Delphi: Show window without activation - delphi

Question

I struggle to show a second form above the main form without losing focus.
I have tried ShowWindow(second.handle, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE), but the mainform loses focus.
If I set Visible := false on the second window, the call to ShowWindow does not activate the second form, but the windows is empty when shown...
Does anyone have a good recipe for this?
UPDATE: What I'm trying to do, is showing a notify-window at a given event. It's crucial that the main form does not lose focus at any time.

Answer 1

There has to be something wrong with your code.
I tested this code, it works:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
ShowWindow(Form2.Handle, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE);
Form2.Visible := True;
end;
Be careful to use Visible, not Show ! Otherwise it'll override the SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE.

Answer 2

You can show the window (non modal) and reset the focus to the mainwindow.
procedure TMainForm.ButtonClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
OtherForm.Show;
SetFocus;
end;
Tested on 2006.
This does not show the other form on top. But it is very counter intuitive to have a window on top that does not have the focus.

Answer 3

I've used this in the past
SetWindowPos(WindowHandle, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOACTIVATE or SWP_NOSIZE or SWP_NOMOVE);
I've not tested this with recent versions of Delphi though...

Answer 4

If possible, you should considered using some sort of tool tip window to display the notification information. A tool tip will not steal focus from you main window when it is displayed or when a user clicks on it. A regular form will have a border by default and if the user clicks on that border your main form will loose focus.
Here is some basic code to do this. The tip disappears when free is called; however you would be better off setting a timer than using sleep.
with THintWindow.Create(nil) do
try
ActivateHint(MyRect, 'My Notification');
Sleep(DisplayTime);
finally
Free;
end

Answer 5

Here you are:
// you have set your 2nd form as non resizable, without border nor title etc...
Form2.Enabled := False; // prevent the 2nd form to grab focus even when clicked
SetWindowPos(Form2.Handle, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_SHOWWINDOW or SWP_NOACTIVATE or SWP_NOSIZE or SWP_NOMOVE);
// be sure to hide it automatically when done as it is disabled...

Answer 6

I did this in the past, but I don't have the code because it was propietary in last job (sorry).
If I remember well, what I did was:
From client class A call a procedure (or function) that doesn't belongs to any class (a traditional Pascal method).
From that method, call some method in a class B that doesn't inherit from TForm
From the method in B, create an instance of popup form P, but with no parent or owner; and call a method in the instance.
From the method called in the instance, show itself.
The code (of step 3) could go something like this:
var p: TPopupForm;
begin
p := TPopupForm.Create(nil);
p.ShowWindow;
p.Release;
end;
I'm sorry if this doesn't work, I don't have Delphi too.

Answer 7

Daniels code works until ...
ShowWindow(Form2.Handle, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE);
Form2.Visible := True;
Until your second form is created dynamically. Then your second form is located at position 0,0 with default width and height.
For a short moment when ShowWindow is executed you will see the second form on screen, disappearing when the next line is executed.
I am using the code for a transparent overlay form which is created dyamically. The following code is a combination of the given answers and places the second form without activation over the parent form.
SetWindowPos(Form2.Handle, HWND_TOP, Left, Top, Width, Height, SWP_NOACTIVATE);
Form2.Visible := True;