Changing Context Menu Item's Text Property on a Tray Icon [Resolved]

[Ideas Man]

How do I change the the text for a menu item. I'm sure it should be as simple as menuitem.Text = "Caption". The problem is that it sometimes changes once or not at all. I have the OwnerDraw property set to False.

If I check to caption of the menu item in code, it displays the correct caption but it doesn't display it in the menu, as though it needs to be refreshed or something.

Any Ideas?

[skarho]

dunno if this helps but this works

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
      mnuchangeable.Text = TextBox1.Text
   End Sub

[Ideas Man]

I thought I said that doesn't work. Well, if I didn't, that doesn't work. It changes it's property fine, but it doesn't reflect it in the UI.

[skarho]

it reflected on my time machine

[Ideas Man]

Try changing it more than once while it is running, sometimes I can change it once and then it stops.

[Blackheart]

what is actually calling it to change?

i have tried it with a few buttons changeing it and i am haveing
no problem at all with

miName.text = "Caption"

later,
Blackie

[billcoupe]

Just a thought, are you refreshing the menu item to update the display?

-Bill

CP.Solutions

[Ideas Man]

Originally posted by billcoupe
Just a thought, are you refreshing the menu item to update the display?

-Bill

And how would i do that?

And yes, I think I already said that I set the caption the usual way, but it changes once and not anymore, but if you query the text property, it says that it holds the correct caption.

[billcoupe]

I looked into it a bit further... Seems you can change the 'drop down portion, Issue a "me.refresh()" and the change always shows up the next time the main menu item is clicked on.

The exception I found was on the main menu bar... seems if you try to change the main bar item in the click event of a mainbar item it doesn't work.

It does work if you're attempting to make the item morph from another method.

  Private Sub MenuItem3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MenuItem3.Click
    MenuItem3.Text = "Works"
    Me.Refresh()
  End Sub

  Private Sub MenuItem2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MenuItem2.Click
    MenuItem3.Text = "Hello"
    Me.Refresh()
  End Sub

  Private Sub MenuItem4_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MenuItem4.Click
    MenuItem4.Text = "Clicked #4"
    Me.Refresh()
  End Sub

  Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    'will change the item on the main menu bar
    MenuItem1.Text = "Clicked Button"
    Me.Refresh()
  End Sub

Hope this helps

[Ideas Man]

I'm using the context menu for a tray icon, and it still doesn't work . But the main menu works now.

[billcoupe]

I'm glad at least part of the problem is gone now!

I'm about to call it a night, but I will look into the context menu/tray icon thing tomorrow.

If I find a fix for that I'll post it for you.

[Ideas Man]

Bump.

Someone must know, I find it hard to believe I'm the only one who's tried this.

[skarho]

dunno about your situation but works fine on my time machine

Private Sub ContextMenu1_Popup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ContextMenu1.Popup
        mnuchangeable.Text = TextBox1.Text
    End Sub

[Ideas Man]

OK, I did a little more digging and found out that it does indeed update the context menu's text if you attach it to a form, however, if you attach it to a tray icon, it does not. If you change the text and bring up the context menu on a form however, when you then pull up the context menu on the tray icon, it also shows the changes.

No they way I see it, it appears to be loading a 'cached' copy of the menu or something. Does anyone know how to force it to get the new menu?

skarho, did you ever try changing the text for the menus for a tray icon on your "time machine" or just for a form?

[brown monkey]

ideas, i'm him

i just did it on the form

[Ideas Man]

Ah, ok. Can you try it for a tray icon and post back if you have any results?

[brown monkey]

still work in my time machine mate

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        MenuItem1.Text = TextBox1.Text
    End Sub

[Ideas Man]

OK... now try it as a submenu of the main menu of a context menu i.e.


x
x
x>y
....y << The ys.

[brown monkey]

yep. now, i follow you. it doesn't update. me dunno the details mate.

[Ideas Man]

Dame, hopefully someone does...

[brown monkey]

try this mate. this works right after i post it doesn't update. hope this works for you.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
        Me.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub ContextMenu1_Popup(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ContextMenu1.Popup
        MenuItem4.Text = TextBox1.Text
    End Sub

contextmenu1
menuitem1
menuitem2-menuitem3
          menuitem4

[Ideas Man]

Nope that doesn't work. And I only used the form context menu thingy as an example, the menu is only attached to the tray icon in my app.

