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My MDI application uses toolbars inside the MDI child windows. Each MDI child window is different from one another and so the toolbar. When the application starts it loads the toobars state from a disk file using g_CmdManager->SerializeState, but this function fails with an exception. It looks like Command Manager is trying to load the state of the MDI child windows’ toolbar that do not exist at application startup. Is there the possibility to avoid this problem ? Or to skip serialization for a particular toolbar ?

Thanks

The CExtCmdManager::SerializeState() loads/saves the info relating to non-basic commands stored in the command manager. This method has nothing to do with any control bar. The CExtControlBar::ProfileBarStateLoad() loads the state of bars. So, the problem does not relate to toolbars and control bars. We may guess you should check how your application updates the command manager with command descriptions. If there is only one command profile in your project and it is initialized in the main frame window, then please check that this command profile is updated from all the menu and toolbar resources used in your application including menus and toolbars from the main frame window and all the MDI child frame windows. If the problem persists, the last ditch resort to let us review your project.

Unfortunately that is. If I open more MDI child windows (that in their turn load their own toolbar from resources by calling LoadToolBar), then I close the application; next time I run it again CExtCmdManager::SerializeState fails and launches an exception. The exception is launched from line 1818 of extcmdmanager.cpp because CmdGetPtr(nCmdId) returns a NULL CExtCmdItem pointer.
I don’t know why but that happens only when I open some MDI child windows each with a different toolbar.

Hi!

In your sample prof-uis controls..

Buttons, Hiperlinks, Tabwindow, TabContainers....

I clicked tabcontainers.

TabContainers have ColorCtrl, ListBox, TreeCtrl...
If i click ListBox, then I move the Buttons(or Hiperlinks...Other List)
and I reclick the TabContainers...
Then ListBox is opend...But I want to see first tab(ColorCtrl) whenever I click the TabContainers...

Hello, I’m using the Integration Wizard and when the Library building begins the process it never ends and occassionally appears an error for a file being read-only. After a check none of these files are read-only. In the end I have to kill the process in order to terminate the Integration Wizard.
Without having the libraries built I receive error for not finding prof-uis library when I try to build my project.
Please help!

In order to switch between tabbed interface and mdi interface at run time, I am using the following code:

void CMainFrame::MDITabsEnable(bool bEnable) {
    if (bEnable!=IsMDITabsEnabled()) {
        if (bEnable) {
            m_pMDITabs = new CExtTabMdiWnd();
            VERIFY(m_pMDITabs->Create(this));
            CWnd *pWnd = MDIGetActive();
            if (pWnd)
                MDIMaximize(pWnd);
        }
        else {
            m_pMDITabs->RemoveAllWndHooks();
            VERIFY(m_pMDITabs->DestroyWindow());
            m_pMDITabs->m_hWnd = NULL;
            delete m_pMDITabs;
            m_pMDITabs = NULL;
        }
        RecalcLayout();
    }
}

I obtained such code by try and error (in particular for the RemoveAllWndHooks() call); it seems to work, but maybe there is a simpler or better way, which I have not noted in the samples or in the help. Please let me know your advices.

Thank you.

Please take a look at the ProfStudio sample, which implements exactly what you need. Standard MDI (ID_UI_STD) and Tabbed MDI (ID_UI_TABBED) menu items in the View menu (accessible from the menu bar) allows you to switch the interface type on the fly. These menu commands are handled and updated in the CMainFrame::OnUiStd(), CMainFrame::OnUpdateUiStd(), CMainFrame::OnUiTabbed() and CMainFrame::OnUpdateUiTabbed() methods. The CProfStudioMdiTabSwitcher class implements the MDI tab control which is auto hidable when the interface is not tabbed (the OnTabWndSyncVisibility() virtual method does this work). The CProfStudioMenuControlBar class implements a menu bar which does not show document buttons when the interface is tabbed (the IsDisplayMdiDocumentButtons() virtual method does this work, all other methods are needed to make the menu bar not be able for re-docking like in Visual Studio .NET/2005). Both classes refer to the CMainFrame::m_bStandardMDI property which indicates the currently used interface type. This flag is also used in CMainFrame::PreTranslateMessage() for preventing the keyboard based activation of MDI child frame’s system menu and in the CMainFrame::OnPreparePopupMenu() handler method of the CExtPopupMenuWnd::g_nMsgPrepareMenu registered windows message for modifying some un-needed commands in the menu bar’s Windows menu when using the tabbed interface.

