Environment: Windows 2000 RC2, Windows NT4 SP6, Visual C++ 6 SP3

Dynamic Dialog class

Global structure of the CDynDialogEx class:

• class is derived of CDialog
• in the class there is an array of CDynDialogItemEx pointers, the dialog controls
• class includes DoDataExchange() function.
• add controls to dialog through function AddDlgControl()

Global structure of the CDynDialogItemEx class:

• holds the data of the control that was added to the dialog, like the caption, the rectangle, etc.
• creates the controls on the dialog

Small piece of sample code on how to use the classes

void CTestDynDialogDlg::OnButton1();
{
 int nRadio1 = 0;
 
 //Create a rectangle in dialog units, where 
 //the control should be placed
 CRect rect(10,5,60,19);

 //create the dynamic dialog, 
 //using this as parent window
 CDynDialogEx dlg(this);		

 dlg.SetWindowTitle(_T("Dynamic Dialog : WindowTitle....."));

 //Add a button control at the given position
 dlg.AddDlgControl(_T("BUTTON"), // Type of control OR control classname
                   _T("Press me!"), // Caption of control
                   STYLE_BUTTON,    // dwStyle of control
                   EXSTYLE_BUTTON,  // dwStyleEx of control
                   &rect,           // Position of control on dlg in dlg units
                   NULL,            // void ptr to DDX var - default=NULL
                   IDC_DYN_BUTTON); // control ID - default=zero

 //Add a group of radio buttons
 //variable nRadio1 is used for DDX
 dlg.AddDlgControl(_T("BUTTON"), 
                   _T("Radio1Caption 1"), 
                   STYLE_RADIO_GROUP, 
                   EXSTYLE_RADIO, 
                   NULL, 
                   (void*)&nRadio1);

 dlg.AddDlgControl(_T("BUTTON"), 
                   _T("Radio1Caption 2"), 
                   STYLE_RADIO, 
                   EXSTYLE_RADIO);

 //Now show me the dialog
 dlg.DoModal()
}

Working explained

• CDynDialogEx::AddDlgControl() function creates new object of class CDynDialogItemEx and adds it to the array of controls. Function also checks/sets the size of the dialog, so the control is seen on the dialog.
• CDynDialogEx::DoModal() function initializes the DLGTEMPLATE structure using the selected font and calls CDialog::InitModalIndirect()
• CDynDialogEx::OnInitDialog() function creates all the controls on the dialog
• CDynDialogItemEx::CreateEx() function converts from dialog units to screen units and creates the control

Possible extensions:

• adding ActiveX controls dynamically to the dialog
• adding Menus dynamically to the dialog
• ...

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