Adding Menu Item at Runtime

[AnilGopu]

How Can I Add and Remove Menu ( Submenu ) at Run-Time in VB.

there are some API Functions for Adding Menus and Changing the Properties of Menus.



Regards,
Anil Gopu

[Kevin]

You must create the basic menu structure at design time.

The menu should contain a sub-menu (can be non-visible) item with a non-empty index (like "0"); this creates a menu (control) array.

At run-time, you can Load additional items to the sub-menu

Example: Cut/paste below to a file named Form1.frm; Create a new project and add the form to the project.


VERSION 4.00
Begin VB.Form Form1
Caption = "Form1"
ClientHeight = 7260
ClientLeft = 1140
ClientTop = 3000
ClientWidth = 6690
Height = 7950
Left = 1080
LinkTopic = "Form1"
ScaleHeight = 7260
ScaleWidth = 6690
Top = 2370
Width = 6810
Begin VB.CommandButton Cmd1
Caption = "Command 1"
Height = 555
Left = 1020
TabIndex = 0
Top = 300
Width = 1575
End
Begin VB.Label Label1
Caption = "Label1"
Height = 375
Left = 1020
TabIndex = 1
Top = 1020
Width = 1935
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuMain
Caption = "Main"
Begin VB.Menu mnuSubOfMain
Caption = "SubTop"
Enabled = 0 'false
Index = 0
Visible = 0 'false
End
Begin VB.Menu Sep1
Caption = "-"
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuP2
Caption = "Part 2"
End
End
End
Attribute VB_Name = "Form1"
Attribute VB_Creatable = false
Attribute VB_Exposed = false
option Explicit


Dim frmiMenuNdx as Integer
Dim frmiMenuAdd as Integer
Dim frmiMenuMax as Integer
private Sub Cmd1_Click()
Dim locIa as Integer
Dim locIn as Integer
locIa = frmiMenuAdd
locIn = frmiMenuNdx
If locIa then
locIn = locIn + 1
If (locIn > frmiMenuMax) then
locIa = false
locIn = frmiMenuNdx - 1
End If
else
locIn = locIn - 1
If (locIn < 1) then
locIa = true
locIn = frmiMenuNdx + 1
End If
End If
If locIa then
Load mnuSubOfMain(locIn)
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Visible = true
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Enabled = true
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Caption = "Item " & (locIn)
Label1.Caption = "Added: #" & locIn
else
Unload mnuSubOfMain(frmiMenuNdx)
Label1.Caption = "Removed: #" & frmiMenuNdx
End If

frmiMenuAdd = locIa
frmiMenuNdx = locIn
End Sub

private Sub Form_Load()
frmiMenuNdx = 0
frmiMenuAdd = true
frmiMenuMax = 8
Label1.Caption = ""
Visible = true
Cmd1_Click
End Sub





Good luck,
Kevin

[kevin]

You must create the basic menu structure at design time.

The menu should contain a sub-menu (can be non-visible) item with a non-empty index (like "0"); this creates a menu (control) array.

At run-time, you can Load additional items to the sub-menu

Example: Cut/paste below to a file named Form1.frm; Create a new project and add the form to the project.


VERSION 4.00
Begin VB.Form Form1
Caption = "Form1"
ClientHeight = 7260
ClientLeft = 1140
ClientTop = 3000
ClientWidth = 6690
Height = 7950
Left = 1080
LinkTopic = "Form1"
ScaleHeight = 7260
ScaleWidth = 6690
Top = 2370
Width = 6810
Begin VB.CommandButton Cmd1
Caption = "Command 1"
Height = 555
Left = 1020
TabIndex = 0
Top = 300
Width = 1575
End
Begin VB.Label Label1
Caption = "Label1"
Height = 375
Left = 1020
TabIndex = 1
Top = 1020
Width = 1935
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuMain
Caption = "Main"
Begin VB.Menu mnuSubOfMain
Caption = "SubTop"
Enabled = 0 'false
Index = 0
Visible = 0 'false
End
Begin VB.Menu Sep1
Caption = "-"
End
Begin VB.Menu mnuP2
Caption = "Part 2"
End
End
End
Attribute VB_Name = "Form1"
Attribute VB_Creatable = false
Attribute VB_Exposed = false
option Explicit


