how to get a list of a toolstrip control inner controls programmatically

Question

I just noticed the hasChildren method doesn't return the various items in a toolstrip, just because its NOT a container I guess.

There is an answer here in SO but it seems to me its far too complicated.

Is there a simple way to iterate through the toolstrip control's controls?

Answer 1

ANSWER:

I'm getting home with a very simple recursive call! No need for cumbersome extremely complicated 3 pages c# code guys, here is the code snippet I wrote, and it WORKS:

Create a for each loop to iterate through all form's controls, and within the loop, call this:

Private Shared Sub recurseTranslateControls(ByVal lang As String, ByVal c As Control)

    Dim newtxt as string = getLangItem(c.name, lang)     ' This function performs string translation
                                                         ' Nothing to do with the current post / answer
    ' This will work for "normal" controls
    If newtxt <> "" Then
        c.Text = newtxt                ' Apply the translated text to the control
    End If

    If c.HasChildren Then
        For Each co In c.Controls
                ' This will work for Toolstrip. You should do same for Menustrip etc.
                If "toolstrip".Contains(co.GetType.Name.ToLower) Then
                Dim ts As ToolStrip = co             ' Toolstrip doesn't have child controls, but it DOES have ITEMS!
                For Each itm As ToolStripItem In ts.Items
                    ' No need for recursivity: toolstrip items doesn't have children
                    Call TranslateToolstrip(lang, itm)           ' Apply the translated text to the toolstrip item
                Next
            Else
                Call recurseTranslateControls(lang, co)
            End If
        Next
    End If

End Sub

Private Shared Sub TranslateToolstrip(ByVal lang As String, ByVal t As ToolStripItem)

    Dim newtxt = getLangItem(t.name, lang)

    If newtxt <> "" Then
        t.Text = newtxt
    End If

End Sub

Important remark: One of the reasons for which I have choosen VB and NOT c# is that c# lends to obfuscated, complex, hard to re-read code, and on top of that, c# "so-called" gurus (not the real ones mind you) are so happty to write code that no one can understand.

Each time I find a complex c# solution to a problem, i do not accept it, and I ALWAYS find some simpler way to do the job. Yes, ALWAYS, ALWAYS...

Answer 2

I recently had to do something similar, and found this question. The following code snippet enables or disables items in a toolstrip depending on whether the item name contains the sType variable.

    Friend Sub ModifyEnabledControls(ByVal ts As ToolStrip, ByVal sType As String)
    For Each c As ToolStripItem In ts.Items
        If c.Name.Contains(sType) Then
            c.Enabled = True
        Else
            c.Enabled = False
        End If
    Next
End Sub

The function is called using ModifyEnabledControls(ToolStrip1,"Customers") - which would disable any toolstrip item where the name does not contain "Customers".

Answer 3

There is incorrectness in the question. Items of Toolstrip are inherited from ToolStripItem, which in own turn is derived from component. They are not controls, that is why ToolStrip.hasChildren returns alway false and that is why they can not be treated generally as controls. I have the same task, it clear that ToolStripItem, MenuItems and so on should be separated in recursive method. Not handy but there is no another way