Introduction
I decided I needed a combination Groupbox and Checkbox control. I
wanted all of the controls that lie inside the groupbox to become
enabled/disabled in response to a click of a checkbox that is associated with
the groupbox.
Background
I jumped right in and started writing one. When I bogged down I went looking
to see if anyone else had tried this. After examining Ming Liu's code from his
article "CGroupCheck - Checkbox associated with a groupbox" I solved my
problems. I owe him a debt of gratitude for paving the way for me, although I
took a different approach to the problem.
Using the code
Simply add a groupbox to your dialog, and give it an ID (change the default
id of IDC_STATIC
to something else).
Put all of the controls you want it to enable/disable inside the groupbox.
All of the control's client areas must lie completely inside the
groupbox.
Create a member variable of type CButton
using class wizard.
Change the CButton
to CGroupCheckBox
in the header
file.
DDX_
CGroupCheckBox
also defines a custom DDX_
function,
void
AFXAPI DDX_GroupCheck(CDataExchange* pDX, int nIDC, int& value)
, that you
can add to the dialogs DoDataExchange()
function. Simply create a
public BOOL
variable such as m_bIgnore
and do as done below:
void CGroupCheckBoxDemoDlg::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
{
CDialog::DoDataExchange(pDX);
DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_GROUP2, m_ctlIgnore);
DDX_GroupCheck(pDX, IDC_GROUP2, m_bIgnore);
}
Styles
Notice the above dialog contains two styles of CGroupCheckBox
. The one labeled Touch All enables/disables all of its contained controls
and is created by default.
The other, labeled Ignore Static IDs, enables/disables only those
controls whose IDs are not IDC_STATIC
. This style is set with a call to
the member function SetStyle()
.
SetStyle()
is the only call you need to make, and then it is
only needed to change from the default style.
Example of usage from the above app:
BOOL CGroupCheckBoxDemoDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
CDialog::OnInitDialog();
m_ctlIgnore.SetStyle(CGroupCheckBox::TCH_IGNORE);
return TRUE;
}
Points of Interest
OGX file
I find that the easiest way to reuse my classes is to add them to the
Component Gallery. Those classes are then available to you via Class
Wizard.
In the case of CGroupCheckBox
, you can create a member variable of this type
with class wizard. The demo program also uses my CGlyphButton
that I wrote another article on
previously. It is also available as an OGX file.