XTab is an ActiveX Control which can be used as a substitute for the Microsoft Tabbed Dialog/Property Page Control. XTab uses subclassing to achieve same design-time switching effect as MS Tab control does. XTab is highly customizable and provides many standard themes like XP,Visual Studio 2003 .Net, Rounded Tabs, Owner Drawn, Iconed theme etc. And best of all it has no external dependencies to subclassing dlls or common dialog etc controls. Optimized code for flicker free drawing. New themes can be easily added by simply implementing the ITheme Interface. Featured Property Page for easily setting properties.
Supports Individual Tab Enabling/Disabling.
Now supports Icons in all the themes. Also we can use PictureSize,PictureAlignment and MaskColor property to customize the Interface. Updated Property page too for better UI. Added a method to allow copying images from any compatible ImageList Control.
email:
nja91@yahoo.com
neeraj_agrawal_ind@rediffmail.com
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it looks like you spent alot of time on this app. so far it works good and im happy to see someone make a control that works in design time. only issue i see with it is that when you open the form with the tab on it in design time, and then open the control itself in the same app. it takes 100% cpu usage on my machine. its not a big deal. just something i noticed. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanx for sharing ur experience Bill. I'd used the control in Win98 and XP. I'd myself noticed that it was taking taking some extra CPU time in XP (at desgn time). Actually in the preview application there are 8 controls on the form, this makes it a pretty heavy form. So if you plan to use it in some application... strip the unnecessary themes off. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Zoran i'll surely add icons not only in XP but in all themes in near future. By the time u can do it urself if u want. See the code for the xThemeStandardIconed theme, and use the pPaintPicture Method to draw the Picture on the tabs. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Well architected and nicely implemented. You have obviously put much thought into this. I like the iTheme interface rule... very clever. Thanks for posting this. 5 testicles for this fine submission... (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
tumhara control bohot badhiya hai. main ek Emailer ke project pe kaam kar rahaa hun jis main mujhe ek Tab Control chaahiye hi tha. vahi puraane controls istemaal kar ne main majaa nahi aa rahaa tha. par tera vala control bohot badhiya hai.
wo picture vali idea bohot mast hai ... filhaal to yahi control mere liye kaam kar jaayega.
Thanks yaar ~ aur haan ... tujhe tere code ke liye main apane project me credit jarur dunga ... aise hi nahi istemaal karunga ... so , don't worry.
Wish you happy coding ! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Great control so far! You shoud add support for more tabs as you can seen in the width (for example: 18 Tabs with style set to XstylePropertyPage), like the arrows in the standart TabStripControl. 4 globes from me ...
Mirko (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Paul, i'd ignored the Ctrl+Tab tab switching on purpose. bcoz it creates a problem for the user in MDI environment, where Ctrl+Tab is used to switch between MDI childs. So if i'd used it in the control it will prevent user from switching between MDI childs. (MS Tab control does this :( ).
you can use Crtl+PageUp or CtrlPageDown keys for navigation or can simply use the Arrow keys. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
10/4/2004 9:42:12 PM:
Great work! I loved with it the first time I tried it. Good luck to all your future works. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
5 globes from me, very nice indeed! A n00b question; how do I add a control within a tab while RUNTIME? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
:) (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
10/28/2004 11:35:32 PM:
Simply great work neeraj! You deserve 5 stars coz u've solved the problem of many coders around the world. Simply wonderful! Keep it up! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanx for reporting this. I've tried them myself, the LaVolpe's button get an ugly border. But i've put various standard controls too on the tabs, even round shapes etc, but they all seem to work fine. I guess its something to do with the LaVolpe buttons itself.
LaVolpe uses Black as default color for the control's bg and that is what is visible. I mean the Region APIs may not be working properly.
