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51 votes for this article.

Popularity: 8.08 Rating: 4.73 out of 5

Introduction

This article presents a full implementation of the Windows XP Explorer Bar as a set of Win32 controls and a MFC wrapper. The Explorer Bar works on Windows 98/Me/2k/XP and is fully shellstyle.dll aware, i.e. can be used with any XP visual theme (standard, 3rd party non-standard, and the classic Windows scheme).

The new custom controls include extended button controls, extended static controls, tasklink controls, and collapsible header controls.

Background

The Windows Explorer that comes with Windows XP introduces a fancy new control bar called "Explorer Bar". The bar handles one or more collapsible panes containing tasklinks or informative text and having a collapsible header control.

The Explorer Bar is neither exported by any API nor uses it the standard XP theme renderer. All bitmaps and metrics reside in specialized DLLs named "shellstyle.dll".

The implementation presented here has a full parser for this non-standard information and a highly sophisticated rendering engine allowing fade and roll effects to be applied to expanding/collapsing panes.

Using the code

The zip archive contains a Platform SDK like HTMLHelp file (explorerbar.chm) with the full documentation (Win32/MFC). You must build all configurations of explorerbar.dsw before using the library. If you are interested in the sample application, then build ExpBarSample.dsw as well.

After building all configurations of explorerbar.dsw you find the library in "explorerbar\lib" and the MFC wrapper in "explorerbar\lib\MFC".

General comments, points of interest

Approx. 18.000 lines of code needed to be written in order to support all functionalities of the Windows XP Explorer Bar, i.e. expect bug-fixes!

Even if the Explorer Bar will be exported in the future by an API, it will not work under Windows 98/Me/2k because it will probably use a new XP theme renderer tightly linked to Windows XP.

One big TODO item is a pure MFC version of the Explorer Bar. This would simplify the message handling stated in the Explorer Bar SDK (HTMLHelp). The current implementation (explorerbar.dll) has been written for Win32 applications for maximum platform support.

History

Version 1.0 is the first published version of the Explorer Bar. It is embedded in the great sizeable control bar by Cristi Posea.

License

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

About the Author

Ingo A. Kubbilun

Member

Dipl.-Inform., 19 years experience (1985-2004) in coding/software development (C/C++/Java/x86-Assembler), experienced in Win32/MFC development, UNIX (Linux/Solaris), and especially in IT-security

Occupation:	Web Developer
Location:	Germany

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The article gives a sample of how to implement Internet Explorer-style sizable re-bar and menu bar controls.
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Msgs 1 to 25 of 151 (Total in Forum: 151) (Refresh)

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I can't build this project!Why?

hunzaixa

0:01 17 Apr '08


Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (2 votes)

i can not build this project, pls help me.

thuong101277

20:11 3 Mar '08

following is some error when i build it: fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'Tmschema.h': No such file or directory error C2065: 'IDC_HAND' : undeclared identifier error C2065: 'WM_THEMECHANGED' : undeclared identifier error C2051: case expression not constant error C2065: 'AC_SRC_ALPHA' : undeclared identifier can anybody help me fix this problem? Thanks very much.
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (1 vote)

nice control

an7777

17:58 7 Nov '07

very nice control ! Appreciate shareing.
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VISTA ?

Michael Chourdakis

8:14 21 Jun '07

How about using this nice control in vista? It has been a while since the incompatibility was announced and no update yet ....
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error

aldo hexosa

13:58 6 May '07

i've try to compile with vc++ 6 but this error occured: error C2065: 'DWORD_PTR' : undeclared identifier what should i do? thanx
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (1 vote)

Shareable Section created by the linker

Michael Chourdakis

8:29 24 Apr '07

I tried to create a static library and it works, but my EXEs seems to have a writable shared section in their section list, which would prevent UPX compression. Any clues on how to eliminate that ? Thanks, Michael
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Re: Shareable Section created by the linker

