Dynamically adding ToolStripMenuItems to a MenuStrip (C#/ Winforms)

Question

I have my solution implemented (basic solution) and I\'m happy.

Problem is when I add new items to a ToolStripItemCollection using the \'Add\' method, I get a few overl

Answer 1

I was having similar issues as Philip Wallace. It's important to note the difference between a ToolStripItem, and a ToolStripMenuItem. I was adding ToolStripItems to a ToolStripMenuItem's DropDownItems, and they would show up, and have all properties set correctly, and accessible in code, but they would not show any text! Switching to a ToolStripMenuItem solved this.

In regards to the original question, I've been using the empty constructor, and setting the fields I needed. (I'm in vb.net with .net 4.0, and it won't let me call New ToolStripMenuItem() since it has a MustInherit tag, so I made this class:

Public Class DynamicToolStripMenuItem
    Inherits ToolStripMenuItem

    Public Sub New(value As Integer, text As String, handler As System.EventHandler)
        MyBase.New()
        Me.Text = text
        Me.Visible = True
        Me.Tag = value
        AddHandler Me.Click, handler
    End Sub
End Class

Answer 2

You can simply pass null for the image.

Menu.DropDownItems.Add(Text, null, EventHandler);

Answer 3

The way I do it is to create an array of ToolStripMenuItems and populate that array with the items I'm adding. I create one method to handle the click events and have it check something unique about each item I create at run-time. You might try using the Name or Tag properties of each ToolStripMenuItem. Then use AddRange on the spot in the menu you're adding to. So your code might look something like this:

private void BuildMenuItems()
{
    ToolStripMenuItem[] items = new ToolStripMenuItem[2]; // You would obviously calculate this value at runtime
    for (int i = 0; i < items.Length; i++)
    {
        items[i] = new ToolStripMenuItem();
        items[i].Name = "dynamicItem" + i.ToString();
        items[i].Tag = "specialDataHere";
        items[i].Text = "Visible Menu Text Here";    
        items[i].Click += new EventHandler(MenuItemClickHandler);
    }

    myMenu.DropDownItems.AddRange(items);
}

private void MenuItemClickHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    ToolStripMenuItem clickedItem = (ToolStripMenuItem)sender;
    // Take some action based on the data in clickedItem
}

Answer 4

What is wrong with:

ToolStripItem item = toolStripItems.Add("MyItem");
item.Click += new EventHandler(....);

Am I missing something?