Design issue

Hi All,
I have a question regarding making a decision about a control.

I need to create a project which display a report according to the choice chosen from an initial dialog. Attached is how the dialog would look like ...

WHen the user makes the first choice that is chosing either catridge content or something else, the rest of the items gets updated with information. Even the checkbox may be appear in some of the choice.

what kind of control should i use here. I created an activex control for the rest of the items in the dialog and i feel there is no need for that as the control is mainly used for this project..I amy want to extend the project later on in other languges also.

Please someone suggest me.
Thanks

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what kind of control should i use here

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That's difficult to determine without knowing more about your application. Given that, I think you're making this more complicated than it needs to be.

Is it possible to create a MFC extension dll with dialog in itand call the dll from the exe dialog frame to display the dlldialog inside the exe dialog?

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Is it possible to create a MFC extension dll with dialog in itand call the dll from the exe dialog frame to display the dlldialog inside the exe dialog?

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Here's an example of possible unnecessary complexity. Can you explain why you need a nested child dialog within your main dialog? And, why the child dialog needs to live in another dll? Keep in mind, you're seeking help from other developers who have no idea what your application design consists of. Rather than asking short ambiguous questions, it is better to provide some background information and sample code (when necessary) so we can get a clear picture of what you are doing.

Let me explain what i am trying to do.

I need to create an application which displays report. First i need to display the dialog for the user to choose and then it displays the report.

So i started with MFC application with Multidocument and created a dialog which displays the choice.
The first combo box which the user needs to choose will decide what is going to appear in the rest of the page.
I initially created a dialog with all the possible tool items and then displayed the first combobox on the first page, then once the user makes the choice displays items according to that in the secondpage.

Code:

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case FirstPage:
                m_staticSelect2.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboRepType.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_btnNext.EnableWindow(TRUE);
                m_btnBack.EnableWindow(FALSE);
                m_btnClose.EnableWindow(FALSE);
                m_staticSelect1.ShowWindow(SW_HIDE);
                m_staticTape.ShowWindow(SW_HIDE);
                .......
                break;

case SecondAPage:
                m_btnBack.EnableWindow(TRUE);
                m_btnClose.EnableWindow(TRUE);
                m_static6.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_staticTape.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboVolList.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboRepOptions.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboSort.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                              ....
                              break;
case SecondBPage:
                m_btnBack.EnableWindow(TRUE);
                m_btnClose.EnableWindow(TRUE);
                m_staticSelect1.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_staticSelect3.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboVolList.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_comboRepOptions.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                m_staticSelect3.ShowWindow(SW_SHOW);
                              ... break;

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THis was very difficult to maintain and was not extendable. So i was asked to do it in a different way, i.e, use an activex control to display the item once the first choice is made... I realsied activex for this project is too complicated and wondered if there is any other way to do this..

I work on my own with vague instructions thrown at me. I am not an expert in MFC, c++ but i am trying very hard to learn everything.

Thanks for your replies.

I would suggest you take a look at using a property sheet wizard dialog design. You can design each page of the wizard to collect the necessary information to generate your report. You use the resource editor to design and layout each page of the wizard. Then, process the user's response on a page by page basis until such time as you have enough data to generate your report. See CPropertySheet::SetWizardMode () for more info.

But i need only one page to display everything as i have only couple of items to display. That's the reason i have to re-do the project.

Also i want to be able to separate the userinterface from the other part of the project.

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But i need only one page to display everything as i have only couple of items to display.

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Ok, then, what is the need for using a nested dialog? I agree that if you only have a minimal amount of data to collect, one dialog should be sufficient.

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Also i want to be able to separate the userinterface from the other part of the project.

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I'm not sure what your future plans are for this, but, you can create a dll that contains a class that represents the entire data collection dialog. There's no need to nest it into a parent dialog. That should provide you with the interface separation you desire.

1. Like an html page, where you choose something in a combox and that refreshes the entire page, is it possible to do it in a dialog?
For eg. there are 5 items in the first combobox..
choice1,2,3. displays as it is in the image.
choice 4. i don't want the checkbox and the regularexpression edit box.
choice 5. don't want the sort box.