Michael Chourdakis

8:44 24 Apr '07

I fixed it, it was code found in dllmain.c I removed it and all goes well.
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A big error

yhw19850401

17:52 1 Apr '07

Thank you very much for the explorer bar, it's a very nice control .but the XPExplorerBar.dsw is error when it is running,I can't find the error,only ask for you .or if you can give me the explorerbard.lib,it's OK.Thanke you.Please tell me quickly.my email is yhw19850401@yahoo.com.cn xiaoniu
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	1.40/5 (5 votes)

explorer bar width

manuel357

9:33 9 Feb '07

thank you very much for the explorer bar, it's a very nice control and it works very well. But I need your help, because i cant find in the code where i can adjust the initial width of the bar. help me please!! thanks in advance, Manuel
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (1 vote)

Re: explorer bar width

Tornado8a

23:45 15 Aug '07

You have to change this line : `m_szVert = CSize(253, 253);` in CExpBarXP::CExpBarXP() file : ExpBarXP.cpp you must the value you want plus 10 (ie. 243+10 = 253) Xavier aka adko
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Load C runtime library without using manifest

sunika

5:24 12 Nov '06

I try to run debug version and have message that `An aplication has made an attempt to load C runtime library without using manifest.` There's the msgbox picture http://rolotomasi.nm.ru/expb/pic1.png
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	1.00/5 (1 vote)

Disable TaskLink32?

Stefan Dahlin

2:48 6 Sep '06

How do i disable a TaskLink32 control in runtime?
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	1.00/5 (1 vote)

vs2005 error!

kurome

17:11 29 May '06

Compiling...
scbarg.cpp
d:\[00] kurome_work\[060525] sms wizard\사본 - sms_wizard\scbarg.cpp(57) : error C2440: 'static_cast' : cannot convert from 'UINT (__thiscall CSizingControlBarG::* )(CPoint)' to 'LRESULT (__thiscall CWnd::* )(CPoint)'
Cast from base to derived requires dynamic_cast or static_cast
sizecbar.cpp
d:\[00] kurome_work\[060525] sms wizard\사본 - sms_wizard\sizecbar.cpp(109) : error C2440: 'static_cast' : cannot convert from 'UINT (__thiscall CSizingControlBar::* )(CPoint)' to 'LRESULT (__thiscall CWnd::* )(CPoint)'
Cast from base to derived requires dynamic_cast or static_cast
d:\[00] kurome_work\[060525] sms wizard\사본 - sms_wizard\sizecbar.cpp(1296) : error C2065: 'afxChNil' : undeclared identifier
Generating Code...
Build log was saved at "file://d:\[00] Kurome_work\[060525] SMS Wizard\사본 - SMS_WIZARD\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
SMS_WIZARD - 3 error(s), 0 warning(s)

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Please Help Me~~

Hello World~!

3.00/5 (1 vote)

Re: vs2005 error!

New_Rulz

2:39 31 May '06

Replace UNIT with LRESULT for WM_NCHITTEST. Javed
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Re: vs2005 error!

kurome

15:42 4 Jun '06

Thanks!!!! Hello World~!
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How can I prevent closing the Explorer bar

frewah

14:01 27 May '06

I would like to be able to prevent any user from cloing the explorer bar or, better yet, have a menu command so that it can reappear. I thougt I could use CS_NOCLOSE on the parent but that doesn't help. Does anyone know how to do this??
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Re: How can I prevent closing the Explorer bar

frewah

14:38 27 May '06

I found the solution to my own problem. All I had to do is this: CControlBar* pBar = pFrame->GetControlBar(ID_EXPLORERBAR); pFrame->ShowControlBar(pBar, TRUE, 0);
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Too many paint messages

gunag

3:16 3 May '06

Hi everybody,

I use this nice piece of code in a project where the GUI changes sometimes. My application has one explorerbar folder containing several items which are sometimes not visible. I have now really bad repainting problems when I change the size of the explorerbar window because the first non visible item produces an endless amount of WM_Paint messages. Does anybody know any reason why it does so or knows a workaround for this problem?

Cheers

gunag

1.20/5 (2 votes)

Re: Too many paint messages

nanfang

7:28 28 Sep '07

Anyboy knows that?Same problem tp me too
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How to change the style on the fly (kind of a solution)

Lars [Large] Werner

8:29 19 Apr '06

If you have ever tried to change the style of a "TaskLink32" based item you might find it hard. I've tried to ask a question about it earlier. But I did not get an answer.

