Adding a docking pane to your application

The following is a tutorial on how to create an MDI application with Docking Pane using the Visual Studio 6.0 Application Wizard. The same technique can be used for later versions of Visual Studio . NET as well.

Create a simple MDI application using the MFC AppWizard:

1. From Visual Studio select ‘File’ then ‘New’ and select the ‘Projects’ tab.
2. Choose MFC Appwizard(exe) as your project type and enter ‘MDISample’ as the project name.
   
3. For the first step, make sure that "Multiple documents" is selected then press the ‘Finish’ button.

Add Empty Docking Pane

1. Add the following line to your StdAfx.h file:

   Toolkit Pro users:

    #include <XTToolkitPro.h> // Toolkit Pro components
   

   Docking Pane users:

    #include <XTDockingPanePro.h> // Docking Pane components
   

2. Add CXTPDockingPaneManager member to CMainFrame class.

    // Attributes
    public:
        CXTPDockingPaneManager m_paneManager;
   

3. Add string resources for the titles of the future panes

       IDR_PANE_OPTIONS 61446 "Options"
       PROPERTIES       61447 "Properties"
   

4. Add following to CMainFrame::OnCreate.

        // Initialize the docking pane manager and set the
        // initial them for the docking panes.  Do
        // this only after all control bars objects have been
        // created and docked.
        m_paneManager.InstallDockingPanes(this);
        m_paneManager.SetTheme(xtpPaneThemeOffice);
   
        // Create docking panes.
        CXTPDockingPane* pwndPane1 = m_paneManager.CreatePane(
            IDR_PANE_OPTIONS, CRect(0, 0,200, 120), dockLeftOf);
        CXTPDockingPane* pwndPane2 = m_paneManager.CreatePane(
            IDR_PANE_PROPERTIES, CRect(0, 0,200, 120),
                dockBottomOf, pwndPane1);
   

   

Attach CWnd derived class to the panes:

1. Add Cwnd derived class as member of CMainFrame.

   // Attributes
   public:
   
       CStatic m_wndOptions;
       CEdit m_wndProperties;
       </pre>
   
           <li>Add OnDockingPaneNotify handler.</li>
           <pre class="code">
           BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CMainFrame, CMDIFrameWnd)
               //{{AFX_MSG_MAP(CMainFrame)
               ON_WM_CREATE()
               //}}AFX_MSG_MAP
               ON_MESSAGE(XTPWM_DOCKINGPANE_NOTIFY,
                   OnDockingPaneNotify)
           END_MESSAGE_MAP()
   
           LRESULT CMainFrame::OnDockingPaneNotify(WPARAM
               wParam, LPARAM lParam)
       {
           if (wParam == XTP_DPN_SHOWWINDOW)
           {
               CXTPDockingPane* pPane =
                       (CXTPDockingPane*)lParam;
   
           if (!pPane->IsValid())
           {
               switch (pPane->GetID())
               {
               case IDR_PANE_PROPERTIES:
                   {
                       if (
                       m_wndProperties.GetSafeHwnd() == 0)
                       {
                           m_wndProperties.Create(WS_CHILD|
                               ES_AUTOVSCROLL|ES_MULTILINE,
                               CRect(0, 0, 0, 0), this, 0);
                       }
                       pPane->Attach(&m_wndProperties);
                       break;
                   }
               case IDR_PANE_OPTIONS:
                   {
                       if (m_wndOptions.GetSafeHwnd() == 0)
                       {
                           m_wndOptions.Create(_T("\n\nOptions"),
                               WS_CHILD|WS_CLIPCHILDREN|
                               WS_CLIPSIBLINGS|SS_CENTER,
                               CRect(0, 0, 0, 0), this, 0);
                       }
                       pPane->Attach(&m_wndOptions);
                       break;
                   }
               }
               }
               return TRUE;
           }
           return FALSE;
       }
   

   

Add image to pane.

1. Create Bitmap with icons for created panes:
   
2. Add to CMainFrame::OnCreate.

        nt nIDIcons[] = {IDR_PANE_OPTIONS, IDR_PANE_PROPERTIES};
        m_paneManager.SetIcons(IDB_BITMAP_ICONS, nIDIcons,
            _countof(nIDIcons), RGB(0, 255, 0));
   

   

Add Save/Load State

1. Add following to the OnCreate function for CMainFrame. This will restore the previous state of docking panes.

   int CMainFrame::OnCreate(LPCREATESTRUCT lpCreateStruct)
   {
       ...
   
           // Load the previous state for docking panes.
           CXTPDockingPaneLayout layoutNormal(&m_paneManager);
       if (layoutNormal.Load(_T("NormalLayout")))
       {
           m_paneManager.SetLayout(&layoutNormal);
       }
       return 0;
   }
   

2. Add the OnClose message handler to CMainFrame and the following before the call to the base class. This will save the current state of your docking pane.

   void CMainFrame::OnClose()
   {
       // Save the current state for docking panes.
       CXTPDockingPaneLayout layoutNormal(&m_paneManager);
       m_paneManager.GetLayout(&layoutNormal);
       layoutNormal.Save(_T("NormalLayout"));
       CMDIFrameWnd::OnClose();
   }