Capture the option selected by the user in a windows default contextmenu?

Question

When right-click on a textbox which has the default Windows contextmenu I want to know if the user selects copy cut or paste option, to perform secondary operations when user has selected an specific contextmenu option.

I have no code 'cause I don't know where to start trying to recognize what option was selected by the user in the contextmenu, and how to capture that left click 'cause I've tried to capture the default contextmenu mouseleft click on the textbox MouseDown/Mouseclick events without success, I know that has not much sense 'cause it is a contextmenu mouseclick, not a Textbox mouseclick, but well... I don't know how to manage that external contextmenu.

Answer 1

You can add a class like this to your project:

Class MyTextBox : Inherits TextBox
  Public Enum ContextCommands
     WM_CUT = &H300
     WM_COPY = &H301
     WM_PASTE = &H302
  End Enum

  Public Class ContextCommandEventArgs
     Inherits EventArgs
     Public Property Command As ContextCommands
  End Class

  Event OnCut(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)
  Event OnCopy(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)
  Event OnPaste(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)

  Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
     MyBase.WndProc(m)
     Select Case m.Msg
        Case ContextCommands.WM_CUT
           RaiseEvent OnCut(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_CUT})
        Case ContextCommands.WM_COPY
           RaiseEvent OnCopy(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_COPY})
        Case ContextCommands.WM_PASTE
           RaiseEvent OnPaste(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_PASTE})
     End Select
  End Sub
End Class

Then you can replace all occurrences of "TextBox" in the Designer.vb files with "MyTextBox". Then you will have access to 3 new events for Cut, Copy and Paste. You can handle them like this:

Private Sub TextBox1_OnTextCommand(sender As Object, e As MyTextBox.ContextCommandEventArgs) _
    Handles TextBox1.OnCut, TextBox1.OnPaste, TextBox1.OnCopy
    MessageBox.Show("Activated " & e.Command.ToString())
End Sub

Notice how I've chosen to handle all 3 events in one function in this case, but you could handle them in separate functions as well. I noticed that the cut command seems to also cause a copy command event, but I will assume for now that you can deal with that slight complication.

Answer 2

If someone need this, This is a modification of @BlueMonkMN code to work properly with the CUT option, and also added the DELETE option.

Class MyTextBox : Inherits TextBox

Private Last_Command As ContextCommands = Nothing

Private WithEvents CopyOrCut_Timer As New Timer _
        With {.Interval = 5, .Enabled = False}

Public Enum ContextCommands
    WM_CUT = &H300
    WM_COPY = &H301
    WM_PASTE = &H302
    WM_DELETE = &H303
End Enum

Public Class ContextCommandEventArgs
    Inherits EventArgs
    Public Property Command As ContextCommands
End Class

Event OnCut(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)
Event OnCopy(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)
Event OnPaste(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)
Event OnDelete(sender As Object, e As ContextCommandEventArgs)

Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)

    MyBase.WndProc(m)

    Select Case m.Msg

        Case ContextCommands.WM_COPY
            Last_Command = ContextCommands.WM_COPY
            CopyOrCut_Timer.Enabled = True

        Case ContextCommands.WM_CUT
            Last_Command = ContextCommands.WM_CUT

        Case ContextCommands.WM_PASTE
            RaiseEvent OnPaste(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() _
                                   With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_PASTE})

        Case ContextCommands.WM_DELETE
            RaiseEvent OnDelete(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() _
                                    With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_DELETE})

    End Select

End Sub

Private Sub Cut_Timer_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) _
Handles CopyOrCut_Timer.Tick

    sender.enabled = False

    Select Case Last_Command

        Case ContextCommands.WM_COPY
            RaiseEvent OnCopy(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() _
                                  With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_COPY})

        Case ContextCommands.WM_CUT
            RaiseEvent OnCut(Me, New ContextCommandEventArgs() _
                                 With {.Command = ContextCommands.WM_CUT})

    End Select

    Last_Command = Nothing

End Sub

End Class