Building an MFC Application Using the Wizard

Terms Solution – A container for related projects – An executable or DLL – May be constructed from multiple projects – Each project or solution is a directory and its contents – May have different versions – May generate multiple applications – Solutions & projects manageable in W. Explorer – Logical relationship of solution:components does not necessarily mirror the way they are stored on disk.

Solutions, Projects & directories Solution1 (in VS explorer view) – App1 (Project 1) X.cpp X.h – App2 (Project 2) – App3 (Project 3) Visual Studio Projects (WinExplorer view) – Solution 1 (folder) App1 (folder) App2 (folder) App3 (folder) Solution1.sln(shareable metadata) Solution1.suo(user-specific metadata) App1 might depend on App2 & App3 – Managed with project dependencies

Project A container for items e.g.; code,.rc files May be used in other projects Types specify language,etc.

Using VS 2013 Premiere - 1 Open VS Select File  new  Project Select Visual C++ In the center area, select MFC Application At the bottom of the screen, enter a name for your project (like "JSmith-MFC-app") – (use your own name!!) – At the bottom right corner Check the box for "create directory" Click OK

Using VS 2013 Premiere - 2 In the navigation panel, right-click your project name (NOT the solution name) Click on Properties Ensure these values are present: – Under General: Configuration type: Application (.exe) Use of MFC: Use MFC in a Shared DLL – Assumes user's PC has MFC installed – Faster than "Use MFC in a static library" Common language runtime (CLR): no CLR – Under C/C++, Code Generation, Runtime Library "Multithreaded Debug" – Under Pre-compiled headers: "Not using pre-compiled headers "

Using VS 2013 Premiere - 3 You should now have – Two.h files MainFrame.h – function prototypes & global variables MyWinApp.h – name of your program & project #include class CMyWinApp : public CWinApp {public: virtual BOOL InitInstance(); }; – Three.cpp files Main.cpp #include " MyWinApp.h " CMyWinApp MyApplication; MyWinApp.cpp – #include MyWinApp.h, InitInstance code MainFrame.cpp – #include both.h files, everything else

Classes & Global variables Declare global vars in MainFrm.h Define, initialize in PreCreateWindow or in OnCreate following is in MainFrm.h class CMainFrame : public CFrameWnd {// no initializations here!!! private: // declare global variables here public: // declare constructors and prototypes for // other functions in MainFrame.cpp void OnPaint(); // for example }

Flow of execution (hidden) WinMain runs InitInstance begins – CMainFrame runs (does nothing in our case) – Main window object (CREATESTRUCT) created – PreCreateWindow Allows "filling-in" of struct values Window exists but is not displayed yet Sends WM_CREATE on ending – OnCreate Creates a view to occupy the window Creates a status bar (if requested) Initialize your own variables here InitInstance ends – sends WM_PAINT OnPaint writes/draws text & graphics, shows screen

PreCreateWindow Optional settings "cs" is the name of the CREATESTRUCT passed to the PreCreateWindow member cs.lpszName = title; (a CString init'd here) cs.x = 0;//Y pos of window cs.y = 0;//X pos of window cs.cx = 700;//window width cs.cy = 300;//window height

OnCreate Most actions inserted by the Wizard Can now SetFont, use it's size Compute row positions for TextOut/DrawText

OnPaint Must do: – CPaintDC dc(this); // Invalidate window so entire client area // is redrawn when UpdateWindow is called. – Invalidate(); // Update Window to cause View to redraw. – UpdateWindow(); MAY do this: – SetFont(&myfont, true); – dc.TextOut(formatted string);

Setting Font VERIFY(myfont.CreateFont( 24,// nHeight in points 0,// nWidth 0,// nEscapement 0,// nOrientation FW_NORMAL,// nWeight TRUE,// bItalic FALSE,// bUnderline 0,// cStrikeOut ANSI_CHARSET,// nCharSet OUT_DEFAULT_PRECIS, // nOutPrecision CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS, // nClipPrecision DEFAULT_QUALITY, // nQuality DEFAULT_PITCH | FF_SWISS, // nPitchAndFamily _T("Arial")));// lpszFacename SetFont(&myfont, true);

Debugging tips AfxMessageBox (_T("your message")); Be CAREFUL where you put AfxMessageBox. – If it's in an OnMove, it will pop up for EVERY pixel of the movement!! – Same for OnPaint (pops up for each redraw) – May need to test for !m_wndView in OnSetFocus Use a test to prevent multiple popups Win32API attribute "afx_msg" is empty: – E.g.; afx_msg int OnCreate(…) – "afx_msg" does not apply to MFC programs – Can be safely omitted when coding – Wizard keeps it for commonality

Window Creation Create new frame window object CMainFrame* pFrame = new CMainFrame; CMainFrame is the frame object pFrame points to the object Set it as main window object m_pMainWnd = pFrame; Load frame's resources pFrame->LoadFrame(……parameters….) Now show & update the window Notes: – "stdafx.h" includes "afxwin.h" – m_pMainWnd is defined in afxwin.h – Starting with version 3.0, all MFC classes are "thread safe" and require the multi-threaded run-time libraries to link successfully. – Do NOT add: #include to your code

MFC-Hello sample MainFrm.cpp – 1 message map (for CMainFrame class) – handlers - on_wm_create(), on_wm_setfocus() MFC-hello.cpp – 2 message maps (for CMFChelloApp class, for CAboutDlg class) – there are two message maps, because there are 2 classes, though the message map for the CAboutDlg class does not have any handlers. – rule is 1 map per class Childview.cpp - 1 message map for the cChildview class.

Basic Structure of an MFC program Main.cppMyWinApp.cpp MainFrame.cpp MyWinApp.h MainFrame.h afxwin.h

Using fonts CreateFont – allows specifying EVERYTHING CreatePointFont – specify only size & typeface Cfont myfont; myfont.CreateFont (…); or myfont.CreatePointFont (…); Activate it: – Method 1 (using a pointer to the context object) CDC* dc; dc = GetDC(); CFont * fontptr = dc->SelectObject(&myfont); – Method 2 (using the context object directly) CPaintDC dc(this);// "this" is handle for current window CFont * fontptr = dc.SelectObject(&myfont);

Resource (.rc) files Collection of UI elements – Provide info to user Icons Bitmaps Toolbars Cursors Dialogs Accelerators

Resource files & their content Projname.rc – toolbars, dialog boxes, etc. – Accelerator and string tables. – Default "About" dialog box. Resource.h – definitions for the resources Projname.ico – The icon file for the project or a control