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in a readerAn MSForms (all VBA) treeview; How to use
This page outlines the minimum steps needed to add this treeview control to your own Excel or Word VBA project. For Access the instructions are different, those can be found in the Access download.
The container control
Open the designer window of your userform and add a frame. This is where the treeview will be built. We recommend these properties (which are of course optional):
Recommended properties for the container frame
Your userform would look like this:
The container frame on your userform
If you want images in your treeview, you'll have to add another frame (we called it frmImageBox) and then add Image controls within that frame. Set the Visible property of the frame to false to avoid it showing up on your userform. Like so:
The images frame on your userform
If you want to add images, make sure you name the new image controls properly, as it is the name of the imagecontrol you need to pass to the cNode class to get that image displayed. An easy way to get the images is to copy the entire frame with images from our userform to yours.
Class modules
Copy the class modules clsNode and clsTreeView to your project (you can simply drag them to your project). Your project (if you started with an empty workbook) would look like this:
The project with class modules in place
So far, things have been simple. The next parts are a bit more compex, but nothing too hard!
Code behind your userform
For the treeview to work, your userform needs some code, in particular these elements are necessary:
- Some variable declarations that will enable you to address the treeview and have your form handle events
- Initialisation code to:
- add nodes to the tree
- draw the treeview
That's it!
Variable declaration
Add this code to the declaration section of your userform:
Private WithEvents mcTree As clsTreeView
That's it! No more variables needed!
Of course the name of the variable mcTree is totally up to you.
If you need another (independent) treeview on your form, simply add another frame to hold it and an additional variable in the forms declaration section (of course you name it differently than the other one) like the one shown here.
Initialisation
In the intialisation routine of your form, you need code that adds nodes to the tree and when you're done adding nodes, you need to set some properties of the treeview. Then you'll want the treeview to be displayed.
Adding an instance of the treeview to your form
Adding the instance is easy:
Set mcTree = New clsTreeView
Now tell the tree class instance which frame is its container:
'The VBA treeview needs a container Frame control on the userform.
'Just draw a frame on your form where the treeview should appear
'Make sure the frame has no border and no caption
'Set it to show both scroll bars. (Keepscrollbarsvisible to both)
'Set it to the special effect "Sunken"
'Note that node label formats such as back/fore colors and font adopt
'the frame container's properties, so change if/as required.
'(you can copy the frame named frmDemo from this userform )
'Then pass this frame to the TreeControl of the treeview class
Set .TreeControl = Me.frmDemo
'Title for message boxes:
.AppName = Me.AppName
Note that most of the code listed below is within
the With mcTree ... End With structure.
Setting initial look
You'll want control over the look and feel of your treeview, here is some example code (this code comes immediately below the code sample show above):
.CheckBoxes = True
.RootButton = True
.LabelEdit = 0 'default is 0 can be edited (like LabelEditConstants tvwAutomatic/tvwManual)
.Indentation = 20 * 0.75 'defaults to 11.25
.NodeHeight = 16 * 0.75 'defaults to 12
.ShowLines = True
'If your form has icons in an iconframe (called frmImageBox),
'you could use icons for the expand and collapse buttons:
Call .ExpanderImage(Me.frmImageBox.Controls("Win7Minus").Picture, Me.frmImageBox.Controls("Win7Plus1").Picture)
If your treeview needs to show images, add a frame control with Image controls inside. Lets call it frmImageBox. This is how you tell the class where the images are:
That is just about all the plumbing you need to get started.
Adding nodes
First of all, a couple of variables are needed to add nodes:
Dim cRoot As clsNode
'A node
Dim cNode As clsNode
'An extra variable should you need to remember a certain node
Dim cExtraNode As clsNode
Next we'll start by building the rootnode:
Set cRoot = .AddRoot("Root", "Root Node", "FolderClosed", "FolderOpen")
cRoot.Bold = True
Note that the tree can have more than one rootnode, there is a special RootNodes collection to which you automatically add new roots by calling the AddRoot method.
As you can see, we assume there are two icons in the image frame called FolderClosed and FolderOpen respectively.
Now we want to add children to the root. This is the code from our demo form:
'Keys are optional but if using them they must be unique,
'attempting to add a node with a duplicate key will cause a runtime error.
