E - Handling Events

FLTK Events are identified by the integer argument passed to the Fl_Widget::handle() virtual method.

All other information about the most recent event is stored in static locations and acquired by calling these functions. This static information remains valid until the next event is read from window system (i.e. it is ok to look at it outside of the handle() method). This allows the data to be accessed by callbacks and other functions without having to pass an event argument to them, and allows more fields to be added to events without breaking binary compatability. These are all trivial inline functions and thus very fast and small:

The following functions do not return current event state, but are often used when processing events as well:

FLTK follows very simple and unchangeable rules for sending events. The major innovation is that widgets can indicate (by returning 0 from the handle() method) that they are not interested in an event, and FLTK can then send that event elsewhere. This eliminates the need for "interests" (event masks or tables), and this is probably the main reason FLTK is much smaller than other toolkits.

Some events are sent directly to widgets by fltk, but others are always sent to the outermost Fl_Window and fltk relies on the widgets correctly sending the events on to their children. This is to allow composite widgets to implement more efficient code for finding the correct child than the simple linear search fltk uses. The following functions control where events are sent:

This is a list of all the events currently defined.

Mouse Events

FL_PUSH

A mouse button has gone down with the mouse pointing at this widget. You can find out what button by calling
Fl::event_button(). You find out the mouse position by calling Fl::event_x() and Fl::event_y().

A widget indicates that it "wants" the mouse click by returning non-zero from its handle() method. It will then become the Fl::pushed() widget and will get FL_DRAG and the matching FL_RELEASE events. If handle() returns zero then FLTK will try sending the FL_PUSH to another widget.

FL_DRAG

The mouse has moved with a button held down. The current button state is in
Fl::event_state(). The mouse position is in Fl::event_x() and Fl::event_y().

To receive FL_DRAG events you must return 1 when passed a FL_PUSH event.

FL_RELEASE

A mouse button has been released. You can find out what button by calling Fl::event_button().

To receive FL_RELEASE events you must return 1 when passed a FL_PUSH event.

FL_MOVE

The mouse has moved without any mouse buttons held down. This event is sent to the Fl::belowmouse() widget.

FL_MOUSEWHEEL

The wheel was moved on the mouse.
Fl::event_dy() contains how many clicks the wheel moved, positive for up and negative for down. There is also a Fl::event_dx() for any kind of horizontal scrolling device but nothing produces that yet.

On X you may want to write stuff to the xrdb database to control how fltk interprets the wheel. On Windows the normal Windows settings are used for this.

Focus Events

FL_ENTER

The mouse has been moved to point at this widget. This can be used for highlighting feedback. If a widget wants to highlight or otherwise track the mouse, it indicates this by returning non-zero from its
handle() method. It then becomes the Fl::belowmouse() widget and will receive FL_MOVE and FL_LEAVE events.

FL_LEAVE

The mouse has moved out of the widget. To get this event you must return 1 in response to a FL_ENTER event.

Keyboard Events

FL_FOCUS

This indicates an attempt to give a widget the keyboard focus.

If a widget wants the focus, it should change itself to display the fact that it has the focus, and return non-zero from its handle() method. It then becomes the Fl::focus() widget and gets FL_KEY, FL_KEYUP and FL_UNFOCUS events.

The focus will change either because the window manager changed which window gets the focus, or because the user tried to navigate using tab, arrows, or other keys. You can check Fl::event_key() to figure out why it moved. For navigation it will be the key pressed and for instructions from the window manager it will be zero.

FL_UNFOCUS

Sent to the previous Fl::focus() widget when another widget gets the focus.

FL_KEY

A key press event. Fltk sends these directly to the
Fl::focus() widget. If it does not return 1 then fltk will change the event into a FL_SHORTCUT event and try the widgets under the mouse.

The key pressed can be found in Fl::event_key(). The text that the key should insert can be found with Fl::event_text() and its length is in Fl::event_length().

To receive FL_KEYBOARD events you must return 1 in response to a FL_FOCUS event.

FL_KEYUP

Sent to the Fl::focus() widget. The key that was released can be found in Fl::event_key(). Don't rely on anything being in Fl::event_text().

FL_SHORTCUT

If the
Fl::focus() widget is zero or ignores an FL_KEY event then FLTK tries sending this event to every widget it can, until one of them returns non-zero. FL_SHORTCUT is first sent to the belowmouse() widget, then its parents and siblings, and eventually to every widget in the window, trying to find an object that returns non-zero. FLTK tries really hard to not to ignore any keystrokes!

You can also make "global" shortcuts by using Fl::add_handler(). A global shortcut will work no matter what windows are displayed or which one has the focus.

Widget Events

FL_DEACTIVATE

This widget is no longer active, due to
deactivate() being called on it or one of its parents. active() may still be true after this, the widget is only active if active() is true on it and all its parents (use active_r() to check this).

FL_ACTIVATE

This widget is now active, due to
activate() being called on it or one of its parents.

FL_HIDE

This widget is no longer visible, due to
hide() being called on it or one of its parents, or due to a parent window being minimized. visible() may still be true after this, but the widget is visible only if visible() is true for it and all its parents (use visible_r() to check this).

FL_SHOW

This widget is visible again, due to
show() being called on it or one of its parents, or due to a parent window being restored. Child Fl_Windows respond to this by actually creating the window if not done already, so if you subclass a window, be sure to pass FL_SHOW to the base class handle() method!

Clipboard Events

FL_PASTE

You should get this event some time after you call
Fl::paste() or you return true for FL_DND_RELEASE. The contents of Fl::event_text() is the text to insert and the number of characters is in Fl::event_length().

FL_DND_ENTER

The user is dragging something over your widget. Return 1 if you are intersted in getting FL_DND_DRAG and FL_DND_RELEASE events.

FL_DND_DRAG

The user moved the mouse some more while dragging something. You might use this to move around a cursor indicating where the insertion will go.

FL_DND_LEAVE

The user moved out of the widget without releasing the dragged object.

FL_DND_RELEASE

The user let go of the mouse and dropped something on your widget. Return 1 if you are interested in getting this data. In this case you will get an FL_PASTE event with the text of object. This may be characters or it may be the URL of some larger object.

FLTK Compose-Character Sequences

The foreign-letter compose processing done by the Fl_Input widget is provided in a function that you can call if you are writing your own text editor widget.

Fltk uses it's own compose processing to allow "preview" of the partially composed sequence, which is impossible with the usual "dead key" processing.

Although currently only characters in the ISO-8859-1 character set are handled, you should call this in case any enhancements to the processing are done in the future. The interface has been designed to handle arbitrary UTF-8 encoded text.

int Fl::compose(int& del)

Use of this function is very simple. Any text editing widget should call this for each FL_KEYBOARD event.

If true is returned, then it has modified the Fl::event_text() and Fl::event_length() to a set of bytes to insert (it may be of zero length!). It will also set the del parameter to the number of bytes to the left of the cursor to delete, this is used to delete the results of the previous call to Fl::compose().

If false is returned, the keys should be treated as function keys. You could insert the text anyways, if you don't know what else to do, del is set to zero and the Fl::event_text() and Fl::event_length() are left unchanged, length is zero for any function keys.

Though the current implementation returns immediately, future versions may take quite awhile, as they may pop up a window or do other user-interface things to allow characters to be selected.

int Fl::compose_reset()

If the user moves the cursor, be sure to call Fl::compose_reset(). The next call to Fl::compose() will start out in an initial state. In particular it will not set "del" to non-zero. This call is very fast so it is ok to call it many times and in many places.