Microsoft KB Archive/141751

= How to add control bars to dialog boxes in MFC =

Article ID: 141751

Article Last Modified on 11/21/2006

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APPLIES TO

 Microsoft Foundation Class Library 4.2, when used with:  Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 Standard Edition

 Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1 Subscription

 Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Enterprise Edition

 Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Professional Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition</li></ul>

 Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition</li></ul> </li></ul>

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This article was previously published under Q141751

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This is the 32-bit version of this sample.

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SUMMARY
In a Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) application, you can attach control bars such as status bars and toolbars to a frame window. However, for many applications a simple dialog box-based user interface is sufficient. MFC does not provide built-in support for adding control bars to dialog boxes.

DLGCBR32 is a sample application that demonstrates how to add a status bar and toolbar to a dialog box. In addition, it demonstrates a number of techniques related to using a modeless dialog box as the main window of an MFC application. The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Visual C++ 6.0
Download Dlgcbr32.exe now

For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

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Visual C++ .NET
Download Dlgcbr32vcnet.exe now

Release Date: July 2, 2002

For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

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MORE INFORMATION
To add a control bar to a dialog box, you must create the control bar as usual, and then make room for the control bar within the client area of the dialog box. For the control bar to function properly, the dialog box must duplicate some of the functionality of frame windows. If you want ON_UPDATE_COMMAND_UI handlers to work for the control bars, you also need to derive new control bar classes, and handle the WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI message. If your dialog box is not the main window of your application, you will also need to modify its parent frame window to pass the WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI message on to the dialog box's control bars.

To make room for a control bar within the client area of the dialog box, follow these steps in your dialog box's OnInitDialog function:

<ol> Create the control bars.</li>  Figure out how much room the control bars will take by using the reposQuery option of RepositionBars: CRect rcClientStart; CRect rcClientNow; GetClientRect(rcClientStart); RepositionBars(AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_FIRST,                    AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_LAST,                     0, reposQuery, rcClientNow); </li>  Move all the controls in your dialog box to account for space used by control bars at the top or left of the client area. If your dialog box contains a menu, you also need to account for the space used by the menu: CPoint ptOffset(rcClientNow.left - rcClientStart.left,                      rcClientNow.top - rcClientStart.top);

CRect rcChild; CWnd* pwndChild = GetWindow(GW_CHILD); while (pwndChild) {        pwndChild->GetWindowRect(rcChild); ScreenToClient(rcChild); rcChild.OffsetRect(ptOffset); pwndChild->MoveWindow(rcChild, FALSE); pwndChild = pwndChild->GetNextWindow; }                       </li>  Increase the dialog box window dimensions by the amount of space used by the control bars: CRect rcWindow; GetWindowRect(rcWindow); rcWindow.right += rcClientStart.Width - rcClientNow.Width; rcWindow.bottom += rcClientStart.Height - rcClientNow.Height; MoveWindow(rcWindow, FALSE); </li> Position the control bars using RepositionBars.</li></ol>

To update the first pane of a status bar with menu item text, you must handle WM_MENUSELECT, WM_ENTERIDLE, and WM_SETMESSAGESTRING in your dialog box class. You need to duplicate the functionality of the CFrameWnd handlers for these messages. See the CModelessMain class in the sample program for examples of these message handlers.

To allow ON_UPDATE_COMMAND_UI handlers to work for other status bar panes and for toolbar buttons, you must derive new control bar classes and implement a message handler for WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI. This is necessary because the default control bar implementations of OnUpdateCmdUI assume the parent window is a frame window. However, it doesn't do anything but pass the parent window pointer on to a function which only requires a CCmdTarget pointer. Therefore, you can temporarily tell OnUpdateCmdUI that the parent window pointer you are giving it is a CFrameWnd pointer to meet the compiler requirements. Here's an example: LRESULT CDlgToolBar::OnIdleUpdateCmdUI(WPARAM wParam,                                            LPARAM lParam) {        if (IsWindowVisible) {           CFrameWnd* pParent = (CFrameWnd*)GetParent; if (pParent) OnUpdateCmdUI(pParent, (BOOL)wParam); }        return 0L; } To pass WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI messages on to dialog boxes other than the main window, save dialog pointers in your frame window class and create a WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI handler in that class. The handler should send the WM_IDLEUPDATECMDUI message on to the dialog child windows by using CWnd::SendMessageToDescendants. Then perform default processing for the message within the frame window.

Keywords: kbhowto kbdownload kbcode kbdlg kbfile kbmfcctrlbar kbsample kbuidesign KB141751

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