So let us say the dialog starts with choice1, displays as it is, the user makes choice 4, the entire dialog needs to refresh....

Also, the value in comboxbox two differs according to the comboxbox1.

Can i do this as a single dialog?

2. This project i may have to internationalize it,,,say spanish version of the userinterface.

Hope i am not making it complicated but i don't have any idea how i am going to do this.

If you're bound by using only one dialog, you can use ShowWindow () to hide the controls you don't need. Keep in mind, however, that hiding/showing controls is not the best UI practice. But, it will accomplish what you want.

The easiiest way to prepare for internationlization is to create a resource-only dll. This allows the resources to be translated into other languages.

ShowWindow() is the method i followed initially and as i mentioned before i couldn't extend the userinterface.
Coming back to where i started, Is it possible to display dll dialog in an exe dialog? if it's any idea how i would do that.

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... i couldn't extend the userinterface.

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Not sure what you mean by this. As I stated earlier, you can create a derived (exported) dialog class in a dll and use it within your main program. If you take this approach, you'll need to make sure to set the resource handle to the dll before trying to work with the exported dialog class.

I couldn't extend the project -
the actual controls were placed one on top of others in the resourceview dialog , so it was dificult to maintain and if i needed more control, it was getting complicated. As i mentiioned before this is the way i did it in the first place.

I am not sure how i can make the dialog nested? where do i say attach the dll dialog to the exe dialog.

Take a look at this article. . It should provide some insight into how to load an exported dialog from a dll.

I would probably go the property sheet wizard route that Mike suggested earlier.

Even though your user only sees a single dialog (or page), the problem is the layout of the controls. If you cram them all on one dialog, then it's hard to maintain them. But I don't have to tell you this. ;)

If you use a property sheet in wizard mode, you can separate the different 'views' based on what the user has chosen. You should be able to hide the default Next and Back buttons and then switch the view (page) based on the user changing a combobox or other control.

If you are going to go this route, I highly recommend that you take a data-centric approach the prop sheet/prop page architecture and leverage DDX as much as possible. I've written a sample app that shows how to use the prop sheet as a document with each page using DDX to tie the page controls to the data in the sheet. I'll see if I can dig it up and post it here.

Here's the code. See the PropPageDocument.zip attachment in my reply about half way down the page.

I appreciate your suggestion Arjay. As Mike had suggested earlier, i do realise that by making a dll dialog and nesting it i am complicating things. Especially i need to collect the values of other controls for displaying the report and getting it from dll could get complicated

Looking at your example, ....
I was wondering what if i create property sheet with controls needed for different report type(the first combo box) and display which ever property sheet when the user changes the combobox value, is it possible? So instead of refreshing the same dialog, display the appropriate property sheet for that combobox selection, is it a good idea? will the property sheet work only on next button? I have never worked on Property sheet, so that's why this question.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rachelason

I was wondering what if i create property sheet with controls needed for different report type(the first combo box) and display which ever property sheet when the user changes the combobox value, is it possible? So instead of refreshing the same dialog, display the appropriate property sheet for that combobox selection, is it a good idea? will the property sheet work only on next button? I have never worked on Property sheet, so that's why this question.

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Sure it will work. Understand that there is only one CPropertySheet derived class, so you would be actually changing pages. From any page, you can get the pointer to the property sheet and call the SetActivePage method to move from page to page. In other words, when the user changes a combobox selection on page 1, you set up an OnSelectChanged handler and then call SetActivePage to take you to Page2, page3, or whatever.

Yes, that's what exactly i want to do.
I created two pages, with controls needed. Added the content of the combobox1, then created an event to that. What i am not sure is, while creating variables for the control, will it reside in the individual class or in the sheet? If in the individual class , how would the sheet know which one to activate?

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From any page, you can get the pointer to the property sheet and call the SetActivePage method to move from page to page. In other words, when the user changes a combobox selection on page 1, you set up an OnSelectChanged handler and then call SetActivePage to take you to Page2, page3, or whatever

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Can you please give me some code sample as to how/where i would do this?

Thanks

Post a couple of screen shots of the different pages and I'll mock it up for you.

