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Q190670: HOWTO: Dynamically Add Controls to a Form with Visual Basic 6.0

Article: Q190670
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbActiveX kbCtrlCreate kbVBp kbVBp600 kbFAQ kbVBp600FAQ
Last Modified: 18-JUL-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, version 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, version 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, version 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Visual Basic 6.0 allows you to dynamically add control to a form at run- time
using the new Add method of the Controls collection. This article shows how to
dynamically add intrinsic and ActiveX controls.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following example dynamically adds two intrinsic and one ActiveX control to
an application at run-time. The sample shows how to program the events of a
dynamically added control. If you are dynamically adding a control that is not
referenced in the project, you may need to add the control's License key to the
Licenses collection. For more information on the Licenses collection, please see
the REFERENCES section of this article.

When you reference properties of the dynamically-added control, you must use the
Object keyword to access the properties of the control. If you do not use the
Object keyword, you will only be able to access the extender properties of the
control.

Attempting to access the extender properties without using the Object keyword
causes the following 438 error:

  "Object doesn't support this property or method."

When an ActiveX control is dynamically added using the VBControlExtender object
and WithEvents in the declare statement, you will need to use the ObjectEvent
method to code all of the control's events. If you declare an intrinsic control
WithEvents, you will get all the standard event methods for the type of control
you declared. You can see this by adding the following declare statement in the
Code window and then checking the Events dropdown for the declared variable in
the Code window:

  Dim WithEvents cmdMyCommand as VB.CommandButton

Steps to Create Sample Project
------------------------------

1. Create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add the following code to the code window of Form1:

  Option Explicit
  ' If you are adding an ActiveX control at run-time that is
  ' not referenced in your project, you need to declare it
  ' as VBControlExtender.
  Dim WithEvents ctlDynamic As VBControlExtender
  Dim WithEvents ctlText As VB.TextBox
  Dim WithEvents ctlCommand As VB.CommandButton

  Private Sub ctlCommand_Click()
     ctlText.Text = "You Clicked the Command button"
  End Sub

  Private Sub ctlDynamic_ObjectEvent(Info As EventInfo)
     ' test for the click event of the TreeView
     If Info.Name = "Click" Then
        ctlText.Text = "You clicked " & ctlDynamic.object.selecteditem.Text
     End If
  End Sub

  Private Sub Form_Load()
     Dim i As Integer
     ' Add the license for the treeview to the license collection.
     ' If the license is already in the collection you will get
     ' the run-time error number 732.
     Licenses.Add "MSComctlLib.TreeCtrl"

     ' Dynamically add a TreeView control to the form.
     ' If you want the control to be added to a different
     ' container such as a Frame or PictureBox, you use the third
     ' parameter of the Controls.Add to specify the container.
     Set ctlDynamic = Controls.Add("MSComctlLib.TreeCtrl", _
                      "myctl", Form1)
     ' set the location and size of the control.
     ctlDynamic.Move 1, 1, 2500, 3500

     ' Add some nodes to the control.
     For i = 1 To 10
        ctlDynamic.object.nodes.Add Key:="Test" & Str(i), Text:="Test" _
                                          & Str(i)
        ctlDynamic.object.nodes.Add Relative:="Test" & Str(i), _
                             Relationship:=4, Text:="TestChild" & Str(i)
     Next i
     
     ' Make the control visible.
     ctlDynamic.Visible = True

     ' add a textbox
     Set ctlText = Controls.Add("VB.TextBox", "ctlText1", Form1)
     ' Set the location and size of the textbox
     ctlText.Move (ctlDynamic.Left + ctlDynamic.Width + 50), _
                   1, 2500, 100

     ' Change the backcolor.
     ctlText.BackColor = vbYellow

     ' Make it visible
     ctlText.Visible = True

     ' Add a CommandButton.
     Set ctlCommand = Controls.Add("VB.CommandButton", _
                      "ctlCommand1", Form1)

     ' Set the location and size of the CommandButton.
     ctlCommand.Move (ctlDynamic.Left + ctlDynamic.Width + 50), _
                      ctlText.Height + 50, 1500, 500

     ' Set the caption
     ctlCommand.Caption = "Click Me"

     ' Make it visible
     ctlCommand.Visible = True
  End Sub

3. Save and run the project. Try clicking the CommandButton and on different
  Nodes in the TreeView. The TextBox will show what you click.

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Brian Combs, Microsoft Corporation


REFERENCES
==========

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

Q188577 HOWTO: What is the Licenses Collection Used For?

Also search On-line Help for the following topics:

- Add Method (Controls Collection)
- Add Method (Licenses Collection)

Additional query words: VBFAQProgramming runtime plugin

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbActiveX kbCtrlCreate kbVBp kbVBp600 kbFAQ kbVBp600FAQ 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB600Search kbVB600
Version           : WINDOWS:6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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