It works very well, the only additional change I made with respect to your sample, was to override GetDetectedUiType(), to make dynamic control bars menu show "Tabbed document" or "MDI document" according to the current configuration.

Yes, your improvement is correct.

Our application depends heavily on idle time processing for things such as draws and screen refreshes. Since moving to prof-uis we have noticed that when the mouse is hovering over most of the GUI components (toolbar buttons, controlbar borders when resizing them in MDI app, popup menus in view) we almost never receive any free idle time. CWinApp::OnIdle() almost always return TRUE leaving us no idle processing time. Do you know why this would be happening (does prof-uis control updating scheme post a high number of messages, therefore interrupting any further idle processing)? If so is there anything we can do to get around this?

Thanks

We have received a lot of comments about the idle time processing from Prof-UIS customers. Some of them want the idle processing to be enabled and some not. By default, it is turned off. The following code turns it on:

CExtControlBar::g_bEnableOnIdleCalls = true;
CExtGridWnd::g_bEnableOnIdleCalls = true;
CExtPopupBaseWnd::g_bEnableOnIdleCalls = true;
CExtTabWnd::g_bEnableOnIdleCalls = true;

Setting those flags didn’t really seem to improve our idle time processing, but we’ve been able to reproduce our problem with one of your sample applications. When running ProfStudio it uses 0% of the CPU when it is just sitting there idle. But when you hover the mouse over one of the toolbar buttons, the CPU usage increases to 41% - 56% and it will stay there until the mouse is moved away from the toolbar. We’ve run other sample applications (BitmapEditor, DRAWCLI) that don’t do this. Do you know what could be causing this?

Thanks

We noticed the following: if you comment the ID_TIMER_DELAY_KILL timer processing in the CExtPopupMenuTipWnd::OnTimer() method in the ExtPopupMenuWnd.cpp file, then you cannot not see CPU time eating in the ProfStudio sample at all. This code tracks the mouse movement when a tooltip is visible over a menu item or a toolbar button. In fact, the ::GetCursorPos() Win32 API gets slower in applications with a large number of HWND handles being created. You can alleviate the problem with CPU eating by modifying definitions of the ID_PERIOD_DELAY_KILL and ID_PERIOD_LIFE_STEP preprocessor variables at the beginning of the ExtPopupMenuWnd.cpp file. Both variables should be set to 200.

Can I change main menu at runtime?
The scenario is :-
I have three main menus : ID_MENU_1, ID_MENU_2, and ID_MENU_3
Three menus has menu item for current menu selection.
When a menu is selected, toolbar and some windows should reflect the change.

Do I have to regist all IDs to the statBasicCommands[] ?
Best regards,

jb.

ps, Search result page of prof-uis forum return error when I select other page.

Hi,

How can i add or remove CExtControlBar buttons in the caption ?

I want to remove the autohide buttons in the CExtControlBar caption (prof-uis 252) and add some new buttons also.


Thanks

Dear Support,

I have our application installed on 4 different PCs, all with Windows XP OS. In two of the cases the application looks fine but on the other two PCs the icons in the application’s toolbars and popup menus have gray background instead of invisible. Is there a Windows setting that would affect this behaviour?

Thank you,
Chris

We have just fixed a bug (in Prof-UIS 2.52) related to an invalid non-transparent background when running the app on a desktop with 15 or 16 bit color mode. We can provide you with this source code update. Besides, Prof-UIS 2.53 features the completely renewed CExtCmdIcon class (in fact, it is rewritten from scratch). There no more HICON handles used in it. The new icon is based on a PNG-like bitmap with alpha channel and features the Windows Vista/XP icon quality on any Windows OS starting from 95 and NT4.

