Microsoft & .NETVisual C#Auto Property Sheet in FormView

Auto Property Sheet in FormView

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This article was contributed by Richard Shide.

This project provides derived MFC classes for painlessly implementing Property Sheets in a CFormViews.  This implementation puts the Property Sheet at the bottom of the view as shown in the following image:

wpe1.jpg (14545 bytes)

Four derived MFC classes are used in this implementation.

  • CPropPgFormView: a CFormView derived class.
  • CPropPgFormDoc: a CDocument derived class.
  • CViewPropertyPage: a CPropertyPage derived class.
  • CViewPropertySheet: a CPropertySheet derived class.

The property sheet is managed by CPropPgFormView, moving the sheet below the template-based controls of the CFormView derived class.  Resizing the frame resizes the Property Sheet accordingly.

What CPropPgFormView gives you:

  • Scrolling sizes are managed for you.
  • Tab order is enabled across the CFormView controls and the Property Sheet.
  • Hotkeys work for the page tabs.
  • Page changing can be disabled.
  • Property page controls can be disabled.
  • Auto-centering of controls within each property page.
  • Adjustable distance between the bottom-most template-based control and the Property Sheet.
  • Form notification of page activation

To use these classes, follow these steps:

  • Base your property pages on CViewPropertyPage instead of CPropertyPage.
  • Base your form view class from CPropPgFormView instead of CFormView.
  • Register the document template with the correct classes in your apps InitInstance():
        CMultiDocTemplate* pDocTemplate;
        pDocTemplate = new CMultiDocTemplate(
            IDR_SHEETITYPE,
            RUNTIME_CLASS(CPropPgFormDoc),
            RUNTIME_CLASS(CChildFrame),
            RUNTIME_CLASS(CMyFormView));      // your CPropPgFormView class
        AddDocTemplate(pDocTemplate);
  • Add the property pages in your view’s Create() and create the sheet:.
    BOOL CMyFormView::Create(LPCTSTR lpszClassName, LPCTSTR lpszWindowName,
      DWORD dwStyle, const RECT& rect, CWnd* pParentWnd, UINT nID, CCreateContext* pContext)
    {
    if (!CPropPgFormView::Create(lpszClassName, lpszWindowName,
       dwStyle, rect, pParentWnd, nID, pContext))
    return FALSE;

    m_PropSheet.AddPage(&m_Page1);
    m_PropSheet.AddPage(&m_Page2);
    m_PropSheet.AddPage(&m_Page3);

    // create a modeless property sheet
    if (!m_PropSheet.Create(this)) {
    DestroyWindow();
    return FALSE;
    }

    return TRUE;
    }

… and that’s it.

 

Methods and members:

CPropPgFormView
void ResizeForNewControl() – resizes the Property Sheets after programmatically adding new controls
void SetPropertySheetOffset(int iOffset  = PS_Y_OFFSET, BOOL bRedraw  = FALSE) – sets distance between bottom-most form control and top of the Property Sheet
void ResizeParentFrame() – resizes frame window to most efficiently encompass all controls and Property Sheet, and sets scroll sizes
CViewPropertySheet    m_PropSheet – the Property Sheet

CViewPropertySheet
BOOL Create(CWnd *pParentWnd, DWORD dwStyle, DWORD dwExStyle) – creates the Property Sheet
void CenterControls(BOOL bCenter /* = TRUE */) – centers the controls on all pages
virtual void AllowPageChange(BOOL bAllowPageChange = TRUE) – allow/disallow changing to a different page

CViewPropertyPage
void EnableControls(BOOL bEnable) – enable/disable all controls on a page

CPropPgFormDoc
Nothing

In addition, the WM_NOTIFY TCN_SELCHANGE  page change notification message is reflected to the derived CPropPgFormView window.

Please look at the provided project for a better understanding of the implementation details.

Downloads

Download demo project – 39 Kb

History

Date Posted: December 11, 1999

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