topic Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0) in ArcObjects SDK Questions

Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 08:52:27 GMT

I'd like to hide some buttons on an addin toolbar. It appears that isn't possible - there are only Enable or Checked properties.

First question - am I missing an easy way to hide an existing button on a toolbar?

Second question - if there is no way to hide a button, does that mean I need to add/remove the button to the toolbar programatically? Can someone point me to a code sample to do this? My buttons need to be in a particular order, and the ones I need to hide/show are in the middle - is there a way to add a button in a particular location?

Thanks for any help - I've been searching for code samples and failing to find examples of what I'm trying to do.

update:
- it occurs to me now that I only need to know how to remove a button. The buttons that should be shown depend on the particular user's level of access, and I know what that is when my addin initialization code is being run. So I can create the toolbar with all the buttons, and then just remove ones that shouldn't be there if the user shouldn't have access to that option.

So I'm just looking for a code sample to show how to remove a button from a toolbar.

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

DuncanHornby — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 19:30:26 GMT

Teresa,

I've not tried this with an AddIn button, so you'll need to test this but you could get a handle on the toolbar then using the interface ICommandBar get a handle on the button as an ICommandItem. This has a Delete method to remove it from the toolbar

Duncan

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:26:49 GMT

Thanks for the reply Duncan - I've been so busy workin on other parts of this project that I didn't see your reply until just now.

I'm trying to work with ICommandBar to find and remove a button, but additional questions come up:

1. Is there a way within the button code itself to reference that button (something like Me) or do I have to find the commandbar and then the command (just looking for a shortcut).

2. Where do I run this code from? Ideally I just want the toolbar to appear without those buttons so the user doesn't know any better about what's missing. I've got other initialization code I've put into the New sub of one of the buttons on the toolbar. I tried to add the following code to the New sub on that button

            Dim commandBars As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandBars = clsGlobals.app.Document.CommandBars
            Dim barID As ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UID = New ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UIDClass
            barID.Value = "Test_Toolbar"
            Dim barItem As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandItem = commandBars.Find(barID, False, False)

At runtime, when the code hits the last line, it generates this error:
Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT:0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))

So, I guess this isn't the way to go!

Is the toolbar created at this point? How do I access something like an addin AfterLoad type of event?

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:37:26 GMT

OK, I just did another test.
I created another button on the toolbar and put the following code in OnClick:

        Try
            Dim commandBars As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandBars = clsGlobals.app.Document.CommandBars
            Dim barID As ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UID = New ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UIDClass
            barID.Value = "Test_Toolbar"
            Dim barItem As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandItem = commandBars.Find(barID, False, False)

            If (barItem Is Nothing) OrElse barItem.Type <> ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.esriCommandTypes.esriCmdTypeToolbar Then Exit Sub

            Dim commandBar As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandBar = CType(barItem, ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandBar)
            Dim commandID As ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UID = New ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UIDClass
            commandID.Value = "Test_Button"
            If Not commandBar.Find(commandID, False) Is Nothing Then
                MsgBox("button found")
                Dim cmd As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandItem = commandBar.Find(commandID, False)
                cmd.Delete()
            End If

        Catch ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)

        End Try

When I click the new button on the toolbar, the button referenced in the code disappears.
So the question is, where do I run this code from so I don't have to click a button to get the other button to delete?

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 17:45:11 GMT

One more update. I kind of have it working.

I added an extension to my addin and set the OnStartup code as follows:

AddHandler My.ArcMap.Events.OpenDocument, AddressOf OpenOrNewDocument
AddHandler My.ArcMap.Events.NewDocument, AddressOf OpenOrNewDocument

The OpenOrNewDocument Sub is as follows:

    Private Sub OpenOrNewDocument()

        'hide buttons/tools for readonly user
        If clsGlobals.intUserRole > 1 Then Exit Sub 'not read only user

        Dim UID As New ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UID
        Dim commandItem As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandItem

        UID.Value = My.ThisAddIn.IDs.btnPushToGeo
        commandItem = My.ArcMap.Application.Document.CommandBars.Find(UID, False, False)
        commandItem.Delete()

        UID.Value = My.ThisAddIn.IDs.tolCreateNew
        commandItem = My.ArcMap.Application.Document.CommandBars.Find(UID, False, False)
        commandItem.Delete()

    End Sub

I tried putting the code to hide the buttons in the OnStart routine of the extension, but ArcMap crashes with no error messages reported. This way my code is triggered when the user opens a map or goes to a new map. The first time the toolbar is turned on, all the buttons are visible (but I have them disabled).

If the user then opens an mxd, goes to a new one or closes and re-opens ArcMap (without closing the toolbar), the buttons/tools that should be hidden are hidden and stay hidden unless the user closes the toolbar and re-opens it.

If anyone reading this can tell me where to better implement this code so that it is executed when the toolbar is created, I would appreciate it.