I’m using the new CExtCmdIcon class in 2.5.3. The clrTransparent parameter for CExtCmdIcon::AssignFromHBITMAP isn’t quite working for me. The icon prepares the transparent background without regard to a background that I’ve painted with a gradient.

The CExtCmdIcon, which is the m_icon member of a CExtButton, is drawn on top of a CExtResizableDialog. The CExtResizableDialog handles WM_ERASEBKGND by calling CExtPaintManagerOffice2003::OnPaintToolBarGradient. I expect that the transparent portion of the icon will show through to the gradient background. Instead, the icon shows through to a solid blue background. The clrTransparent RGB(192,192,192) is correctly replaced, but incorrectly replaced with the solid blue instead of gradient background.

I tried postponing the call to CExtCmdIcon::AssignFromHBITMAP until the parent CExtResizableDialog’s first WM_PAINT, after the gradient background is painted by WM_ERASEBKGND, but that doesn’t work. It doesn’t surprise me that this doesn’t work, because I doubt that CExtCmdIcon::AssignFromHBITMAP is copying pixels from the screen to fill in the transparent pixels for the cached CExtCmdIcon bitmap.

Can you recommend a way for me to get the CExtButton’s CExtCmdIcon to apply the transparency to the gradient background drawn by the parent CExtResizableDialog’s WM_ERASEBKGND handler?

Cheers
-- Mark

The problem is that you are using the WM_ERASEBKGND message which should not be used at all if you want to avoid flickering. Why don’t you use WM_PAINT instead? You will never have any invalid background anywhere. The visual appearance of the CExtResizableDialog class is implemented in the CExtWS template class. Both messages are handled in the CExtWS::WindowProc() virtual method which looks up the message map tables for presence of the WM_PAINT and WM_ERASEBKGND handler methods. This is done to allow you to implement a custom background in resizable dialogs. But we strongly recommend you check your CExtResizableDialog-derived classes and remove all the OnPaint() and OnEraseBkgnd() handler methods from them. We think it is these methods that cause an invalid icon background in your dialog.

Hi,

I want to use many custom dialogs with page container but also handle all events in container’s class... Is it possible? if yes, how can i do?

Thank you

// Arkin

Although VC6 is installed on my machine, the Integration Wizard won’t run because it can’t find VC6.  I suspect this is because I have installed and uninstall Visual .NET. 

I’ve manually added the appropriate Include, Source, and Lib paths in VC6.  But I’d also like to use the Prof-UIS Application Wizard. 

Is there some registry entry I should add so that the Prof-UIS Integration Wizard will agree that VC6 is installed?  Or, is there a manual way that I can install the Prof-UIS Application Wizard in VC6? 

Cheers

-- Mark

The Prof-UIS Application Wizard for Visual C++ 6.0 is a ProfUisAppWizard.awx file in the ../Prof-UIS/Support folder. Just copy it into the Visual C++ sub folder in which other .awx files can be found. You do not even need to restart the IDE. This folder is typically located at:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin\IDE\

I’m new to the library.

In my project, I need a page which use CExtPageNaviatorWnd.

I wanna arrange a combobox and dialogs in it.

Making UI is a piece of cake.

But, I don’t know how to process the events. for example, when the combobox item changes, the dialog is changed to other dialog and menu, toolbar too.

Would you please give me some advice?

Could you send us some screenshots or a sample project which describes where the combo box is placed and which dialogs need to be changed, which menu, which toolbars, and etc.?

Hi,

although I downloaded and compiled new ExtComboBox files, as your post, I cannot handle CBN_DROPDOWN message yet.

I’ve tried to add CBN_DROPDOWN in your sample project (ProfUIS_Controls -> CPagePopupMenus -> ON_CBN_DROPDOWN(IDC_MENU_ANIMATION, ...) but it doesn’t work.

tx

This problem occurs only in debug mode, in release it runs ok.

