[RESOLVED] Creating DialogBar with my own controls (MFC)

[ovidiucucu]

Nope, there is not absolutely necessary to derive from CDialogBar.
CDialogBar forwards its control child notifications (either received via WM_COMMAND or WM_NOTIFY) to its owner frame.
Just handle them in the owner frame.

Ok, probably I'm misunderstanding but.. this can work if I just want to handle a button click event, adding it's respective event handler.

But, what about adding strings to a listbox? I usually add them this way:
1. Create member variable m_list
2. m_list.AddString(...)
[...]

Again, in other words: derive from CDialogBar (or other controlbar class derived from CControlBar) ONLY if you deal with a very complex one or having a customized behavior. Otherwise, deriving may give you more headaches than help, as we can notice from this thread.

Let's say we have a dialog bar having a button and a listbox control. If you want to add a string in the listbox, as a response to button click, all you have to do is to handle BN_CLICKED notification (note that BN_CLICKED is also sent via WM_COMMAND) in the main frame class (or in view, or in document class), then use GetDlgItem to get a temporary pointer to listbox object. Finally, use that pointer to add strings or do something else your muscles want.

// MainFrm.h

class CMainFrame : public CFrameWnd
{
   CDialogBar m_dlgBar;

   // ...
   afx_msg int OnCreate(LPCREATESTRUCT lpCreateStruct);
   afx_msg void OnButtonAdd(); // Note: this is manually added
   DECLARE_MESSAGE_MAP()
};

// MainFrm.cpp

// ...
   ON_WM_CREATE()
   ON_BN_CLICKED(IDC_BUTTON_ADD, OnButtonAdd) // Note: this is manually added
END_MESSAGE_MAP()
// ...

int CMainFrame::OnCreate(LPCREATESTRUCT lpCreateStruct)
{
   // ...
   VERIFY(m_dlgBar.Create(this, IDD_DIALOGBAR, CBRS_LEFT, IDD_DIALOGBAR)); 
   m_dlgBar.EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_RIGHT|CBRS_ALIGN_LEFT);
   // ...
   EnableDocking(CBRS_ALIGN_ANY);
   // ...
   DockControlBar(&m_dlgBar);
   return 0;
}

void CMainFrame::OnButtonAdd() // Note: this is manually added
{
   // get a pointer to listbox control contained in the dialog bar
   CListBox* pListBox = (CListBox*)m_dlgBar.GetDlgItem(IDC_LIST_MESSAGES);
   // verify it's a pointer to a valid object
   ASSERT_VALID(pListBox);
   // add string to list box (just for demo purpose)
   int nIndex = pListBox->AddString(_T("BOB WUZ ERE!")); 
   // select newly added item
   pListBox->SetCurSel(nIndex);
}

Of course, you have to manually map BN_CLICKED, as well as other notifications sent by dialog bar, but that's not so much to sweat.