Dynamic Dialog Class

• Download demo project - 40 Kb
• Download source files - 12 Kb

Dynamic Dialog class

These classes are being used for displaying a modal/modelles 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:

• class is derived of CWnd
• 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);
    
    CDynDialogEx dlg(this);     //create the dynamic dialog, using this as parent window
    dlg.SetWindowTitle(_T("Dynamic Dialog : WindowTitle....."));

    //Add a button control at the given position
    dlg.AddDlgControl(_T("BUTTON"),    // Type of control OR classname of the control
            _T("Press me!"),    // Caption of control
            STYLE_BUTTON,    // dwStyle of control
            EXSTYLE_BUTTON,    // dwStyleEx of control
            &rect,    // Position of control on dialog in dialog units, default = NULL
            NULL,    // void pointer to variable use for DDX, default = NULL
            IDC_DYN_BUTTON);    // ID of the contol, 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() for modal dialogs or CDialog::CreateIndirect() for modless dialogs
• CDynDialogEx::OnCreate() function creates all the controls on the dialog
• CDynDialogItemEx::CreateEx() does nothing (ActiveX controls) or creates the window
• CDynDialogEx::OnInitDialog() function repositions all the controls on the dialog or creates the ActiveX controls
• CDynDialogItemEx::SetWindowPos() function converts from dialog units to screen units and creates ActiveX control

Update 18-06-2002

• Class CDynDialogItemEx now derived from CWnd instead of heaving a CWnd member
• Added modless gialog possibility as supposed by CodeBuddy. (CDynDialogEx::SetUseModeless())
• Added subclassed controls, because I needed them. After adding the control you can use SubclassDlgItem with the Control_ID returned by calling CDynDialogEx::AddSubclassedDlgControl()
• Improved DDX_Control support for dialog items
• Added partial ActiveX controls support. Partial because the controls are created, but there is no support for the EVENT_SINK! But there is code for creating licensed controls dynamicly.
• Added examples for modeless dialog, adding and filling a CListbox, an ActiveX control on a dialog

Tip!

Mix this code with the code from Paolo Messina's article CResizableDialog

Possible extensions:

• improving ActiveX controls support, specially EVENT_SINK related
• adding Menus dynamically to the dialog
• ...

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here