multilanguage menu

[ceodav]

hi all

in a multilanguage application (visualc++ 6) how it is possble to change the menu language without restart it?

when i select a different language i can change everything in the dialog without restarting it but not for the menu.
And inside the menu i change the submenu but i'm not able to detect the main voices.

do you have some suggestions

thanks

Davide

 

[xwb]

I did this about 16 years ago on Windows 2.11. Took a while to locate the code and port it to the current system to see whether it still works. Surprise surprise - yes it still works.

1) Define enum with all the languages

enum LangEnum
{
   LangTag,       // What the menu was created with
   LangEnglish,
   LangOther,
   LangMax
};

2) Create the menu system in the .rc file

IDC_MULTILANG MENU 
BEGIN
    POPUP "File"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "FileEng",                     ID_FILE_ENGLISH
        MENUITEM "FileOther",                       ID_FILE_OTHER
        MENUITEM "FileExit",                        IDM_EXIT
    END
    POPUP "Help"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "HelpAbout",                    IDM_ABOUT
    END
END

3) Set up an array with the language translations

const TCHAR* langMenu[][LangMax] =
{
   { _T("File"),     _T("&File"),     _T("&Filo") },
   { _T("FileEng"),  _T("&English"),  _T("&English")},
   { _T("FileOther"),_T("&Other"),    _T("&Other") },
   { _T("FileExit"), _T("E&xit"),     _T("&Quit") },
   { _T("Help"),     _T("&Help"),     _T("&Oops") },
   { _T("HelpAbout"),_T("&About..."), _T("&Sad Gits...") }
};

4) Add a couple of routines

VOID LangChangeMenu (HMENU hMenu, LangEnum pinLang)
{
   TCHAR tag[TAGMAX];
   MENUITEMINFO mii;
   static LangEnum prevLang;
   
   if (hMenu == 0)
   {
      // Initialize
      prevLang = pinLang;
      return;
   }
   
   for (int ii = 0; ::GetMenuString (hMenu, ii, tag, TAGMAX, MF_BYPOSITION); ++ii)
   {
      memset (&mii, 0, sizeof (mii));
      mii.cbSize = sizeof (mii);
      mii.fMask = MIIM_SUBMENU;
      ::GetMenuItemInfo (hMenu, ii, TRUE, &mii);
      if (mii.hSubMenu != 0)
         LangChangeMenu (mii.hSubMenu, pinLang);
            
      for (int jj = sizeof (langMenu) / sizeof (langMenu[0]) - 1; jj >= 0; --jj)
      {
         if (_tcscmp (tag, langMenu[jj][prevLang]) == 0)
         {
            _tcscpy (tag, langMenu[jj][pinLang]);
            mii.fMask |= MIIM_STRING;
            mii.cch   = (UINT) _tcslen (tag);
            mii.dwTypeData = tag;
            mii.fType = MFT_STRING;
            ::SetMenuItemInfo (hMenu, ii, TRUE, &mii);
            break;
         }
      }     
   }
}

VOID LangChange (HWND hWnd, LangEnum pinLang)
{
   MENUBARINFO mbi;
   
   for (int ii = 0;; ++ii) 
   {
      memset (&mbi, 0, sizeof (mbi));
      mbi.cbSize = sizeof (mbi);
      if (::GetMenuBarInfo (hWnd, OBJID_MENU, ii, &mbi))
         LangChangeMenu (mbi.hMenu, pinLang);
      else
         break;
   }
   
   LangChangeMenu (0, pinLang);
   
   ::DrawMenuBar (hWnd);
}

5) Call the language change in InitInstance

   ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);
   LangChangeMenu (0, LangTag);		// Set the initial language
   LangChange (hWnd, LangEnglish);	// Switch to English
   UpdateWindow(hWnd);

6) Call the language change in the WndProc, case WM_COMMAND when selected

		case ID_FILE_ENGLISH:
		   LangChange (hWnd, LangEnglish);
		   break;
		   
		case ID_FILE_OTHER:
		   LangChange (hWnd, LangOther);
		   break;