SDK:Working with Hierarchical VWListBrowserCtrl

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Introduction

Since Vectorworks 2013 it is possible to create hierarchical list browsers ie with rows which can be expanded to reveal other rows, recursively.

<Example>

We will try in this article to get the result shown above.

Basic concept : the '-' character

First thing to understand with hierarchical list browsers is that you don't insert every rows shown in the result. In our example, the inserted rows in the list browser are :

abcd-first row
abcd-2nd row
abcd-3rd row
abcd-4th row
EFGH-1st row
EFGH-2nd row
EFGH-3rd row-AA
EFGH-3rd row-BB
EFGH-3rd row-CC

This is exactly the way the class list browser is working in the Organization dialog.

How to activate the hierarchical mode

// activating hierarchical mode
gSDK->EnableListBrowserHierarchicalDisplay( GetDialogID(), GetControlID, true );

// telling LB which column is the one with collapse/expand picture
gSDK->SetListBrowserHierarchicalDisplayColumn( GetDialogID(), GetControlID, kFirstColumnIndex );

// we need to put these attributes. It doesn't work without them
gSDK->SetListBrowserItemDisplayType( GetDialogID(), GetControlID, kFirstColumnIndex, kListBrowserDisplayImageAndText );
gSDK->SetListBrowserControlType( GetDialogID(), GetControlID, kFirstColumnIndex, kListBrowserControlDiscTriangle);

Adding rows

size_t row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "abcd-first row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "abcd-2nd row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "abcd-3rd row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "abcd-4th row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "EFGH-1st row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "EFGH-2nd row" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "EFGH-3rd row-AA" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "EFGH-3rd row-BB" );
row = AddRow( "" );
GetItem( row, kFirstColumnIndex ).SetItemText( "EFGH-3rd row-CC" );

The missing mistery part

Once we've done all this, the list browser looks like this :

Not very hirerarchical isn't it ? It's because one of the calls we've done before the row inserts has to be made after. So we just need to do this :

// activating hierarchical mode (again !)
gSDK->EnableListBrowserHierarchicalDisplay( GetDialogID(), GetControlID, true );

<other general topic>

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See Also

SDK:Working with VWListBrowserCtrl | SDK:Layout Manager: List Browser