< C++ .NET WinForm, Dialog Box & Controls 6 | Main | C++ .NET Drawing 1 >

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Windows Form, Dialog Boxes and More Controls 7

 

 

What we have in this page?

1. StatusStrip

2. ToolStripItem Class

3. StatusStrip Items Collection Editor

4. StatusStrip Tasks Dialog Box

5. Using StatusStrip and Status Bars

 

 

ToolStripItemCollection class represents a collection of ToolStripItem objects. The Add, Remove, and RemoveAt methods enable you to add and remove individual controls from the collection. You can also use the AddRange or Clear methods to add or remove all the controls from the collection. You can determine whether a ToolStripItem is a member of the collection by passing the control into the Contains method. To get the index value of the location of a ToolStripItem in the collection, pass the control into the IndexOf method. The collection can be copied into an array by calling the CopyTo method.

 

ToolStripItem Class

 

ToolStripItem class represents the base class that manages events and layout for all the elements that a ToolStrip or ToolStripDropDown can contain. A ToolStripItem is an element such as a button, combo box, text box, or label that can be contained in a ToolStrip control or a ToolStripDropDown control, which is similar to a Windows context menu. The ToolStrip class manages the painting and keyboard and mouse input, including drag-and-drop input, for these elements, and the ToolStripItem class manages events and layout. The following table shows the elements that derive from the ToolStripItem class and which therefore can be hosted in a ToolStrip or ToolStripDropDown.

 

 

StatusStrip Items Collection Editor

 

In the previous practices you have encountered Items Collection Editor for many controls. Here, we will try to describe this thing in general. The StatusStrip Items Collection Editor is used to add, remove, and reorder ToolStripItem controls of a StatusStrip and view and set StatusStrip and ToolStripItem properties. Display the StatusStrip Items Collection Editor by:

 

• Right-clicking a StatusStrip control in the designer and choosing Edit Items from the shortcut menu.

• Clicking the smart tag on a StatusStrip control in the designer and choosing Edit Items from the StatusStrip Tasks dialog box.

 

 

StatusStrip Tasks Dialog Box

 

The Tasks Dialog Box also has been used in the previous practices and in other Windows developer tools. Here we provide the general information for control’s Tasks Dialog Box. The StatusStrip Tasks dialog box provides convenient access to typical commands and property settings. Display the StatusStrip Tasks dialog box by clicking the smart tag on a StatusStrip control in the designer.

 

 

Using StatusStrip and Status Bars

 

The StatusStrip class represents the standard status bar that you see at the bottom of many application windows. As its name implies, the purpose of a status bar is to present status information to the user. Simple status bars display one or more text items, and if you want a more advanced display, you can take over part or all of the drawing of the status bar to display bitmaps, progress controls, or other UI elements. Because this module is presenting an introduction to controls, we will concentrate on showing you how to display text on a status bar. Although you can add a status bar to any form, they’re not usually added to dialog boxes. The following exercise shows how to add a status bar to a form and how to use the status bar to display information.

 

48.     Drag a StatusStrip from the Toolbox onto the form. As with the ToolStripContainer, you’ll find that it doesn’t stretch right across the bottom of the form.

 

 

49.     From the StatusStrip Tasks dialog select Embed in ToolStripContainer.

 

 

50.     Next, from the ToolStripContainer Tasks, tick the Bottom and select Dock Fill in Form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

51.     Then from the ToolStripContainer Tasks, select Re-parent Controls.

 

 

52.     Change the RenderMode property to Professional.

 

 

53. Next, let add a StatusLabel to the StatusStrip. Select the Edit Items… from the StatusStrip Tasks dialog to invoke the Items Collection Editor (You can also add StatusLabel and other controls directly from the shortcut in the StatusStrip). Select StatusLabel from the ComboBox and click the Add button.

 

 

54. Select toolStripStatusLabel1, expand the Font property and set the Bold property to True. Set the BackColor to ActiveCaptionText and click the OK button.

 

 

 

55. Now we are ready to add code for our StripStatusLabel. You can easily use the StripStatusLabel to display the path whose contents are currently being listed in the ListView. To do so, add a line to the start of the Fill_ListView function, like this:

// Put the path in the status bar

toolStripStatusLabel1->Text = path;

 

 

56.     Build and run your project. Select any folder in the TreeView and you can see the path shown in the status bar.

 

 

A StatusStrip can display a sizing grip to the lower right, which allows users to resize the window. The sizing grip is displayed by default, but you can turn it off by setting the SizingGrip property to false.

 

 

 

 

 

You might notice that the path displayed has two backslashes as the first separator. These appear because the root directory name is returned as C:\, and when the TreeView builds the full path for you, it uses a backslash as the path separator. Having two backslashes instead of one makes no difference to using the path, but if you want to tidy up the path, you can easily remove one from the root name. You can display more than one piece of information on a status bar, as shown here:

 

 

Each of the sunken areas on the status bar is called a panel, and you can add as many panels as you want to the StatusStrip by adding the more StripStatusLabel. If you play around with the property of the StripStatusLabel and other controls you can generate a very nice and informative status bar that include launching dialog box, buttons, image and URL, normally found in the commercial applications. The following figures show a very simple creativity.

 

 

 

 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

 

 

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< C++ .NET WinForm, Dialog Box & Controls 6 | Main | C++ .NET Drawing 1 >