Ultimate Toolbox Change History

Version 9.3

Major release feature:

Bug Fixes:

Version 9.2

Major release feature:

Bug Fixes:

Version 9.0

Major Upgrades:

  1. The Office 2003 Look and Feel was added. The following Ultimate ToolBox UI elements support this new skin:
    1. Menus
    2. Toolbars and menubars
    3. Docking windows
    4. MDI tabs and Tear-off tabs
    5. Shortcut bar
    6. Properties window
    7. Status bar
  1. The Properties window was enhanced to look more like the VS.NET properties window.

Minor Changes and Fixes:

  1. A bug causing the Caption Painter not to work in Windows XP was fixed.
  2. A problem casing excessive flashing of the toolbar, menu bar and docking windows under the Office XP skin was fixed.
  3. A problem causing the close, minimize and maximize buttons of the menu bar to appear too large in skinned Windows XP was fixed.
  4. A bug causing a floating toolbar to stick to the mouse cursor even after the user has released the button was fixed.
  5. A GDI leak found in the Office XP skin causing problems in Windows ME was removed.
  6. Several upgrades to the COXTreeCtrl were implemented:
    1. Arrow key navigation was added.
    2. Various drawing problems involving different back colors were fixed.
    3. An item indentation problem involving adding a child item to a collapsed parent was fixed.
  7. A problem in COXPreviewDialog caused by a font that does not exist in all operating systems was fixed.
  8. The classes COXTreeCtrl and COXGridCtrl will draw their sort headers correctly now in Windows XP skinned mode.
  9. Several upgrades to the COXPropertiesWnd class were implemented:
    1. OnDeleteProperty() notification was added.
    2. A method for deleting all properties called DeleteAll() was added.
    3. A problem causing a crash if a property is deleted while being edited was fixed.
    4. A problem causing the combo box drop list not to show in its entirety was fixed.
    5. Added the following functionality: when editing a property the changes will be accepted if Enter is pressed and discarded when Escape is pressed.
  10. Fixed a problem in COXMultiComboBox causing uncontrolled scrolling to the bottom of the drop list in Windows XP skinned mode.

Sample Changes:

  1. The SkinsDemo sample was enhanced to show the new Office 2003 look and feel.
  2. The SkinsDemo sample was upgraded to demonstrate how to show and hide the different docking windows from the View menu.

New Classes:

  1. COXUxTheme – internal class used by various Ultimate Toolbox classes designed to detect the presence of Windows XP skins and retrieve their color schemas.

Version 8.1

Major Upgrades:

  1. Visual Studio.NET 2003 full compatibility.
  2. Enhancements to the VS.NET like properties window: the following property types with their appropriate editors are now supported:
    1. Text
    2. Numeric (with the ability to specify the number of decimal places)
    3. List of items (enumeration)
    4. Date
    5. IP address
    6. Currency
    7. Color
    8. Filename
    9. Directory
    10. Time (from nanoseconds to days)
    11. Angle (degrees, radians or grades)
    12. Length (metric or imperial)
    13. Temperature (Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin)
    14. Custom field with a custom editor.

Minor Changes and Fixes:

  1. The TVOXS_NOFOCUSRECT style was introduced in COXTreeView to provide the ability to turn off the item focus rectangle for selected items.
  2. A buggy assertion statement was removed from COXMDIChildWndSizeDock::Create(…)
  3. An auto-scrolling problem in COXMultiComboBox was fixed.
  4. A bug in COXPhysicalEdit causing a crash was fixed.
  5. A bug causing all drop edit controls to show garbage characters in the tooltips was fixed.
  6. A bug preventing COXTreeCtrl::SelectItem(…) from having any effect in single selection mode was fixed.
  7. A bug causing a floating menu to jump away from the mouse cursor was fixed.

Sample Changes:

  1. The SkinsDemo sample was enhanced to demonstrate the use of COXPropertiesWnd and all the different type of properties that are supported.
  2. The CustomizeManager sample was modified to reflect that in CMainFrame::OnCreate() InitializeToolbars() must be called prior to calling InitializeCommands().

New Classes:

  1. COXPropertyTree – internal class used by COXPropertiesWnd.
  2. COXListEdit – A drop edit control with the ability to display a list of items.
  3. COXListPopup – internal class used by COXListEdit.
  4. COXIPEdit – A an IP address edit control.
  5. COXCalendarEdit – A drop edit control for dates.
  6. COXMonthCalPopup – internal class used by COXCalendarEdit.

Version 8.02

Changes and Fixes:

  1. When the snapping and tear-off behavior is enabled a floating window could not be resized. This was fixed.
  2. OXShdWnd.cpp was not added to the build library project causing link errors. This was fixed.
  3. In COXPropertiesWnd it was possible to edit a category name, which caused a crash. This was fixed.
  4. When the extended tree control (COXTreeCtrl) is automatically populated the user could not expand the tree by single clicking on the plus. This was fixed.
  5. Some painting problems of the edit control of the extended tree were fixed.
  6. A problem preventing a date item from being edited in the extended tree was fixed.
  7. The COXShdWnd class was not declared as exportable, which caused some link errors. This problem was fixed.
  8. In the Customize Manager it was possible to turn off the “cool look” of the toolbars while in OfficeXP skin mode, which caused a crash. This problem was fixed.
  9. A paining problem of COXCustomTBComboBox with the CBS_DROPLIST style under the Office XP skin was fixed.
  10. A problem causing COXSkinnedCombo not to send CBN_SELCHANGE message was fixed.
  11. A problem causing a floating window not to redraw the window behind it fast enough while moving was fixed.
  12. In COXDao the FindNext method will work properly with searches on string values.

