ArcGIS Engine Developer Guide

VISUAL C++
Creating an MFC dialog box-based application
If you do not have a dialog box in your application or component, here are the
steps to create an MFC dialog box application.
1. Launch Visual Studio C++ 6 and click New.
2. Click the Projects tab and choose MFC AppWizard (exe). Enter the project
name and location and click OK.
3. For Step 1 of the wizard: From the radio buttons, change the application type
to Dialog Based. Click Next.
4. For Step 2 of the wizard: The default project features are fine, although you
can uncheck AboutBox to simplify the application. Ensure that the option to
support ActiveX controls is checked. Click Next.
5. For Step 3 of the wizard: The default settings on this page are fine. The MFC
DLL is shared. Click Next.
6. For Step 4 of the wizard: This shows you what the wizard will generate. Click
Finish.
You should now have a simple dialog box-based application. In the resource view,
you will see “TODO: Place Dialog Controls Here”. You can place buttons, list
boxes, and so forth, in this dialog box, and the dialog box can also host ActiveX
controls; there are two approaches to doing this, as discussed below. You can also
compile and run this application.
Inserting ActiveX controls on a dialog box in
Visual Studio C++ Design time. The
TOCControl and MapControl have been
added to the dialog box. The ToolbarControl is
next.
Hosting controls on an MFC dialog box and accessing them using
IDispatch
1. Right-click the MFC dialog box and click Insert ActiveX control.
2. Double-click a control from the list box. The control appears on the dialog
box with a default size.
3. Size and position the control as required.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each control.
5. You can right-click the control and choose Properties to
set the control’s design-time properties.
6. To access the control in code, you will need ArcGIS
interface definitions for IMapControl, for example. To do
this use the #import command in your stdafx.h file. See
the section ‘Importing ArcGIS type libraries’ on how to
do this.
7. MFC provides control hosting on a dialog box; this will
translate Windows messages, such as WM_SIZE, into
appropriate control method calls. However, to be able to
make calls on a control, there are a few steps you must
perform to go from a resource ID to a controls interface.
The following code illustrates setting the TOCControl’s
Buddy to be the MapControl:
126 • ArcGIS Engine Developer Guide