Forum: wxRuby Transparency on WxStaticText background?

I've painted my gui and I like the background mesh for my gui.  I want
my static text to inherit the background paint of my gui.  Instead I get
a gray background around the static text.  Here's a picture:

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/jdezenzio/example_background.jpg

How do I make it so that the background of the StaticText is
transparent?

Thanks.

On 23/01/2010 16:25, Alpha Blue wrote:
> I've painted my gui and I like the background mesh for my gui.  I want
> my static text to inherit the background paint of my gui.  Instead I get
> a gray background around the static text.  Here's a picture:
>
> http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/jdezenzio/example_background.jpg
>
> How do I make it so that the background of the StaticText is
> transparent?
>    

Hard to test without the code, but have you tried setting the DC's brush
to TRANSPARENT?

eg

dc.brush = Wx::TRANSPARENT_BRUSH

Also, take a look into evt_erase_background which is specifically
designed for drawing bitmaps as a background on controls.

hth
alex

Hi Alex,

Basically, the control was created inside of DialogBlocks and extended 
into
a module.  The code appears like so:

@title_st_one = finder.call("title_st_one")
@title_st_one.extend(StaticTextControls)

I then have a module for:

module StaticTextControls
  self.evt_erase_background do |event|
    self.paint do |dc|
      dc.brush = Wx::TRANSPARENT_BRUSH
      # ??
    end
  end
end

I can extend into this module using @title_st_one.repaint_my_control and 
I
have some of the code above.  I'm not wanting to paint a bitmap onto 
this
control.  I just want this control to become transparent so that the
underlying bitmap which is already painted onto the parent frame shows.

Example:

Main Frame (already painted with bitmap)
  -- StaticTextControl (should be transparent so that it shows the Main
Frame)

I'll read up on evt_erase_background but I'm not sure how to use the
dc.brush code you supplied with this example.  Any further help would be
appreciated.

Sincerely,

Joel Dezenzio
Website Bio:  http://jdezenzio.com/
Rails Production Sites:  http://ncaastatpages.com

So, I took the approach I believe you were trying to get me to do.  I 
believe I found a partial answer but I'm still stumped.

The partial answer is that I can't use a StaticText control and achieve 
transparency.  Windows will force the background to the current theme 
and you can't get around that without drawing the text on the canvas 
instead.

So, I removed the StaticText control and created a small panel using the 
same class and variable name.

Here's what I have:

module StaticTextControls
  def paint_text(message)
    self.evt_erase_background do |event|
      self.paint do |dc|
        dc.set_background_mode(Wx::TRANSPARENT)
        dc.set_brush(Wx::TRANSPARENT_BRUSH)
        dc.draw_text(message, 5, 5)
      end
    end
  end
end

and I call it using the following extension:

@title_st_one.paint_text("Test for Paint")

And here's what it shows:

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/jdezenzio/example_background2.jpg

As you can see, the text is now painted on the panel and the panel is 
the gray looking rectangle behind the text.

The problem I have now is how do I make the panel itself transparent so 
that the window behind it (the gradient steel blue I created) shows? 
Sure, I can paint a bitmap on the panel but I don't want to paint a 
bitmap image.  I just want to force it to be transparent.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks.