Drawing custom borders around a Symbian control

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Article Metadata

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Tested with

Devices(s): Nokia E90 Communicator
Nokia N95 8GB

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Compatibility

Platform(s): S60 3rd Edition
S60 3rd Edition, FP1
S60 3rd Edition, FP2

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Platform Security

Signing Required: Self Signed

Capabilities: )

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Article

Keywords: CWindowGc, CGraphicsContext, TRect, CCoeControl::Draw

Created: tapiolaitinen (15 Feb 2008)

Last edited: hamishwillee (20 Dec 2011)

Overview

This code snippet demonstrates how to draw a custom border around a GUI component.

Header file

Override the CCoeControl::Draw method.

// From CCoeControl
public:
    // Draws the view.
    void Draw(const TRect& aRect) const;

Source file

Define the color of the border:

#define KBorderColor    TRgb(180, 0, 0)

The drawing is implemented in the CCoeControl::Draw method so that the border is drawn every time the view is drawn.

// Draws the view.
void CAppView::Draw(const TRect& aRect) const
    {
    CWindowGc& gc = SystemGc();
 
    // Draw the border around the component (iComponent)
    gc.SetBrushColor(KBorderColor);
    TRect rect = iComponent->Rect();
    // Enlarge the border rectangle so that it becomes visible. Without this,
    // the rect would only contain the innards of the component, which will
    // be obscured by the component itself.
    rect.Grow(3, 3);
    gc.DrawRect(rect);
    }