Don't allow the tooltip to pop on CMFCRibbonBar

OK, I've done something that is useful, but the outcome is not satisfying 100%.

So, first of all, create your own tooltip, inheriting from CMfcToolTipCtrl. The idea is that: - user may want to interact with your tooltip, or not. So we have to create some smart way from closing and showing the tooltip. - We can assume, that when user hovers the tooltip with mouse, then he wants to interact.

Unfortunately whenever user moves the mouse from the ribbon button, the tooltip dissapears. But sometimes we can catch MouseMove inside it. But it's rather rare. So, we have to get the moment, when tooltip is closed by a system.

There is such a message that we can add to message map:

ON_NOTIFY_REFLECT(TTN_POP, &CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnPop)

Now, our OnPop will look like that (I am using pImpl idiom):

void CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnPop(NMHDR* pNMHDR, LRESULT* pResult)
{
    if (m_pImpl->m_forceClose)
    {
        CMFCToolTipCtrl::OnPop(pNMHDR, pResult);

        m_pImpl->m_forceOpened = false;
        m_pImpl->m_forceClose = false;
        m_pImpl->StopForceOpenTimer();
    } 
    else
    {
        m_pImpl->StartForceOpenTimer();
    }

    *pResult = 0;
}

Now, what's happening here is: - when tooltip is being closed, check if it's force closed by our code. If not, it means that it's closed by system. In such case, we have to give the user a chance to hover the mouse over our tooltip. So, we have to show the tooltip again (force it to show). This is done in timer method. StartForceOpenTimer is simple method that starts the timer:

void StartForceOpenTimer()
{
    if (!m_forceOpenTimerActive)
    {
        m_self.SetTimer(IDT_FORCE_OPEN_TIMER, 100, (TIMERPROC)NULL);
        m_forceOpenTimerActive = true;
    }
}

Now, the magic starts in timer method:

void CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnForceTimer()
{
    static DWORD waitForUserStartTime = 0;
    static bool waitingForUserReaction = false;     

    if (!waitingForUserReaction)
    {
        //open and give the user chance to mouse move over it within 0.5 seconds
        SetWindowPos(&wndTopMost, -1, -1, -1, -1, SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
        waitForUserStartTime = GetTickCount();
        waitingForUserReaction = true;
        return;
    }

    if (GetTickCount() - waitForUserStartTime > 500)
    {
        m_pImpl->StopForceOpenTimer();
        m_pImpl->m_forceClose = true;
        waitingForUserReaction = false;
        m_pImpl->PopToolTip();      
        return;
    }

    if (m_pImpl->m_doForceOpen)
    {
        m_pImpl->StopForceOpenTimer();
        waitingForUserReaction = false;
        m_pImpl->m_forceOpened = true;
    }   
}

Overall idea is: - force to show the tooltip - wait about 0.5 second for a user to hover the mouse - if user hovers the mouse over tooltip window, we can assume that he wants to interact. So we can leave the window opened. - if user doens't interact with the window within 0.5 second, just close the tooltip again.

Now, PopToolTip method just starts another timer with interval of 100 ms. And here is the other part of the magic:

void CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnPopTimer()
{
    m_pImpl->StopForceOpenTimer();
    KillTimer(IDT_POP_TIMER);
    //Pop();

    m_pImpl->m_forceClose = true;
    m_pImpl->m_hdr.idFrom = 2;
    m_pImpl->m_hdr.hwndFrom = GetSafeHwnd();
    m_pImpl->m_hdr.code = (int)TTN_POP; //4294966774
    GetParent()->SendMessage(WM_NOTIFY, 1, (LPARAM)&m_pImpl->m_hdr);
    //GetParent()->SendMessage(WM_NOTIFY, 2, (LPARAM)&m_pImpl->m_hdr);

    ShowWindow(SW_HIDE);
}

Now, this method should just pop (hide) the tooltip. But for some reason in my case calling Pop() method does nothing. So I would have to send WM_NOTIFY message with appropriate parameters (they are taken from my debug observations). Now, OnPop will start again, but this time m_forceClose is set to true, so the tooltip will not show again (the first timer will not run).

Now the third part of the magic - Mouse Move. Just add it to your message map:

ON_WM_MOUSEMOVE()

And the method:

void CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnMouseMove(UINT nFlags, CPoint point)
{
    m_pImpl->m_doForceOpen = true; //let the first timer know, that user wants to interact

    CMFCToolTipCtrl::OnMouseMove(nFlags, point);
}

And you can just hide the tooltip when user clicks on it. Just:

void CAsInteractiveToolTip::OnLButtonDown(UINT nFlags, CPoint point)
{
    m_pImpl->m_forceClose = true;
    m_pImpl->PopToolTip();
}

This is not the ideal solution, but it somehow works. If anyone has any suggestions, I will be happy to hear them :)