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When creating user interfaces it will often be a good idea to try to make them look like Microsoft's. The benefits are that your users immediately will be able to use the program and that they will be familiar with the steps involved of getting the task done. This is the philosophy behind this control that mimics an appointment view as it is implemented in Microsoft Outlook 2000 and XP.
The control is a non-Unicode ATL ActiveX control statically linked to the MFC library. That's right: I'm using MFC for a COM object. I know that it bloats the code, but I'm accustomed to MFC's way of doing GDI stuff, and this control uses a lot of it.
The control should be usable within any language that supports ActiveX controls. I have supplied a sample in Visual Basic. C++ programmers should be able to figure out how to use it from studying this sample.
If you do not want to use the ActiveX control, it should be fairly trivial to port it into a C DLL or a just include the source files in your program.
It is very simple to use the control from Visual Basic, and if you're a Visual C++ user, it will be faily easy too (until you will have to handle events, but more on that later).
Here are the steps involved, to put a Dayview Calendar control in a dialog and attach it to a variable.
Until now it has been a walk in the park - not much harder than it is from VB. However, if you want to handle the data provided by the events it is more complicated. The arguments for the OnClick, OnDoubleClick and OnContextMenu events are provided as IDispatch interface pointers by the Class Wizard.
In the sample (vctest) I have provided an example of how you would handle data provided by an IDispatch pointer. If you do not know anything about COM automation - and you don't want to learn it, I have provided a very simple method that will hide the COM stuff, and just extract the relevant information from the IAppointment class. The method is available in vctestdlg.cpp.
This control and the source code are free to use with commercial- and non commercial software. However you should not sell the source code for profit. I will not take any responsibility for any damage caused directly or indirectly by the control or an application using it. It is not my problem if it blows up your computer, mutilate your pets or impregnates your wife.
If you decide to redistribute the source code, please include my name and e-mail somewhere in the source. If you create an application with this control, I would appreciate if you would drop me a mail describing what it is.
Thanks to David Hill - dhill@PrincipiaMathematica.com for providing the excellent CPinnableDlg used in this component.
This control is not perfect. I have chosen to post it because someone in The Lounge (here at Code Project) were asking for a control like it. Below are some of the issues that I hope will be solved in a later version. If I choose to take care of these problems I will of course post an update.
If you have solved any of these issues, please post them on CodeProject or let me know and I will put them into an future update.
The source code is not documented in this article. If you know ATL and MCF you should not have any problems reading it. The code is not obscured by comments, so it should be easy read ;-)
DayView.dll consists of three objects Calendar, IAppointment and DayViewDlg. The properties and methods of each are documented individually below.
The Calendar object is a visual ActiveX control. It draws the surface and displays the appointments.
Description
Adds an new time limited appointment to the view, with start- and end time, subject and a detailed description (body)
Syntax
Object.AddAppointment(From As Date, To As Date, Subject As String, Body As String)
The AddAppointment method event take these arguments:
Part Description From The time that the appointment should start. Do not specify a date - only time of day. This argument is mandatory. To The time that the appointment should end. Do not specify a date - only time of day. The value of 'To' should be later than 'From'. This argument is mandatory. Subject A short descriptive text that describes the appointment. This argument is mandatory. Body Detailed information about the appointment. May contain several lines. This argument may be empty.
Remarks
If you're creating a full day appointment, you do not want to specify start- and end time. instead use the AddFullDayAppointment method.
Description
Adds an appointment to the view. The appointment is not shown in the display area of the control. Instead it is shown above as a "block" with text within it.
Syntax
Object.AddFullDayAppointment(From As Date, To As Date)
The AddFullDayAppointment method event take this arguments:
Part Description Subject A short descriptive text that describes the appointment. This argument is mandatory. Body Detailed information about the appointment. May contain several lines. This argument may be empty.
Remarks
If you're creating a time limited appointment within the day, you do not want to specify start- and end time. instead use the AddAppointment method.
Description
Scrolls the specified time into view if it is not visible.
Syntax
Object.GotoTime(DATE Time)
The GotoTime event take this argument:
Part Description Time The time of the day that should be scrolled into view. Do not specify a date - only time of day. This argument is mandatory.
Remarks
The specified time will be scrolled into view, so that it is displayed in the top of the client area of the control.
Description
Clears all appointments from the view. Both full day and time limited appointments are removed..
Syntax
Object.RemoveAllAppointments(DATE Time)
The RemoveAllAppointments do not take any arguments
Remarks
none
Property
Read/write long value.
Description
Set the height of each hour in pixels.
Syntax
Object.HourHeight = 24 ' make each hour 24 pixels in height
Remarks
The total scrollable area of the control will be 24 hours each HourHeight pixels high,
Description
This event is triggered when an appointment in the control is clicked.
Syntax
object_OnClick(Appointment As IAppointment)
The OnClick event provide this argument:
Part Description Appointment A reference to an appointment object.
Remarks
The event is triggered both when full day and time limited appointments are clicked.
Description
This event is triggered when an appointment in the control is clicked.
Syntax
object_OnContextMenu(Appointment As IAppointment)
The OnContextMenu event provide this argument:
Part Description Appointment A reference to an appointment object.
Remarks
The event is triggered both when full day and time limited appointments are right clicked.
Description
This event is triggered when an appointment in the control is clicked.
Syntax
object_OnDoubleClick(Appointment As IAppointment)
The OnDoubleClick event provide this argument:
Part Description Appointment A reference to an appointment object.
Remarks
The event is triggered both when full day and time limited appointments are double clicked.
The IAppointment interface is not a creatable object. It is a read-only object used for describing an appointment.
PropertiesThis table describes the read-only properties of the IAppointment object.
Property Type Description From Date The start time of the appointment. If the appointment is full day appointment, the value of this property is undefined. To Date The end time of the appointment. If the appointment is full day appointment, the value of this property is undefined. FullDayAppointment Boolean True if this is a full day appointment. Subject String Short text describing the appointment. Body String A detailed description of the appointment. This property may be empty.
Property
Read only reference to a Calendar object.
Description
Gets a reference to the Calendar object that is hosted within the dialog box.
Syntax
Dim cal as Calendar
Set cal = Object.Calendar
Remarks
The reference to the calendar object is only valid as long as the DayViewDlg object is valid. When the reference has been obtained, the Calendar object can be manipulated like it is described here.
Property
Read/write boolean value.
Description
Determines if the month selector control is visible in the client area of the dialog box.
Syntax
Object.ShowMonthSelector = true
Remarks
none
Description
This event is triggered when an the user changes the date using the MonthSelector control.
Syntax
object_OnDateChanged(NewDate As Date, Calendar As Calendar)
The OnDateChanged event provide these arguments:
Part Description NewDate The date that is chosen from the month selector object. This date does not contain a time, since it is completely irrelevant. Calendar A reference to the calendar used in the DayViewDlg object.
Remarks
The reference to the calendar object can be cached. Just remember that this reference is only valid as long as the DayViewDlg object is valid.
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