Thanks

HI! Is it possible to have any button in the wizard , Like in my GetReport instead of next, back etc? -SetFinishText() did the trick.

What i haven't still figured out is how to make the combo decide which page to display.....any help anyone?

Yes and stay tuned, I'm working on a sample. I'll have it ready later today.

Here it is.

This sample is a dialog application that contains a child modeless property sheet and a combobox. When the user makes a combo box selection, the property sheet switches pages.

I don't have the using the 'property sheet as a document' functionality hooked up yet, but will finish this shortly. Using this technique allows the data for all the pages to be centralized in the sheet (the sheet is used as a document) and virtually eliminates the page to page control interaction that you get without using this technique.

The data 'document' portion has been connected. This means the data for each page is stored in a 'document' within the property sheet. Actually the 'document' is a class called CReportDataMgr and it contains a stl::map whose keys are the property page index and whose value is a CReportDataBase derived class. This allow each page to access its underlying data object in a clean manner and apply DDX directly to the data.

Let's take a look at one of the pages, the Tape Cartridge page. This page has a report, show, and sort comboboxes and a reg ex checkbox and edit control.

In the OnInitDialog method we retrieve the pointer to the report data (via the property sheet and report data mgr class). This is done in the second line of this method.

After that we initialize the comboboxes. The report combobox gets filled
with reports from the underlying report data.

Code:

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BOOL CTapeCartridgePage::OnInitDialog( )
{
        int nIndex = 0;

        m_pReportData = GetReportSheet( )->GetReportDataMgr( ).GetReportData< CRDTapeCartridge* >( PPI_TAPECARTRIDGE );

        ASSERT( NULL != m_pReportData );

        CPropertyPage::OnInitDialog();

        // Walk through the report map and insert the items into the report combobox control
        REPORT_MAP reportMap = m_pReportData->GetReportMap( );
        for( REPORT_MAP::iterator it = reportMap.begin( ); it != reportMap.end( ); it++, nIndex++ )
        {
                // Display the string and associate the key of the map with the item's data
                // this allows us to retrieve the key for the selected item.
                // It allows us more flexibility that just using an index because reports may be added
                // or removed and not have a sequential index
                m_ReportCtrl.InsertString( nIndex, (*it).second->GetName( ) );
                m_ReportCtrl.SetItemData( nIndex, (*it).second->GetIndex( ) );
        }
        m_ReportCtrl.SetCurSel( m_pReportData->GetReportIndex( ) );

        // Populate the combo boxes and set their initial position from the report data
        m_ShowCtrl.InsertString( 0, _T("All") );
        m_ShowCtrl.InsertString( 1, _T("Some") );
        m_ShowCtrl.SetCurSel( m_pReportData->GetShowIndex( ) );

        m_SortCtrl.InsertString( 0, _T("Ascending") );
        m_SortCtrl.InsertString( 1, _T("Descending") );
        m_SortCtrl.SetCurSel( m_pReportData->GetSortIndex( ) );

        EnableRegExEditCtrl( );

        return TRUE;
}

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Next we look at the DoDataExchange method. The first part are just the
standard control mappings (which allows us to manipulate the controls).
The second part is where it gets interesting. These mappings actually
map to the underlying report data.

Code:

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void CTapeCartridgePage::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
{
        CPropertyPage::DoDataExchange(pDX);

        // Control mappings
        DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_SORT, m_SortCtrl);
        DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_EDIT_REGEX, m_RegExEditCtrl);
        DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_COMBO_SHOW, m_ShowCtrl);

        // Data mappings (maps data to/from the underlying CRDTapeCartridge object.
        // This object is located in the CReportDataMgr contained within the property sheet.
        DDX_Check(pDX, IDC_CHECK_REGEX, m_pReportData->GetRegEx( ) );
        DDX_CBIndex(pDX, IDC_COMBO_SHOW, m_pReportData->GetShowIndex( ) );
        DDX_CBIndex(pDX, IDC_SORT, m_pReportData->GetSortIndex( ) );
        DDX_CBIndex(pDX, IDC_REPORT, m_pReportData->GetReportIndex( ) );
        DDX_Text( pDX, IDC_EDIT_REGEX, m_pReportData->GetRegExString( ) );
        DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_REPORT, m_ReportCtrl);
}

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Now let's look at what happens when the page becomes active. Nothing to
interesting in the OnSetActive handler. All we do is Enable or disable the
'Get Report' button (which is actually the Wizard's 'Finish' button that has
been renamed.

