How To Programmatically Add Images to ImageList Control

This article describes how you can programmatically add images to the ImageList ActiveX control.

An ImageList control contains a collection of ListImage objects, each of which can be referred to by its index or key. The ImageList ActiveX control acts as a central image repository to conveniently supply other controls with images.

In order to add an image at run time, you need to use the Add Method of the ListImages collection.

Syntax

The Add method syntax has these parts:

• Index - Optional. An integer specifying the position where you want to insert the ListImage. If no index is specified, the ListImage is added to the end of the ListImages collection.
• Key - Optional. A unique string that identifies the ListImage object. Use this value to retrieve a specific ListImage object. An error occurs if the key is not unique.
• Picture - Required. Specifies the picture to be added to the ImageList ActiveX Control.

Example

The steps below demonstrate how to create an example of one of these controls:

1. Create a form.
2. Add an ImageList ActiveX control to the form and change the ImageList ActiveX control name to ImageList1.
3. Add a SSTab ActiveX control and change the SSTab control name to SSTab1. By default, SSTab always has three pages. If using Visual FoxPro 5.0a, the SSTab control has been renamed to Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control, version 5.0. Other development tools, such as Visual Basic, may have replaced the SSTab control with the Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control even if the Visual FoxPro version is 5.0 (not 5.0a).
4. Add a Command button and change the Caption of the command button to "Click Me."
5. In the INIT method of the form, put in the following code:

         Thisform.ImageList1.Object.ListImages.Add(1,,LoadPicture;
               (HOME()+"samples\graphics\bmps\outline\leaf.bmp"))
         Thisform.ImageList1.Object.ListImages.Add(2,,LoadPicture;
               (HOME()+"samples\graphics\bmps\outline\open.bmp"))
         Thisform.ImageList1.Object.ListImages.Add(3,,LoadPicture;
               (HOME()+"samples\graphics\bmps\outline\closed.bmp"))
   								

6. In the CLICK method of the Command button, put in the following code:

          FOR i = 0 TO 2
              Thisform.SSTab1.Object.Tab = i
              Thisform.SSTab1.Object.Picture = ;
                Thisform.ImageList1.ListImages(i+1).Picture
          ENDFOR
          Thisform.SSTab1.Object.Tab = 0
   								

7. Save and run the form. Click the "Click Me" button, and the images will display in the SSTab ActiveX control.

NOTE: Due to the Add method requiring an object reference for the image file, you need to use the LoadPicture function to return the object reference instead of directly using the image file.

You are not limited to any particular image size; however, the total number of images that can be loaded into ImageList ActiveX control is limited by the amount of available memory.

At design time, you can add images using the Image tab of the ImageList Control Properties dialog box. To access this, right-click (secondary) on the ImageList control and select ImageListCtrl Properties from the shortcut menu. Omit step 5 above to have images added in this manner show on the tabs when the Command button is clicked.

The code in step 6 above could be placed in the Init method of the form to have the SSTab control show the images when the form is loaded.

Custom Control Reference (Ctrlref.hlp in the Windows\System or WinNT\System32 folder if using Visual FoxPro version 5.0)

Windows Common Controls help file (Comctl1.hlp in the Windows\System or WinNT\System32 folder if using version 5.0a).

To access the Help file, right-click on the ImageList control on the form and select Help from the shortcut menu. In the ImageList Control topic, click See Also to jump to the ListImage Object, ListImages Collection topic. Select the Add Method (ListImages Collection) from the Methods jump.