Class

DesktopToolbar

Description

Used to create a toolbar in a window. The DesktopToolbar control is supported on all desktop platforms.

Methods

Name

Parameters

Returns

Shared

AcceptFileDrop

FileType As String

AcceptPictureDrop

AcceptRawDataDrop

Type As String

AcceptTextDrop

AddButton

button As DesktopToolbarItem

AddButtonAt

index As Integer, button As DesktopToolbarItem

ButtonAt

index As Integer

DesktopToolbarItem

Close

Count

Integer

DrawInto

g As Graphics, x As Integer, y As Integer

Refresh

immediately As Boolean = False

x As Integer, y As Integer, width As Integer, height As Integer, immediately As Boolean = False

RemoveButtonAt

index As Integer

SetFocus

Property descriptions

DesktopToolbar.AllowAutoDeactivate

AllowAutoDeactivate As Boolean

Determines whether the control should be deactivated (on macOS) when the parent window is deactivated. The default is True.

DesktopToolbar.AllowTabStop

AllowTabStop As Boolean

If True, the control is in the Tab Order and accepts the focus when the user tabs into it. The default is True. If False, the user cannot tab into it to give it the focus. However, the control can gain the focus by other means, such as the user's clicking on it or by setting the focus in code.

This example removes the control from the Tab Order:

Me.AllowTabStop = False

DesktopToolbar.Enabled

Enabled As Boolean

Determines if the control should be enabled when the owning window is opened.

A disabled control cannot be clicked and cannot receive the focus.

This example disables the control.

Me.Enabled = False

DesktopToolbar.Handle

Handle As Ptr

Returns a handle to the control.

This property is read-only.

For interfacing with Mac APIs using Declares, DesktopControl.Handle returns NSViews (except for DesktopToolbar).

On Windows returns the HWND of the control.

On Linux it returns a GtkWidget.

The following gets a handle to the control.

Var p As Ptr = Me.Handle

DesktopToolbar.Height

Height As Integer

The height (in points) of the control.

This example sets the height of the control to 100:

Me.Height = 100

DesktopToolbar.Index

Index As Integer

If the control is used in a control set, this specifies the control's index in the set.

This property is read-only.

DesktopToolbar.Name

Name As String

The name of the control. Set the name of the control in the Inspector.

This property is read-only.

DesktopToolbar.Parent

Parent As Object

Used to get and set the control's parent control or window.

If the control is on the window, the Parent will be the Window. If the control is on the container, the Parent will be the container. If the control is completed enclosed by another control, the Parent will be that control.

If you do not want the enclosing control to be the parent, set the Parent property of that control to Nil to make it the Window.

If the parent control is somehow in another window, an InvalidParentException will occur.

The following example sets the parent of the control to the window.

Me.Parent = Nil

DesktopToolbar.Tooltip

Tooltip As String

Text of help message displayed as a Windows or Linux "tooltip" or macOS help tag.

The tip/tag is displayed when the user hovers the mouse cursor over the control.

This example adds a tooltip to a control:

Me.Tooltip = "Click to bark."

DesktopToolbar.Transparent

Transparent As Boolean

Determines whether the control is transparent on Windows. The default is False. Has no effect on macOS or Linux.

Transparent controls draw more slowly and use more memory in order to cache the background. Unless you absolutely require transparency, leave this set to False.

For projects that were created prior to 2018r1, this property defaults to True to emulate previous behavior. Consider changing it to False to improve performance if you do not require transparency.

DesktopToolbar.Visible

Visible As Boolean

Determines whether the control is visible when its owning window is opened. The default is True: the control is visible.

The following code makes the control invisible:

Me.Visible = False

DesktopToolbar.Width

Width As Integer

The width (in points) of the control.

The following example resizes the control:

Me.Width = 200

DesktopToolbar.Window

Window As DesktopWindow

The control's parent window.

This property is read-only.

This code gets the parent window's Title property.

MessageBox(Me.Window.Title)

Method descriptions

DesktopToolbar.AcceptFileDrop

AcceptFileDrop(FileType As String)

Permits documents of type FileType to be dropped on the control. FileType must be a file type that you defined in via the FileType class or the File Type Sets Editor.

This code in the Opening event makes it possible for the user to drop either a picture or a file that is a jpeg image. The File Type Sets editor was used to define the “image/jpeg” file type. It is one of the “Common File Types” that is available in the editor.

Me.AcceptPictureDrop
Me.AcceptFileDrop("image/jpeg")

To restrict file drops to just folders (and not files), you can put this code in the DragEnter event:

If Not obj.FolderItem.IsFolder Then Return True

DesktopToolbar.AcceptPictureDrop

AcceptPictureDrop

Permits pictures to be dropped on the control.

If a control should accept pictures in a drag and drop, then AcceptPictureDrop needs to be called prior to the drop. Typically, it is in the Opening event of the control itself. For example, the line:

Me.AcceptPictureDrop

in the Opening event of the control that will receive the dragged pictures is needed. When the picture is dropped, the DropObject event is called and this is where you will put your code to handle the drop.

