Reordering MFC control IDs automatically - c++

I've got a pretty old MFC application that's been touched by many people over the years (most of them probably not even CS guys) and it follows, what I like to call the "anarchy design pattern."
Anyway, one of the dialogs has a series of 56 vertical sliders and check boxes. However, there are additional sliders and checkboxes on the dialog as shown below.
Now, the problem is that the additional sliders and checkboxes take on IDs that are in sequence with the slider/checkbox series of the dialog. My task is to add more sliders and checkboxes to the series (in the blank space in the Slider Control group box) Unfortunately, since IDC_SLIDER57 through IDC_SLIDER61 are already in the dialog (same goes for the checkboxes), existing code, such as the snippet below will break:
pVSlider = (CSliderCtrl *)GetDlgItem(IDC_SLIDER1+i);
Is there a better way to modify the resource file without doing it manually? I've seen a third party tool called ResOrg that looks like it'll help do what I want, but the software is a bit pricey, especially since I'll only use it once. I guess I can give the demo a try, but the limitations might restrict me.
FYI, I'm using Visual C++ 6.0 (yes...I know, don't laugh, it's being forced upon me).

Instead of writing:
pVSlider = (CSliderCtrl *)GetDlgItem(IDC_SLIDER1+i);
you could write:
pVSlider = (CSliderCtrl *)GetDlgItem(GetSliderID(i));
where GetSlider is a function that returns the id of slider number i.
GetSlider function
int GetSliderID(int nslider)
{
static int sliderids[] = {IDC_SLIDER1, IDC_SLIDER2, IDC_SLIDER3, .... IDC_SLIDERn};
ASSERT(nslider < _countof(sliderids));
return sliderids[nslider];
}
With this method the IDC_SLIDERn symbols dont need to have sequential values.

Related

QT - How can I make this array global for my GUI?

QSpinBox* spinright[size] = {ui->norm_spinBox_2,
ui->norm_spinBox_3,
ui->norm_spinBox_4,
ui->norm_spinBox_5,
ui->norm_spinBox_6,
ui->norm_spinBox_7,
ui->norm_spinBox_8};
I'd like to be able to access this array in two spots in my program. However, if there is a better alternative for this solution I’m all ears. I tried to create a function that could be called for this program; however it started to get long and dragged out that it was becoming less worth it to go this route.
This is how I've set up the Hierarchy. My overall attempt is to make some buttons appear and disappear when a button is pressed. If it's possible to make the vertical layouts disappear then this would be a better way to go.
In the end I'll take whatever solution, that may be offered here.
Thank you for your help.
void GuiTest::setLabelsVisible(int index, bool visible){
QLabel* labels[norm_size] = {ui->norm_label_2,
ui->norm_label_3,
ui->norm_label_4,
ui->norm_label_5,
ui->norm_label_6,
ui->norm_label_7,
ui->norm_label_8};
labels[index]->setVisible(visible);
}
the best way to do this, I found, would to go this direction. Instead of setting this list of objects as global just have separate functions that will manipulate the structure in some way.

Infragistics grid scrolling issue

I have this code, which works fine if a cell in the IgGrid control is being edited:
var verticalContainer = $("#BookLabor_scrollContainer");
var topPos = verticalContainer.scrollTop();
$("#BookLabor").igGrid("option", "dataSource", blankLaborDS);
$('#BookLabor').igGrid('dataBind');
verticalContainer.scrollTop(topPos);
However, when I use an IgDialog that I have pop open on a grid cell with a button click event, this is not scrolling back to the row being edited:
var verticalContainer = $("#BookLabor_scrollContainer");
var topPos = verticalContainer.scrollTop();
$("#BookLabor").igGrid("option", "dataSource", blankLaborDS);
$('#BookLabor').igGrid('dataBind');
verticalContainer.scrollTop(topPos);
There is a virtual scroll method for the IgGrid, but the online documentation does not explain in detail how to use it.
Any tricks, tips, hints from all you Infragistics experts out there?
The scroll related API is very basic and what you are using is pretty much comparable:
.igGrid("scrollContainer") is merely a shorthand so you don't have to use #BookLabor_scrollContainer (it's an internal id)
.igGrid("virtualScrollTo", scrollContainerTop); is just like scroll top when you are using virtual scrolling, which you might be (can't tell without more code) so you might want to try that out.
HOWEVER, is there a reason to call dataBind after cell edit? ( I'm having a hard time finding a scenario for that). It is not intended by any means and it creates a lot of overhead with bigger data. If you need to update cell values you should be using the Updating API that does not require re-bind and will not require scroll after as well..see:
http://help.infragistics.com/jQuery/2012.2/ui.iggridupdating#methods
As for the dialog, the Updating again provides a row template that internally uses the dialog and I highly recommend that if row editing is acceptable. Sample:
http://www.infragistics.com/products/jquery/sample/grid/row-edit-template

