Well Control Library at a glance: Demo files Full Demo (188 kB) MFC only  Demo (61 kB) White paper and documentation (RTF, 416 kB) White paper and documentation (Word 97, 194 kB) Introduction Contents and examples Online Documentation (in preparation) Contact us and Support Send me email License

What is the Well Control Library?

The WCL is a commercial programming library for generating Well Controls (like the picture above).

Well Controls allow the selection from a grid of options such as colours, bitmaps, drawing pen styles, in fact, just about anything you can think of.

What do you get with the Well Control Library?

US$39.99 gives you a license with 

• no royalties, 
• unlimited support
• fully-commented source code
• extensive documentation, 
• free upgrades

Is there not similar source code available elsewhere?

The WCL has the following distinctive features:

• Correct and consistent
  This may sound surprising, but almost invariably other well controls available exhibit at least minor but irritating inconsistencies. This even includes  those which are part of very expensive programming frameworks. The WCL takes the controls found in MS Office as the basis for desirable behaviour. Just download  the demo exe (188 Kb) and compare it with other commercial well controls.
• Pretty
  The whole point of having these fancy controls is so that you can visually impress your users and outdo your competitiors. Do you want the new "flat" look as seen in Internet Explorer and almost all new commercial applications? Do you want your control to support tooltips, palettes... ?
• Easy to use
  If you have to spend hours fiddling around with the control, it probably isn't worth the effort. To use a drop down colour selection well like the ones above, you are only have to add a button to your dialogue resource and the following 3 lines in blue:

  class CColourDialog : public CDialog
  {
  TLColourDropDownButton DropDownButton;
  };
  
  
  COLORREF savedColour;
  void CColourDialog::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
  {
  DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_ DROPDOWNBUTTON, DropDownButton);
  DDX_ColourDropDown(pDX, IDC_ DROPDOWNBUTTON, savedColour);
  };

• Customizable
  Almost every aspect of the well controls, from size and appearance to response, can be customized, all at run time as well. You can even dynamically change the number of columns on your well.
• Easy to extend and well documented
  Each class has copious amounts of documentation and many of the design decisions are supplied. Example programmes are supplied which run through almost every facet of the class. You only need to copy and paste the code to get it working. The architecture is clean and consistent. 
• Support
  If you want to add any features or have any questions, help is available pronto. Usually, if possible, we aim to reply the same day. You get not only full commented source code but also the rights to any future enhancements free of charge as well as bug fixes

What does the Well Control Library require?

• Visual C++ 5.0 or 6.0
• If you have the Stingray Objective Toolkit, full integration with that framework

Bug Reports: 

You can contact us on-line or email us with "Bug Report" in the subject header.

Licensing Information

See the license page.