But this is just a guess. Please correct me if i m wrong. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
This is the first sub-classed project I've ever downloaded from PSC (mainly because I'm not interested in these types of projects)... however, this is really a work of art. Excellent job! My hat off to you. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
hi neeraj, good work.keep it up.me from ur home city:) (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
11/28/2004 12:59:30 AM:
Can I make it transparent background? Excellent, Eye-opening, great work and nice coding. Million Stars. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
11/29/2004 1:02:24 AM:
Wonderful code!!, congratulations (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanks again for this control! I am loading a number of controls and tabs onto it programmatically, however, and this is causing some problems. In order for the xtab to be loaded at runtime and painted on without errors the tab seems to need to be both Visible and within the display area of the Form, and having placed all my controls I have to programmatically show each tab, otherwise the actual tab pieces (eg with Tab 0 written on) are not painted correctly, i.e., having loaded controls onto each tab in turn, I have to code:
Do Until XTab1.ActiveTab = 0 XTab1.ActiveTab = XTab1.ActiveTab - 1 Loop
Not only is this ugly code on my part, it makes the controls on the otherwise gorgeous xtab flicker and dance about. How can I resolve this so the xtab can be populated at runtime *in the background* and displayed only once complete? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanx for the comments. And Bob, I'll take a lil time to check this out. I've my college exams this time.. so please give me 3-4 days to try and resolve the problem. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Sorry to be the voice of dissent again! (and please don't address this til exams are over!), but...
I have multiple, duplicate Forms open, each of which contains a single XTab control. Sometimes (just sometimes!) when I try to Unload one of the Forms, an Automation Error (440) occurs, followed by a Client Site Error (398). This makes all the XTabs stop working.
These errors appear to be very closely related and this is the nearest I can get to a hint at what to do about it.
Cheers, Bob (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Further investigation appears to indicate that these errors occur when a second Form containing an Xtab is unloaded very soon in succession after a first. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
great job, 5 globes for me. Only a request: can you consider to implement tab orientation?(right, left, top, down) (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Nice. A button to scroll through the tabs would be nice. Currently it's not possible to access tabs that do not fit the controls horizontal size ... (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Solved the "Client Side Not Available" bug. Also added a method which allows copying Images from an ImageList or compatible control into tabs (see code for details)..
To all those who want to add controls at runtime.. pls use the control arrays and while u load the control into the tab make sure the tab is active.
-- Above code WILL work fine... (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
1/14/2005 10:56:40 AM:
Excellent control!! Is it possible to hide a particular tab? Depending on the state of my app, I may need to show only certain tabs. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Sorry... but there is no way u can hide a tab in this version... but this is a really good idea and hopefully will be implemented in future releases... thanx for posting it.. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Excellent, nice improvements over the last month or two. One thing that would be helpful, which it seems you intentionally avoided, would be to have common property and method names that were simular to MS's tabstrip control. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
For example, try replacing MS's tabstrip in this project, http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=39764&lngWId=1 with your tabstrip, and the problem with portability becomes obvious. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
i've used non standard names becoz VB does not allow some keywords to be used in variable declarations. Like "Tab" etc... although we can use "Tab" and compile the OCX... but when we save the project vb replaces it again.. thats y i used non standard names. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Hey, I noticed a small bug in your coding. If you have lines in the tab, they don't get moved. This is because there is no .left in lines. I tried fixing this, by adding another for each statement looking for just lines, and it would work... if there weren't any labels or textbox's on the form. Once a label or textbox was there, it no longer changed the lines. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
i'll fix that in future release(s). (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
1/31/2005 11:38:35 AM:
Neeraj, This is a excellent piece of code!! I was looking for a Tab strip for my project and this seems to provide allmost everything I was looking for.
I have a small query though: Is there a way I can have the Tabs wrap over to the next row once a max number of them have been added to the 1st row, thus keeping their width constant
Best (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
2/7/2005 2:06:08 PM:
This is a great control. Can it be made to work with MS-Access? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
2/14/2005 1:32:14 AM:
Requests earnestly to add on the following Features in XTab
http://my.so-net.net.tw/jyc168/tab.gif (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
i like this (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
3/1/2005 7:18:30 AM:
I am looking for a tab / window control ... if you have a look at the snagit version 7.2 control ... the tabs the have are split acorss the page from left side. looking for something like that. How would I change the tab oriantation to allow me to display this on the left hand side (reading from left to right, with a picture underneath the text and allow the button to be MUCH bigger) without having to change a lot of code? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
two things i would like to see - tab visibility (true/false) property - which tab (active or not) is mouseover (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
3/28/2005 9:04:09 PM:
good job (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
3/30/2005 8:53:03 AM:
Good Job!!!! add tab(2).visible = false ????