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

DuncanHornby — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 17:56:20 GMT

OK dumb question coming up, why don't you just make the toolbar without the buttons? If the intention is to remove them as soon as the document opens why not simply create the toolbar without them?

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 18:47:50 GMT

Because we have read-only users and higher-levell users. The read-only users don't get the buttons, the other users do.

Note the line of code:

Private Sub OpenOrNewDocument()

'hide buttons/tools for readonly user
If clsGlobals.intUserRole > 1 Then Exit Sub 'not read only user

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

DuncanHornby — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 08:10:14 GMT

Terese,

Have a look at this sample code it shows the use of IApplicationStatus interface to test if the framework has been initialized first before making changes to the GUI.

Duncan

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 16:21:16 GMT

Thanks for continuing to try to figure this out, Duncan.

I looked at the code at the link you included but got stuck when I couldn't get the Initialized event setup correctly using the following:

m_appStatusEvents = TryCast(My.ThisApplication, IApplicationStatusEvents)
AddHandler m_appStatusEvents.Initialized, AddressOf OnInitialized

I get an error that 'Initialized is not an event of ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.IApplicationStatusEvents', even though when I use the Object Browser to look at IApplicationStatusEvents, it clearly lists Initialized.

At this point, I need to get something to the client and they are OK with it working the way it is, which isn't perfect but does work once the user opens a map file.

Thanks for all your help.

Terese

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

DuncanHornby — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 08:11:50 GMT

Terese,

When you declared the pointer m_appStatusEvents did you declare it in the manner of:

Private m_mapStatusEvents As IApplicationStatusEvents_Event

For some reason an Event interface in VB .net needs to have that "_Event" at the end of it. No idea why but thats what must be done.

Duncan

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

TereseRowekamp — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:10:30 GMT

Duncan, you were right. I was missing the _Event in the interface name. That took care of the error message I was getting that prevented a successful build. It took me a few more minutes to realize that I forgot to make the same change in the m_appStatusEvents = line.

Here's what I have now:

    Private m_appStatusEvents As IApplicationStatusEvents_Event

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStartup()

        m_appStatusEvents = TryCast(My.ThisApplication, IApplicationStatusEvents_Event)
        AddHandler m_appStatusEvents.Initialized, AddressOf OnInitialized

    End Sub

Private Sub OnInitialized()

clsGlobals.intUserRole = 0
If clsGlobals.intUserRole <= 1 Then 'readonly user
        HideButtons()
End If

End Sub

Private Sub HideButtons()

        Dim UID As New ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem.UID
        Dim commandItem As ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.ICommandItem

        UID.Value = My.ThisAddIn.IDs.btnPushToGeo
        commandItem = My.ArcMap.Application.Document.CommandBars.Find(UID, False, False)
        commandItem.Delete()

        UID.Value = My.ThisAddIn.IDs.tolCreateNew
        commandItem = My.ArcMap.Application.Document.CommandBars.Find(UID, False, False)
        commandItem.Delete()

        UID.Value = My.ThisAddIn.IDs.btnUpdateOutfallSV
        commandItem = My.ArcMap.Application.Document.CommandBars.Find(UID, False, False)
        commandItem.Delete()

End Sub

(I've removed other code that OnInititalized will execute to determine the user role and assume for now that these buttons always get hidden. If I can get this part to work, I will add the extra code back in).

Here's the result:
1. Open ArcMap and show toolbar - all buttons are visible.
2. Leave toolbar open, close ArcMap, open ArcMap - buttons are hidden.
3. Close toolbar, close ArcMap - back to behavior number 1.

So, as long as ArcMap is closed with the toolbar visible, the buttons are hidden when ArcMap is re-opened. Whenever the toolbar needs to be opened by the user, the buttons are not hidden.

I guess I don't understand when OnInitialized actually gets run. But the AcmeExt example has a bunch of other checks going on to test whether Startup has run, etc. so I guess it's time to go back to that sample and keep expanding my code. Unfortunately, I'm no longer being paid to figure this out and the client was OK with the addin as delivered.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Re: Hide Button on Addin Toolbar (ArcGIS 10.0)

AndyMorgan1 — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 16:07:01 GMT

Terese Rowekamp wrote:
Here's the result:
1. Open ArcMap and show toolbar - all buttons are visible.
2. Leave toolbar open, close ArcMap, open ArcMap - buttons are hidden.
3. Close toolbar, close ArcMap - back to behavior number 1.

So, as long as ArcMap is closed with the toolbar visible, the buttons are hidden when ArcMap is re-opened. Whenever the toolbar needs to be opened by the user, the buttons are not hidden.

I am stuck here, too. Exact same issue, I want to keep a button fully hidden (not disabled) in a toolbar if the user is part of a specific Active Directory group. The problem is that there is no event exposed in the Add-in ArcObjects API for when you make the toolbar visible if it wasn't already visible when opening ArcMap. I would greatly appreciate any workarounds!