Drop-Down Color Picker

The Windows Ribbon framework provides a specialized Drop-Down Color Picker control that exposes a variety of color settings through a split button and customizable drop-down color selector.

• Introduction
• Markup
• Code
  • Properties
  • Command handlers
• Related topics

Introduction

By emulating the appearance and functionality of the Microsoft Office color picker, the Ribbon framework is able to both benefit from, and contribute to, consistency and familiarity across a wide range of applications.

Markup

Like all Ribbon controls, the Drop-Down Color Picker is easily implemented and customized through markup. The framework provides a number of element attributes for the Drop-Down Color Picker to expose various levels of functionality. The following table lists the Drop-Down Color Picker attributes.

The following screen shots illustrate the default Drop-Down Color Picker layouts for the three color templates.

ThemeColors:[newline] [newline]	standardcolors:[newline] [newline]	highlightcolors:[newline]

The basic markup required for each Drop-Down Color Picker type is demonstrated in the following examples:

<!-- DropDownColorPickers -->
<Command Name="cmdDropDownColorPickerGroup"
         Symbol="cmdDropDownColorPickerGroup"
         Comment="DropDownColorPicker Group"
         Id="55000"/>
<Command Name="cmdDropDownColorPickerThemeColors"
         Symbol="cmdDropDownColorPickerThemeColors"
         Comment="DropDownColorPicker ThemeColors"
         Id="55010"
         LabelTitle="ThemeColors"
         LabelDescription="ThemeColors\ndescription."/>
<Command Name="cmdDropDownColorPickerStandardColors"
         Symbol="cmdDropDownColorPickerStandardColors"
         Comment="DropDownColorPicker StandardColors"
         Id="55011"
         LabelTitle="StandardColors"/>
<Command Name="cmdDropDownColorPickerHighlightColors"
         Symbol="cmdDropDownColorPickerHighlightColors"
         Comment="DropDownColorPicker HighlightColors"
         Id="55012"
         LabelTitle="HighlightColors"/>

<Group CommandName=&quot;cmdDropDownColorPickerGroup&quot;
       SizeDefinition=&quot;ThreeButtons&quot;>
  <DropDownColorPicker
    CommandName=&quot;cmdDropDownColorPickerThemeColors&quot;
    ColorTemplate=&quot;ThemeColors&quot;/>
  <DropDownColorPicker
    CommandName=&quot;cmdDropDownColorPickerStandardColors&quot;
    ColorTemplate=&quot;StandardColors&quot;/>
  <DropDownColorPicker
    CommandName=&quot;cmdDropDownColorPickerHighlightColors&quot;
    ColorTemplate=&quot;HighlightColors&quot;
    StandardColorGridRows=&quot;1&quot;/>
</Group>

Code

As a specialized control that supports customization, any implemention of the Drop-Down Color Picker that takes advantage of these capabilities requires specialized application code to manage properties and handle any Commands issued by the control.

Properties

The Ribbon framework defines a collection of property keys for the Drop-Down Color Picker control.

Typically, a Drop-Down Color Picker property is updated in the ribbon UI by invalidating the Command associated with the control through a call to the IUIFramework::InvalidateUICommand method. The invalidation event is handled, and the property updates defined, by the IUICommandHandler::UpdateProperty callback method.

The IUICommandHandler::UpdateProperty callback method is not executed, and the application queried for an updated property value, until the property is required by the framework. For example, when a tab is activated and a control revealed in the ribbon UI, or when a tooltip is displayed.

The following table lists the property keys that are associated with the Drop-Down Color Picker control.

Command handlers

The IUICommandHandler::UpdateProperty method is used to customize a Drop-Down Color Picker through the property keys listed above. The following example demonstrates how to set the color swatches of a Drop-Down Color Picker, based on a custom style preference or a custom swatch grid that is declared in markup.

STDMETHODIMP DropDownColorPickerHandler::UpdateProperty(
              UINT nCmdID,
              __in REFPROPERTYKEY key,
              __in_opt const PROPVARIANT* ppropvarCurrentValue,
              __out PROPVARIANT* ppropvarNewValue)
{
  HRESULT hr = E_NOTIMPL;
  if (key == UI_PKEY_ThemeColors)
  {
    COLORREF rThemeColors[TOT_THEME_COLORS];
    for (LONG i = 0; i < ARRAYSIZE(rThemeColors); i++)
    {
      // any COLORREF
      rThemeColors[i] = RGB(0, 255, 0); 
    }
    hr = InitPropVariantFromUInt32Vector(
           &rThemeColors, ARRAYSIZE(rThemeColors), ppropvarNewValue);
  }

  else if (key == UI_PKEY_StandardColors)
  {
    ULONG rStandardColors[TOT_STANDARD_COLORS];
    for (LONG i = 0; i < ARRAYSIZE(rStandardColors); i++)
    {
      // any COLORREF
      rStandardColors[i] = RGB(255, 0, 0); 
    }
    hr = InitPropVariantFromUInt32Vector(
           &rStandardColors, ARRAYSIZE(rStandardColors),ppropvarNewValue);
  }

  else if (key == UI_PKEY_ThemeColorsTooltips)
  {
    BSTR rThemeTooltips[TOT_THEME_COLORS];
    for (LONG i = 0; i < ARRAYSIZE(rThemeTooltips); i++)
    {
      // any constant character string
      rThemeTooltips[i] = L"Green"; 
    }
    hr = InitPropVariantFromStringVector((PCWSTR *)&rThemeTooltips, 50, ppropvarNewValue);
  }
  else if (key == UI_PKEY_StandardColorsTooltips)
  {
    static BSTR rStandardTooltips[TOT_STANDARD_COLORS];
    for (LONG i = 0; i < ARRAYSize(rStandardTooltips); i++)
    {
      // any constant character string
      rStandardTooltips[i] = L"Red"; 
    }
    hr = InitPropVariantFromStringVector(
           (PCWSTR *)&rStandardTooltips, 20, ppropvarNewValue);
  }
  return hr;
}

The following example demonstrates an implementation of the IUICommandHandler::Execute method that exposes the Drop-Down Color Picker swatch colors to the Ribbon application.

STDMETHODIMP DropDownColorPickerHandler::Execute(
                 UINT nCmdID,
                 UI_EXECUTIONVERB verb,
                 __in_opt const PROPERTYKEY* key,
                 __in_opt const PROPVARIANT* ppropvarValue,
                 __in_opt IUISimplePropertySet* pCommandExecutionProperties)
{
  HRESULT hr = E_NOTIMPL;
  if (*key == UI_PKEY_ColorType)
  {
    UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE uType = 
      (UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE)PropVariantToUInt32WithDefault(
        *ppropvarValue, 
        UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE_NOCOLOR);

    COLORREF color;
    switch(uType)
    {
      case UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE_RGB:
        PROPVARIANT var;
        pCommandExecutionProperties->GetValue(UI_PKEY_Color, &var);
        color = PropVariantToUInt32WithDefault(var, 0);
        break;
      case UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE_AUTOMATIC:
        color = COLOR_WINDOWTEXT;
        break;
      case UI_SWATCHCOLORTYPE_NOCOLOR:
        color = MSONoFill;
        break;
    }

    // do with your color what you will...
    gInternalColor = color;
    hr = S_OK;
  }
  return hr;
}

Related topics

Windows Ribbon Framework Control Library

DropDownColorPicker markup element

Color Picker Properties

Customizing a Ribbon Through Size Definitions and Scaling Policies

DropDownColorPicker Sample