Disable click event on ToolStripSeparator

Question

I have a MenuStrip created at design time with a number of ToolStripItems and ToolStripSeparators.  By default when a user clicks on one of the separators the menu closes but nothing happens (as there is nothing in the separator click event).

I would like the menu to stay open if a user clicks on the separator, but how do I handle this? 

Answer 1

Have you tried RemoveHandler?

Asgar

Answer 2

Yes, I tried that and it does prevent the Click event being fired (if there were any code in the ToolStripSeparator.Click event) but it still closes the menu and the user has to re-open it and make their selection.

In Visual Studio, for example, if you click on the separator, nothing happens and the menu stays open.  This is the behaviour I want in my app.

Answer 3

I tried the following and nothing worked:

Public Class mySeparator

Inherits System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripSeparator

Protected Overrides Sub OnClick(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

'MyBase.OnClick(e)

End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnMouseDown(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)

'MyBase.OnMouseDown(e)

End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnMouseUp(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs)

'MyBase.OnMouseUp(e)

End Sub

Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property DismissWhenClicked() As Boolean

Get

Return False

'Return MyBase.DismissWhenClicked

End Get

End Property

Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CanRaiseEvents() As Boolean

Get

Return False

'Return MyBase.CanRaiseEvents

End Get

End Property

Public Overrides ReadOnly Property CanSelect() As Boolean

Get

Return False

'Return MyBase.CanSelect

End Get

End Property

Overrides

End Class

I think this must be an issue with what the parent ToolStripMenu is doing when it registers that one of its child items has been clicked, because as far as I can see, this class ignores mouseclicks completely now, so it cannot be the separator itself that is causing the issue.

I think that perhaps overriding the DismissWhenClicked property of the item that is spawning the menu might help.

Answer 4

Thanks for your idea.  The end result of this custom class is that clicking on the item closes the menu which is the same as the regular ToolStripSeparator.

The parent menu item is a ToolStripDropDownMenu which doesn't have a DismissWhenClicked property so I am stuck there.  I read a post about handling the Closing event of a DropDownMenu but I can't seem to find the options for that either.

Answer 5

Here you go:

Public Class myToolStripMenuItem

Inherits ToolStripMenuItem

Public Sub New()

MyBase.New()

Me.DropDown = New myToolStripDropDownMenu

End Sub

End Class

Public Class myToolStripDropDownMenu

Inherits ToolStripDropDownMenu

Protected Overrides Sub OnItemClicked(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs)

If Not TypeOf e.ClickedItem Is ToolStripSeparator Then

MyBase.OnItemClicked(e)

End If

End Sub

End Class

Answer 6

 Excellent.  Works perfectly if I change the code:

Me.DropDown=New myToolStripDropDownMenu

to create a DropDownMenu and populate it with items via code because it then opens the correct DropDownMenu.  However, if I add it at design-time and add regular MenuItems and Separators when I click the control at run-time nothing happens because it is creating a new myToolStripDropDownMenu object.

If I recreate my menu structure in code, how can I associate the code with the click event of a coded menuitem?  I have only ever used VS to create menu items and write code for the events in the drop down menus provided by the IDE.

Your help is much appreciated...

Answer 7

Yikes.
I've reopened my test project, and all sorts of weird stuff is happening with my dropdown menus. Sometimes clicking on the dropdown opens the dropdown menu in the designer, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the entire menuStrip disappears. Occaisionally, it actually opens a dropdown menu, and that actually does what it's supposed to...

Damned if I know. It worked when I wrote the code, and it works if I start a new project and start again, but after that it may or may not work, basically at random...

I've tried a couple of other things, including repopulating the dropDownMenu every time it is called, but the results remain very inconsistent.

How very weird.

Answer 8

I know this is a little late, but I was having the same problem and I wanted to share the answer I came up with.

Instead of setting the DropDown property in the constructor of myToolStripMenuItem, you want to override the CreateDefaultDropDown method to set the drop down.  So the above code will look like:

Public Class myToolStripMenuItem  
    Inherits ToolStripMenuItem  
    Protected Overrides Function CreateDefaultDropDown() As ToolStripDropDown
        Dim menu As New myToolStripDropDownMenu
        menu.OwnerItem = Me
        Return menu
    End Function  
End Class  
Public Class myToolStripDropDownMenu  
    Inherits ToolStripDropDownMenu  
    Protected Overrides Sub OnItemClicked(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs)  
        If Not TypeOf e.ClickedItem Is ToolStripSeparator Then  
            MyBase.OnItemClicked(e)  
        End If  
    End Sub  
End Class 

This will give you designer support.

Answer 9

In fact there is a far more easier way to achieve this:
Set the Enabled property of the ToolStripSeparator to false. This will prevent the control from receiving any input, just like disabling any ToolStripMenuItem.

And by the way many thanks to the developing team for their enlightening documentation of Enabled property on ToolStripSeparator class:
"Infrastructure. This property is not relevant to this class." Whatever.