Hello,

I have recently built a toolbar band object for internet explorer,
much like the google bar (toolbar.google.com).  However, it appears
that the googlebar has a default startup postion (the botton most
lefthand corner of the toolbar region) and size. I would like to give
my bar a similar startup position and size, but alas I do not know
how? Does anyone know this?

Joe

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Request for Question Clarification by xemion-ga on 20 Jun 2002 11:41 PDT

How did you create the object?  What language, etc.?  Thank you.

xemion-ga

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Clarification of Question by fatjoe10014-ga on 23 Jun 2002 09:54 PDT

The object was written in visual basic. It fairly simple, you create
an activex DLL and then implement certain com interfaces and the
object becomes usable as a deskband, toolbar band or explorer band.
You configure which it will be by making edits to the registry. In
this case, you add the clsid to the toolbar registry key of
localmachine/software/microsoft/internet explorer.

I can find no registry key to determine position, save for
currentuser/software/microsoft/internet
explorer/toolbar/webbrowser/ITBarLayout. This key seems to save the
position of iexplorers inteface, but it is a binary value and I have
been unable to decode it.

I suspect that there are no such variables. The toolbars are
positioned in order of installation. You can move the google toolbar
by dragging it.

When Internet Explorer calls your object's SetSite() method you obtain
a pointer to the IWebBrowser2 interface, and call it's
ShowBrowserBar() method:

STDMETHODIMP CDropBar::SetSite(IUnknown *newSite)
{
        ...
        {
                site = newSite;

                if (! site.isNull())
                {
                        // obtain pointer to IWebBrowser2
                        IServiceProviderPtr provider = site;

                        IUnknownPtr ieUnk;
                        provider->QueryService(SID_SInternetExplorer,
&ieUnk);

                        IE::IWebBrowser2Ptr ie = ieUnk;

                        LPOLESTR clsid;
                        StringFromCLSID(uuid_of(DropBar), &clsid);

                        // display DropBar
                        ie->ShowBrowserBar(&variant(clsid),
&variant(true), 0);

                        // free string
                        CoTaskMemFree(clsid);

                        ...
                }
                ...
        }
        ...
}

concerning the layout and positioning issue: I have not tested myself
but I guess that a correct handling of your toolbar's
IDeskBand::GetBandInfo() method should solve that problem.

krizz-ga,

I tried to implement your reccomendations using visual basic, however,
it does not appear to be working. Here is a copy of my SetSite
Implementation and two working functions I've created. Can you take a
look and see if I've done something wrong?

Private Sub IObjectWithSite_SetSite(ByVal pUnkSite As IUnknownVB)

    Dim isp As IServiceProvider
    Dim oleWnd As IOleWindow
        
    Dim wba As GUID 'IWebBrowserApp
    Dim wb2 As GUID 'IWebBrowser2
        
    Dim dwStyle As Long
    
    If Not (pUnkSite Is Nothing) Then
    
        If Not (m_pSite Is Nothing) Then
            Set m_pSite = Nothing
        End If
        
        Set m_pSite = pUnkSite
        Set oleWnd = pUnkSite
        
        'QueryInterface for IServiceProvider
        Set isp = pUnkSite
        
        'Query service provider to get IWebBrowser2 (InternetExplorer)
        CLSIDFromString StrPtr(IID_IWebBrowserApp), wba
        CLSIDFromString StrPtr(IID_IWebBrowser2), wb2
        
        Load frmBand
        '***************************Call showbrowserbar
        Dim obj As Object
        Set obj = isp.QueryService(VarPtr(wba), VarPtr(wb2))
        obj.ShowBrowserBar GetStringCLSID, True, 0
        '****************************
        Set isp = Nothing
        
        If Not (oleWnd Is Nothing) Then
            
            m_ContainerWnd = oleWnd.GetWindow
            m_bandWnd = frmBand.HWND
            
            dwStyle = GetWindowLong(m_bandWnd, GWL_STYLE)
            dwStyle = dwStyle Or WS_CHILD Or WS_CLIPSIBLINGS
            SetWindowLong m_bandWnd, GWL_STYLE, dwStyle
            SetParent m_bandWnd, m_ContainerWnd
              
        End If
        
        Set oleWnd = Nothing
    Else
        Set m_pSite = Nothing
    End If
   
End Sub

Private Function GetStringCLSID() As String
   
   Dim strProgID As String * 255
   Dim pProgID As Long
   Dim udtCLSID As GUID
   Dim strCLSID As String * 255
   Dim pCLSID As Long
   Dim lngRet As Long
   Dim strTemp As String
   Dim i As Integer
   Dim ByteArray(255) As Byte
   Dim strout As String
    
   'Take a ProgID.
   strTemp = "<MY CLASS NAME - REMOVED FROM CODE NORMALLY:
SOMETHING.SOMETHING>"

   'Get CLSID.
   lngRet = CLSIDFromProgID(StrPtr(strTemp), udtCLSID)

   'Convert CLSID to a string and get the pointer back.
   lngRet = StringFromCLSID(udtCLSID, pCLSID)

   'Get the CLSID string
   StringFromPointer pCLSID, strCLSID
   strCLSID = Trim(strCLSID)
   GetStringCLSID = strCLSID
    
End Function

Private Sub StringFromPointer(pOLESTR As Long, strout As String)
   Dim ByteArray(255) As Byte
   Dim intTemp As Integer
   Dim intCount As Integer
   Dim i As Integer

   intTemp = 1

   'Walk the string and retrieve the first byte of each WORD.
   While intTemp <> 0
      CopyMemory intTemp, ByVal pOLESTR + i, 2
      ByteArray(intCount) = intTemp
      intCount = intCount + 1
      i = i + 2
   Wend

   'Copy the byte array to our string.
   CopyMemory ByVal strout, ByteArray(0), intCount
End Sub

krizz-ga,

I don't think this solution is going to work. The reason is, I added a
msgbox() call with the CLSID I was passing to ShowBrowserBar. However,
I noticed the msgbox was only called when the bar was visible in IE!
Leading me to believe that the setSite method was is only called when
the bar is already visible!

I also noticed that when I run the showbrowser method, the menu item
for my bar is checked. However, if I do not run the function the menu
item is unchecked. I am using IE 6.0. What browser did you test your
code under?