How to customize CMFCMenuBar in an MFC application - c++

Question

Is there a way to create dynamic menu items in the menu bar of an MFC applications created with visual studio 2008 style with menus not ribbon, I have plugins that add their menus dynamically how can I add them to that menu??? I see
//this is the menubar that i want to update
CMFCMenuBar m_wndMenuBar;

Answer 1

At first you have to create a new submenu. It can be filled by hand or loaded from resources.
Then create a new menu button and attach submenu to it. After that update the menu bar. That's it.
CMenu menu;
if(menu.LoadMenu(IDR_MY_MENU))
{
m_wndMenuBar.InsertButton(CMFCToolBarMenuButton(0, menu, -1, _T("&MyMenu")), -1);
m_wndMenuBar.AdjustLayout();
m_wndMenuBar.AdjustSizeImmediate();
}
P.S. menu may be local because CMFCToolBarMenuButton constructor copy content from it.

Answer 2

You probably need to override:
CMDIFrameWndEx::OnShowPopupMenu(CMFCPopupMenu* pMenuPopup)
and put a placeholder menu item where you need a dynamic menu, then replace the placeholder menu item with your dynamic menu.
For an example look into the source code shipping with MFC:
afxframeimpl.cpp
BOOL CFrameImpl::OnShowPopupMenu(CMFCPopupMenu* pMenuPopup, CFrameWnd* /*pWndFrame*/)

Answer 3

The ideal way is probably to completely build a CMenu object, and then assign it to the menu bar: This makes the code almost compatible with the previous versions of VisualStudio.
Declare a pointer to an instance of CMenu in CMainFrame definition:
CMenu *m_pMainMenu
Set it to NULL in CMainFrame constructor:
m_pMainMenu = NULL;
In CMainFrame::OnCreate(), create an instance of CMenu assuming it was NULL before:
SAFE_DELETE(m_pMainMenu);
m_pMainMenu = new CMenu;
Modify it at will with:
pMainMenu->LoadMenu(),
pMainMenu->RemoveMenu(),
pMainMenu->AppendMenu(),
pMainMenu->InsertMenu(),
...
Finally, associate the menu toolbar with this new menu by using CreateFromMenu:
m_wndMenuBar.CreateFromMenu(m_pMainMenu->m_hMenu);
Don't forget to release m_pMainMenu in CMainFrame destructor to avoid leaks:
SAFE_DELETE(m_pMainMenu)
Note: This is a very handy and safe macro:
#define SAFE_DELETE(a) { if (a) { delete(a); a=NULL; } }

Answer 4

You can use UPDATE_COMMAND_UI in property view window.
Let's say, you put a 'Text Capture' menu with 'ID_TEXTCAPTURE', and then you want to change the menu with 'Stop Capture'.
-in message map
BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CChildFrame, CMDIChildWndEx)
ON_WM_CREATE()
ON_UPDATE_COMMAND_UI(ID_TEXTCAPTURE, &CChildFrame::OnUpdateTextcapture)
END_MESSAGE_MAP()
-event handler
void CChildFrame::OnUpdateTextcapture(CCmdUI *pCmdUI)
{
if(pCmdUI->m_pMenu)
{
int pos;
CMenu* mmenu = pCmdUI->m_pMenu;
pos = FindMenuItem(mmenu, _T("Text Capture(&C)"));
if (pos > -1 && IsCapture == TRUE)
{
UINT id = mmenu->GetMenuItemID(pos);
//change menu text as 'Stop Capture'
mmenu->ModifyMenu(id, MF_BYCOMMAND, id, _T("Stop Capture(&S)"));
IsCapture = TRUE;
}
}
}
CChildFrame::FindMenuItem(CMenu* Menu, LPCTSTR MenuString)
{
ASSERT(Menu);
ASSERT(::IsMenu(Menu->GetSafeHmenu()));
int count = Menu->GetMenuItemCount();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
CString str;
if (Menu->GetMenuString(i, str, MF_BYPOSITION) && str.Compare(MenuString) == 0)
return i;
}
return -1;
}