Opening Event:

Me.AcceptPictureDrop

DropObject Event:

If obj.PictureAvailable Then
  Me.Backdrop = obj.Picture
End If

DesktopToolbar.AcceptRawDataDrop

AcceptRawDataDrop(Type As String)

Permits data (of the Type specified) to be dropped on the control.

The following specfies a generic file type defined in the File Type Sets editor.

Me.AcceptRawDataDrop("????")

DesktopToolbar.AcceptTextDrop

AcceptTextDrop

Permits text to be dropped on the control.

This line in the Opening event of a control that can accept dragged text.

Me.AcceptTextDrop

DesktopToolbar.AddButton

AddButton(button As DesktopToolbarItem)

Adds the passed DesktopToolbarItem as the last element of the DesktopToolbar.

DesktopToolbar.AddButtonAt

AddButtonAt(index As Integer, button As DesktopToolbarItem)

Inserts the passed DesktopToolbarItem in the position indicated by Index.

DesktopToolbar.ButtonAt

ButtonAt(index As Integer) As DesktopToolbarItem

Returns the DesktopToolbarItem specified by Index.

DesktopToolbar.Close

Close

Closes a control.

Closing a control permanently removes the control from memory, making it impossible to access. You can close both non-indexed controls and indexed controls. When you close an indexed control, the indexes for the remaining controls will shift downward so that the indexes start with zero and are consecutive.

The following code closes the control. When this is executed from a visible control, the control disappears from the window.

Me.Close

DesktopToolbar.Count

Count As Integer

The number of ToolItems in the DesktopToolbar.

DesktopToolbar.DrawInto

DrawInto(g As Graphics, x As Integer, y As Integer)

Draws the contents of the control into the specified Graphics context. The parameters x and y are the coordinates of the top, left corner.

Note

DrawInto will only work if the control is on a window or container.

This example draws the current control into the Graphics of a Picture and then displays it as the Backdrop of a Canvas:

Var p As New Picture(Me.Width, Me.Height)
Me.DrawInto(p.Graphics, 0, 0)
Canvas1.Backdrop = p

DesktopToolbar.Refresh

Refresh(immediately As Boolean = False)

Redraws the portion specified of the contents of the control the next time the OS redraws the control or immediately if True is passed.

If you are calling this so frequently that you experience a slowdown in your code, pass True for the immediately parameter.

Calling this method causes the Render event to fire.

Refresh the entire area immediately:

Me.Refresh(True)

DesktopToolbar.Refresh

Refresh(x As Integer, y As Integer, width As Integer, height As Integer, immediately As Boolean = False)

Redraws the portion specified of the contents of the control the next time the OS redraws the control or immediately if True is passed.

Refresh a portion of the area the next time the OS redraws the control:

Me.Refresh(100, 150, 200, 300)

DesktopToolbar.RemoveButtonAt

RemoveButtonAt(index As Integer)

Removes the passed item from the DesktopToolbar.

DesktopToolbar.SetFocus

SetFocus

If applicable, sets the focus to the DesktopUIControl. KeyDown events are directed to the control.

If the control cannot get the focus on the platform on which the application is running, SetFocus does nothing. The SetFocus method of the DesktopWindow class or the ClearFocus method can be used to remove the focus from the control that currently has the focus, leaving no control with the focus.

Note

On the Mac you need Full Keyboard Access turned on in System Preferences (Keyboard->Shortcuts) in order to manually set focus to non-text controls.

The following example in the Opening event sets the focus to the that control. If another control has the focus when this line is executed, then the user sees this control gets the focus.

Me.SetFocus

Event descriptions

DesktopToolbar.Closing

Closing

The control is closing.

DesktopToolbar.ContextualMenuItemSelected

ContextualMenuItemSelected(HitItem As DesktopMenuItem) As Boolean

Fires when a contextual menuitem selectedItem was selected but the MenuItemSelected event and the MenuHandler for the DesktopMenuItem did not handle the menu selection.

This event gives you a chance to handle the menu selection by inspecting the menuitem's Text or Tag properties to see which item was selected. Use this in conjunction with ConstructContextualMenu if you have not specified the MenuItemSelected event or the Menu Handler for the items on the contextual menu. See the example of a contextual menu in the examples for the DesktopUIControl class.

Return True if this event has handled the item the user chose from the contextual menu. Returning False will cause the control's parent to execute its ContextualMenuItemSelected event. This can be handy if you have the same contextual menu for several controls who share the same Parent (several on the same window for example). By returning False you can handle them all in a single event.

This simple event handler displays the value of the selected menu item.

If selectedItem <> Nil Then MessageBox(selectedItem.Text)
Return True

DesktopToolbar.FocusLost

FocusLost

The control has lost the focus.

Note

On macOS, controls other than text fields and lists will accept and lose focus only if the full keyboard access option is enabled in System Preferences/Keyboard.