'(below we will include unique keys with all the nodes)
Set cNode = cRoot.AddChild("1", "1 A", "FLGNETH")
cNode.Bold = True
'Add a 2nd branch to the root:
Set cNode = cRoot.AddChild("2", "2 B", "FLGSWED")
cNode.Bold = True
'If you want to add more child branches to a branch later on, use a variable to store the branch.
Set cExtraNode = cNode.AddChild("2.1", "2.1 level 2", "NOTE03", "NOTE04") ' include an expanded icon
cExtraNode.Expanded = False ' this node will initially be collapsed,
' its child node controls will be created when expanded
'To add a branches to a branch, make sure you set a variable to its 'main' or parent branch when created
'Then use the Branch's AddChild method, here to create multiple levels
Set cNode = cNode.AddChild("2.2", "2.2 level 2", "NOTE03", "NOTE04") ' include an expanded icon
Set cNode = cNode.AddChild("2.2.1", "2.2.1 level 3", "OpenBook")
Set cNode = cNode.AddChild("2.2.1.1", "2.2.1.1 level 4", "Scroll")
Set cNode = cNode.AddChild("2.2.1.1.1 ", "2.2.1.1.1 level 5", "GreenTick")
'Now add another branch to the branch we stored earlier
cExtraNode.AddChild "2.1.1", "2.1.1 level 3", "OpenBook"
'Add a 3rd branch to the root, with a child node
Set cNode = cRoot.AddChild("3", "3 C", "FLGUK")
cNode.Bold = True
cNode.AddChild "3.1", "3.1 level 2", "Scroll"
' and add a 4th branch to the root
Set cNode = cRoot.AddChild("4", "4 D", "FLGUSA02")
cNode.Bold = True
cNode.Caption = "4 D +" & mlCntChildren
' add a bunch of child nodes to the 4th branch
For i = 1 To mlCntChildren ' 15
Set cExtraNode = cNode.AddChild("4." & i, " 4.1 " & Right$("000" & i, 4), "Scroll")
' add some alternate row colour formats
If i Mod 2 Then
cExtraNode.BackColor = RGB(255, 255, 220) ' pale yellow
cExtraNode.ForeColor = RGB(180, 0, 0) ' dark red font
End If
Next
Display the tree
Displaying the tree is as simple as calling one method:
.Refresh
Termination
When the form goes out of scope (i.e. out of memory) you need to remove the treeview from memory:
'Make sure all objects are destroyed
If Not mcTree Is Nothing Then
mcTree.TerminateTree
End If
End Sub
Feedback
We've worked hard to create a reliable and performant treeview. If you encounter bugs, please let us know so we can work on them. Better yet: if you have fixed a bug you found, send us your updated code so we can add the fixes you made.
In any case, comments (and compliments) are welcome!
Comments
Showing last 8 comments of 203 in total (Show All Comments):Comment by: Charles Vanders (8/11/2017 8:14:55 AM)
Question:
How do you add a child to a node when you only know its key?
ie how do I search whole collection for a specific node by key?
Comment by: Peter Thornton (8/11/2017 4:07:59 PM)
Thanks, glad you like it. FWIW the 'pro' Treeview has moved on a long way!
Your last Q first followed by two ways to add a new node
Set cParent = mcTree.Nodes("parentKey")
Set cChild = cParent.AddChild("newKey1", "New node1")
' or
Set cChild = mcTree.NodeAdd("parentKey", tvChild, "newKey2", "New Node2")
Comment by: yossi oulu (8/24/2017 6:32:09 PM)
Is it possible to place the tree view control on top of the worksheet instead of on a user form?
If yes, do you have an example?
Thank you
Yossi
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (8/25/2017 1:14:24 PM)
I've had one sample of someone who tried it. But I think too much will need to be adjusted to make it work reliably.
It isn't very hard to create a userform instead I'd say?
Comment by: Yossi (8/25/2017 5:33:27 PM)
Thanks a lot
Yossi
Comment by: Antoni (3/13/2018 7:08:24 PM)
I try this spectacular "component", congratulations!!
It's possible to add a new property thats It show in every node parent the number of childs has a it checkered?
Thank you,
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (3/14/2018 9:16:23 AM)
Given that we have provided all code in theory you should be able to pull that off :-)
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (4/23/2018 2:53:05 PM)
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