Qt User customizable hotkeys

I'm trying to design a Qt GUI application with user customize-able hotkeys. The main issue I'm running into is how to synchronize the hotkeys across the application since a particular hotkey (for example, copy) may be used by multiple widgets/components.
My current strategy is to use a reference class which holds a list of QKeySequence objects for each different hotkey. Each widget would have to have a way to reference this master list and have custom implementations of low-level the keyPressEvent which would compare inputted keys vs. the hotkeys. I don't particularly like this strategy, though, as it requires significant re-implimentation in each widget and feels like I'm trying to re-invent the wheel.
I also tried using QAction objects which can hold QKeySequence shortcuts internally, then use these to trigger higher-level events which I can handle using slots & signals. However, the main issue I have here is how to manage which slots signals get routed to.
For example, say I have 2 open widgets which can both receive a copy action signal. I can connect a slot for both of these to the same signal and take advantage of the single update point for shortcuts, but then things get messy since only the active widget should act on the copy signal, not both widgets. I can re-implement the focusOutEvent and focusInEvent handlers to connect/disconnect slots manually, but this also seems to run into the same issue above where I'm trying to re-invent the wheel and doing more work than is necessary.
Is there an easier way around this problem?
I don't think there is a particularly easy/non-tedious solution to this problem, but when I needed to add user-customizable hotkeys to my application, here is how I did it:
1) Start with your application that has hard-coded key shortcuts, e.g. code like this:
QMenu * editMenu = new QMenu;
QAction * copyItem = menu->addAction(tr("Copy"), this, SLOT(CopyData()));
copyItem->setShortcut(tr("Ctrl+C"));
2) Create a GetKeySequence() function that looks something like this:
static QHash<QString, QKeySequence> _usersKeyPreferences;
static bool _usersKeyPreferencesLoaded = false;
QKeySequence GetKeySequence(const QString & keySequence, const QString & contextStr)
{
if (_usersKeyPreferencesLoaded == false)
{
// Oops, time to load in the user's saved custom-key settings from a file somewhere
_usersKeyPreferences = LoadUsersKeyPreferencesFromFile();
_usersKeyPreferencesLoaded = true; // so we'll only try to load the file once
}
if (_usersKeyPreferences.contains(contextStr))
{
return _usersKeyPreferences[contextStr];
}
else
{
// No user preference specified? Okay, fall back to using the
// hard-coded default key sequence instead.
return QKeySequence(qApp->translate(contextStr, keySequence));
}
}
3) Now the tedious part: grovel over all of your code, and anywhere you've specified a key-sequence explicitly (like in the third line of the code shown for step 1), wrap it with a call to GetKeySequence(), like this:
copyItem->setShortcut(GetKeySequence(tr("Ctrl+C"), tr("Edit_Menu|Copy")));
4) At this point, your program's key-sequences will be customizable; just make sure that the key-settings-file is present on disk before GUI-creation code runs. Here's an excerpt from my program's key-mappings file (which I store as a simple ASCII text file):
Edit_Menu|Copy = Ctrl+C
Edit_Menu|Cut = Ctrl+X
Edit_Menu|Paste = Ctrl+V
[... and so on for all other menu items, etc...]
... of course one downside to this approach is that once the GUI is created, the key-bindings can't be modified "on the fly" (at least, not without a lot of additional coding). My program gets around this simply by closing and then re-creating all windows after the user clicks "Save and Apply" in the Edit Key Bindings dialog.
5) An optional further step (which is some extra work up front but saves time in the long run) is to write a program (or script) that greps all the .cpp files in your program's codebase looking for calls GetKeySequence() in the code. When it finds a GetKeySequence() call, it parses out the two arguments to the call and prints them as a line in a key-bindings file with the default settings. This is useful because you can make this script part of your autobuild, and thereafter you'll never have to remember to manually update the default key-settings-file whenever you add a new menu item (or other key-sequence specifier) to your program.
This worked well for me, anyway. The advantage is that you don't have to refactor your existing program at all; you can just go through it inserting GetKeySequence() as necessary while leaving the larger logic/structure of the program intact.

