Add and Remove Toolbars

• Oct 29, 2020
• 4 minutes to read

This document describes existing toolbar types and how to add them.

• Initial Setup
• Add and Remove Toolbars
• Code Sample

Initial Setup

• Locate the BarManager component in the VS Toolbox and drop it onto the form. The Bar Manager is the core component of the DevExpress Bars library and provides centralized access to all toolbars, menus and items.

• The BarManager automatically creates three toolbars - main menu, regular toolbar and status bar.

  

  All three toolbars are objects of the same Bar class, but nevertheless feature severe differences in appearance and behavior.

  • Main menu. A Bar assigned to the bar manager’s BarManager.MainMenu property. This bar contains buttons with no images. Each button is a category (e.g., ‘File’, ‘Edit’, ‘Format’) that displays other buttons and sub-items on clicking. This bar has the following specifics:

    • it cannot be hidden by an end-user at runtime;
    • it’s stretched by default horizontally to fit the container’s width (see the BarOptions.UseWholeRow property);
    • the item multi-line arrangement feature is enabled by default (see the BarOptions.MultiLine property);
    • receives focus when an end-user presses the ALT key;
    • if it belongs to an MDI child window, it is automatically merged with the parent MDI form’s main menu.

  • Status bar. A Bar assigned to the manager’s BarManager.StatusBar property. Designed to display status application info; provides the following specific features:

    • always docked to the bottom edge of the form and cannot be made floating;
    • drag and drop operations are disabled for this bar;
    • the quick customization button is disabled (see the BarOptions.AllowQuickCustomization property);
    • fills the entire row provided by the container (form) (see the BarOptions.UseWholeRow property).
  • Regular toolbar. A Bar that contains buttons and editors that represent the most frequently used actions (e.g., creating new documents, font settings or text alignment). Buttons within such bars usually display their icons only. Can occupy multiple lines (see the BarOptions.MultiLine property) or less than one (see the BarOptions.UseWholeRow property).

Add and Remove Toolbars

To remove a bar, first click it at design-time. The selected bar will become highlighted.

Press the “DELETE” key to remove the selected bar.

To add a bar, invoke the BarManager’s smart tag and click “Create Toolbar”.

Another way to add a toolbar is to invoke the BarManager component’s smart tag and click “Customize”. This will invoke the Customization Window dialog where you can add and remove toolbars, as well as reset their settings to default values.

The added Bar will be a regular toolbar, docked below other toolbars of this type. You can instantly re-arrange bars by dragging them at design time.

Code Sample

C#

public void InitializeBars() {
    BarManager bManager = new BarManager();
    bm = bManager;
    bManager.Form = this;
    //All bar modifications should be performed between the BeginUpdate and EndUpdate method calls
    bManager.BeginUpdate();
    //Create three toolbars
    Bar mainBar = new Bar(bm, "Main Menu") { DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top, DockRow = 0 };
    Bar statusBar = new Bar(bm, "Status Bar") { DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Bottom };
    Bar toolbar1 = new Bar(bm, "File Toolbar") { DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top };
    //Set the existing Bar Manager as your bars' parent
    bManager.Bars.AddRange(new Bar[] { mainBar, statusBar, toolbar1 });
    //Choose main menu and status bars
    bManager.MainMenu = mainBar;
    bManager.StatusBar = statusBar;
    bManager.EndUpdate();
}

VB.NET

Public Sub InitializeBars()
    Dim bManager As New BarManager()
    bm = bManager
    bManager.Form = Me
    'All bar modifications should be performed between the BeginUpdate and EndUpdate method calls
    bManager.BeginUpdate()
    'Create three toolbars
    Dim mainBar As New Bar(bm, "Main Menu") With {.DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top, .DockRow = 0}
    Dim statusBar As New Bar(bm, "Status Bar") With {.DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Bottom}
    Dim toolbar1 As New Bar(bm, "File Toolbar") With {.DockStyle = BarDockStyle.Top}
    'Set the existing Bar Manager as your bars' parent
    bManager.Bars.AddRange(New Bar() { mainBar, statusBar, toolbar1 })
    'Choose main menu and status bars
    bManager.MainMenu = mainBar
    bManager.StatusBar = statusBar
    bManager.EndUpdate()
End Sub

You can access created toolbars by their Bar.BarName property values.

C#

var bar = barManager1.Bars["Image Toolbar"];

VB.NET

Dim bar = barManager1.Bars("Image Toolbar")