[billcoupe]

Hi folks....

What happens if you change the code to add a 'refresh' after you change the menu?

Originally posted by brown monkey

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
        Me.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
        [COLOR=red]NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu.refresh()[/COLOR]
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub ContextMenu1_Popup(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ContextMenu1.Popup
        MenuItem4.Text = TextBox1.Text
    End Sub

[Ideas Man]

That would be all fine if that was an actual property.

[brown monkey]

yep. refresh is not a public function on contextmenu object. but i'm not sure though. i use vs.net 2k2. i found also that my code doesn't work with notifyicon but if i set it to form, it doesn't update automatically. it waits for the pop up on form then after, it updates to the notifyicon. i don't know why this damn thing happens.

[Ideas Man]

Same thing w/ mine in Visual Studio .NET 2003.

[billcoupe]

Sorry... I 'assumed'... I should have known what that would lead to.

I did find an MS KB article that seems to tie into this anomaly:

827043

There's also a related link from that page:

ContextMenu

I hope there's a tidbit in these that helps.

[Ideas Man]

That was a good find, but unfortunatly, it doesn't apply because...

1. OwnerDraw is set to False
2. The items do display on the menu
3. It's the submenus of the context menu that don't reflect properly.

[billcoupe]

I'm assuming again... that 'MenuItem4' is part of 'ContextMenu1', what happens if, after you change the value, you reassign the menu contents to the 'NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu' ?

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
   NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
   Me.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
End Sub
 
Private Sub ContextMenu1_Popup(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ContextMenu1.Popup
   MenuItem4.Text = TextBox1.Text
   NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = ContextMenu1
End Sub

I'm thinking that because the two objects are technically separate as they're not on the same 'form' they don't automatically both 'see' changes to 'Contextmenu1'... just a thought.

[Ideas Man]

That doesn't work either. If possible, can you please test your theories before posting them?

[billcoupe]

If possible, why don't you post your app code... I'll be happy to load it up and see if I can get this to work. Sorry about posting my ideas without testing them, but I've pressed for time the past week or so.. I won't do it again.

If you upload the code, I'll post a fix if I can make it work.

[Ideas Man]

Well, I can't post my code, but I made this little app that does the same thing, if you can fix it in this, it'll fix it in my app.

Simply change the text value of the textbox and click the button, preview the menu on the tray icon, you'll see it doesn't change, preview it on the form and then on the tray icon and it does. Note: I do not want the thing bounded to the form, it is there for demonstration purposes only.

[billcoupe]

Ideasman.. thanks

I'm wrapping up a demo I have to present in the morning tonight. I'll play around with this when I get back in the office tomorrow.

[Ideas Man]

OK, thanks. Just hope you can find a solution.

[billcoupe]

Ok... This works... it's not elegant but it works.

Let me know if it'll be ok for your needs.

[Ideas Man]

You're not gonna like this, but it doesn't work either .

[Ideas Man]

Well, I managed to find a working solution. For all those who have the same problem (I'm sure I'm not alone), to fix it, you need to set the visibility of the parent menu to False and then True like this:

MenuItem2.Text = "Sub-Menu Caption"
MenuItem1.Visible = False
MenuItem1.Visible = True

Where the menu structure looks like this:

MenuItem1 -> MenuItem2
^Parent.............^Sub menu

Thanks to all those who helped w/ their suggestions and for contributing their time to assist me w/ this problem.

BTW, this is a known bug.

[billcoupe]

That's interesting...

One of the things I tried first, was flashing the 'Visible' property as you suggested, that did not work for me.

When I set the NotifyIcon1 object to nothing and then 're-instantiated' it as in the code I uploaded, that worked for me....

This is indeed a very strange behaving issue...

Thanks for updating me (and everyone) on what worked for you.

Can you post a URL to an MS knowledgebase article that addresses this as a known bug? I'd love to read what they say.

Thanks, and I'm glad it's all working now.

[billcoupe]

I found the KB article, for anyone who might be interested.

It specified exactly what Ideasman did, now I have to figure out why that didn't work for me

Notify Icon Bug KB Article