DesktopToolbar.FocusReceived

FocusReceived

The control has received the focus and has a selection rectangle around it.

Note

On macOS, controls other than text fields and lists will accept focus only if the full keyboard access option is enabled in System Preferences/Keyboard.

DesktopToolbar.MenuItemSelected

MenuItemSelected(item As DesktopToolbarItem, selectedItem As DesktopMenuItem)

The selectedItem was selected from the menu associated with the item.

DesktopToolbar.MouseDown

MouseDown(X As Integer, Y As Integer) As Boolean

The mouse button was pressed inside the control's region at the location passed in to x, y.

This event fires repeatedly while the mouse button is being held down.

The coordinates x and y are local to the control, i.e. they represent the position of the mouse click relative to the upper-left corner or the control.

Return True if you are going to handle the MouseDown. In such a case:

  • The Pressed event, if any, will not execute and the state of the object will not change.

  • You will receive the MouseUp event.

If you return False, the system handles the MouseDown so the MouseUp event handler do not get called.

The MouseDown event uses the DragItem constructor when the user drags the contents of the control. It is:

Var d As DragItem
d = New DragItem(Self, Me.Left, Me.Top, Me.Width, Me.Height)
d.Picture = Me.Image
d.Drag ' Allow the drag

DesktopToolbar.MouseDrag

MouseDrag(X As Integer, Y As Integer)

The mouse button was pressed inside the control and moved (dragged) at the location local to the control passed in to x, y.

This event fires repeatedly while the mouse button is down regardless of whether or not the mouse coordinates are changing.

This event will not occur unless you return True in the MouseDown event.

DesktopToolbar.MouseUp

MouseUp(X As Integer, Y As Integer)

The mouse button was released. Use the x and y parameters to determine if the mouse button was released within the control's boundaries.

Note

This event will not occur unless you return True in the MouseDown event. The return value is ignored.

The parameters x and y are local coordinates, i.e. they represent the position of the mouse click relative to the upper-left corner or the control. Mouse clicks that are released to the left or above a control are negative.

DesktopToolbar.Opening

Opening

The control is about to be displayed. Use this event to initialize a control.

The Opening event is called after the Constructor.

Be warned that initializing control property values using the Constructor instead of the Opening event may result in those property values being overwritten by what is set in the Inspector. For best results, use the Opening event for control initialization rather than the control Constructor.

If the control is supposed to handle drag and drop, you need to tell it which type of item it needs to be able to handle. The following example informs the control that pictures and files can be dropped on it. The type of the file it needs to support is specified via the File Types Editor.

Sub Opening()
  Me.AcceptPictureDrop
  Me.AcceptFileDrop("JPEG")
End Sub

DesktopToolbar.Pressed

Pressed(item As DesktopToolbarItem)

The passed item was clicked.

Notes

A DesktopToolbar object contains all the buttons in a toolbar. You create the items in the toolbar with the DesktopToolbarButton class and add them to the toolbar with the AddButton or AddButtonAt methods. An item can be either a button or a divider. A button can work as either a button or a toggle button.

Note

For best results, you should ensure that all your toolbar icons are the same size. Some platforms will size all icons to that of the icon on the first button in the toolbar.

Warning

You can only have a single toolbar on a Window.

Mouse events

Although DesktopToolbar inherits from DesktopUIControl, it has no mouse-related events. This is due to limitations of the operating system.

Sample code

This example shows how to create a DesktopToolbar via code. It builds a small DesktopToolbar with Open and Save buttons. A DesktopToolbar object was added to a window. The pictures that are displayed by the two buttons were added to the project.

The window has the following properties:

SaveButton As DesktopToolbarButton
OpenButton As DesktopToolbarButton

The following code is in the Opening event of the DesktopToolbar instance in the window.

SaveButton = New DesktopToolbarButton
OpenButton = New DesktopToolbarButton

SaveButton.Caption = "Save" ' Caption appears below the Icon
SaveButton.Name = "Save"
SaveButton.icon = SaveButtonImage ' image added to the project

OpenButton.Caption = "Open" ' Caption appears below the Icon
OpenButton.Name = "Open"
OpenButton.Icon = OpenButtonImage ' image added to the project
SaveButton.ButtonStyle = DesktopToolbarButton.ButtonStyles.PushButton
OpenButton.ButtonStyle = DesktopToolbarButton.ButtonStyles.PushButton

' add to the Toolbar
Me.AddButton(OpenButton)
Me.AddButton(SaveButton)

The following code is in the Pressed event of the DesktopToolbar in the window:

Sub Pressed(item As DesktopToolItem)
  Select Case item.Name
  Case "Open"
    MessageBox("You clicked the Open Button.")
  Case "Save"
    MessageBox("You clicked the Save Button.")
  End Select
End Sub

Compatibility

Desktop projects on all supported operating systems.

See also

DesktopUIControl parent class; DesktopToolbarButton, DesktopToolbarItem classes.