Implementing the Interfaces for DesignCenter

To provide the content in DesignCenter, it is necessary to implement at least the IAcDcContentView interface. If the application is intended to participate in the Finder mechanism, then the application must support the IAcDcContentFinder interface as well. Implementing the IAcDcContentFinder interface is optional.

Typically, an application component would do the following:

• During the installation, it adds the appropriate entries to the registry.
• Call functions in IAcDcContentBrowser interface that are implemented by the DesignCenter framework. These are described in the following table:

IAcDcContentBrowser interface functions
Function	Description
AddPaletteItem	Adds an item in the DesignCenter palette.
AddNavigatorNode	Necessary only in case of custom view. Adds a node in the DesignCenter navigator.
GetDCFrameWindow	This is useful in the case of components wanting to have a valid window handle to display their context menus.
SetItemDescription	Sets the description text in description pane of the DesignCenter.
SetPaletteImageList	Sets the small/large image list used by the palette in the DesignCenter.
SetNavigatorImageList	Sets the small image list used by the navigator in the DesignCenter.
SetPaletteMultiSelect	Enables the option to select multiple content entities in the DesignCenter palette.
InsertPaletteColumn	Inserts a column (a subitem) for a content entity showing up in the palette.
DeleteAllPaletteItems	Deletes all the items in the DesignCenter palette.
GetSelectedNavNodeText	Gets the selected navigator node text.
GetCurrentViewMode	Gets the current view mode (desktop, open drawings, etc.).
SetPaletteSubItem	Sets a subitem for an item in the DesignCenter palette.
SortPaletteItems	Sorts the items in the DesignCenter palette.

• Implement functions in IAcDcContentView interface in the component. These are described in the following table:

IAcDcContentView interface functions
Function	Description
Initialize	Caches the given IAcDcContentBrowser. Optionally creates the component window and hides it. This allows a component to popup any context menus for its content. Creates at least one small and large image list. It also performs whatever other initialization is required.
NavigatorNodeClick	Shows the contents of the given file in the palette by calling AddPaletteItem() from the cached IAcDcContentBrowser. Optionally, it can ask the browser to sort the items. There are functions in IAcDcContentBrowser to do the sorting.
NavigatorMouseUp	Displays the context menu meaningful for a given container.
PaletteMouseUp	Displays the context menu meaningful for a given content entity/entities.
PaletteItemClick	Caches the given selected item and optionally sets the description of the item via the browser. This method is optional.
RenderPreviewWindow	Renders the image of the selected item on the given preview window. This method is optional.
PaletteItemDblClick	Shows the contents of the container in case the clicked item is a file. Does whatever is appropriate in AutoCAD if the clicked item is the content that the component is displaying.
PaletteColumnClick	Asks the content browser to do the sorting with the component's sort data. This method is optional.
PaletteBeginDrag	Begins the dragging of a content/container entity. The component is assumed to take care of the drag and drop of file/content types that are meaningful to it.
ReleaseBrowser	Releases the cached browser.
GetLargeImage	Gets the preview icon (32x32) for a given container file to show up in large icon view in Design Context.
QueryContextMenu	Appends the context menu items for a container (file) in the palette to a given context menu.
InvokeCommand	Invokes the command at a given command ID on the context menu that the component provided.