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Owner-drawn context menu in WTL

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24 Apr 2006CPOL3 min read 134.2K   2.1K   48   44
An article explaining how to create an owner-drawn context menu.

WTL Context Menu

Introduction

I was looking for a code to implement an owner-drawn context menu in WTL, but could not find any; everything I found would modify the behavior of the CCommandBarCtrl, and could not be used in a context menu displayed by, let's say, an edit control.

In this article, I’ll show you how to implement an owner-drawn context menu, and how to add cool-looking menus to your application real easy, using my class CCoolContextMenu.

Implementation

In order to make an item an owner-drawn item, you must create a new menu item, or modify an existing one by setting the MFT_OWNERDRAW menu flag.

You can use the InsertMenuItem or SetMenuItemInfo functions to set or change information about a menu item. When calling these two functions, you must specify a pointer to a MENUITEMINFO structure, which specifies the properties of the menu item.

You need to specify the MFT_OWNERDRAW value for the fType member, for an item to become an owner-drawn item. You can also associate an application-defined value, which is called item data, with each menu item. The CCoolContextMenu class defines the MenuItemData structure that contains the information used to draw a menu item. The application uses the dwItemData member to store a pointer to this structure.

The MenuItemData structure is sent to the menu's owner window with the WM_MEASUREITEM and WM_DRAWITEM messages. The GetMenuItemInfo function is used to retrieve the item data for a menu at any time.

LRESULT InitMenuPopupHandler(UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, 
                             LPARAM lParam, BOOL& bHandled)
{
    // System menu, do nothing
    if ((BOOL)HIWORD(lParam))   
    {
        bHandled = FALSE;
        return 1;
    }

    CMenuHandle menuPopup = (HMENU)wParam;
    ATLASSERT(menuPopup.m_hMenu != NULL);

    TCHAR szString[MAX_MENU_ITEM_TEXT_LENGTH];
    BOOL bRet = FALSE;

    for (int i = 0; i < menuPopup.GetMenuItemCount(); i++)
    {
        CMenuItemInfo mii;
        mii.cch = MAX_MENU_ITEM_TEXT_LENGTH;
        mii.fMask = MIIM_CHECKMARKS | MIIM_DATA | MIIM_ID | 
                    MIIM_STATE | MIIM_SUBMENU | MIIM_TYPE;
        mii.dwTypeData = szString;
        bRet = menuPopup.GetMenuItemInfo(i, TRUE, &mii);
        ATLASSERT(bRet);

        if (!(mii.fType & MFT_OWNERDRAW))
        // not already an ownerdraw item
        {
            MenuItemData * pMI = new MenuItemData;
            ATLASSERT(pMI != NULL);

            if (pMI)
            {
                // Make this menu item an owner-drawn
                mii.fType |= MFT_OWNERDRAW;

                pMI->fType = mii.fType;
                pMI->fState = mii.fState;

                // Associate an image with a menu item
                static_cast<T*>(this)->AssociateImage(mii, pMI);

                pMI->lpstrText = new TCHAR[lstrlen(szString) + 1];
                ATLASSERT(pMI->lpstrText != NULL);

                if (pMI->lpstrText != NULL)
                    lstrcpy(pMI->lpstrText, szString);
                mii.dwItemData = (ULONG_PTR)pMI;

                bRet = menuPopup.SetMenuItemInfo(i, TRUE, &mii);
                ATLASSERT(bRet);
            }
        }
    }

    // Add it to the list
    m_stackMenuHandle.Push(menuPopup.m_hMenu);
    
    return 0;
}

Internally, CCoolContextMenu implements WM_MEASUREITEM, WM_DRAWITEM, WM_INITMENUPOPUP, and WM_MENUSELECT messages so you do not have to worry about anything.

Using the code

To use the CCoolContextMenu class, all you have to do is to derive your class from CCoolContextMenu and follow the next few steps:

class CCoolEdit : public CWindowImpl<CCoolEdit, CRichEditCtrl>,
                  public CRichEditCommands<CCoolEdit>,
                  public CCoolContextMenu<CCoolEdit>

In the message map, use CHAIN_MSG_MAP to redirect messages to CCoolContextMenu's message map:

BEGIN_MSG_MAP(CCoolEdit)
    ...
    CHAIN_MSG_MAP(CCoolContextMenu<CCoolEdit>)
END_MSG_MAP()

In the OnInitDialog() function of your dialog class, or in the OnCreate() function of the window class, call the GetSystemSettings() method of CCoolContextMenu:

LRESULT OnInitDialog(UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, 
                     LPARAM lParam, BOOL& bHandled)
{
    ...
    GetSystemSettings();
    ...
}

