Providing toolbars

To make your application easier to use, you can add toolbars
with buttons that users can click as a shortcut for choosing an
item from a menu. In PowerBuilder, you can associate a toolbar with
the window types listed in Table 14-4.

Creating windows in PowerBuilder

You can create a main window, an MDI window, or an MDI Help
window in PowerBuilder by clicking the New button in the PowerBar
and selecting Window on the PB Object tab page. The new window’s
type is Main by default. To change it to MDI or MDI Help, select
the window type on the General page in the Properties view.

In MDI windows, you can associate a toolbar with the MDI frame
and a toolbar with the active sheet. This screen shows New, Print,
and Exit buttons on the toolbar associated with the MDI Frame, and
window management buttons on the toolbar associated with the sheet. The toolbar associated
with the MDI frame is called the FrameBar.
The toolbar associated with the active sheet is called the SheetBar.

This section provides you with the information you need to
create and use toolbars. For information about customizing toolbar
behavior and saving and restoring toolbar settings, see Application
Techniques
.

How toolbars work

Toolbars you add to a window behave like the toolbars provided
in the PowerBuilder development environment:

• Users can choose whether or not to display text
  in a toolbar, use PowerTips, float the toolbar, move the toolbar
  around the frame, and dock it underneath or beside any other toolbar.
  No coding is required to support these basic toolbar operations.
• Toolbar buttons map directly to menu items. Clicking
  a toolbar button is the same as clicking its corresponding menu
  item (or pressing the accelerator key for that item).
• Toolbars work only in MDI frame, MDI sheet, and
  Main windows. If you open a pop-up window with a menu that has a
  toolbar, the toolbar does not display.
• If both the MDI sheet and the frame have toolbars
  and the sheet is open, then the menu that is displayed is the menu
  for the sheet, but both toolbars appear and are operative.
• If the currently active sheet does not have a menu,
  then the menu and toolbar for the frame remain in place and are
  operative. This can be confusing to your user, because the displayed
  menu is not for the active sheet. If any sheet has a menu, then
  all sheets should probably have menus.

Menus with multiple toolbars

A single menu can have more than one toolbar. When you associate
a menu that has multiple toolbars with a window, PowerBuilder displays
all the toolbars when you open the window. This screen shows a sheet
open in an MDI frame, with one FrameBar and two SheetBars:

You can work with the toolbars independently. For example,
you can float any of the toolbars, move them around the window,
and dock them at different locations within the window.

The button associated with a menu item can appear on only
one toolbar at a time. To indicate which toolbar a menu item’s
button belongs to, you set the ToolbarItemBarIndex property for
the menu item. All items that have the same index number appear
on the same toolbar.

Adding toolbars to a window

PowerBuilder provides an easy way to add toolbars to a window:
when you are defining an item in the Menu painter for a menu that
will be associated with an MDI frame window, an MDI sheet, or a
main window, you simply specify that you want the menu item to display
in the toolbar with a specific picture. At runtime, PowerBuilder
automatically generates a toolbar for the window containing the
menu.

To add toolbars to a window:

1. In the Menu painter, specify the display
   characteristics of the menu items you want to display in the toolbar.

   For details, see “Toolbar item display characteristics”.

2. (Optional) In the Menu painter, specify drop-down
   toolbars for menu items.

3. In the Window painter, associate the menu with
   the window and turn on the display of the toolbar.

4. (Optional) In the Window painter, specify other
   properties, such as the size and location of a floating toolbar,
   on the Toolbar property page.

Selecting a toolbar style

You select a toolbar style on the Appearance tab of the Properties
view for the top-level menu object in the Menu painter.

A toolbar can have a contemporary or traditional style.

Toolbars that you import or migrate from earlier versions
of PowerBuilder have the traditional style, and new toolbars use
the traditional toolbar style by default.

To specify the toolbar style:

1. Select the top-level menu object.

2. At the bottom of the Appearance tab page, select
   the toolbar style you want, contemporarytoolbar! or traditionaltoolbar!

   

If you select traditionaltoolbar! in
the Toolbar Style drop-down list, the rest of the toolbar style
properties are grayed. If you select contemporarytoolbar! style,
you can customize the display properties for that style and have
them apply to all menu items with associated toolbar buttons in
the current menu.

Selecting the toolbar button style property Unless you are using the traditional toolbar style for the
current menu object, you can select the ToolbarAnimation check box
on the Toolbar tab or the Properties view for each menu item. If
you do not select an image for the ToolbarItemName property of a
menu item, the selection you make for the ToolbarAnimation property
is ignored.

Setting toolbar properties

You can customize the display of toolbars in applications
that you create with PowerBuilder by setting toolbar properties.

Toolbar style properties

In addition to customizing the style of a menu, you can customize
the style of a toolbar associated with the menu. For example, the
following picture shows a contemporary style toolbar with an expanded
toolbar cascade and a highlighted Exit button:

Toolbar style properties Toolbars have style properties that you can change at design
time on the top-level menu object. You can modify these properties only
if you select contemporarytoolbar! as
the toolbar style for the top-level menu object.

Toolbar item style property You can select the ToolbarAnimation property for a menu item
toolbar button. This property offsets the button image by two pixels
to the upper left when a user positions the cursor over the button.
You cannot assign this property at the menu object or toolbar level.
You must assign it to individual toolbar items (buttons) at design
time. This property has a Boolean datatype. You can select it on
the Toolbar tab for each menu item below the top-level menu object.
With a contemporary menu, you can set the ToolbarAnimation property
at runtime at runtime using scripts.

