MFC feature pack - dockable file explorer and dockable properties window

Question

I'm new to MFC and is a bit confused with the new features of "MFC feature pack." Through the wizard I now have an application that looks like an IDE - has a dockable file explorer on the left side and a dockable properties window on the right side. I'm already able to get the selected items on the file explorer window through ON_WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK and GetItemText().

Question:

Properties window should be "updated" after clicking an item in the file explorer window. Ex. I click an item "button" in the tree control, properties window should show "image", "font", and "color" How can I do that?

Answer 1

The tree view should have the handle of the properties window. Getting the string name of the tree item is pretty basic so it's better to set data to each of your tree item (SetData()). This way, you're not just getting the name of the tree item, but also the data of the tree item.

Everytime you click a tree item, pass the data that has been set from the tree item to the properties window. By extracting the data you passed, you can dynamically generate the contents of the properties window.