Property list ActiveX control

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Important

The article is updated! See below for the changes!

Introduction

This property list control is similar to other property lists available, with two main differences:

1. It's very easy to implement.
2. It's implemented as an ActiveX control, so it's suitable for C++, C#, and VB as one. Also, it can be placed on an HTML page or any other container that supports ActiveX and script.

Reference

Properties

• BorderStyle As BorderStyle

  The border style of the control.

  BorderStyle enum:

• BorderNone = 0 - No border
• BorderRaized = 1 - EDGE_RAISED
• BorderSunken = 2 - EDGE_SUNKEN
• BorderFlat = 3 - BDR_RAISEDOUTER|BDR_RAISEDINNER, BF_FLAT
• BorderStatic = 4 - BDR_SUNKENINNER

• Precision As Short

  Overall precision of double values (* not used at the moment).

Methods

• Clear()

  Clears all the properties from control.

• AddProperty(BSTR Category, BSTR Caption, VARIANT Value, BSTR Description, buttonType ButtonType,VARIANT_BOOL IsEnabled)

  Adds new property to the control.

• Category - the category of the property.
• Caption - the caption (the string name of the property).
• Value - the property value (String, Short, Long, String array, DateTime, Picture etc...).
• Description - the text to display in the description window.
• ButtonType - the button type of the property (* applicable to edit controls, and DateTime control).
• IsEnabled - is the property enabled.

ButtonType enum:

• ButtonNone = 0 - no button
• ButtonElipsis = 1 - ellipsis button (three dots), edit control created.
• ButtonPick = 2 - pick button (arrow with x), edit control created.
• ButtonOpen = 3 - button opens a file open dialog, edit control created.
• ButtonLink = 4 - button opens the Explorer, edit control created.
• ButtonColor = 5 - button opens pick color dialog, color control created.
• ButtonMail = 6 - button opens new mail message, edit control created.
• ButtonLongDate = 7 - displays a date in long format, DateTime control created.
• ButtonShortDate = 8 - displays a date in short format, DateTime control created.
• ButtonTime = 9 - displays a time, DateTime control created.

• SetValue(BSTR PropertyName, VARIANT Value)

  Sets a value for single property.

• PropertyName - the name of the property to set the value for.
• Value - the value to set.

Events

• PropertyChanged(BSTR PropertyName, VARIANT NewValue)

  Fired on property change.

• PropertyName - the name of the property that changed.
• NewValue - the new value.

• ButtonClicked(BSTR PropertyName, short ButtonType, VARIANT* Value)

  Fired on button click allowing you to perform some custom action for the button, and set the value to a new one as the result of performed actions.

• PropertyName - the name of the property whose button was clicked.
• ButtonType - the type of the button.
• Value - passed ByRef (as pointer) allowing you to set a new value on function return.

* Note that some of the controls have a default action for button click, as the color button, linkbutton, mail button etc...

History

Update - 04/11/2004

New Properties

• ShowDescription As Boolean

  Controls display of the description (True/False).

New Methods

• CloseAll()

  Closes all the categories (useful if you'd like to start the list when all the categories are closed. You can fill the list then call CloseAll() to close the categories).

New button types

• ButtonMultyText = 10 - Creates a text window five rows high for multiple lines text.
• ButtonButton = 11 - Creates a button which occupies the entire row.
• ButtonFunction = 12 - Creates a property whose value is calculated from the provided function which may be based on other properties. For example:

  You have a property named Diameter and its value is 10. You add a function type property named area, click on its button, the "Enter function" dialog appears where you write - 3.14 * ([Diameter]/2)^2. After you close the dialog, the value displayed in the property would be: 78.5. If you now change the Diameter to 4, the Area property will automatically update to 12.56.

• ButtonPicture = -1 - The passed string is a path to an image file (you can also pass images as IDispatch interface).