Please let us know which version you are using and whether the problem is present in version 2.52.

First of all thanks for your faster response.

1) I’ve tried to download ExtComboBox.zip that you notified few days ago, but I met compiling problems.

2) Today I’ve downloaded and installed 2.52 package , from your site, but I can’t handle CBN_DROPDOWN in Debug mode.

I’m using VS2005 and Prof-uis 2.52.

thanks again for your help

We added the CBN_DROPDOWN message handler for the IDC_MENU_ANIMATION combo box and it works. So we can guess that the problem somewhere on your side. Here the latest version of CExtComboBox. Please check which version of combo box you are using. You can also simply download the latest version of Prof-UIS from our ftp site.

also not work virtual function OnGridCellInplaceControlTextInputVerify
i just override it, but it not calling.What must i to do in this situation.

It seems a bug: steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1) Modify the MDI sample by adding two buttons in CChildView:

CExtButton m_wndButton1;

CButton m_wndButton2;

2) Create the two controls at the end of CChildView::OnCreate:

3)

3) Run the app and open two MDI child wnd: if you click on the traditional cbutton of the non-active child, it is activated as expected, but if you click on the cextbutton, the mdi child is not activated.

The same happens with other controls (toolbar, tabwnd, ...)

We tried to reproduce the problem with buttons inside the CChidView window of the MDI sample application in the way you desscribed. Here are the source code and executable of this modified app. We did not come across the problem with activating the inactive MDI child frame window by clicking any button.

We confirm the problems with MDI child frame activation when clicking a toolbar button or a tab item. To fix this, please update the source code of the CExtControlBar::_ActivateOnClick() method in the ExtControlBar.cpp file and the source code of the CExtTabWnd::_ProcessMouseClick() method in the ExtTabWnd.cpp file:

void CExtControlBar::_ActivateOnClick()
{
    ASSERT_VALID( this );
HWND hWndOwn = GetSafeHwnd();
    if(     hWndOwn == NULL
        ||  (! ::IsWindow(hWndOwn) )
        )
        return;
HWND hWndActivate = NULL;
    if( m_bPresubclassDialogMode )
        hWndActivate = ::GetParent( hWndOwn );
    else
        hWndActivate = _GetDockingFrameImpl()->GetSafeHwnd();
    if( hWndActivate == NULL )
    {
        ::SetFocus( hWndOwn );
        return;
    }
CWnd * pWndPermanent = CWnd::FromHandlePermanent( hWndActivate );
    if( pWndPermanent != NULL )
    {
        CMDIChildWnd * pWndMDIChild =
            DYNAMIC_DOWNCAST( CMDIChildWnd, pWndPermanent );
        if( pWndMDIChild != NULL )
        {
            CFrameWnd * pWndFrame =
                pWndMDIChild->GetParentFrame();
            if( pWndFrame != NULL )
            {
                CMDIFrameWnd * pWndMDIFrame =
                    DYNAMIC_DOWNCAST( CMDIFrameWnd, pWndFrame );
                if( pWndMDIFrame != NULL )
                {
                    CMDIChildWnd * pActive =
                        pWndMDIFrame->MDIGetActive();
                    if( pWndMDIChild != pActive )
                        pWndMDIChild->MDIActivate();
                    return;
                }
            }
        }
    }
HWND hWndFocus = ::GetFocus();
    if( hWndFocus == NULL )
    {
        ::SetFocus( hWndActivate );
        return;
    }
    if(     hWndActivate != hWndFocus
        ||  (! ::IsChild( hWndActivate, hWndFocus ) )
        )
    {
        if( ! CExtPopupMenuWnd::TestHoverEnabledFromActiveHWND( hWndOwn ) )
            ::SetFocus( hWndActivate );
    }
}
 