Dim frmiMenuNdx as Integer
Dim frmiMenuAdd as Integer
Dim frmiMenuMax as Integer
private Sub Cmd1_Click()
Dim locIa as Integer
Dim locIn as Integer
locIa = frmiMenuAdd
locIn = frmiMenuNdx
If locIa then
locIn = locIn + 1
If (locIn > frmiMenuMax) then
locIa = false
locIn = frmiMenuNdx - 1
End If
else
locIn = locIn - 1
If (locIn < 1) then
locIa = true
locIn = frmiMenuNdx + 1
End If
End If
If locIa then
Load mnuSubOfMain(locIn)
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Visible = true
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Enabled = true
mnuSubOfMain(locIn).Caption = "Item " & (locIn)
Label1.Caption = "Added: #" & locIn
else
Unload mnuSubOfMain(frmiMenuNdx)
Label1.Caption = "Removed: #" & frmiMenuNdx
End If

frmiMenuAdd = locIa
frmiMenuNdx = locIn
End Sub

private Sub Form_Load()
frmiMenuNdx = 0
frmiMenuAdd = true
frmiMenuMax = 8
Label1.Caption = ""
Visible = true
Cmd1_Click
End Sub





Good luck,
Kevin

[AnilGopu]

Is there any tech. to add this Menus using the APIs so that I need not Declear the Demmy Elements first. Using this Tech. We are Limited to a Fixed no of Menu items in our Program. The Addition and Removal of the Menu Items will be done By the user at runtime. In APIs there is Something called as AddMenu and others. And Slo I need to Add ICONs to the Menus. Is there any tech.

Regards,
Anil Gopu

[Kevin]

AnilGopu-

I have prepared a document listing most of the Menu API's. Please send me your
email address so I can email it to you. My email address is kf@earthling.net

Keep in mind, that this will allow you to add and delete menu items at run-time, attaching
code (events) to these menu items may be tricky.

Windows sends messages to the parent form when a user clicks on a menu item.
You will probably have to imploy a message-hook to intercept these messages,
and then decode them, in order to do anything useful with the menus you create in
this way.

I would still recommend that you menu-control-arrays and get creative in how
you use Load/Unload for these menu-items at run-time.

Bye
Kevin

[kevin]

AnilGopu-

I have prepared a document listing most of the Menu API's. Please send me your
email address so I can email it to you. My email address is kf@earthling.net

Keep in mind, that this will allow you to add and delete menu items at run-time, attaching
code (events) to these menu items may be tricky.

Windows sends messages to the parent form when a user clicks on a menu item.
You will probably have to imploy a message-hook to intercept these messages,
and then decode them, in order to do anything useful with the menus you create in
this way.

I would still recommend that you menu-control-arrays and get creative in how
you use Load/Unload for these menu-items at run-time.

Bye
Kevin

[Chris Eastwood]

As you want to be able to add icons to your menus and (possibly) create multiple levels of menus at run-time, I'd recommend you download the excellent PopupMenu control from vbAccelerator - you get all of the source-code for this control and for the subclassing DLL that it uses.

I've been using it for months and only found a couple of bugs which Steve assures me have been fixed in the latest downloadable version.

Take a look at http://www.vbaccelerator.com/codelib/cpopmenu/article.htm

You might want to check out the Rebar/Toolbar control page also - it shows how to have these menus in a rebar band and associated with toolbar buttons.


Chris Eastwood

CodeGuru - the website for developers
http://codeguru.developer.com/vb

[drick]

You can use the API
SetMenu: to assigns a new menu to a window
SetMenuItemInfo:to change information about a menu
...
GetMenu: to retrieve the handle of a windows
...