Topic: Function to add a button to a panel

[ysr2014]

here it is a general function to add a button to a panel

usage :

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.         yac.Rib.TabAdd("Design", True)
2.         yac.Rib.PanelAdd("Concrete", "Design")
3.         yac.Rib.BtnAdd("Beam_Design", "Concrete", "Design")
4.  

the code above adds the Tab and the Panel successfully
but when implements the BtnAdd autocad crashes

what is wrong in my BtnAdd function

please help

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.        ' TabAdd
2.         ' ********
3.         ' add a tab to the ribbon system
4.  
5.         'yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser", True)
6.  
7.         Public Shared Function TabAdd(TabName As String, Optional IsActive As Boolean = False) As RibbonTab
8.  
9.             'declare a ribboncontrol object
10.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
11.  
12.             'create a ribbontab
13.             Dim ribTab As New RibbonTab()
14.  
15.             'set a few properties
16.             ribTab.Title = TabName
17.             ribTab.Id = TabName
18.  
19.             'add the tab to the ribbon
20.             ribCntrl.Tabs.Add(ribTab)
21.  
22.             If IsActive = True Then
23.                 ribTab.IsActive = True
24.             End If
25.  
26.             Return ribTab
27.  
28.         End Function
29.  

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.        ' PanelAdd
2.         ' *********
3.         ' add a panel to a tab
4.  
5.         ' yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser")
6.         ' yac.Rib.PanelAdd("Nana", "Yasser")
7.  
8.         Public Shared Function PanelAdd(PanelName As String, TabName As String) As RibbonPanel
9.  
10.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
11.  
12.             'create the panel source
13.             Dim ribSourcePanel As RibbonPanelSource = New RibbonPanelSource()
14.             ribSourcePanel.Title = PanelName
15.  
16.             Dim ribPanel As New RibbonPanel()
17.             ribPanel.Source = ribSourcePanel
18.  
19.             ' find tab by TabName
20.             Dim ribTab As RibbonTab = ribCntrl.FindTab(TabName)
21.  
22.             If ribTab IsNot Nothing Then
23.                 ribTab.Panels.Add(ribPanel)
24.             End If
25.  
26.             Return ribPanel
27.  
28.         End Function
29.  

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.         Public Shared Function BtnAdd(BtnName As String, PanelName As String, TabName As String,
2.                                       Optional Img16 As String = "", Optional Img32 As String = "") As RibbonButton
3.  
4.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
5.             Dim ribTab As RibbonTab = ribCntrl.FindTab(TabName)
6.             Dim ribPanel As RibbonPanel = New RibbonPanel
7.             Dim ribSourcePanel As RibbonPanelSource = New RibbonPanelSource()
8.  
9.             'ribPanel = ribTab.FindPanel(PanelName)
10.             'ribSourcePanel = ribPanel.Source
11.             ribPanel = ribCntrl.FindPanel(PanelName, False)
12.             ribSourcePanel = ribPanel.Source
13.  
14.             Dim btn As RibbonButton = New RibbonButton
15.             btn.Text = BtnName : btn.ShowText = True
16.             btn.CommandParameter = "NETLOAD "
17.  
18.             If Img16 <> "" Then
19.                 btn.Size = RibbonItemSize.Standard
20.             End If
21.  
22.             If Img32 <> "" Then
23.                 btn.Size = RibbonItemSize.Large
24.             End If
25.  
26.             ribSourcePanel.Items.Add(btn)
27.  
28.             Return btn
29.  
30.         End Function
31.  

[MickD]

I don't know the intricacies of VB.net but you shouldn't need to create a new control when you are assigning and existing control to it later.

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Dim ribSourcePanel As RibbonPanelSource    '= New RibbonPanelSource() shouldn't need to create a new one here??
2. ...
3. ribSourcePanel = ribPanel.Source
4.  

[n.yuan]

A few things:

1. Have you run debugging that steps through the code in BtnAdd() method where the exception occur? If you did, you would easily find out the direct cause of the exception.

2. Since you said the crash occurs in BtnAdd(), here is the cause I could guess: you should use

ribPanel = ribTab.FindPanel(PanelName)  ''Which you commented out for unknown reason(s)

instead of

ribPanel = ribCntrl.FindPanel(...)

because RibbonControl.FindPanel() ONLY finds panels on ACTIVE RibbonTab! So, in your case, if the custom ribbon tab - "Design" is not the active one, the code would return a null, so the code for adding button would raise exception.

3. If I were you, I would ALWAYS test if the Tab/Panel/Button existence before adding, because it is possible that your code would handle WorkSpaceChanged event to make sure your custom ribbon tab stays when user shift between WorkSpace during the same AutoCAD session. That is, I'd have some custom ribbon generating code run on AutoCAD startup and run whenever Workspace changes, thus the rationale of testing existence before creating ribbon items.

4. As MickD correctly pointed out, in BtnAdd() method, you DO NOT declare something as "New RibbonXXX" unless you know they do not exist and you need to create them. That is, as I  said, you try find out if they exist and only "New" them, when necessary.

