CExtStatusControlBar: Managing a Status Bar's Panes is Getting Easier

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Environment: VC++

Introduction

The article introduces an enhanced version of the standard MFC status bar control. The new class should enable you to easily add/remove panes to/from the application's status bar on the fly. The status bar's panes may contain almost any control you need: buttons, edits, animations, progress bars, and so forth.

The class is partially based on the status bar presented in the freeware version of the Prof-UIS library available at http://codeguru.com/docking/profuis.html.

How to Use It

The CExtStatusControlBar class is simple to use. To add it to your project, please follow the steps below:

1. Put its source files (CExtStatusControlBar.cpp and CExtStatusControlBar.h) into the proper folder and add their file names to your Visual Studio project.

2. Include its header to the appropriate header file. If you plan to use CExtStatusControlBar in several places of your application, it's reasonable to add it to your stdafx.h file.

#include "CExtStatusControlBar.h"

3. If you used CStatusBar, you should replace it with CExtStatusControlBar everywhere in the project.

CExtStatusControlBar  m_wndStatusBar;

Sample

The StatusPanes sample project shows how to use the class in practice (including how to place controls into the control bar's panes).

List of Methods

• BOOL AddPane(UINT nID, int nIndex)

Inserts a new pane into the status bar.

Parameters

nID

ID of the pane to be added.

nIndex

The index of the newly created pane.

Return Value

Nonzero if successful.

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• BOOL RemovePane(UINT nID)

Deletes a pane from the status bar.

Parameters

nID

ID of the pane to be deleted.

Return Value

Nonzero if successful.

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• BOOL AddPaneControl(CWnd* pWnd, UINT nID, BOOL bAutoDestroy)

Inserts a control into a specified pane.

Parameters

pWnd

Pointer to the control to be added.

nID

ID of the target pane.

bAutoDestroy

Specifies whether the control should be destroyed when the pane is removed.

Return Value

Nonzero if successful; otherwise, zero.

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• BOOL AddPaneControl(HWND hWnd, UINT nID, BOOL bAutoDestroy)

Inserts a control into a specified pane.

Parameters

hWnd

Handle to the control to be added.

nID

ID of the target pane.

bAutoDestroy

Specifies whether the control should be destroyed when the pane is removed.

Return Value

Nonzero if successful.

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• void DisableControl( int nIndex, BOOL bDisable=TRUE)

Disables the control at a specified pane.

Parameters

nIndex

Index of the pane.

bDisable

Flag specifying that the control is enabled if it is set to TRUE.

 

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• int GetPanesCount() const

  Retrieves the current number of panes in the status bar.

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• void SetPaneWidth(int nIndex, int nWidth)

  Sets a width in pixels for a specified pane.

  Parameters

  nIndex

  Index of the pane.

  nStyle

  Width to be set.

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• void SetPaneInfo(int nIndex, UINT nID, UINT nStyle, int cxWidth)

  Sets the specified pane to a new ID, style, and width.

  Parameters

  nIndex

  Index of the pane whose style is to be set.

  nID

  New ID for the pane.

  nStyle

  New style for the pane.

  cxWidth

  New width for the pane.

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• void SetPaneStyle(int nIndex, UINT nStyle)

  Set the style of a status bar's pane. A pane's style determines how the pane appears.

  Parameters

  nIndex

  Index of the pane whose style is to be set.

  nStyle

  Style of the pane whose style is to be set.

Copyright

You can use this source absolutely free.

Reporting Bugs

Your questions, suggestions, and bug reports may be posted either to the forum below or to the forum at the Prof-UIS Web site.

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