Subclassing and Hooking with Visual Basic [Paperback]

Stephen Teilhet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2001

Subclassing & Hooking with Visual Basic offers developers a unique way to customize Windows behavior.

Windows is a message-based system. Every action you request creates one or more messages to carry out the action. These messages are passed between objects and carry with them information that gives the recipient more detail on how to interpret and act upon the message.

With Subclassing and the Windows hooking mechanism ("hooks"), you can manipulate, modify, or even discard messages bound for other objects within the operating system, in the process changing the way the system behaves. What kinds of results can you achieve using the power of subclassing and hooking? Here are just a few of the possibilities:

• Determine when a window is being activated or deactivated and respond to this change.
• Display descriptions of menu items as the mouse moves across them.
• Disallow a user to move or resize a window.
• Determine where the mouse cursor is and respond accordingly.
• Determine when the display resolution has been changed.
• Monitor the system for a low system resource condition.
• Modify or disallow keystrokes sent to a window or a control.
• Create an automated testing application.
• Determine when an application is idle.

Along with this power comes responsibility; Windows is very unforgiving if subclassing and hooking are used incorrectly. Subclassing & Hooking with Visual Basic demonstrates the various techniques for intercepting messages bound for one or more windows or controls: the intercepted message can be left in its original state or modified; afterwards, the message can be sent to its original destination or discarded.

For both VB 6 and VB.NET developers, Subclassing & Hooking with Visual Basic opens up a wealth of possibilities that ordinarily would be completely unavailable, or at least not easy to implement.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I decided to write this book when I noticed that there was no single place you could go to learn about subclassing and hooking. These two subjects were geared towards the more advanced C++ developers. Unfortunately, there was not much information to help the Visual Basic developer to understand how, when, where, and why to use these techniques.

In doing some research I came to the realization that not many Visual Basic developers had a solid grasp of these techniques. These techniques were being misused and even underused. Developers were creating incredibly complex, and hard to maintain code, code that could be greatly simplified if the programmer had only taken advantage of subclassing, hooking, or even both techniques used in tandem. This book is meant to not only to teach subclassing and hooking techniques, but also to be a single resource in which developers can get information and answers to their questions about these techniques.

This book is geared towards the Visual Basic developer who wants a better understanding of subclassing and hooking as well as how to incorporate these techniques into their projects. You need not be an advanced Visual Basic developer to learn how to effectively use subclassing and hooking. Although, many of the Win32 API function will need to be utilized in order to write subclassing and hooking applications and, therefore, a good knowledge of the Win32 API functions and how they are used within Visual Basic is necessary.

In understanding subclassing and hooks, you must delve deep into the internals of the Window’s operating system. This deeper understanding of Windows allows you not only to gain an understanding of subclassing and hooking, but also to learn more about the messaging system, which is the heart of the Windows operating system. The beginning of this book lays a solid foundation that will bring the beginning or intermediate developer up to speed on these topics.

Steve Teilhet

About the Author

Stephen Teilhet earned a degree in electrical engineering but soon afterwards began writing software for the Windows platform. For the last eight years, he has worked for several consulting firms on a wide range of projects, specializing in Visual Basic, Visual C++, MTS, COM, MSMQ, and SQL Server. Stephen currently works for Compuware Numega Labs in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he is immersed in the Microsoft .NET technologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596001185
• ISBN-13: 978-0596001186
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All of the basic techniques are revealed and a lot more, August 10, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Subclassing and Hooking with Visual Basic (Paperback)

In Subclassing & Hooking With Visual Basic, computer expert Stephen Teilhet explains that Windows is essentially a messaging system and that every user action creates one or more messages to carry out a communication. In addition to generating the message for the mouse button click, the action produces a wide array of other messages, including messages to repaint the button in its depressed state, determine the state of the mouse cursor, and others. Subclassing and the Windows hooking mechanisms are very powerful techniques that operate on messages within the Windows messaging system and Teilhet succinctly explains and illustrates the power that subclassing and hooking give developers in controlling or manipulating messages to achieve a desired result. All of the basic techniques are revealed and a lot more besides. Subclassing & Hooking With Visual Basic is especially recommended for VB and VB.NET developers, but will also prove invaluable for C/C++, Managed C++, C#, and Delphi users.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally..., July 26, 2001

By 

Vasilis Ioannidis (Athens, Attica Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Subclassing and Hooking with Visual Basic (Paperback)

a great book about subclassing and the actions you can achieve using vb and not c++. Helped me built customized apps for certain strict environments in no-time. Good work!

4.0 out of 5 stars Lot's of info in this book, November 6, 2004

By 

William Moeur "Lurker" (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Subclassing and Hooking with Visual Basic (Paperback)

This book is a very comprehensive explanation of what you can do from Visual Basic with regards to subclassing and hooking. My only complaints are that it's a little wordy and redundant in points and that it doesn't venture into areas that cannot be handled with VB alone.