But wait! What about images? Don't worry, just create the image list and implement the AssociateImage(CMenuItemInfo& mii, MenuItemData * pMI) function in your CCoolContextMenu derived class:

void AssociateImage(CMenuItemInfo& mii, MenuItemData * pMI)
{
    switch (mii.wID)
    {
    case ID_EDIT_UNDO:
        pMI->iImage = 17;
        break;
    case ID_EDIT_CUT:
        pMI->iImage = 3;
        break;
    case ID_EDIT_COPY:
        pMI->iImage = 4;
        break;
    case ID_EDIT_PASTE:
        pMI->iImage = 5;
        break;
    case ID_EDIT_CLEAR:
        pMI->iImage = 20;
        break;
    default:
        pMI->iImage = -1;
        break;
    }
}

Conclusion

CCoolContextMenu allows you to add nice looking context menus to your application with just a few lines of code; and by combining my code with Jean-Michel's, your windows will look completely different.

My Thanks To

History

  • March 13, 2006 - Initial release.
  • March 15, 2006 - Put a message map in the CCoolContextMenu class. Thanks to Jörgen Sigvardsson for suggesting it.
  • April 24, 2006 - Added a default implementation of the AssociateImage function to the CCoolContextMenu class.

Disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE DISTRIBUTED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. NO RESPONSIBILITIES FOR POSSIBLE DAMAGES CAN BE TAKEN. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THIS SOFTWARE.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionCBoldDC bold(*pDC, (lpDrawItemStruct->itemState & ODS_DEFAULT) != 0); Pin
kuibing24-Jun-11 15:24
kuibing24-Jun-11 15:24 
GeneralNice work - but you undersold it! Pin
John Hind16-Sep-10 1:01
John Hind16-Sep-10 1:01 
GeneralA few bugs and opportunities: Pin
John Hind29-Sep-10 0:10
John Hind29-Sep-10 0:10 
GeneralRe: A few bugs and opportunities: Pin
Igor Vigdorchik29-Sep-10 14:03
Igor Vigdorchik29-Sep-10 14:03 
GeneralRe: A few bugs and opportunities: Pin
John Hind29-Sep-10 22:56
John Hind29-Sep-10 22:56 
GeneralRe: A few bugs and opportunities: Pin
Igor Vigdorchik30-Sep-10 14:27
Igor Vigdorchik30-Sep-10 14:27 
GeneralMy revised version: Pin
John Hind29-Sep-10 23:00
John Hind29-Sep-10 23:00 
GeneralRe: My revised version: Pin
phoenicyan3-Jan-15 8:49
phoenicyan3-Jan-15 8:49 
GeneralMenu not drawn second time Pin
rajas23-Feb-09 20:32
rajas23-Feb-09 20:32 
GeneralRe: Menu not drawn second time Pin
Igor Vigdorchik24-Feb-09 14:12
Igor Vigdorchik24-Feb-09 14:12 
GeneralRe: Menu not drawn second time Pin
rajas4-Mar-09 19:04
rajas4-Mar-09 19:04 
GeneralSuggestion... Pin
Oliver Jennert17-Feb-09 0:42
Oliver Jennert17-Feb-09 0:42 
GeneralRe: Suggestion... Pin
Igor Vigdorchik18-Feb-09 15:03
Igor Vigdorchik18-Feb-09 15:03 
GeneralThanks man! [modified] Pin
hssaroch26-May-08 1:28
hssaroch26-May-08 1:28 
GeneralRe: Thanks man! Pin
Igor Vigdorchik26-May-08 5:39
Igor Vigdorchik26-May-08 5:39 
GeneralVery Nice code, but small question! Pin
SeekTruth3-Apr-08 23:25
SeekTruth3-Apr-08 23:25 
GeneralRe: Very Nice code, but small question! Pin
Igor Vigdorchik4-Apr-08 6:47
Igor Vigdorchik4-Apr-08 6:47 
GeneralSmall fix Pin
Val Salamakha18-May-07 15:24
Val Salamakha18-May-07 15:24 
GeneralRe: Small fix [modified] Pin
Igor Vigdorchik18-May-07 15:41
Igor Vigdorchik18-May-07 15:41 
GeneralRe: Small fix Pin
Val Salamakha18-May-07 20:07
Val Salamakha18-May-07 20:07 
GeneralExcellent piece of code Pin
digitally_urs21-Dec-06 21:00
digitally_urs21-Dec-06 21:00 
QuestionProject Help Wanted Pin
PrafullaT11-Sep-06 20:46
PrafullaT11-Sep-06 20:46 
GeneralFound a bug Pin
masterminder20-Jun-06 15:12
masterminder20-Jun-06 15:12 
GeneralRe: Found a bug Pin
masterminder20-Jun-06 15:19
masterminder20-Jun-06 15:19 
QuestionGood work (1 question) Pin
sergytmp4-Jun-06 22:15
sergytmp4-Jun-06 22:15 

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