The customizable menu and toolbar styles can be used for MDI
and main windows. Pop-up menus can also use menu style properties.
The styles do not affect existing PowerBuilder applications that
use a traditional style. You can, however, update an existing PowerBuilder
application to use the new style properties.

Toolbar item display characteristics

In the Menu painter, you specify the menu items you want to
display in the toolbar, the text for the toolbar button and tip,
the pictures to use to represent the menu items, and other characteristics
of the toolbar.

To specify the display characteristics of a toolbar
item:

1. Open the menu in the Menu painter and select
   the menu item you want to display in the toolbar.

2. Select the Toolbar property page and set properties
   of the toolbar item as shown in Table 14-5.

   Table 14-5: Toolbar properties in the Menu
   painter

   Property	What to specify
   ToolbarItemText	Specify two different text values for the toolbar button and PowerTip with a comma-delimited string, as follows: PowerBuilder <i>Text in button, PowerTip</i> 1 <i>Text in button, PowerTip</i>
   ToolbarItemName	Choose a stock picture from the drop-down list or browse to select a bitmap, GIF, JPEG or icon file. If you choose a stock picture, PowerBuilder uses the up version when the item is not clicked and the down version when the item is clicked. (The up version appears raised and the down version appears indented.) If you are specifying a file, the picture should be 16 pixels wide and 16 pixels high.
   ToolbarItemDownName	Specify a different picture to display when the item is clicked (optional).
   ToolbarItemVisible	Clear if you want the toolbar button to be hidden. The default is visible.
   ToolbarItemDown	Check if you want the down version of the button to display initially.
   ToolbarAnimation	If you want the toolbar image to be animated when selected, select the check box.
   ToolbarItemSpace	Specify any integer if you want to leave space before the picture in the toolbar. Experiment with values to get the spacing the way you want it. If you leave the value at 0, there will be no spacing before the picture. (Spacing is used only when the toolbar is not displaying text.)
   ToolbarItemOrder	Specify the order in which the item displays in the toolbar. If you leave the value 0, PowerBuilder places the item in the order in which it goes through the menu to build the toolbar.
   ToolbarItemBarIndex	Specify a number other than 1 if you want multiple toolbars to display for this menu. The number you specify determines which toolbar the current menu item appears on. All items that have the same index number appear on the same toolbar.
   ObjectType	Specify Menu or MenuCascade.
   Columns	(This property displays only if you choose MenuCascade in the ObjectType drop-down list.) Indicate the number of columns you want to display in the cascading toolbar.
   Drop Down	(This property displays only if you choose MenuCascade in the ObjectType drop-down list.) If you want the button to be a drop-down toolbar button, select the check box.

Menu items can have drop-down toolbars

A menu item can have a toolbar button associated with it that
displays a drop-down toolbar. When the user clicks on the
button, PowerBuilder displays a drop-down toolbar that shows all
of the toolbar buttons for menu items defined at the next level.
For example, if you define a drop-down toolbar for the File menu
item, the drop-down toolbar will show the buttons defined for the
items on the File menu (such as New, Open, Close, and Exit).

PowerBuilder displays a drop-down toolbar at runtime by default
if the Object Type of the menu item is MenuCascade. You can specify
programmatically whether submenu items display in a drop-down toolbar
or as normal toolbar items by setting the DropDown property of the
menu item. For example, if you want a descendent menu item to have
a drop-down toolbar, but not its ancestor, clear the DropDown check
box on the ancestor’s Toolbar property page, and set the
DropDown property of the descendent menu item to TRUE in
a script.

To specify a drop-down toolbar for a menu item:

1. In the Menu painter, select the menu item
   for which you want to add a drop-down toolbar.

2. On the Toolbar property page, change the Object
   Type to MenuCascade.

3. (Optional) Specify the number of columns you
   want to display in the Columns box.

   The default is a single column. If there are many items on
   the submenu, as there are on the toolbar item for inserting controls
   in the Window painter, you will probably want to specify three or
   four columns.

Setting toolbar properties in the Window painter

In the Window painter, you associate the menu with the window
on the window’s General property page. The window displays
the toolbar by default. If you do not want the toolbar to display,
clear the ToolbarVisible
check box on the window’s Toolbar property page. You can
also specify the toolbar’s alignment and position on this
property page.

Setting toolbar properties in the Application painter

You can specify global properties for all toolbars in your
application on the Toolbar property page in the Application painter
or by setting properties of the Application object in a script.
Typically you set these in the application’s Open event,
but you can set them anywhere.

Specifying the text in the toolbar’s
pop-up menu

By default, PowerBuilder provides a pop-up menu for the toolbar,
which users can use to manipulate the toolbar. It is similar to
the pop-up menu you use to manipulate the PowerBar and PainterBar.

You can change the text that displays in this menu, but you
cannot change the functionality of the menu items in the menu. Typically,
you do this when you are building an application in a language other
than English.

You change the text as follows:

• The first
  two items in the pop-up menu display the titles set in ToolbarFrameTitle
  and ToolbarSheetTitle (defaults: FrameBar and SheetBar).
• The remaining text items are specified by the property ToolbarPopMenuText.
  To specify values for this property, use a comma-delimited
  list of values to replace the text “Left,” “Top,” “Right,” “Bottom,” “Floating,” “Show
  Text,” and “Show PowerTips”:
  PowerBuilder

  ToolbarPopMenuText = "<i>left, top, right, bottom, floating, showText,<br /> showPowerTips</i>"

  1	ToolbarPopMenuText = "<i>left, top, right, bottom, floating, showText,<br />   showPowerTips</i>"

For example, to change the text for the toolbar pop-up menu
to German and have hot keys underlined for each, you would specify
the following:

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