SWT on Windows: scroll control at cursor (not focused one)

Question

We are in the process of converting a Swing application to SWT and it's already usable. What drives me really nuts is that with SWT (in contrast to Swing) on Windows only the focused control (e.g. table, list, multi-line text field) is scrolled, even when the mouse cursor is over another control.

Is there a possibility to change this behavior in our application (not having to install a third-party utility), e.g. by installing some control-independent hook/filter for scroll events which either redirects the event to the control at the current cursor location or by first moving the focus automatically. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The original solution has a number of problems.

• It should use Reflection (which it proposes itself).
• It should walk up the widget hierarchy to find a parent widget which should handle the wheel event instead of the actual widget under the mouse. This is necessary since the event will not be processed if the widget under the mouse does not have the SWT.V_SCROLL or SWT.H_SCROLL style bit set and includes the respective native ScrollBar widgets.
• Additionally, the widget under the mouse, or one of its parent widgets, may have Listeners attached for SWT.MouseWheel. It is probably save to assume that the intention is to handle SWT.MouseWheel events in those listeners, so despite the fact that the platform would not deliver wheel events to such widgets when they have no scroll bars, the developer probably intended those widgets to receive the events.

Below is a ready to copy code snipped that is based on the original answer but handles all these problems.

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Point;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Rectangle;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Event;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Listener;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.ScrollBar;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Scrollable;

/**
 * The standard platform behavior on Windows is to scroll the widget with
 * keyboard focus when the user turns the mouse wheel, instead of the widget
 * currently under the mouse pointer. Many consider this annoying and Windows
 * itself, as well as many popular Windows software, breaks this rule and
 * implements the behavior seen on other platforms, which is to scroll the
 * widget under the mouse.
 * 
 * Win32MouseWheelFilter is a Listener implementation which will filter for
 * SWT.MouseWheel events delivered to any Widget and try to redirect the event
 * to the widget under the mouse or one of it's parents. The widget, or one of
 * it's parents is considered a suitable target, if it either has Listeners for
 * SWT.MouseWheel attached (assuming that those listeners would do something
 * sensible with the event), or if its style bits contain SWT.H_SCROLL and/or
 * SWT.V_SCROLL. In the later case a low level system event is generated, which
 * is necessary to get the event handled by the native ScrollBar widgets. A
 * vertical ScrollBar is preferred as the target, unless it is for some reason
 * unsuitable for scrolling. In that case, horizontal scrolling would take
 * place, if there is a suitable horizontal ScrollBar.
 * 
 * Simply creating a new Win32MouseWheelFilter instance will install it as an
 * event filter in the Display passed to the constructor. At an appropriate
 * time, you may call dispose() to remove the filter again. On SWT platforms
 * other than "win32", constructing an Win32MouseWheelFilter will have no effect.
 */
public class Win32MouseWheelFilter implements Listener {

    private final Display   fDisplay;

    private int             WM_VSCROLL;
    private int             WM_HSCROLL;
    private int             SB_LINEUP;
    private int             SB_LINEDOWN;

    private Method          fSendEventMethod32;
    private Method          fSendEventMethod64;

    /**
     * Creates a new Win32MouseWheelFilter instance and registers it as global
     * event filter in the provided Display. Nothing will happen if the SWT
     * platform is not "win32". If for some reason some SWT internals have
     * changed since the writing of this class, and the Reflection-based
     * extraction of some win32 specific fields of the SWT OS class fails,
     * no filtering of wheel events will take place either.
     * 
     * @param display
     *      The Display instance that the Win32MouseWheelFilter should install
     *      itself into as global event filter.
     */
    public Win32MouseWheelFilter(Display display) {
        fDisplay = display;

        if (!SWT.getPlatform().equals("win32"))
            return;

        try {
            Class<?> os = Class.forName("org.eclipse.swt.internal.win32.OS");
            WM_VSCROLL = os.getDeclaredField("WM_VSCROLL").getInt(null);
            WM_HSCROLL = os.getDeclaredField("WM_HSCROLL").getInt(null);
            SB_LINEUP = os.getDeclaredField("SB_LINEUP").getInt(null);
            SB_LINEDOWN = os.getDeclaredField("SB_LINEDOWN").getInt(null);

            try {
                // Try the 32-bit version first
                fSendEventMethod32 = os.getDeclaredMethod("SendMessage",
                    int.class, int.class, int.class, int.class);
            } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
                // Fall back to the 64-bit version
                fSendEventMethod64 = os.getDeclaredMethod("SendMessage",
                    long.class, int.class, long.class, long.class);
            }

            display.addFilter(SWT.MouseWheel, this);
            return;

        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (SecurityException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        System.out.println("Warning: Running on win32 SWT platform, "
            + "but unable to install Win32MouseWheelFilter filter.");
    }

    /**
     * If the receiver had previously installed itself as global event filter,
     * this method will remove it again from the display's filters.
     */
    public final void dispose() {
        fDisplay.removeFilter(SWT.MouseWheel, this);
    }

    public final void handleEvent(Event event) {
        Control cursorControl = event.display.getCursorControl();
        if (event.widget == cursorControl || cursorControl == null)
            return;

        if (event.widget instanceof Control) {
            // If the original target control's bounds contain the mouse
            // location, do not re-target the event, since it may indeed be the
            // Control that needs to handle scrolling for an embedded Control
            // that has focus.
            Control control = (Control) event.widget;
            Rectangle bounds = control.getBounds();
            bounds.x = 0;
            bounds.y = 0;
            Point cursorPos = control.toControl(display.getCursorLocation());
            if (bounds.contains(cursorPos))
                return;
        }

