Not catching all mouse events with wxWidgets

Question

Hi I am am trying to catch mouse movements for a MouseOver function in an app created with Code::Blocks using the wxSmith plugin. I have stumbled upon a puzzling problem. EVT_MOUSEWHEEL calling the function in the EventTable works well, but all other macros have no result at all. And the mousewheel is not really want I want (I just used it to test...) This is for Windows.

Here is a the basic problem code (mostly generated by the fantastic wxSmith plugin)

MouseMain.h

#include <wx/frame.h>
#include <wx/statusbr.h>
//*)

class MouseFrame: public wxFrame
{
    public:

        MouseFrame(wxWindow* parent,wxWindowID id = -1);
        virtual ~MouseFrame();

    private:

        //(*Handlers(MouseFrame)
        void OnQuit(wxCommandEvent& event);
        void OnAbout(wxCommandEvent& event);
        void OnButton1Click(wxCommandEvent& event);
        void MouseOver(wxMouseEvent& event);
        //*)

        //(*Identifiers(MouseFrame)
        static const long ID_BUTTON1;
        static const long ID_STATICBITMAP1;
        static const long ID_PANEL1;
        static const long idMenuQuit;
        static const long idMenuAbout;
        static const long ID_STATUSBAR1;
        //*)

        //(*Declarations(MouseFrame)
        wxButton* Button1;
        wxStaticBitmap* StaticBitmap1;
        wxPanel* Panel1;
        wxStatusBar* StatusBar1;
        //*)

        DECLARE_EVENT_TABLE()
};

#endif // MOUSEMAIN_H

...and MouseMain.cpp

#include "wx_pch.h"
#include "MouseMain.h"
#include <wx/msgdlg.h>

//(*InternalHeaders(MouseFrame)
#include <wx/bitmap.h>
#include <wx/intl.h>
#include <wx/image.h>
#include <wx/string.h>
//*)

//helper functions
enum wxbuildinfoformat {
    short_f, long_f };

wxString wxbuildinfo(wxbuildinfoformat format)
{
    wxString wxbuild(wxVERSION_STRING);

    if (format == long_f )
    {
#if defined(__WXMSW__)
        wxbuild << _T("-Windows");
#elif defined(__UNIX__)
        wxbuild << _T("-Linux");
#endif

#if wxUSE_UNICODE
        wxbuild << _T("-Unicode build");
#else
        wxbuild << _T("-ANSI build");
#endif // wxUSE_UNICODE
    }

    return wxbuild;
}

//(*IdInit(MouseFrame)
const long MouseFrame::ID_BUTTON1 = wxNewId();
const long MouseFrame::ID_STATICBITMAP1 = wxNewId();
const long MouseFrame::ID_PANEL1 = wxNewId();
const long MouseFrame::idMenuQuit = wxNewId();
const long MouseFrame::idMenuAbout = wxNewId();
const long MouseFrame::ID_STATUSBAR1 = wxNewId();
//*)

BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE(MouseFrame,wxFrame)
    EVT_RIGHT_DCLICK(MouseFrame::MouseOver)
    EVT_MOUSEWHEEL(MouseFrame::MouseOver)
    EVT_MOTION(MouseFrame::MouseOver)
    EVT_RIGHT_DOWN(MouseFrame::MouseOver)
    //(*EventTable(MouseFrame)
    //*)
END_EVENT_TABLE()

MouseFrame::MouseFrame(wxWindow* parent,wxWindowID id)
{
    //(*Initialize(MouseFrame)
    wxMenuItem* MenuItem2;
    wxMenuItem* MenuItem1;
    wxMenu* Menu1;
    wxMenuBar* MenuBar1;
    wxFlexGridSizer* FlexGridSizer1;
    wxMenu* Menu2;