MFC: Displaying a tabulated display of text items

This should be simple it seems but I can't quite get it to work. I want a control (I guess CListBox or CListCtrl) which displays text strings in a nice tabulated way.
As items are added, they should be added along a row until that row is full, and then start a new row. Like typing in your wordprocessor - when the line is full, items start being added to the next line, and the control can scroll vertically.
What I get when trying with a list-mode CListCtrl is a single row which just keeps growing, with a horizontal scroll bar. I can't see a way to change that, there must be one?
You probably need a list control wth LVS_REPORT. If you expect the user to add items interactively using a keyboard, you probably need a data grid, not a list. Adding editing to list control subitems is not easy, and it would be easier to start from CWnd. Search "MFC Data Grid" to find some open source class libraries that implemented the feature.
If you can afford adding /clr to your program, you can try the data grid classes in Windows Forms using MFC's Windows Form hosting support. You will find a lot more programming resources on data grid classes in Windows Forms than any other third-party MFC data grid class library.
If you use CRichEditCtrl you can set it to word-wrap, take a look at this snippet extracted from:
http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Development/microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ui/2004-03/0111.html
(I've derived my own QRichEditCtrl from the MFC CRichEditCtrl,
and here's the relevant code:)
void QRichEditCtrl::SetWordWrap(bool bWrap)
{
RECT r;
GetWindowRect(&r);
CDC * pDC = GetDC();
long lLineWidth = 9999999; // This is the non-wrap width
if (bWrap)
{
lLineWidth = ::MulDiv(pDC->GetDeviceCaps(PHYSICALWIDTH),
1440, pDC->GetDeviceCaps(LOGPIXELSX));
}
SetTargetDevice(*GetDC(), lLineWidth);
}

Infragistics grid "on-demand" appearance

We're using Infragistics grid (most probably, we'll have 8.2 version at the end) and we want to configure row/cells appearances "on-demand" in order to be able to provide sort of "dynamic appearance".
For example, I want some cell to be red or green, depending on its value. We might want to tweak other characteristics as well (font, size, image, etc).
A perfect place to do it would be some event, that happen before a cell gets repainted... But it seems there is no such event in Infragistics...
Or am I wrong? Any help?
Clarification: I'm talking about WinForms Infragistics UltraGrid
I had to do exactly this with the IG WebGrid a few years back, and it was ... shall we say ... painful. However, the WebGrid had the advantage of a single render point -- once the HTML was emitted, we were set!
For dealing with this in WinGrid, I tried a variety of different events, both on the grid and the datasource, and met with abject failure every step of the way. The only event I got to work was Paint, which will likely create a performance issue.
For Paint, here's what I hacked together. I'm not proud of this code, and I likely wouldn't put it in production, but here it is anyway (C#):
private void UltraGrid1_Paint(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs e)
{
foreach (UltraGridRow r in UltraGrid1.Rows)
{
foreach (UltraGridCell c in r.Cells)
{
if (c.Text == "foo")
c.Appearance.BackColor = Color.Green;
}
}
}
and VB:
Private Sub UltraGrid1_Paint(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles UltraGrid1.Paint
For Each r As UltraGridRow In UltraGrid1.Rows
For Each c As UltraGridCell In r.Cells
If c.Text = "foo" Then
c.Appearance.BackColor = Color.Green
End If
Next
Next
End Sub
There is an event. I don't remember exactly what it's called, but it's got to be something like 'DataRowBound' or 'ItemDataBinding', etc..
Also, this article might help.
Not that this has anything to do with your question, but I'd stay away from heavy use of Infragistics controls - they're very heavy and will slow down the page rendering process considerably. Just my $0.02.
We have finally come up with two solutions for that problem.
For some of the dynamic content we use grid elements appearance and reinitialize it "on-demand".
For the extremely resource-critical appearance we use UltraGrid.DrawFilter (see also IUIElementDrawFilter interface).