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• Release mode Executable - 5 KB
• VC++ 6.0 Project Source - 27 KB

Introduction

Someone ucancode.neted in the VC++ forum how they can add a status bar to a dialog and I foolishly replied saying that all they had to do was to have a CStatusBar member in their dialog class and that they should call Create() from the OnInitDialog() handler. Then someone else replied saying that it didn't work and then I tried it out myself and to my horror found that nothing happened. Anyhow I just realized, it's not too complicated a tucancode.net. I thought I'd write a small article on adding a status bar to a dialog. There is an MSDN sample that does this too, but they derive a class from CStatusBar and do some complicated stuff which is not required for the usual simple things we do with status bars.

Eight simple steps

Step 1

I assume that you have a dialog based MFC application ready for use. Take Resource Symbols from the View menu and add two new symbols, ID_INDICATOR_NISH and ID_INDICATOR_TIME. You can use the default values that VS 6 suggests, but sometimes it might suggest an already used value, in which case you might have to manually change it. I had to anyway. I wonder if this is a known bug.

Step 2

Open your String Table and add the two entries there as well - ID_INDICATOR_NISH and ID_INDICATOR_TIME. And set some default values, whatever you want to use. It doesn't really matter.

Step 3

Add a CStatusBar member to your main dialog class.

CStatusBar m_bar;

Step 4

Open the corresponding cpp file and add the following on top of the file :-

static UINT BASED_CODE indicators[] =
{
    ID_INDICATOR_NISH,
    ID_INDICATOR_TIME
};

Step 5

Now we have to create our status bar. A nice place to do this would be in the OnInitDialog function of our CDialog derived class.

m_bar.Create(this); //We create the status bar

m_bar.SetIndicators(indicators,2); //Set the number of panes 

CRect rect;
GetClientRect(&rect);
//Size the two panes
m_bar.SetPaneInfo(0,ID_INDICATOR_NISH, 
    SBPS_NORMAL,rect.Width()-100);      
m_bar.SetPaneInfo(1,ID_INDICATOR_TIME,SBPS_STRETCH ,0);

//This is where we actually draw it on the screen
RepositionBars(AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_FIRST,AFX_IDW_CONTROLBAR_LAST,
    ID_INDICATOR_TIME);

Step 6 - background color

By the end of Step 5, we actually have a status bar on screen. The two panes show the default values we set in our string table. But now say, you want to change the background color. This is wholly optional of course. You can add this line to the OnInitDialog(...)

m_bar.GetStatusBarCtrl().SetBkColor(RGB(180,180,180));

Note that we had to get the underlying status bar control to call the SetBkColor function.

Step 7 - adding the clock

Say, you want the right pane to show the current time. First set a timer. Just add this line to the OnInitDialog(...)

SetTimer(100,1000,NULL);

Now add the following code to the WM_TIMER handler

void CDlgStatusBarDlg::OnTimer(UINT nIDEvent) 
{
    if(nIDEvent==100) 
    {
        CTime t1;
        t1=CTime::GetCurrentTime();
        m_bar.SetPaneText(1,t1.Format("%H:%M:%S"));
    }
    CDialog::OnTimer(nIDEvent);
}

Step 8 - showing X and Y co-ordinates

Say, you want to show the X,Y co-ordinates of the mouse as it moves along your dialog. What you need to do is to override OnMouseMove.

void CDlgStatusBarDlg::OnMouseMove(UINT nFlags, CPoint point) 
{
    CString s;
    s.Format("X=%d Y=%d",point.x,point.y);
    m_bar.SetPaneText(0,s);
    CDialog::OnMouseMove(nFlags, point);
}