I am working with a Windows C++ API which mentions MFC Dialog Extension.
What is an MFC Dialog Extension?
I have always used Linux and the resources I found online were confusing.
MFC Dialog extension is using to create GUI(s) using drag and drop options which are available in the visual studio
Related
I would like to build an application using C++, but I am facing a problem with the GUI. is there a simple way to make a user interface just by adding and drops buttons and labels like in Java ? Some told me to use QT but I want to use visual studio. Is it possible?
Visual Studio has a Resource Editor, that allows you to drag/drop various controls from the Toolbox panel onto your dialog. You don't really need MFC support for that.
You can use an App Wizard to create new project of a Win32 type, open its .rc file, add new dialog and start experimenting.
I am new to ActiveX Controls, though I have some basic background in COM/ATL programming.
Steps
The project is a simple Win32 project created using the Visual Studio 2012 wizard. I have selected all the default options. The dialog box is created using the resource editor dialog and then selecting new dialog option.
Problem
In my application I want to host the Internet Explorer (or some other) activex control in a dialog box. But the problem is that when I right click (as suggested by many sites and even msdn) the insert activex control ... is always disabled. I am not using MFC, but instead CAxDialogImpl (as described here).
Please suggest what I am doing wrong? How can I enable insert activex control ... in Visual Studio 2012 dialog editor?
I took considerable time to enable it, but the answer is simple: remove the macro "_APS_NO_MFC" in "resource.h" file.
A plain Win32 dialog does not have ActiveX container support, so the resource editor will not let you add the control.
You'll need to create a second project like an MFC dialog-based app, then copy the control information from its RC file.
CodeProject has some articles on using ActiveX controls without MFC, such as this one using parts of ATL - Win32 dialog helpers or this one that's pure C++ but similar to ATL's AxWindow - Use an ActiveX control in your Win32...
This is very weird - I link to a non-Qt DLL in my project, and that DLL shows a dialog.
When I compile my project using Qt Creator+MinGW, the dialog is unthemed - it has the Win98/Classic style rectangular controls.
When I import that same project in Visual Studio 2010 using Qt Addin, and compile and run it, without making any changes to the project, the dialog shown from the DLL has the normal Win7 theme look (I'm on Win7).
This affects only dialogs shown by the DLL - all dialogs shown by the EXE itself are themed correctly.
The version of Qt I link to is 4.8.1, both for Qt Creator and for VS2010.
What might be causing this strange behavior?
That's probably because Visual Studio by default include a manifest file in your executable, with the necessary stuff to initialize it. A manifest is required for the theme of the gui to be the one of the OS (XP, Vista, 7). See this answer and this MSDN article.
Note that it does not concern Qt gui, as the rendering of Qt widgets is not done through OS renderer but via QStyle.
i have been a C# developer for a long-time now so i have huge experience with Winforms. i wanted to start VC++ development so that i can write native apps.
I know C++ very well. The problem is i have made test projects in VS2010, Win32 Application, MFC Applications and all, it doesn't provide a Visual Designer like there is for VC# Winforms and VC++ Winforms as well. i want to have a Visual designer for Native App Development like for Win32 Apps.
Is it possible?
How to do it?
There is a dialog designer for MFC. Provided you setup your project correctly, you can use the designer to layout your MFC windows. See this answer for details.
For other libraries, there are other options, as well. For example, Qt Creator allows you to visually design Qt windows via Qt Designer.
The MFC Application Wizard disables visual styles for dialog based applications.
But why?
Regardless of the wizard, can I still use the visual styles in my dialog based application (it includes toolbar and menubar)?
Thank you!
I think there's a little confusion here.
The greyed out drop-down is title "Visual Styles and colors" in my English version of VS2008. Being greyed out means that you can't modify its value, but it still reports that the resulting app will use "Windows Native/Default". When you go on and create the app and run it, themes are fully supported.
For the other application type options (single document, multiple document, multiple top-level documents), and select other non-system themes. The list is: Office 2003, VS 2005, Office 2007 of various different colors.
So whilst you don't get these non-standard Office themes, your app will have visual styles and themes as determined by the Windows settings.