Sample Changes:

  1. A new sample called CustomizeManager was added to the samples/advanced/ directory. This sample demonstrates how to use COXCustomizeManager. The different steps required are written as comments in the source code. Just search for the string “STEP”.
  2. A new sample called ExtendedTreeControl was added to the samples/gui/ directory. This sample shows how to achieve the functionality of COXTreeCtrl demonstrated in the downloadable Demo Browser.
  3. The link errors in the TabViews sample were fixed.

Version 8.01

New Functionality:

  1. Ability to programmatically tab all docked windows on a dock bar. Use COXSizeDockBar:: TabAllDockedControlBars(…) to accomplish this.

Changes and Fixes:

  1. COXSkinnedComboBox now sends proper notification messages.
  2. A combo box custom toolbar button is now properly centered in the Windows XP skin.
  3. A behavior problem was fixed when the user double-clicks the gripper of a tabbed docking window.
  4. A behavior problem was fixed preventing the user from moving a docked toolbar to the left edge of the windows without the toolbar going into float mode.
  5. A crash in COXPreviewDialog which only occurred in Windows 2000 when compiled with VC7 was fixed.
  6. Missing files causing links errors were added to the SideBySideToolbars sample.

Version 8.0

Major Features:

Snapping Toolbars, Menubars and Docking Windows

When a toolbar, menubar or a docking windows is being dragged the entire content is shown instead of just the outline. When it is being docked it snaps to its appropriate position before the user releases the mouse button. This behaviour is the same as the snapping toolbars and docking windows of Visual Studio .NET.

Detachable tabs

Two or more docking windows can be docked to the same area of then screen. When they are only one of the is shown and the others can be activated by clicking on the appropriate tab on the bottom. The user can click on a tab an drag it away, therefore separating a docking window from the group, hence the name "detachable tabs". Behaviour is similar but not identical to the detachable tabs of Visual Studio .NET

Properties Window

A new window designed to provide UI for properties and property categories.

Window Shadows

A new template class called COXShadowedWnd<...> providing the ability to display a shadow behind any window. The implementation does not require Win 2000 or higher and allows the shadowed window to be moveable and sizeable.

There are also numerous minor features, updates and bug fixes.

Version 7.52

Changes and Fixes:

  1. The “octodll” project was renamed to “UT”.
  2. The “octolib” project was renamed to “UTStaticLib”
  3. The files “UTDLL.h” and “UTStaticLib.h” were added to the /include folder to automatically link to the appropriate .LIB file.
  4. A CFormView constructor was added to COXSkinnedView.h
  5. Various bug fixes.

Sample Changes:

  1. Two new samples were added to /samples/GettingStarted
    1. UsingDLL – explains how to use the Ultimate ToolBox in a DLL.
    2. UsingStaticLib – explains how to use the UltimateToolBox in a static library.

Version 7.51

Office XP Skin Fixes:

  1. The colors of a skinned application are now determined exactly the same way as Office XP, so a skinned application will look the  same as Office XP under any color scheme.
  2. A drawing problem of COXSkinnedCombo in Win XP with Common Controls 6.0 was fixed.
  3. A skinned mini frame window will no longer show a non skinned close button when sized.
  4. A GDI leak was removed that could lead to a crash on some systems.
  5. A menu positioning problem causing the menu to pop on top of the menu bar item when the menu bar is docked at the bottom of the  application was fixed.
  6. A problem causing the COXCoolToolBar to draw incorrectly when the item images are very large was fixed.
  7. The main frame will now properly recalculate it layout when the skins are changed dynamically.
  8. COXStatusBar will now properly draw a bitmap under the Office XP skin.
  9. Win 9x: The slit window separators will now be properly drawn.
  10. The size of the menu check boxes was corrected.
  11. The skin classes will no longer report Level 4 warnings.
  12. Win 9x: A drawing problem with the menu shadow when the menu bar is docked to the bottom was fixed.
  13. Win 9X: A popup window will no longer interfere with the shadow if its parent window.
  14. Win 9x: A problem causing the menu bar not to draw while moving was fixed.
  15. Win 9x: The hot icons of a toolbar or a menu will now be raised and will drop a shadow.
  16. Win 9x: A problem causing the toolbar and shortcut bar images not to draw transparently in 32-bit color was fixed.         

Other Changes:

  1. Multi-monitor support was added.
  2. OXToolTipCtrl.cpp was added as a dependency to OXBitmapMenu.cpp, so you might have to add OXToolTipCtrl.cpp to your project to avoid linker error LNK2001.

Sample Changes:

  1. The OulookLikeDemo sample was modified to demonstrate skinned drop down buttons properly.
  2. More comments were added to the SkinsDemo to show the steps involved in adding skins to an application. Just search for "STEP".