(If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
hi (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
5/21/2005 12:42:48 PM:
Excelente. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
5/21/2005 12:43:57 PM:
Es un buen código, Excelente (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
5/31/2005 2:59:11 PM:
Hi aku arek suroboyo he.. heh he.. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
6/6/2005 5:47:09 PM:
Hi,
thanks for great work. Nevertheless I have a problem. I am adding MSFlexGrid control on xTab dynamically with following code:
Set mobjFlexGrid = mfrmContainer.Controls.Add("MSFlexGridLib.MSFlexGrid", "Name", mfrmContainer.tabMain)
XTab has 5 tabs and I switch to tab 0 before adding the control. The problem arises when i trying to resize FlexGrid in response on mfrmContainer.Resize event, when xTab is switched to differnt tab then 0. Flex grid suddenly appears on active Tab.
The problem seems to be in resizing flexgrid when its "home tab" (tab 0) isn't active.
As a workaround i could check active tab and resize control only if tab 0 is active. Do you have any other idea.
Thanks Ivo (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
7/6/2005 11:41:58 AM:
Nice control. Visuals and flexibility are great. I have noticed a problem though.. When the control is resized (via a form resize code event), inactive tabs lose their contents, in my case picture boxes with controls. The active tab retains its contents, but after switching between tabs, it too begins to misbehave, (showing control elements from other tabs, or none at all..). This would be a great control if this bug could be fixed, and if tab orientation was added.. Keep up the good work.. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
i m soft eng from gujarat and programmer in this site.i placed code like library management systems. my second version was totally delted from this site due to erro in lik of site.
ur code is excellent.
keep up man.
priyak. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
It works without problems under VB6 but we have some problems to use this control in access 2003 environment .. Perhaps this are basics, but we don't know how to do it, perhaps it doesn't work under access. Please could you help us??
greetings Andi (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
My congratulations. A beautiful work and one execelent code. Easy and fast. Very good. One I hug of its Brazilian friend Begosso. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Congratulations for such a great tool. Very good code and easy to understand and customize. THanks very much... (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thank you all for ur wonderful feedback. Thanks Nagesh for ur sweet email. And thanks PlanetSourceCode (a.k.a. PSC) for everything. - Ñeeraj (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
1) Bug Reported by: Bob Churchill When Multiple forms containing XTab are unloaded **sometimes** we get a "Client Side Not available" error. For more details about the error please contact me. Solution: This happens sometimes because the control gets a "GotFocus" event When the form is unloaded. This is strange behaviour and the Ambient object becomes unavailable. To solve this I had to check for Ambient Object before usin it.
Please explain what I need to do to solve this prob.
I see that available memory falls, falls and appears message "out of memory" and others "automation error" and "client site not available". This occours when forms are load/unload many times.
Thanks!!
rodrigo sinop - mt - brazil. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Hello Neeraj, U r Control is Very Very Nice. 5 Globes From Me. I have developed a active X Control, i want to set it's Font property from From (like MyLabel.Font=Something) i found that whenever i execute this , only Get Property is executed why it is so ?
(If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Milind... i guess the problem is due to LET Property. Font is an object and so u should make a SET Property for assigning it. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
As a couple people mentioned previously, how can we change the placement of the tabs like you can in the SSTab control? (e.g. Left, Right, Top, Bottom) (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Well, I dont know how old this control is; but seemingly, a year ago. But I'm getting errors loading the forms, and when I compiled it into an OCX and ran a regsvr32 query on it, I couldnt add it to any of my projects 'prjXTabs.ocx could not be loaded!'
Help me! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
This control is greate. But have several issus : * likes to eat memory, does not free memory when the form which holds control is unloaded. * I have some problems terminating the program when I dynamically load tabs.
(If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Neeraj, it has sad bug: can`t properly set 'left' and 'top' properties for contained controls. Please drop few words to info@vb.kiev.ua how to solve that problem. Anyway, the best TAB control I have ever seen before.
Andy. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Neeraj - on 1/9/2005 you posted a comment that a new version was availble - can't find it anywhere. having the "Client Site Not Available" error - hoping there's still a newer version that addressed that problem. Otherwise - GREAT Control - THANKS! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Wonderful code, nicely written...MS should think to replace thier control with this......:) hail India... :) One question can i access the common dialog box rountien for my vb programes, so than i need not add common dialog box or a sepreate module in my programe, xtab control with commaon dialog...hope u understand my idea (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanks everyone for some of the best comments I've ever heard for anyone.