The author uses a PTLSTRUCT pointer that contains the data about the controls style etc, it is created combined with the GWL_STYLE var from the SetWindowLong()-function, but it does not update in a fly. So to handle that, we delete the control and create a new one with the new style, like this:


void UpdateCtrl(DWORD nDialog, DWORD Style, DWORD nDlgItem)
{
//Assume that your explorerbar is named m_wndExpBar
	HWND hWndDlg = m_wndExpBar.GetPaneDialogWindow(nDialog);
	HWND hWnd2 = ::GetDlgItem(hWndDlg, nDlgItem);

if(hWnd2==NULL)
return;

	//Get the size of the rect
	RECT Rect;
	RECT Win;
	::GetWindowRect(hWndDlg, &Win);
	::GetWindowRect(hWnd2, &Rect);

	//Set the quit signal to the control we're gonna mezz with!
	m_wndExpBar.ThreadSendDlgItemMessage(hWndDlg,IDC_ADVANCE,WM_CLOSE, NULL, NULL);

	HWND hWnd=CreateWindow(TASKLINKCLASSNAME, "Some text you can extract this is just an example", Style,Rect.left-Win.left,Rect.top-Win.top,Rect.right-Rect.left,Rect.bottom-Rect.top,hWndDlg, NULL, NULL, NULL);

	//Set the window dlg ID
	::SetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_ID, nDlgItem);
}

Customize this function as you like, it does work but it is not a handy solution.

=====================
Lars [Large] Werner
lars@werner.no
http://lars.werner.no
Have you tried the ultimate tool for filling your CD/DVDs? http://lars.werner.no/sizeme/
=====================

Again Hiding/Showing problem

gunag

5:20 7 Apr '06

Hello everybody,

I'm still bothering around with my problem how to hide individual tasklist control in the explorer bar control.
Somehow this control is really strange for me. In one method I can hide several tasklist controls individually by calling the Windows-function ::ShowWindow(,FALSE,0) and in another method I do the same only with the method ShowWindow(SW_HIDE) of the window which represents the tasklist control. In a third method none of those two options works. I'm really curious how you folks out there solved this problem because I guess you must have similar problems with this control.
There is also a resizing problem, because no matter how I hide a such tasklist control, the area represented by a dialog does not become smaller.
I noticed that the area represented a dialog does become smaller, if I set the text length in the tasklist control to 0, but then I have the problem that the dialog does not resize properly again when I add some text again to the tasklist control which leads to problem that the tasklist control is not completely displayed but just a very slim line of pixels is displayed. The rest is hidden behind some pixels used of controls which should be actually below the first control.

I'm open for any hints.

Cheers

gunag

Update on the problem: Again Hiding/Showing problem

gunag

5:58 7 Apr '06

Hi folks, I guess I figured out the reason why the control does not work in my Application. I'm using also the class CCJTabCtrlBar from the Library CJ60Lib and these two controls seem not to like each other. Cheers gunag
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Re: Again Hiding/Showing problem

nanfang

6:47 28 Sep '07

I got similar problem too! ShowWindow(SW_HIDE) didn't work. Anybody knows how to hide a control in runtime? Howard
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How do I hide an item in the explorer bar

gunag

1:09 30 Mar '06

Hi,

the bar is really great, although I have to learn now how Windows programming was done before MFC Wink

I got most of the part working, but now I want to hide or show items in a dialog depending on a state of my program. How do I hide an item in a dialog? I have tried to use the message WM_SHOWWINDOW, but it does not work. Is there any special window message different to WM_SHOWWINDOW you use to hide an item?

Cheers

gunag

5.00/5 (1 vote)

Background color

Joeny

2:45 19 Mar '06

It's a very nice control and it works perfectly here. One thing though is that I cant get a nice blue background like in your sample. The background I have now is always white. I have added all the code like it says in the help file (.chm). What can I do to get a windows style background? Regards, Joeny
Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink	2.00/5 (4 votes)

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