Q: API Menu Callback...

We re writing an application in VB5 Enterprise. We d like to keep it 
generic, object oriented and data-driven. One of our problem is MENU. 
Our application will define user s access rights for each form, control 
and menu item. But it forces us to have menu-structure definition kept 
on two places :

1) menu is created by VB MenuEditor and its structure (definition) is 
stored in FRM file and after COMPILE is stored in EXE file.

2) we have to have menu-structure definition stored also in our database 
to be able to assign users rights to menu items.

It can cause a dangerous inconsistency between these two instances of 
menu definition. It is also difficult for developers to maintain two 
copies of menu : to add a menu item in VB MenuEditor, then go to our 
application and add this menu item (and its access rights) to our 
tables.

What would I imagine as an  elegant  solution : To have whole menu
structure stored in our tables (and create suitable maintenance tool)
and dynamically build the menu on application s startup. (I can imagine
beautiful menu-editing tool based on treeView control )

Is this possible using  just standard VB commands ? I don t think so.
I m not too familiar with the 32bit API (to be honest with no API at
all ), but I expect that it ought to be able to do this work for me. But
how ?

And even if  I would create that menu dynamically by some API calls, how
to then tell my app, which menu-item was selected. Could it be done with
some callback technique ?

Lukas Casar, casar@integia.cz



A: 

The simpliest way is to make the whole menu-structure in VB code. I 
do this also. When starting the application I check the username 
against a database which gives a status-code for that user. On the 
mainform load event I then set the proper menu-items to 
visible/invisible (or enabled) depending on the status-code.

No API call's involved but it depends on how big you application and 
the menu are how 'fast' it will be... You can do this setting of 
menu-items on one place for all the forms! So you don't have to do it 
every time you start/open another form; only when you first start the 
application.

I hope it will help you..


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