Dynamic Dialog Class

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

Dynamic Dialog class

These classes are being used for displaying a modal dialog,
on which the controls are dynamically added,
without the need of having a dialog template as resource.
These classes were developed as base classes for use in a script parser,
where users can build there own dialogs, using a VB-script alike language.
So basically there can be any number of controls on the dialog,
at any place on the dialog.

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
• …

Downloads

Download demo project – 30 Kb
Download source – 8 Kb