Adding a Toolbar to a Dialog-Based Application

Environment:Visual C++ 6

Annoying as it is, the Visual C does not provide an automatic Toolbar for Dialog Classes. Many of the Apps I create are Dialog based. I enjoy providing the user with the prototypical MS toolbar for starting events.

I realize this article may be simplistic, however, many of the readers (I include myself in this category) often are starting from scratch on a project and require some easy code to accomplish a small task. So why re-invent the wheel.

What to do

In the Resource Editor insert a new toolbar resource. Create the Buttons on the Toolbar and assign each button a unique ID (as you would for a normal MFC Doc/View project); For our case we will call this resource IDC_TOOLBAR1

CToolBar m_wndToolBar;

Note: In order to add the toolbar we need to expand the Client Window size to accomodate the Toolbar.

// Create the Toolbar and attach the resource
if(!m_wndToolBar.Create(this) 
|| !m_wndToolBar.LoadToolBar(IDR_TOOLBAR1))
{
 TRACE0("Failed to Create Dialog Toolbar\n");
 EndDialog(IDCANCEL);
}

CRect	rcClientOld; // Old Client Rect
CRect	rcClientNew; // New Client Rect with Tollbar Added
GetClientRect(rcClientOld); // Retrive the Old Client WindowSize

// Called to reposition and resize control bars in the client 
// area of a window. The reposQuery FLAG does not really traw the 
// Toolbar.  It only does the calculations. And puts the new 
// ClientRect values in rcClientNew so we can do the rest of the 
// Math.
RepositionBars(AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_FIRST,
 AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_LAST,0,reposQuery,rcClientNew);

// All of the Child Windows (Controls) now need to be moved so 
// the Tollbar does not cover them up. Offest to move all child 
// controls after adding Tollbar
CPoint ptOffset(rcClientNew.left-rcClientOld.left,
 rcClientNew.top-rcClientOld.top);

CRect	rcChild;

// Handle to the Dialog Controls
CWnd*	pwndChild = GetWindow(GW_CHILD);  
while(pwndChild) // Cycle through all child controls
{
 pwndChild->GetWindowRect(rcChild); // Get the child control RECT
 ScreenToClient(rcChild); 

// Changes the Child Rect by the values of the claculated offset
 rcChild.OffsetRect(ptOffset); 
  pwndChild->MoveWindow(rcChild,FALSE); // Move the Child Control
  pwndChild = pwndChild->GetNextWindow();
}

CRect	rcWindow;
GetWindowRect(rcWindow); // Get the RECT of the Dialog

// Increase width to new Client Width
rcWindow.right += rcClientOld.Width() - rcClientNew.Width(); 

// Increase height to new Client Height
rcWindow.bottom += rcClientOld.Height() - rcClientNew.Height(); 

MoveWindow(rcWindow,FALSE); // Redraw Window

// Now we REALLY Redraw the Toolbar
RepositionBars(AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_FIRST,
 AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_LAST,0);