        // Try to find the best target widget for the event, based on the
        // cursorControl. A suitable target control is either one that has
        // a listener for SWT.MouseWheel attached, or one that has either
        // SWT.H_SCROLL or SWT.V_SCROLL in its style bits.
        Control wheelControl = cursorControl;
        int scrollStyle = SWT.H_SCROLL | SWT.V_SCROLL;
        while (wheelControl != null
            && (wheelControl.getStyle() & scrollStyle) == 0
            && wheelControl.getListeners(SWT.MouseWheel).length == 0) {
            wheelControl = wheelControl.getParent();
        }
        if (wheelControl == null) {
            // The event would not be handled by anyone, bail out.
            return;
        }

        int style = wheelControl.getStyle();

        if ((style & scrollStyle) != 0 && wheelControl instanceof Scrollable) {
            // Construct the data for the low level event based on which
            // direction the target can scroll in. We need to use a low-level
            // event since otherwise it won't be handled by the native
            // ScrollBar widgets.
            int msg;

            // Prefer vertical scrolling. However, if the
            // there is no vertical ScrollBar, or if it's somehow disabled,
            // then switch to horizontal scrolling instead.
            if ((style & SWT.V_SCROLL) != 0 ) {
                ScrollBar vBar = ((Scrollable) wheelControl).getVerticalBar();
                if (vBar == null
                    || ((vBar.getMinimum() == 0
                        && vBar.getMaximum() == 0
                        && vBar.getSelection() == 0)
                            || !vBar.isEnabled()
                            || !vBar.isVisible())) {
                    // There is no vertical ScrollBar, or it can't be used.
                    msg = WM_HSCROLL;
                } else
                    msg = WM_VSCROLL;
            } else {
                msg = WM_HSCROLL;
            }

            int count = event.count;
            int wParam = SB_LINEUP;
            if (event.count < 0) {
                count = -count;
                wParam = SB_LINEDOWN;
            }

            try {
                // Obtain the control's handle via Reflection and
                // deliver the event using the low level platform method.
                // (64 and 32 bit versions)
                if (fSendEventMethod32 != null) {
                    int handle = org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control.class
                        .getDeclaredField("handle").getInt(wheelControl);
                    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
                        fSendEventMethod32.invoke(null, handle, msg, wParam, 0);
                } else {
                    long handle = org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control.class
                        .getDeclaredField("handle").getLong(wheelControl);
                    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
                        fSendEventMethod64.invoke(null, handle, msg, wParam, 0);
                }

            } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (SecurityException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        } else {
            // It makes no sense using the low-level OS event delivery, since
            // Widgets without the scrolling style bits won't receive this
            // event. Since we selected this widget based on the fact that it
            // has SWT.MouseWheel listeners attached, use the regular SWT event
            // notification system.

            // Convert mouse location, since the event contains it in the wrong
            // coordinate space (the one of the original event target).
            Point cursorPos = wheelControl.toControl(
                event.display.getCursorLocation());
            event.x = cursorPos.x;
            event.y = cursorPos.y;

            event.widget = wheelControl;
            wheelControl.notifyListeners(event.type, event);
        }

        // We re-targeted the event, or re-posted a new event to another widget,
        // so prevent this event from being processed any further.
        event.type = SWT.None;
        event.doit = false;
    }
}

Answer 2

On Windows I use the following class to solve this issue. I found it some years ago somewhere, don't remember anymore (I might have decompiled ru.nlmk.utilplugins):

public class AutoMouseWheelAdapter implements Listener {

   int WM_VSCROLL  = OS.WM_VSCROLL;
   int WM_HSCROLL  = OS.WM_HSCROLL;
   int SB_LINEUP   = OS.SB_LINEUP;
   int SB_LINEDOWN = OS.SB_LINEDOWN;

   public AutoMouseWheelAdapter() {
      if ( SWT.getPlatform().equals("win32") ) {
         Display.getCurrent().addFilter(SWT.MouseWheel, this);
      }
   }

   public void handleEvent( Event event ) {
      Control cursorControl = Display.getCurrent().getCursorControl();

      if ( event.widget == cursorControl || cursorControl == null ) {
         return;
      }

      event.doit = false;
      int msg = WM_VSCROLL;
      int style = cursorControl.getStyle();

      if ( (style & SWT.V_SCROLL) != 0 && cursorControl instanceof Scrollable ) {
         ScrollBar verticalBar = ((Scrollable)cursorControl).getVerticalBar();

         if ( verticalBar != null
            && ((verticalBar.getMinimum() == 0 && verticalBar.getMaximum() == 0 && verticalBar.getSelection() == 0) || !verticalBar.isEnabled() || !verticalBar
                  .isVisible()) ) {
            msg = WM_HSCROLL;
         }
      }
      else if ( (style & SWT.H_SCROLL) == 0 ) {
         return;
      }
      else {
         msg = WM_HSCROLL;
      }

      int count = event.count;
      int wParam = SB_LINEUP;

      if ( event.count < 0 ) {
         count = -count;
         wParam = SB_LINEDOWN;
      }

      for ( int i = 0; i < count; i++ ) {
         OS.SendMessage(cursorControl.handle, msg, wParam, 0);
      }
   }
}

Simply add new AutoMouseWheelAdapter() in your code, after you've created the display thread, or remove the constructor and register it as a Filter on your own.

This implementation depends on Win32 SWT, obviously. If you don't want the compile time dependency, wrap the method call and the fields in reflection calls.