Code:

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BOOL CTapeCartridgePage::OnSetActive()
{
        GetReportSheet( )->DisplayGetReportButton( TRUE );
        return CPropertyPage::OnSetActive();
}

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The last thing to look at is the OnWizardFinish button handler. Because
we are storing all the data in the underlying m_pReportData variable (which
for this class is actually a pointer to CRDTapeCartridge object), any changes
made in this page are saved to this object by UpdateData( ).

Code:

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// Called when the 'Get Report' button is pressed on this page
// (which is really the finish button that has been renamed)
BOOL CTapeCartridgePage::OnWizardFinish()
{
        UpdateData( );

        // Just simulate the report by presenting the underlying data
        AfxMessageBox( m_pReportData->GetDisplayString( ) );
        return FALSE;
}

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The code above just presents a dialog that displays the settings.

See the attachment for the updated source.

Note: This project builds and runs in either UNICODE OR MBCS.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you so much Arjay for sparing your time. I appreciate that. Will try what you have posted.

Your welcome. If you have any feedback, please let me know.

HI Arjay, i had been trying to add your method of displaying the dialog in to my existing MDI project. I created all the dialogs in the resource view, created classes for it and as soon as I add the reportsheet, i get error.. like

Code:

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c2664, CBlankPage::CBlankPage(const CBlankPage&) cannot convert parameter 1 fr4om cReportSheet *const to constCBlankPage&..

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.if i correct this then another.... Ofcourse i ignored everything related to datamanager at this stage.

If i use your project and added childframe, mainframe, view etc and make it into a MDi project after removing your cwinapp subclass, i can't make the Mainframe object created. Get runtime error at cwinapp subclass.cpp at line 90 where the Cmainframe *pmainframe check is done.

If i add the doc, view, childframe, mainframe, add headers in the stdafx.h , do i have to do anything else to make the project MDI....

Thanks again.

I realised that i need to update my .rc file also and now it is a MDI project. Will try and see where i get to.
Thanks

Arjay, I have been trying to learn to use property sheets. I am very new to doing windows GUI's with MFC and probably am making a very basic mistake. I have tried to use your code as a guide, but things just are not working. I do not "see" any of my property sheets and the following in the main dialog OnInitDialog:

Code:

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// The following GetclientRect fails.  I have a feeling it doesn't have a properly initalized window or something
        // Move the property page down a little bit
        CRect rect;
        PropSheets->GetClientRect( &rect );
        rect.top += 30;
        rect.bottom += 30;
        PropSheets->MoveWindow( rect );

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fails.

I have attached my project as a zip. If you run it, you will very quickly get a debug assertion. I have read several tutorials and they all seem to say, Just do these things and it all works magically. I am using VS 2008 if that matters. I created my "MyPropertySheets" class by doing the New-->Class and picking a MFC class, the CPropertySheet class. Maybe this is not the proper way to do that.

Anyway if you (or someone) can take a look and tell me what I am doing wrong. This is just some code I am writing to learn how to do property sheets so it isn't very neat or well organized.

Simple mistake. You have two MyPropSheet constructors. In one you have added the pages. In the second ctor, you don't add any pages. You are using the second constructor.

So instead of

Code:

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MyPropSheets::MyPropSheets(LPCTSTR pszCaption, CWnd* pParentWnd, UINT iSelectPage)
        :CPropertySheet(pszCaption, pParentWnd, iSelectPage)
{
}

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code it as

Code:

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MyPropSheets::MyPropSheets(LPCTSTR pszCaption, CWnd* pParentWnd, UINT iSelectPage)
        :CPropertySheet(pszCaption, pParentWnd, iSelectPage)
{
        m_psh.dwFlags &= ~(PSH_HASHELP);

        AddPage( &mm_Prop1 );
        AddPage( &mm_Prop2 );

        SetWizardMode( );
}

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DOH!

Thanks. I didn't even notice that.