    Create(parent, id, wxEmptyString, wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxDEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE, _T("id"));
    Panel1 = new wxPanel(this, ID_PANEL1, wxPoint(144,392), wxDefaultSize, wxTAB_TRAVERSAL, _T("ID_PANEL1"));
    FlexGridSizer1 = new wxFlexGridSizer(0, 3, 0, 0);
    Button1 = new wxButton(Panel1, ID_BUTTON1, _("TheButton"), wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, 0, wxDefaultValidator, _T("ID_BUTTON1"));
    FlexGridSizer1->Add(Button1, 1, wxALL|wxALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL|wxALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL, 5);
    StaticBitmap1 = new wxStaticBitmap(Panel1, ID_STATICBITMAP1, wxNullBitmap, wxDefaultPosition, wxSize(159,189), wxSUNKEN_BORDER, _T("ID_STATICBITMAP1"));
    FlexGridSizer1->Add(StaticBitmap1, 1, wxALL|wxALIGN_CENTER_HORIZONTAL|wxALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL, 5);
    Panel1->SetSizer(FlexGridSizer1);
    FlexGridSizer1->Fit(Panel1);
    FlexGridSizer1->SetSizeHints(Panel1);
    MenuBar1 = new wxMenuBar();
    Menu1 = new wxMenu();
    MenuItem1 = new wxMenuItem(Menu1, idMenuQuit, _("Quit\tAlt-F4"), _("Quit the application"), wxITEM_NORMAL);
    Menu1->Append(MenuItem1);
    MenuBar1->Append(Menu1, _("&File"));
    Menu2 = new wxMenu();
    MenuItem2 = new wxMenuItem(Menu2, idMenuAbout, _("About\tF1"), _("Show info about this application"), wxITEM_NORMAL);
    Menu2->Append(MenuItem2);
    MenuBar1->Append(Menu2, _("Help"));
    SetMenuBar(MenuBar1);
    StatusBar1 = new wxStatusBar(this, ID_STATUSBAR1, 0, _T("ID_STATUSBAR1"));
    int __wxStatusBarWidths_1[1] = { -1 };
    int __wxStatusBarStyles_1[1] = { wxSB_NORMAL };
    StatusBar1->SetFieldsCount(1,__wxStatusBarWidths_1);
    StatusBar1->SetStatusStyles(1,__wxStatusBarStyles_1);
    SetStatusBar(StatusBar1);

    Connect(ID_BUTTON1,wxEVT_COMMAND_BUTTON_CLICKED,(wxObjectEventFunction)&MouseFrame::OnButton1Click);
    Connect(idMenuQuit,wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED,(wxObjectEventFunction)&MouseFrame::OnQuit);
    Connect(idMenuAbout,wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED,(wxObjectEventFunction)&MouseFrame::OnAbout);
    //*)
}

MouseFrame::~MouseFrame()
{
    //(*Destroy(MouseFrame)
    //*)
}

void MouseFrame::OnQuit(wxCommandEvent& event)
{
    Close();
}

void MouseFrame::OnAbout(wxCommandEvent& event)
{
    wxString msg = wxbuildinfo(long_f);
    wxMessageBox(msg, _("Welcome to..."));
}

void MouseFrame::OnButton1Click(wxCommandEvent& event)
{
}

void MouseFrame::MouseOver(wxMouseEvent& event){
    wxMessageBox(_("MouseOver event!"));
}

MouseApp.h

#ifndef MOUSEAPP_H
#define MOUSEAPP_H

#include <wx/app.h>

class MouseApp : public wxApp
{
    public:
        virtual bool OnInit();
};

#endif // MOUSEAPP_H

So my big question: Why are EVT_MOTION, EVT_RIGHT_DOWN or EVT_RIGHT_DCLICK not calling MouseFrame::MouseOver(wxMouseEvent& event) in the way EVT_MOUSEWHEEL does?

Answer 1

I figured it out: whenever you have one child of a wxFrame, wxWidgets automatically assumes you want it to cover the entire area of the wxFrame.

Because of this, there is no portion of the frame visible - hence none of the events make it to your handler.

As for solutions, you could always have the wxPanel handle the events.

Edit: Since you mentioned wxSmith, you could go to the events tab of the management pane {} and put the event handling code in the mouse events there instead of the wxFrame.