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How in runtime hide and show autohidden docked CExtControlBar? ShowControlBar deletes controlbar from autohide area.

To activate the resizable control bar including when it is auto hidden, just send the WM_COMMAND message to the main frame window. Do not forget to specify control bar’s dialog control identifier in the WPARAM parameter. The same can be done with the following code:

CExtControlBar::DoFrameBarCheckCmd(
    pMainFrame,    
    nBarID,    
    false    
);

Please note that if you use the auto-hide feature, you need to implement the following versions of MFC’s OnBarCheck() and OnUpdateControlBarMenu() methods in the main frame window:

BOOL CMainFrame::OnBarCheck(UINT nID)
{
    return
        CExtControlBar::DoFrameBarCheckCmd(
            this,
            nID,
            false
            );
}

void CMainFrame::OnUpdateControlBarMenu(CCmdUI* pCmdUI)
{
    CFrameWnd::OnUpdateControlBarMenu( pCmdUI );
        CExtControlBar::DoFrameBarCheckUpdate(
        this,
        pCmdUI,
        false
        );
}

To hide the window that is sliding from the auto-hide area, send the WM_CANCELMODE message to it. The control bar’s child window is temporarily moved into the auto-hide slider window (which looks exactly like resizable control bar). So, you can analyze the parent window and if it is not the control bar, then it is the auto-hide slider window and you can send the WM_CANCELMODE message. We may assume you have the following CMainFrame members:

CExtControlBar m_wndBar;
CSomeWindow m_wndInsideBar;

The m_wndInsideBar window was created as a child of the m_wndBar window. So, we can easily detect whether the m_wndInsideBar is displayed in the auto-hide grouped tabs:

CWnd * pWndParent = m_wndInsideBar.GetParent();
if( pWndParent->m_hWnd != m_wndBar.m_hWnd )
    pWndParent->SendMessage( WM_CANCELMODE );