bool CExtTabWnd::_ProcessMouseClick(
    CPoint point,
    bool bButtonPressed,
    INT nMouseButton, // MK_... values
    UINT nMouseEventFlags
    )
{
    ASSERT_VALID( this );
    if( GetSafeHwnd() == NULL )
        return false;
    if( bButtonPressed )
    {
        CWnd * pWndTestChildFrame = GetParentFrame();
        if(        pWndTestChildFrame != NULL
            &&    pWndTestChildFrame->IsKindOf( RUNTIME_CLASS( CMDIChildWnd ) )
            )
        {
            CFrameWnd * pWndFrame =
                pWndTestChildFrame->GetParentFrame();
            if( pWndFrame != NULL )
            {
                CMDIFrameWnd * pWndMDIFrame =
                    DYNAMIC_DOWNCAST( CMDIFrameWnd, pWndFrame );
                if( pWndMDIFrame != NULL )
                {
                    CMDIChildWnd * pActive =
                        pWndMDIFrame->MDIGetActive();
                    if( pWndTestChildFrame != pActive )
                        ((CMDIChildWnd*)pWndTestChildFrame)->MDIActivate();
                }
            }
        }
    } // if( bButtonPressed )
 
LONG nHitTest = ItemHitTest( point );
    switch( nHitTest )
    {
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_LEFTUP:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_RIGHTDOWN:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_SCROLL_HOME:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_SCROLL_END:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_HELP:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_CLOSE:
    case __ETWH_BUTTON_TAB_LIST:
        return
            OnTabWndClickedButton(
                nHitTest,
                bButtonPressed,
                nMouseButton,
                nMouseEventFlags
                );
    default:
        if( nHitTest < __ETWH_TAB_FIRST )
        {
            OnTabWndMouseTrackingPushedStop();
            Invalidate();
            UpdateWindow();
            return false; //true;
        }
    break;
    }
    ASSERT( nHitTest >= 0 && nHitTest < ItemGetCount() );
    if( bButtonPressed )
        m_ptStartDrag = point;
    return
        OnTabWndClickedItem(
            nHitTest,
            bButtonPressed,
            nMouseButton,
            nMouseEventFlags
            );
}

Thank you for the prompt reply. Yes, in the modified MDI sample you provided the problem does not occur, but you created the two buttons in the CChildFrm and not in the CChildView, please try to create the buttons in the CChildView (at the end of OnCreate() ).

Your report is really interesting. We have modified the CExtButton::OnLButtonDown() method in the ExtButton.cpp file to let the parent MDI child frame window be activated when the CExtButton window is clicked:

void CExtButton::OnLButtonDown(UINT nFlags, CPoint point) 
{
    if( m_bKeyTracking )
        return;
    CButton::OnLButtonDown( nFlags, point );
HWND hWndOwn = m_hWnd;
    if( IsWindowEnabled() )
    {
        CFrameWnd * pParentFrame = GetParentFrame();
        if(        pParentFrame != NULL
            &&    pParentFrame->IsKindOf( RUNTIME_CLASS(CMDIChildWnd) )
            )
        {
            CFrameWnd * pMDIFrame = pParentFrame->GetParentFrame();
            if(        pMDIFrame != NULL
                &&    pMDIFrame->IsKindOf( RUNTIME_CLASS(CMDIFrameWnd) )
                )
            {
                CMDIChildWnd * pActive = ((CMDIFrameWnd*)pMDIFrame)->MDIGetActive();
                if( LPVOID(pParentFrame) != LPVOID(pActive) )
                    ((CMDIChildWnd*)pParentFrame)->MDIActivate();
            }
        }
        if( ! ::IsWindow( hWndOwn ) )
            return;
        if( ::GetFocus() != hWndOwn )
            ::SetFocus( hWndOwn );
    } // if( IsWindowEnabled() )
    if( ! ::IsWindow( hWndOwn ) )
        return;
    _DoClick();
}

Thank you for being so quick in providing the fix. However, I have a question: why instead of manually handling the activation for the MDIChild case, don’t you send the WM_MOUSEACTIVATE message as normal controls do? Is there any side effect that you want to avoid, or any other problem that may prevent the normal approach from working?

