Disable CTabCtrl tab items in WTL - Using the Owner Drawn Method

• Download source files - 12.1 Kb
• Download demo project - 10 Kb

Introduction

I needed a tab control that would allow me to enable and disable certain tab items, I did a search and came across the Paul Dilascia CTabCtrlWithDisable article. This was exactly what I required except that it was written in MFC. This article basically convert his code to WTL.

For more infomation on Paul Dilascia original article see here

Requirements

You will require the WTL Libraries, these can be downloaded from the Microsoft site. There are various articles on the net that tell you how to do this, so I won't bore you with the details.

How to use the control in your WTL App

1. Add the header file atlTabCtrlWithDisable.h to the Dialogs source code that will be using the control. The control class name is CTabCtrlWithDisable. You will also need to add atlmisc.h in your stdafx.h file.
2. You will need to override the base class CTabCtrlWithDisable and set the pure virtual function IsTabEnabled e.g.

class CMyTabCtrlWithDisable : public CTabCtrlWithDisable 
{ 
public: 
   BOOL IsTabEnabled(int nTab) 
   { 
      return (nTab !=2);
   }
};

Note - The isTabEnabled function determines which Tab gets disabled

More information on the design of this class - see original article

3. Instantiate the class and Subclass the control in the OnInitDialog function e.g.

       
CString sBuff;
m_ctlTab.SubclassDlgItem(IDC_TAB1, *this); 
TCITEM item = { 0 }; 
item.mask = TCIF_TEXT; 
sBuff = _T("Tab 1"); 
item.pszText = sBuff.GetBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
sBuff.ReleaseBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
m_ctlTab.InsertItem(0, &item); 
sBuff = _T("Tab 2"); 
item.pszText = sBuff.GetBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
sBuff.ReleaseBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
m_ctlTab.InsertItem(1, &item); 
sBuff = _T("Tab 3"); 
item.pszText = sBuff.GetBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
sBuff.ReleaseBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
m_ctlTab.InsertItem(2, &item); 
sBuff = _T("Tab 4"); 
item.pszText = sBuff.GetBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
sBuff.ReleaseBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
m_ctlTab.InsertItem(2, &item); 
sBuff = _T("Tab 5"); 
item.pszText = sBuff.GetBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
sBuff.ReleaseBuffer(sBuff.GetLength()); 
m_ctlTab.InsertItem(2, &item); 
m_ctlTab.InitTabStatus();       

4. Call InitTabStatus method. Note the call to InitTabStatus, this function is called after inserting the tab items, and it basically does a check on the status of the tab items to see if any tab items need disabling.
5. Add REFLECT_NOTIFICATIONS() to the end of the message map from your calling class.

That's it!!!

The Demo App shows how to use the control on a WTL dialog class.