Detecting various touch events in a winforms app

Question

I have a touch screen monitor with 5 touch points. I would like to do some touch work in a new windows forms app but I'm having trouble finding resouces for this.

Is it possible to handle touch events in a winforms app? Im not just talking about Tapping, either. I mean things like Pinching, Swiping (two finger swiping), grabbing and twisting/rotating and zooming?

How can we detect a pinch?

Expropriate

You're looking for the Surface SDK, which of course does not work with archaic useless winforms, but rather with proper, decent technology. – Moncton

Actually, the Surface SDK can be used with WinForms by using an ElementHost container, as detailed here . – Gytle

Answer 1

Take a look at WM_GESTURE message, I think you can get some info here, this could also be good and may be this

Since I cant comment on your post, dont take this as a full answer. I help how I can !

Upbear

Thanks for your answer, I'll be looking into this when I get home. – Expropriate

Answer 2

There's a set of C# interop libraries, provided by Microsoft, that let you detect touches and gestures in WinForms. It was called "Windows 7 Multitouch .NET Interop Sample Library". The old link was here, but seems to be dead. For the moment, it's on Google Code. The archive's original name was Win7RC_MT.zip . I've used it with great success in my WinForms apps.

Gytle

I uploaded the Win7RC_MT.zip again. It was very hard to find, now you can find it from: gofile.io/?c=qXnxrs – Prisoner

Answer 3

Adding gesture support to winforms - solved here:

thesis of LIEW HON CHIN:

http://portal.fke.utm.my/libraryfke/files/1387_LIEWHONCHIN2011.pdf

'Imports System.Security.Permissions
'Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices


  Private first_point As New Point()
  Private second_point As New Point()
  Private iArguments As Integer = 0
  Private Const ULL_ARGUMENTS_BIT_MASK As Int64 = &HFFFFFFFFL
  Private Const WM_GESTURENOTIFY As Integer = &H11A
  Private Const WM_GESTURE As Integer = &H119
  Private Const GC_ALLGESTURES As Integer = &H1
  Private Const GID_BEGIN As Integer = 1
  Private Const GID_END As Integer = 2
  Private Const GID_ZOOM As Integer = 3
  Private Const GID_PAN As Integer = 4
  Private Const GID_ROTATE As Integer = 5
  Private Const GID_TWOFINGERTAP As Integer = 6
  Private Const GID_PRESSANDTAP As Integer = 7
  Private Const GF_BEGIN As Integer = &H1
  Private Const GF_INERTIA As Integer = &H2
  Private Const GF_END As Integer = &H4
  Private Structure GESTURECONFIG
    Public dwID As Integer
    Public dwWant As Integer
    Public dwBlock As Integer
  End Structure
  Private Structure POINTS
    Public x As Short
    Public y As Short
  End Structure
  Private Structure GESTUREINFO
    Public cbSize As Integer
    Public dwFlags As Integer
    Public dwID As Integer
    Public hwndTarget As IntPtr
    <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Struct)>
    Friend ptsLocation As POINTS
    Public dwInstanceID As Integer
    Public dwSequenceID As Integer
    Public ullArguments As Int64
    Public cbExtraArgs As Integer
  End Structure
  <DllImport("user32")> _
  Private Shared Function SetGestureConfig(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal dwReserved As Integer, ByVal cIDs As Integer, ByRef pGestureConfig As GESTURECONFIG, ByVal cbSize As Integer) As <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)> Boolean
  End Function
  <DllImport("user32")>
  Private Shared Function GetGestureInfo(ByVal hGestureInfo As IntPtr, ByRef pGestureInfo As GESTUREINFO) As <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)> Boolean
  End Function
  Private _gestureConfigSize As Integer
  Private _gestureInfoSize As Integer
  <SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.Demand)>
  Private Sub SetupStructSizes()
    _gestureConfigSize = Marshal.SizeOf(New GESTURECONFIG())
    _gestureInfoSize = Marshal.SizeOf(New GESTUREINFO())
  End Sub
  <PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name:="FullTrust")>
  Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
    Dim handled As Boolean
    Select Case m.Msg
      Case WM_GESTURENOTIFY
        Dim gc As New GESTURECONFIG()
        gc.dwID = 0
        gc.dwWant = GC_ALLGESTURES
        gc.dwBlock = 0
        Dim bResult As Boolean = SetGestureConfig(Handle, 0, 1, gc, _gestureConfigSize)
        If Not bResult Then
          Throw New Exception("Error in execution of SetGestureConfig")
        End If
        handled = True
      Case WM_GESTURE
        handled = DecodeGesture(m)
      Case Else
        handled = False
    End Select
    MyBase.WndProc(m)
    If handled Then
      Try
        m.Result = New IntPtr(1)
      Catch excep As Exception
        Debug.Print("Could not allocate result ptr")
        Debug.Print(excep.ToString())
      End Try
    End If
  End Sub
  Private Function DecodeGesture(ByRef m As Message) As Boolean
    Dim gi As GESTUREINFO
    Try
      gi = New GESTUREINFO()
    Catch excep As Exception
      Debug.Print("Could not allocate resources to decode gesture")
      Debug.Print(excep.ToString())
      Return False
    End Try
    gi.cbSize = _gestureInfoSize
    If Not GetGestureInfo(m.LParam, gi) Then
      Return False
    End If
    Select Case gi.dwID
      Case GID_BEGIN, GID_END
      Case GID_TWOFINGERTAP
        'Receipt.Show()
        'Invalidate()
      Case GID_ZOOM
        Select Case gi.dwFlags
          Case GF_BEGIN
            iArguments = CInt(Fix(gi.ullArguments And
            ULL_ARGUMENTS_BIT_MASK))
            first_point.X = gi.ptsLocation.x
            first_point.Y = gi.ptsLocation.y
            first_point = PointToClient(first_point)
          Case Else
            second_point.X = gi.ptsLocation.x
            second_point.Y = gi.ptsLocation.y
            second_point = PointToClient(second_point)
            RaiseEvent GestureHappened(Me, New GestureEventArgs With {.Operation = Gestures.Pan, .FirstPoint = first_point, .SecondPoint = second_point})
            'Invalidate()
            'MsgBox("zoom")
        End Select
      Case GID_PAN
        Select Case gi.dwFlags
          Case GF_BEGIN
            first_point.X = gi.ptsLocation.x
            first_point.Y = gi.ptsLocation.y
            first_point = PointToClient(first_point)
          Case Else
            second_point.X = gi.ptsLocation.x
            second_point.Y = gi.ptsLocation.y
            second_point = PointToClient(second_point)
            RaiseEvent GestureHappened(Me, New GestureEventArgs With {.Operation = Gestures.Pan, .FirstPoint = first_point, .SecondPoint = second_point})
            'Invalidate()
            'MsgBox("pan")
        End Select
      Case GID_PRESSANDTAP
        'If gi.dwFlags = GF_BEGIN Then
        '  Invalidate()
        'End If
      Case GID_ROTATE
        'Select Case gi.dwFlags
        '  Case GF_BEGIN
        '    iArguments = 0
        '  Case Else
        '    first_point.X = gi.ptsLocation.x
        '    first_point.Y = gi.ptsLocation.y
        '    first_point = PointToClient(first_point)
        '    Invalidate()
        'End Select
    End Select
    Return True
  End Function


  Public Enum Gestures
    Pan
    Zoom
  End Enum

  Public Class GestureEventArgs
    Inherits EventArgs
    Public Property Operation As Gestures
    Public Property FirstPoint As Point
    Public Property SecondPoint As Point
  End Class

  Public Event GestureHappened(sender As Object, e As GestureEventArgs)

Shinberg