CommandBar Menu and Docking Panes on MDIForm

Hi All,

I'm having this issue whereby I have a CommandBars Control, DockingPanes Control on the same MDIForm. When I set up the ActiveMenuBar and create a docking pane to the left of it, all seems ok... until i click on the docking pane control. When I do this the docking pane seems to move under the ActiveMenuBar for some reason... it's very odd I also have a picturebox aligned to the bottom of the MDI form, and the docking pane seems to have encompased the picture box into the bottom of the pane for some reason....

I've tried putting my docking pane child control in a PictureBox first, then setting the Handle to the PictureBox Handle, but it errors and forces the VB IDE to crash...

Has anyone successfully got an MDIForm with a command bar menu, docking pane on the left and status bar on the bottom working ok? i can't put the commandbar into a picture box as the GetActiveFormID event for the commandbar doesn't fire for some reason in a picturebox.. same thing with the CommandBarsFrame (as explained in a different post).

Thanks in advance

Yes, that's it!, thanks younicke.

I now have a secondary problem though... Using the commandbars, I appear to get the issue of my status bar being overlapped by the MDI client area which can be shown in the CJ sample for docking panes on MDI...

Before:


After:


As you can see, the status bar is covered by the MDI's scrollbars for the form within. Got another trick up your sleeve to fix this one please?

Thanks!

Hi,

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses!

SuperMario, The code in the GetClientWidth already exists in this project, and the DockingPaneManager is already at the Back of the ZOrder. This application is actually the CJ MDI Sample for Docking Panes, with two differences.

1) I've put on a CommandBars Object.
2) I've had to put the Standard VB Status Bar into a PictureBox to ensure it stays on top.

To fix one problem, i've followed what younicke said and set the DockingPaneManager.SetCommandBars = CommandBars1, but the resulting problem I saw was the screenshots above.

Aaron, I've attached said project to this reply to help uploads/20100916_031216_MDISample.rar (EDIT: Just realised I forgot to put the StatusBar in a PictureBox.. d'oh! you'll need to do this when you try the sample otherwise the statusbar doesn't move... that was another problem with the sample app )

On a side note, i've actually had to ignore VB's controls... so last night, I removed the VB StatusBar and replaced this with a modular object (declared with withevents) of a CJ StatusBar type, and assigned to this the CommandBars1.StatusBar and customised that. This seemed to work how I wanted it now, with the exception that the ShortcutBar I had (not a CJ Control) is now docked into a CJ window at runtime. That part is still causing me issues with re-sizing, so I might have to end up trying the CJ ShortcutBar to hopefully sort this all out!

It would still be nice to know why I can't get the standard VB Controls to play ball with the CJ ones though

Aaron, what are you saying don't work?

If using MDI and other aligned controls just use RepositionAlignedControls of Commandbars (if you use commandbars), not need if only DP.

Private Sub CommandBars_RepositionAlignedControls (Left As Long, Top As Long, Right As Long, Bottom As Long)
  CommandBars.MoveAlignedControl Picture1, Left, Top, Right, Bottom
End Sub

But this is not needed for standard vb statusbar if that is what you really want to use.  My code above will account for the standard vb statusbar.  I am not sure why you want it in a picturebox....

Guess I don't understand your problem.....the MDIDocking sample is EXACTLY what you just described Aaron.  Only Codejock control is DP in that sample.



As for aligned picture boxes WITHOUT commandbars...here is some code:

Private Sub DockingPaneManager_GetClientBordersWidth(Left As Long, Top As Long, Right As Long, Bottom As Long)
   
    Bottom = Picture1.Height
    Top = Picture2.Height
   
    If sbStatusBar.Visible Then
        Bottom = Bottom + sbStatusBar.Height
    End If
    If tbToolBar.Visible Then
        Top = Top + tbToolBar.Height
    End If
   
End Sub



If he does want CommandBars he just needs my RepositionAlignedControls code I already posted.

I don't understand....so you want to use our CommandBars or not?  Why would you want both ours and standard ugly vb menu\toolbar?

I miss a lot on UK time.... d'oh!

I'm moving my app from VB Menus to CJ Menus and have existing third-party controls on my MDI Form (so the StatusBar and ShortcutBar is not VB Standard ones, although i've tried to use those anyway to get this working without due course). The main reason this was required was so that we are implementing the russian language and VB6 controls don't support unicode.

I did drop on the commandbars object and it translated the existing menus great, but it lost the ShortcutBar for some reason. I chose a CommandBarFrame which failed miserably with the event for GetActiveDocumentID not firing... after a lot of messing I opted to use the dockingpane to solve this which thanks to earlier in the thread, got solved easily :)

This still in turn failed for the status bar though so I had to replace that now with CJ ones after looking through all the samples to find the right one but got that positioned ok now. I still have a sort of issue with the third-party control that's docked in the pane not displaying right when maximising/restoring the window which is a real pain. I tried putting the control in a picturebox, then putting the picturebox handle into the docking pane which crashed the VB IDE... so i think I might end up trying the CJ ShortcutBar.... if that works ok (as i've found CJ controls in commandbars don't display correctly anyway unless they are in a picturebox first anyway.. vb6 ones though work fine...)

I'll try the code suggestion that SuperMario has mentioned for the sample i uploaded to see if that fixes things, but I think some more sample apps are needed explaining these things more as the tutorials don't always help either. I might knock some up after this project and upload to help others on the simple first bits :)

I do agree with Aaron, that fixing these niggles would help loads to existing and potential new customers. We aren't having a rant (even though my post sound like it) as I personally like the structure of the controls, it's just the niggles of things that don't work properly really spoil the experience, but i'm sure you guys are sorting this out asap

EDIT: Tried SuperMarios code on the CJ DockingPanes MDI sample, it's still not worky

OK Aaron I see your question now (sorry, been busy preparing 13.4.1), but you guys must realize CB does not translate standard vb toolbars, only menus.  Which was one part of the sample that confused me.  I am not sure why you would want to keep the VB Toolbars.

Some important notes.

1. Aligned controls can only be positioned above\below Docking Panes, if you want DP then you should consider moving the aligned controls inside a DP or using a DialogBar.
2. Dialog Bars can't use a PictureBox with an Aligned property...to get around this you simply place a picturebox inside an aligned picturebox.  Then set the visibility of the aligned box to false and attache the non-aligned box to the DialogBar.

In short, if you use DP and CB and need aligned controls you need to decide to place them in a Pane or DialogBar.  My sample shows how to use the DialogBar to keep the ugly VB Toolbar and also shows the PictureBox "in" Picturebox method so it can be used with a DialogBar.

***Warning*** attaching an aligned picturebox to a dialogbar will crash VB...thus the above method.

uploads/369/frmMain.rar

*note you need to modify the vbp file to use 13.4.0 as I was using 13.4.1

Cheers guys, that clears up everything. 

With these in mind, would it be worth fixing up the samples so that these hints are in there for other customers (current/future) as it'd help in the long run :)

Thanks again SuperMario... hell of a workaround though lol!