[ysr2014]

Thanks Friends .... I finally detected the problem

first of all, this code of functions is inside a separte library project, and I'm testing these functions in a test project refrencing the library.

the first problem
**************
AutoCAd crashes because I didn't include this Import in the test project :

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Imports Autodesk.Windows

even if I already imported in the library

2) thanks MickD for your hint, and I Modified in the code

3) thanks n.yuan for your hints, really usefull

4) I added the id property for all 3 functions, TabAdd, PanelAdd, and BtnAdd

the code will be in test class as :

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Imports Autodesk.Windows
2.  
3.         yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser", True)
4.         yac.Rib.PanelAdd("Nana", "Yasser")
5.         yac.Rib.BtnAdd("Load dll", "Nana", "Yasser", "NetLoad ")

and in the class Rib as :

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Namespace yac
2.  
3.     Public Class Rib
4.  
5.         ' TabAdd
6.         ' ********
7.         ' add a tab to the ribbon system
8.  
9.         'yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser", True)
10.  
11.         Public Shared Function TabAdd(TabName As String, Optional IsActive As Boolean = False) As RibbonTab
12.  
13.             'declare a ribboncontrol object
14.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
15.  
16.             'create a ribbontab
17.             Dim ribTab As New RibbonTab()
18.  
19.             'set a few properties
20.             ribTab.Title = TabName
21.             ribTab.Id = TabName
22.  
23.  
24.             'add the tab to the ribbon
25.             ribCntrl.Tabs.Add(ribTab)
26.  
27.             If IsActive = True Then
28.                 ribTab.IsActive = True
29.             End If
30.  
31.             Return ribTab
32.  
33.         End Function

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.         ' PanelAdd
2.         ' *********
3.         ' add a panel to a tab (by its name), as a RibbonPanel
4.  
5.         ' yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser")
6.         ' yac.Rib.PanelAdd("Nana", "Yasser")
7.  
8.         Public Shared Function PanelAdd(PanelName As String, TabName As String) As RibbonPanel
9.  
10.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
11.  
12.             'create the panel source
13.             Dim ribSourcePanel As RibbonPanelSource = New RibbonPanelSource()
14.             ribSourcePanel.Title = PanelName
15.             ribSourcePanel.Id = PanelName
16.  
17.             Dim ribPanel As New RibbonPanel()
18.             ribPanel.Source = ribSourcePanel
19.  
20.             ' find tab by TabName id
21.             Dim ribTab As RibbonTab = ribCntrl.FindTab(TabName)
22.  
23.             If ribTab IsNot Nothing Then
24.                 ribTab.Panels.Add(ribPanel)
25.             End If
26.  
27.             Return ribPanel
28.  
29.         End Function

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1.         ' BtnAdd
2.         ' *******
3.         ' add a button to a panel (by its name), in a tab (by its name) as a RibbonButton
4.  
5.         'yac.Rib.TabAdd("Yasser", True)
6.         'yac.Rib.PanelAdd("Nana", "Yasser")
7.         'yac.Rib.BtnAdd("Load dll", "Nana", "Yasser", "NetLoad ")
8.  
9.         Public Shared Function BtnAdd(BtnName As String, PanelName As String, TabName As String, cmd As String,
10.                                      Optional Img16 As String = "", Optional Img32 As String = "") As RibbonButton
11.  
12.             Dim ribCntrl As RibbonControl = ComponentManager.Ribbon
13.             Dim ribTab As RibbonTab = ribCntrl.FindTab(TabName)
14.             Dim ribPanel As RibbonPanel
15.             Dim ribSourcePanel As RibbonPanelSource
16.  
17.             ribPanel = ribTab.FindPanel(PanelName)
18.             ribSourcePanel = ribPanel.Source
19.  
20.             Dim btn As RibbonButton = New RibbonButton
21.  
22.             btn.Text = BtnName
23.             btn.ShowText = True
24.             btn.CommandParameter = cmd ' "NETLOAD " for example
25.             btn.Id = BtnName
26.  
27.             If Img16 <> "" Then
28.                 btn.Size = RibbonItemSize.Standard
29.             End If
30.  
31.             If Img32 <> "" Then
32.                 btn.Size = RibbonItemSize.Large
33.             End If
34.  
35.             ribSourcePanel.Items.Add(btn)
36.  
37.             Return btn
38.  
39.         End Function
40.  
41.     End Class
42.  
43.  
44. End Namespace

still working on the code to complete Image and Tooltip ... and adding checks for existing

Tested and Working Good

Thanks alot my friends 

[n.yuan]

Thanks Friends .... I finally detected the problem

first of all, this code of functions is inside a separte library project, and I'm testing these functions in a test project refrencing the library.

the first problem
**************
AutoCAd crashes because I didn't include this Import in the test project :

Code - vb.net: [Select]

1. Imports Autodesk.Windows

even if I already imported in the library

...

still working on the code to complete Image and Tooltip ... and adding checks for existing

Tested and Working Good

Thanks alot my friends 

Good to hear your code worked. However, I do not believe missing "Import Autodesk.Windows" would be a possible cause of code crashing:

Without that "Imports...", your code in the library project would either not build, or build successfully. That is, the "Imports..." is only for the code compiler to correct qualify classes in the code. Or we can say, it is somewhat meant for programmers' convenience to not having always type a class name

Dim ribItem as RibbonItem

AS

Dim ribItem As Autodesk.Windows.RibbonItem