To the members who have requested some changes or who have identified bugs
---- Please give me some time to fix them up. I am into my MS now... so unable to devote time on this. Still i would really love to make the control bug free and even more feature rich.
thanks again... Neeraj (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Just came across this by accident, and I'm glad I did. This is an example of some superb coding and a genuinely useful control (much better than the ones included in VB). Thank you for contributing your time to this project. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
There seems to be a slight problem with the .Height property. Its like you can only change it once. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
but i don´t make the selection of the tab by the index, in the code. Ex: xtab1.SelectTab(0) 'Active the TAB 0 xtab1.SelectTab(1) 'Active the TAB 1 xtab1.SelectTab(2) 'Active the TAB 2
Why the xtab does not have the SelectTab property?, exists a another similar property? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
HI, In this Xtab code version , Tabvisible and TabOrientation these properties are misisng , which exists in SSTAb. can we hide any perticular tab ,same way we used do in SSTab control. and if this is done in New version, can u pls provide the link for it?? Thanks. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Apologies... guyz... most of the things requested were supposed to be in future version. But introduction of .Net made me rethink of any future COM based version.
vince.. sorry..but moving tabs when number of tabs is too large is not possible (for now :) ). (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
hi,i have a problem,very important,but according to me crazy,,i adding Controls to tab 0 and tab 1 in desing time,but when program run, which desing time select tab,its view,but controls in other tab no view..i cant know.. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
you deserved 5 * vote, thanks , im using your active x in my project. email me your updated if possible, i need not code but the xtab itself at cyber_edu2005@yahoo.com
(If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
you deserved 5 * vote, thanks , im using your active x in my project. email me your updated xtab if possible, i need not code but the xtab itself at cyber_edu2005@yahoo.com
(If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
I am really thankful to you all and the PSC, its almost been 3.5 years, still I see some really nice and encouraging comments. Thanks a lot everyone!!!
I apologize for not being able to continue on the project, but still I always try my best to reply to your issues via mail. Thus please feel free to mail me for anything. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
You're a great programmer, your invention was excellent but has some bugs some of them the property: "hWnd" doesn't exist. Can you give the code for complete it because I need it. Or send me the latest version to my e-mail: federiconavarrete_mixco@yahoo.com I am a beginner programmer. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
I am sorry, but no one else has reported such error. Can you please breif me on how/where the error occurs. Sorry for the inconvenience Thanks, Neeraj (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Very cool! Thanks a million. I added this code, in order to give each one of my tabs a different color:
Private Sub tabControls_BeforeTabSwitch(ByVal iNewActiveTab As Integer, bCancel As Boolean)
Select Case iNewActiveTab Case 0 tabControls.ActiveTabBackStartColor = 16761024 Case 1 tabControls.ActiveTabBackStartColor = 16777152 Case 2 tabControls.ActiveTabBackStartColor = 8454080 End Select
End Sub
However, the code only behaves "correctly" with the Round Tabs theme. With the other themes, I get the following behavior: When I switch tabs, only the tab itself changes color, not the background. However, If I switch to another app and then switch back it the entire tab, including the background changes color.
I believe this is the way the them is coded. I tried looking at the code, but I honestly wasn't able to find a way the make the other themes behave like the round one.
Can u help me out ?
Thanks,Andres (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Wow that looks great, not only can i customize shapes if i wanted but i can completely customize colors. Or I can just use a preset if I so desired. Great code 5 stars!!!!! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Your Tab control is really nice; thanks for sharing it. One thing that I find missing is ability to Remove a certain Tab at Runtime. Any idea when this feature is planned to be added to this control? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
It appears that I am unable to register the ocx on a 64 bit OS. I just tried it on Windows 7. I have not tried a 64-bit Vista OS, but I have a feeling this is calling a 32-but API DLL, and the 64-bit OS is causing that to fail. When trying to register the ocx, it says it cannot find a DLL or some dependency. Funny thing is, it works fine when running it from the VB6 IDE. But, the OCX cannot be registered - so it can't be used on another PC or inside another project. My project has to be compatible with 64-bit PCs. I want to use this, but I am stuck at this point. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
OK, so now it IS registering! This is Windows RC1 - and it does act up a little - so who knows. I reloaded the project again, recompiled, closed VB6, opened the CMD prompt as Administrator - and then it registered. Not sure why it worked this time as I did this exact same thing before. Strange. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Very Good! Thank you! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
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10/1/2004 4:30:32 PM: 
