EZOptionsDlg - Netscape Preferences like dialog

• Download demo project - 54.4 KB
• Download source - 14.7 KB

Introduction

The point behind this article is to build a base for building a Netscape Prefs like dialog without compromising on the benefits provided by CPropertySheet and CPropertyPage.

To implement this dialog:

Step 1

Add the files present in the source zip file above, to your project.

Add the following lines in some globally available file like stdafx.h:

#include "EZPropertyPage.h"
#include "EZOptionsDlg.h"

Step 2

Add a dialog to your application and add a class for it, say CPrefDlg. Replace every occurrence of CDialog with CEZOptionsDlg in the header file and the source file of the dialog. This dialog takes the place of a property sheet.

Step 3

Edit the dialog template and add a tree control somewhere on the dialog.

Add the following lines to the OnInitDialog handler to introduce your tree control to the parent class CEZOptionsDlg:

// Assuming IDC_OPT_TREE and IDC_LABEL are the ID's
// of the tree control and the static control respectively
SetTreeCtrl(IDC_OPT_TREE);

Step 4

Add a property page, CPage1 say, to your application and replace every instance of CPropertyPage with CEZPropertyPage in the header and source files.

Now, as you would do in a regular property sheet, declare a member variable for CPage1 in the dialog class (CPrefDlg) created in step 2. Add the following code similar to that of the normal CPropertySheet::AddPage. But CPage1::Create should be called before calling AddPage.

// If IDD_PROPPAGE_PAGE1 id the dialog resource ID
m_page1.Create(IDD_PROPPAGE_PAGE1);
AddPage(&m_page1,_T("Page1"));

If you want to add a page as a child item, add the title of the parent item as the third parameter. To avoid unexpected behavior, the titles should be unique.

Here is the OnInitDialog function:

// in PrefDlg.h
#include "EZOptionsDlg.h"

class CPage1;

class CPrefDlg:public CEZOptionsDlg
{
...
private:
    CPage1 m_page1;
};

// in PrefDlg.cpp
BOOL CPrefDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
...
// Assuming IDC_OPT_TREE is the ID's of the Tree control
// and the static control respectively
    SetTreeCtrl(IDC_OPT_TREE);
...
    m_page1.Create(IDD_PROPPAGE_PAGE1);
    AddPage(&m_page1,_T("Page1"));

    SelectPage(_T("Page1"));
    m_wndTree.ExpandAll();
}

Again, to remove a page, the title is to be used. This is the reason why I say the titles should be unique.

RemovePage(_T("Page1"));

Repeat the above step to add more pages.

The demo project should do the rest of the explanation.