaderDropdowns = new List<bool>();
// Pinvoke
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, ref LVCOLUMN lvc);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, out RECT rc);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hParent);
private const int LVM_SETCOLUMN = 0x1000 + 96;
private const int LVCF_FMT = 1;
private const int LVCFMT_SPLITBUTTON = 0x1000000;
private const int WM_NOTIFY = 0x204e;
private const int LVN_COLUMNDROPDOWN = -100 - 64;
private const int LVM_GETHEADER = 0x1000 + 31;
private const int HDM_GETITEMRECT = 0x1200 + 7;
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private struct LVCOLUMN {
public uint mask;
public int fmt;
public int cx;
public string pszText;
public int cchTextMax;
public int iSubItem;
public int iImage;
public int iOrder;
public int cxMin;
public int cxDefault;
public int cxIdeal;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private struct POINT {
public int x, y;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private struct RECT {
public int left, top, right, bottom;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private struct NMHDR {
public IntPtr hwndFrom;
public IntPtr idFrom;
public int code;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private struct NMLISTVIEW {
public NMHDR hdr;
public int iItem;
public int iSubItem;
public uint uNewState;
public uint uOldState;
public uint uChanged;
public POINT ptAction;
public IntPtr lParam;
}
}

It might be tricky to implement the same type of interface, but you could have your ListView respond to the contents of a TextBox by handling the TextBox's TextChanged event and filtering the list based on the contents. If you put the list in a DataTable then filtering will be easy and you can repopulate your ListView each time the filter changes.
Of course this depends on how many items are in your list.

Synchronized ListViews in .Net

I'm working on a control to tie together the view from one ListView to another so that when the master ListView is scrolled, the child ListView view is updated to match.
So far I've been able to get the child ListViews to update their view when the master scrollbar buttons are clicked. The problem is that when clicking and dragging the ScrollBar itself, the child ListViews are not updated. I've looked at the messages being sent using Spy++ and the correct messages are getting sent.
Here is my current code:
public partial class LinkedListViewControl : ListView
{
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
private static extern bool SendMessage(IntPtr hwnd, UInt32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
private static extern bool ShowScrollBar(IntPtr hwnd, int wBar, bool bShow);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int SetScrollPos(IntPtr hWnd, int wBar, int nPos, bool bRedraw);
private const int WM_HSCROLL = 0x114;
private const int SB_HORZ = 0;
private const int SB_VERT = 1;
private const int SB_CTL = 2;
private const int SB_BOTH = 3;
private const int SB_THUMBPOSITION = 4;
private const int SB_THUMBTRACK = 5;
private const int SB_ENDSCROLL = 8;
public LinkedListViewControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private readonly List<ListView> _linkedListViews = new List<ListView>();
public void AddLinkedView(ListView listView)
{
if (!_linkedListViews.Contains(listView))
{
_linkedListViews.Add(listView);
HideScrollBar(listView);
}
}
public bool RemoveLinkedView(ListView listView)
{
return _linkedListViews.Remove(listView);
}
private void HideScrollBar(ListView listView)
{
//Make sure the list view is scrollable
listView.Scrollable = true;
//Then hide the scroll bar
ShowScrollBar(listView.Handle, SB_BOTH, false);
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message msg)
{
if (_linkedListViews.Count > 0)
{
//Look for WM_HSCROLL messages
if (msg.Msg == WM_HSCROLL)
{
foreach (ListView view in _linkedListViews)
{
SendMessage(view.Handle, WM_HSCROLL, msg.WParam, IntPtr.Zero);
}
}
}
}
}
Based on this post on the MS Tech Forums I tried to capture and process the SB_THUMBTRACK event:
protected override void WndProc(ref Message msg)
{
if (_linkedListViews.Count > 0)
{
//Look for WM_HSCROLL messages
if (msg.Msg == WM_HSCROLL)
{
Int16 hi = (Int16)((int)msg.WParam >> 16);
Int16 lo = (Int16)msg.WParam;
foreach (ListView view in _linkedListViews)
{
if (lo == SB_THUMBTRACK)
{
SetScrollPos(view.Handle, SB_HORZ, hi, true);
int wParam = 4 + 0x10000 * hi;
SendMessage(view.Handle, WM_HSCROLL, (IntPtr)(wParam), IntPtr.Zero);
}
else
{
SendMessage(view.Handle, WM_HSCROLL, msg.WParam, IntPtr.Zero);
}
}
}
}
// Pass message to default handler.
base.WndProc(ref msg);
}
This will update the location of the child ListView ScrollBar but does not change the actual view in the child.
So my questions are:
Is it possible to update the child ListViews when the master ListView ScrollBar is dragged?
If so, how?

