> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://fearless.gitbook.io/creating-controls-in-assembler/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://fearless.gitbook.io/creating-controls-in-assembler/using-our-control.md). # Using Our Control The end-user will make use of our control **SimpleButton**, using the functions, custom messages, and constants (properties) that we define and are available for use in our `SimpleButton.inc file`. Just to remind ourselves, these are the **external** functions available to the end-user: ``` SimpleButtonRegister PROTO SimpleButtonCreate PROTO :DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD,:DWORD SimpleButtonGetProperty PROTO :DWORD, :DWORD SimpleButtonSetProperty PROTO :DWORD, :DWORD, :DWORD SimpleButtonGetState PROTO :DWORD SimpleButtonSetState PROTO :DWORD, :DWORD ``` And the custom messages for our control are: ``` SB_GETPROPERTY EQU WM_USER + 1800 SB_SETPROPERTY EQU WM_USER + 1799 SB_GETSTATE EQU WM_USER + 1798 SB_SETSTATE EQU WM_USER + 1797 ``` With very little code we can create our control, all we need to define is the text to display and the resource id we will use for our control: ``` .const IDC_SB1 EQU 1001 ; resource id to use .data SBText DB 'SimpleButton Rules!',0 ; text to display .data? hSB1 DD ? ; handle for SimpleButton control ``` And we then call our `SimpleButtonCreate` function and save the returned handle (in `eax`) in a variable: ``` Invoke SimpleButtonCreate, hWin, Addr SBText, 40, 60, 200, 30, IDC_SB1, / WS_CHILD or WS_VISIBLE or SBBS_CENTER or / SBBS_HAND or SBBS_PUSHBUTTON mov hSB1, eax ; save handle to our control ``` Our `SimpleButtonCreate` function takes a number of parameters: * `hWndParent` (`DWORD`) is the parent handle of our main dialog window, with which to create a child control for. * `xpos` (`DWORD`) is the left position of our control relative to the parent's client space. * `ypos` (`DWORD`) is the top position of our control relative to the parent's client space. * `controlwidth` (`DWORD`) is the width of our control. * `controlheight` (`DWORD`) is the height of our control * `dwResourceID` (`DWORD`) is the resource id used by our control * `dwStyle` (`DWORD`) is a combination of constants (flags) that define some features of our control. The `dwStyle` parameter can accept windows style flags: `WS_CHILD`, `WS_VISIBLE`, and flags we defined for our controls usage in `SimpleButton.inc`: ``` SBBS_CENTER EQU 0h ; Align text centrally (default) SBBS_LEFT EQU 1h ; Align text to the left of the button SBBS_HAND EQU 2h ; Show a hand when mouse moves over button. SBBS_PUSHBUTTON EQU 4h ; Simulate button movement when clicked. SBBS_AUTOSTATE EQU 8h ; Automatically toggle state when clicked. ``` With our example code above, we create our control with the the text aligned in the center (`SBBS_CENTER`) and an option to show a hand cursor when the mouse moves over our control (`SBBS_HAND`), and we simulate a small movement of our control when it is clicked (`SBBS_PUSHBUTTON`) - the **SimpleButton** controil moves very slightly down when the left click button is pressed and back again when the left click button is released. Additional properties of our control which are defined in our `SimpleButton.inc` file allow us to change the look and feel. This is the full list of properties (constant values) that we define for **SimpleButton**: ``` @SimpleButtonTextFont EQU 0 ; hFont @SimpleButtonTextColor EQU 4 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonTextColorAlt EQU 8 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonTextColorSel EQU 12 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonTextColorSelAlt EQU 16 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonTextColorDisabled EQU 20 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBackColor EQU 24 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBackColorAlt EQU 28 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBackColorSel EQU 32 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBackColorSelAlt EQU 36 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBackColorDisabled EQU 40 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderColor EQU 44 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderColorAlt EQU 48 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderColorSel EQU 52 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderColorSelAlt EQU 56 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderColorDisabled EQU 60 ; Colorref @SimpleButtonBorderStyle EQU 64 ; Border Style Flags ``` The end-user can choose which properties are set, with default values having been applied to the control when we initialized it (see [Initializing Our Control](/creating-controls-in-assembler/initializing-our-control.md) section for details) For example we can set the text color of our control, the border color and the border color when the mouse moves over our control: ``` Invoke SimpleButtonSetProperty, hSB1, @SimpleButtonTextColor, SBRGBCOLOR(26,103,140) Invoke SimpleButtonSetProperty, hSB1, @SimpleButtonBorderColor, SBRGBCOLOR(27,161,226) Invoke SimpleButtonSetProperty, hSB1, @SimpleButtonBorderColorAlt, SBRGBCOLOR(27,161,226) ``` We can optionally use our custom message `SB_SETPROPERTY` (instead of the `SimpleButtonSetProperty` function) with the [SendMessage](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644950%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) api call, to also set our control's properties: ``` Invoke SendMessage, hSB1, SB_SETPROPERTY, @SimpleButtonTextColor, SBRGBCOLOR(26,103,140) Invoke SendMessage, hSB1, SB_SETPROPERTY, @SimpleButtonBorderColor, SBRGBCOLOR(27,161,226) Invoke SendMessage, hSB1, SB_SETPROPERTY, @SimpleButtonBorderColorAlt, SBRGBCOLOR(27,161,226) ``` As we have specified the resource id defined for our control (`IDC_SB1`), we can handle processing of when our control is clicked using the standard `WM_COMMAND` message in our example project's main dialog message processing procedure: ``` ... .ELSEIF eax == WM_COMMAND mov eax, wParam and eax, 0FFFFh .IF eax == IDM_FILE_EXIT Invoke SendMessage,hWin,WM_CLOSE,0,0 .ELSEIF eax == IDM_HELP_ABOUT Invoke ShellAbout,hWin,addr AppName,addr AboutMsg,NULL .ELSEIF eax == IDC_SB1 ; handle our SimpleButton being clicked, show a message. Invoke MessageBox, NULL, Addr szMsgText, Addr szMsgTitle, MB_OK .ENDIF ... ``` In the example code above, we show a simple [MessageBox](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms645505%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) when our **SimpleButton** control is clicked.