There are several types of button types supported by the button common control. The most often used are the push button, default push button, check box and radio button. When the CExtButton (or CExtColorButton or CExtCheckBox or CExtRadioButton or CExtHyperlink) class subclasses the button common control, it remembers the type of the subclassed button for further behavior and appearance implementation and changes the real type of the button common control to the owner draw button. This is the single way to redraw any type of the button correctly. The owner drawn button type is the absolutely stand alone mode of the button common control which have no predefined appearance nor behavior implementation. As you can see, the CExtButton::OnLButtonDown() method invokes the CButton::OnLButtonDown() method. This means the WM_LBUTTONDOWN standard Windows message is delivered to the original window procedure of the button common control. The WM_MOUSEACTIVATE standard Windows message is also delivered to there. We guess, the buggy MDI child frame activation is caused by undefined behavior implementation of the owner draw button type.

I made some tests and it seems that the problem is related to the mouse capture. In OnMouseMove you capture the mouse (I guess to detect the mouse leave) and it seems that the default button implementation does not send WM_MOUSEACTIVATE when there is a capture active (which may be reasonable): if you comment out

CExtMouseCaptureSink::SetCapture( GetSafeHwnd() ); in OnMouseMove, it should work. Of course this is not a fix, I will keep the one you proposed, unless you find something better with this further information.

Hi

An SDI sample, which comes with Prof-UIS, was generated with the wizard. We modified it as you described and come across no crashes. Here are its source code and executable. Besides, nobody reported problems about using the property grid control inside resizable control bars before, though we know that some of our customers use this design. Would you send us your a test project that demonstrates the problem?

#define __EXT_MFC_NO_RESOURCES_BELARUSSIAN does not work: it should to be __EXT_MFC_NO_RESOURCES_BELARUSIAN (only one ’S’)

I am creating 4 CExtControlBar and docking them all together (using DockControlBarInnerOuter for the first, and DockControlBarIntoTabbedContainer for the other 3), then I hide 2 of the control bars (using bar.m_pDockSite->ShowControlBar). This works fine, I only see tabs for the two visible control bars. If I then turn on Auto Hide and then turn it back off, I can see tabs for all 4 control bars.

Hi,

I have a dialog with a CExtComboBox member. I want to capture the drop down message, in the dialog class.

I have declared in .h

CExtComboBox m_cmb_database;

afx_msg void OnDropdownComboDatabase();

in .cpp

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CDlgConfiguration, CDialog)
 //{{AFX_MSG_MAP(CDlgConfiguration)
 ON_CBN_DROPDOWN(IDC_COMBO_DATABASE, OnDropdownComboDatabase)
 //}}AFX_MSG_MAP
END_MESSAGE_MAP()

When program ran the execution of the program doesn’t pass in thr function OnDropdownComboDatabase().

There is e way to solve this?

TX

Yes, we found this bug. We will fix it as soon as possible and notify about this by e-mail.

OK,

I have to release a patch for my program, so, if possible, I would want to be informed, by email, when this bug is solved.

thanks

We fixed the bug. Please replace the old ExtComboBox.h and ExtComboBox.cpp files with those in this update and recompile the library.

Hi,

I have some problem compiling new version of ExtComboBox.(h-cpp), __EXT_MFC_(U)INT_PTR seems not to be defined.

I’m using VS2005.

tx

We are sorry for any inconvenience. We sent you the version of the combo box from Prof-UIS 2.53 which introduces new compatibility with the C++ runtime library of Visual Studio 2005 and MFC 8.0. Please contact us by e-mail so we can tell you how to download the latest source code of Prof-UIS 2.53.

I have a combo box in one of my toolbars and it works fine until I dock it on either side of my application. The combo box turns into a button, which I would expect, but the command handler for that button is never called. Am I doing something wrong? Should this work?

Thanks