I wanted to do the same thing, and after searching around I found your code here, which helped, but of course didn't solve the problem. But after playing around with it, I have found a solution.
The key came when I realized that since the scroll buttons work, that you can use that to make the slider work. In other words, when the SB_THUMBTRACK event comes in, I issue repeated SB_LINELEFT and SB_LINERIGHT events until my child ListView gets close to where the master is. Yes, this isn't perfect, but it works close enough.
In my case, my master ListView is called "reportView", while my child ListView is called "summaryView". Here's my pertinent code:
public class MyListView : ListView
{
public event ScrollEventHandler HScrollEvent;
protected override void WndProc(ref System.Windows.Forms.Message msg)
{
if (msg.Msg==WM_HSCROLL && HScrollEvent != null)
HScrollEvent(this,new ScrollEventArgs(ScrollEventType.ThumbTrack, (int)msg.WParam));
base.WndProc(ref msg);
}
}
And then the event handler itself:
reportView.HScrollEvent += new ScrollEventHandler((sender,e) => {
if ((ushort) e.NewValue != SB_THUMBTRACK)
SendMessage(summaryView.Handle, WM_HSCROLL, (IntPtr) e.NewValue, IntPtr.Zero);
else {
int newPos = e.NewValue >> 16;
int oldPos = GetScrollPos(reportView .Handle, SB_HORZ);
int pos = GetScrollPos(summaryView.Handle, SB_HORZ);
int lst;
if (pos != newPos)
if (pos<newPos && oldPos<newPos) do { lst=pos; SendMessage(summaryView.Handle,WM_HSCROLL,(IntPtr)SB_LINERIGHT,IntPtr.Zero); } while ((pos=GetScrollPos(summaryView.Handle,SB_HORZ)) < newPos && pos!=lst);
else if (pos>newPos && oldPos>newPos) do { lst=pos; SendMessage(summaryView.Handle,WM_HSCROLL,(IntPtr)SB_LINELEFT, IntPtr.Zero); } while ((pos=GetScrollPos(summaryView.Handle,SB_HORZ)) > newPos && pos!=lst);
}
});
Sorry about the odd formatting of the while loops there, but that's how I prefer to code things like that.
The next problem was getting rid of the scroll bars in the child ListView. I noticed you had a method called HideScrollBar. This didn't really work for me. I found a better solution in my case was leaving the scroll bar there, but "covering" it up instead. I do this with the column header as well. I just slide my child control up under the master control to cover the column header. And then I stretch the child to fall out of the panel that contains it. And then to provide a bit of a border along the edge of my containing panel, I throw in a control to cover the visible bottom edge of my child ListView. It ends up looking rather nice.
I also added an event handler to sync changing column widths, as in:
reportView.ColumnWidthChanging += new ColumnWidthChangingEventHandler((sender,e) => {
summaryView.Columns[e.ColumnIndex].Width = e.NewWidth;
});
While this all seems a bit of a kludge, it works for me.

This is conjecture just to get the mental juices flowing so take it as you will:
In the scroll handler for the master list, can you call the scroll handler for the child list (passing the sender and eventargs from the master)?
Add this to your Form load:
masterList.Scroll += new ScrollEventHandler(this.masterList_scroll);
Which references this:
private void masterList_scroll(Object sender, System.ScrollEventArgs e)
{
childList_scroll(sender, e);
}
private void childList_scroll(Object sender, System.ScrollEventArgs e)
{
childList.value = e.NewValue
}

I would create my own class, inheriting from ListView to expose the Vertical and Horizontal scroll events.
Then I would do create scroll handlers in my form to synchronize the two controls
This is sample code which should allow a listview to publish scroll events:
public class MyListView : System.Windows.Forms.ListView
{
const int WM_HSCROLL = 0x0114;
const int WM_VSCROLL = 0x0115;
private ScrollEventHandler evtHScroll_m;
private ScrollEventHandler evtVScroll_m;
public event ScrollEventHandler OnHScroll
{
add
{
evtHScroll_m += value;
}
remove
{
evtHScroll_m -= value;
}
}
public event ScrollEventHandler OnHVcroll
{
add
{
evtVScroll_m += value;
}
remove
{
evtVScroll_m -= value;
}
}
protected override void WndProc(ref System.Windows.Forms.Message msg)
{
if (msg.Msg == WM_HSCROLL && evtHScroll_m != null)
{
evtHScroll_m(this,new ScrollEventArgs(ScrollEventType.ThumbTrack, msg.WParam.ToInt32()));
}
if (msg.Msg == WM_VSCROLL && evtVScroll_m != null)
{
evtVScroll_m(this, new ScrollEventArgs(ScrollEventType.ThumbTrack, msg.WParam.ToInt32()));
}
base.WndProc(ref msg);
}
Now handle the scroll events in your form:
Set up a PInvoke method to be able to send a windows message to a control:
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] int iMsg, int iWParam, int iLParam);
Set up your event handlers (lstMaster and lstChild are two listboxes):
lstMaster.OnVScroll += new ScrollEventHandler(this.lstMaster_OnVScroll);
lstMaster.OnHScroll += new ScrollEventHandler(this.lstMaster_OnHScroll);
const int WM_HSCROLL = 0x0114;
const int WM_VSCROLL = 0x0115;
private void lstMaster_OnVScroll(Object sender, System.ScrollEventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(lstChild.Handle,WM_VSCROLL,(IntPtr)e.NewValue, IntPtr.Zero);
}
private void lstMaster_OnHScroll(Object sender, System.ScrollEventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(lstChild.Handle,WM_HSCROLL,(IntPtr)e.NewValue, IntPtr.Zero);
}

A naive solution to your problem can be handling the paint message in the parent list view and checking if the linked list views are displaying the correct data. If they don't, then update them to display the correct data by calling the EnsureVisible method.