How to customize CMFCMenuBar in an MFC application

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;

I tried to update the CMenu* returned by GetMenu but no change reflected on the menubar — ahmedsafan86, Dec 29 '13 at 10:55

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 29 '13 at 11:08

2

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.

answered Dec 29 '13 at 11:08

sliser

1,645
11
15

InsertButton method is protected. – ahmedsafan86 Dec 29 '13 at 12:37
you are right, I was looking at the version of pointer InsertButton(CMFCToolBarMenuButton*.....) not the one of const ref InsertButton(const CMFCToolBarMenuButton&.....), yes you are right – ahmedsafan86 Dec 30 '13 at 07:58

darune · Answer 2 · 2017-08-14T14:27:50.537

1

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*/)

edited Aug 14 '17 at 14:27

answered Aug 14 '17 at 14:20

darune

10,480
2
24
62

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 18 '14 at 18:24

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; } }

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 29 '13 at 11:01

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;
}

I need full customization adding new items, deleting existing ones, not just text, I can change text, but not adding or removing. — ahmedsafan86, Dec 29 '13 at 12:34
@ahmedsafan86 I apologize about my careless. I do not have any method about that also. I hope you already solve this. Thanks. — hyun, Dec 30 '13 at 00:29

How to customize CMFCMenuBar in an MFC application

4 Answers4