ToolWindow class

A dockable / floating IDE pane whose contents are rendered as HTML. Created by ToolWindows.Add; the addin populates its DOM through the RootDomElement — an HtmlElement at the root of the pane — and shows the pane by setting Visible = True (tool windows start out invisible).

Private WithEvents myWindow As ToolWindow

Private Sub Button1_OnClick()
    Set myWindow = Host.ToolWindows.Add("MyAddIn.MyWindow", "MyAddIn.MyWindowPosition")
    With myWindow
        .Title = "Hello from My AddIn"
        With .RootDomElement
            .Properties.suggestedWidth  = "400px"
            .Properties.suggestedHeight = "300px"
            With .ChildDomElements.Add("greeting", "h1")
                .Properties.innerText = "Hello, world!"
            End With
        End With
        .Visible = True
    End With
End Sub

A WithEvents reference receives OnClose when the user dismisses the pane — typically the addin uses that event to release any per-window state (timers, references to DOM elements …).

• Tool-window default member — jQuery-style child lookup
• Suggested initial size
• Properties
• Methods
• Events

Tool-window default member — jQuery-style child lookup

RootDomElement is the DefaultMember of the ToolWindow interface — so myToolWindow.(...) is equivalent to myToolWindow.RootDomElement.Properties.(...). Because HtmlElementProperties is [COMExtensible(True)], a string passed in parenthesis-syntax is resolved against the DOM at run time. The IDE treats CSS-style selectors specially, so:

' Find the descendant element whose id is "dataEntry" and read its .Value:
Dim entered As String = myToolWindow("#dataEntry").Value

Useful for accessing a single child element by ID without holding a separate As HtmlElement reference for it.

Suggested initial size

RootDomElement accepts .Properties.suggestedWidth and .Properties.suggestedHeight (CSS-length strings like "400px"). These are one-shot hints — used the first time the tool window opens as a floating pane; once the user resizes (or after position persistence kicks in through ToolWindows.Add’s persistence ID), the IDE remembers the user’s chosen size and the suggested values are ignored.

The IDE sets each value as the floating pane’s CSS width or height, then centres the pane in its window. So any CSS length works, including vw and vh, which are relative to the IDE’s window. A pane that should fit in a small IDE window can cap its size with min():

With myWindow.RootDomElement
    .Properties.suggestedWidth = "min(480px, 85vw)"
    .Properties.suggestedHeight = "min(640px, 85vh)"
End With

With fixed sizes only, a pane opened in a small IDE window is larger than the window.

Note

Set suggestedWidth / suggestedHeight before the first time the pane becomes visible. If the pane has previously been opened by this user (and a persistence ID was supplied to ToolWindows.Add), the IDE-remembered size wins.

Properties

Name

The internal name supplied to ToolWindows.Add. String, read-only.

Resizable

Whether the user is allowed to resize the pane. Boolean, read / write. Default True.

Syntax: toolWindow.Resizable [ = value ]

RootDomElement

The root HtmlElement of the pane’s DOM. DefaultMember — see Tool-window default member above.

Syntax: toolWindow.RootDomElement As HtmlElement

Title

The pane’s title-bar text. String, read / write. Update at any time to reflect changing state (selection counts, dirty markers, …).

Syntax: toolWindow.Title [ = value ]

Visible

Whether the pane is shown. Boolean, read / write. Default False — newly-created tool windows are invisible until the addin sets this to True.

Syntax: toolWindow.Visible [ = value ]

Note

Showing the pane sets the display style of RootDomElement to block, replacing any value the addin gave it. Put a flex or grid layout on a child element of the root instead, and give both the root and that child a height of 100% for the layout to fill the pane.

Methods

ApplyCss

Injects a <style> block into the pane’s DOM that applies to every element inside the pane. Useful for global CSS — class selectors, custom-element styling, hover effects — that would be awkward to set element by element through HtmlElementProperties.

Syntax: toolWindow.ApplyCss styles

styles

required The CSS text. String.

' Load CSS from an embedded resource:
Dim css As String = StrConv(LoadResData("styles.css", "STYLESHEETS"), VbStrConv.vbFromUTF8)
myToolWindow.ApplyCss css

Close

Closes the pane. The matching OnClose event fires before the call returns.

Syntax: toolWindow.Close

Events

OnClose

Fires when the pane is closed — either by the user dismissing it or by the addin calling Close. Use this to release any per-window state (timers, references to DOM elements, …).

Syntax: toolWindow_OnClose()