The wxWidgets programming tutorial (3. Menus and Toolbars).

Menus and Toolbars

Menubar

A menubar is one of the most visible parts of the GUI application. It is a group of commands located in various menus. While in console applications you had to remember all those arcane commands, here we have most of the commands grouped into logical parts. There are accepted standards that further reduce the amount of time spending to learn a new application. To implement a menubar in wxWidgets we need to have three things. A wxMenuBar, a wxMenu and a wxMenuItem.

Menubar

Figure: Menubar

Simple menu example

Creating a menubar in wxWidgets is very simple. Just a few lines of code.

menu.h

#include <wx/wx.h>

#include <wx/menu.h>

class SimpleMenu : public wxFrame

{

public:

SimpleMenu(const wxString& title);

void OnQuit(wxCommandEvent& event);

wxMenuBar *menubar;

wxMenu *file;

};

menu.cpp

#include "menu.h"

SimpleMenu::SimpleMenu(const wxString& title)

: wxFrame(NULL, wxID_ANY, title, wxDefaultPosition, wxSize(280, 180))

{

menubar = new wxMenuBar;

file = new wxMenu;

file->Append(wxID_EXIT, wxT("&Quit"));

menubar->Append(file, wxT("&File"));

SetMenuBar(menubar);

Connect(wxID_EXIT, wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED,

wxCommandEventHandler(SimpleMenu::OnQuit));

Centre();

}

void SimpleMenu::OnQuit(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event))

{

Close(true);

}

main.h

#include <wx/wx.h>

class MyApp : public wxApp

{

public:

virtual bool OnInit();

};

main.cpp

#include "main.h"

#include "menu.h"

IMPLEMENT_APP(MyApp)

bool MyApp::OnInit()

{

SimpleMenu *menu = new SimpleMenu(wxT("Simple Menu"));

menu->Show(true);

return true;

}

menubar = new wxMenuBar;

First we create a menubar object.

file = new wxMenu;

Next we create a menu object.

We add a tool to the toolbar.

toolbar->Realize();

After we have added the tools, we call the Realize() method.

Toolbar

Figure: Toolbar

Toolbars

If we want to have more than one toolbar, we must create them in a different way. e.g. other than calling the CreateToolbar() method.

toolbars.h

#include <wx/wx.h>

class Toolbar : public wxFrame

{

public:

Toolbar(const wxString& title);

void OnQuit(wxCommandEvent& event);

wxToolBar *toolbar1;

wxToolBar *toolbar2;

};

toolbars.cpp

#include "toolbars.h"

Toolbar::Toolbar(const wxString& title)

: wxFrame(NULL, wxID_ANY, title, wxDefaultPosition, wxSize(280, 180))

{

wxImage::AddHandler( new wxPNGHandler );

wxBitmap exit(wxT("exit.png"), wxBITMAP_TYPE_PNG);

wxBitmap newb(wxT("new.png"), wxBITMAP_TYPE_PNG);

wxBitmap open(wxT("open.png"), wxBITMAP_TYPE_PNG);

wxBitmap save(wxT("save.png"), wxBITMAP_TYPE_PNG);

wxBoxSizer *vbox = new wxBoxSizer(wxVERTICAL);

toolbar1 = new wxToolBar(this, wxID_ANY);

toolbar1->AddTool(wxID_ANY, newb, wxT(""));

toolbar1->AddTool(wxID_ANY, open, wxT(""));

toolbar1->AddTool(wxID_ANY, save, wxT(""));

toolbar1->Realize();

toolbar2 = new wxToolBar(this, wxID_ANY);

toolbar2->AddTool(wxID_EXIT, exit, wxT("Exit application"));

toolbar2->Realize();

vbox->Add(toolbar1, 0, wxEXPAND);

vbox->Add(toolbar2, 0, wxEXPAND);

SetSizer(vbox);

Connect(wxID_EXIT, wxEVT_COMMAND_TOOL_CLICKED,

wxCommandEventHandler(Toolbar::OnQuit));

Centre();

}