A simple header button

Now that we have a header for the application, what about adding some useful stuff to it, like buttons? The picture on the left shows the second version of the touch header in action with a "back" button that implements the same functionality as the menu bar's "Back" menu. This button should only be visible when there is somewhere to go back to, so we should be able to add it and remove it as we please.

For now, the header button is a very simple object containing up to 3 CImage objects (for the normal, depressed and disabled states). This is not a regular Windows button but instead a "sensitive area" of the header that just behaves like a button (just like what happens with regular toolbars).

The button itself is implemented in the CTouchToolbarItem class (see sample code below). It derives from CRefCount so you can use the CRefPtr smart pointer class template to manage it and forget about deleting... The class contains three CImage instances, one for each possible state (these will later be changed to smart pointers as well in order to allow for better reuse).

Buttons are set through the virtual SetupTouchHeader method in each of the child views. Instead of just setting the header text, you can now set up to two buttons (left with index zero and right with index one). The button activation messaging is very similar to a regular menu: the WM_COMMAND message is sent to the parent window (the main frame) with the command ID as the wParam parameter.

A final thought: the header belongs to the frame window and is set up by the child view when they are shown. Is this a good design? I'm wondering if these should "belong" to the child view instead and be replaced along with it, possibly with some fancy animation. What do you think?

Sample code: CrypSafe08.zip (406 KB)