Size a button added to a wxRibbonButtonBar or size the ribbonPanel - wxwidgets

Question

I have a basic window (frame) (made with FormBuilder 3.5 actually) with a a vertical sizer and then a horizontal one(shown in code). In the H sizer I have a full ribbon with 1 (page, panel, buttonBar) and one button. I am adding a panel to the ribbon page and then adding a button to the panel. It is being sized so small that the button ends up in a drop-box(pane?) with the button in it. There should be no size constraint, it has plenty of space to be a button.
//late creation code
wxRibbonPage *ribbonPage = m_mainFrame->m_mainRibbonPage;//public pointer
if (nullptr != ribbonPage)
{
wxBoxSizer *a = new wxBoxSizer(wxHORIZONTAL);
wxRibbonPanel *panel = new wxRibbonPanel(ribbonPage, wxID_ANY, wxT("button group"), wxNullBitmap, wxDefaultPosition, wxSize(-1, -1), wxRIBBON_PANEL_DEFAULT_STYLE);
panel->SetSizer(a);
panel->SetSize(wxSize(300, -1));//looks same with/without
wxRibbonButtonBar *btnBar = new wxRibbonButtonBar(panel, wxID_ANY, wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, 0);
btnBar->AddToggleButton(wxID_ANY, wxT("play"), wxArtProvider::GetBitmap(wxART_MISSING_IMAGE, wxART_TOOLBAR), wxEmptyString);
}
m_mainFrame->m_ribbonBar2->Realize();
m_mainFrame->m_ribbonBar2->Layout();
m_mainFrame->Bind(wxEVT_MENU, &MyApp::OnSelectCard, this);//these easy
m_mainFrame->Show();
-Having a panel title or not doesn't seem to help.
-Calling wxButtonBar->Realize() doesn't seem to help.
-Calling wxRibbonBar->Layout() doesn't seem to help.
-Setting the minimum panel width to 300 appears to have NO affect.
-Creating a H box sizer and using newPanel->SetSizer(wxBoxSizer a) nope.
-Setting the panel size after setting the box sizer, nope.
and as an added benefit, the panel width goes to about 0 with the sizer.
//early object code derived from wxForm
wxBoxSizer* bSizer26;
bSizer26 = new wxBoxSizer( wxHORIZONTAL );
m_ribbonBar2 = new wxRibbonBar( this, wxID_ANY, wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxRIBBON_BAR_DEFAULT_STYLE );
m_ribbonBar2->SetArtProvider(new wxRibbonDefaultArtProvider);
m_mainRibbonPage = new wxRibbonPage( m_ribbonBar2, ID_RIBBON_PAGE, wxEmptyString , wxNullBitmap , 0 );
m_ribbonBar2->SetActivePage( m_mainRibbonPage );
m_ribbonPanel2 = new wxRibbonPanel( m_mainRibbonPage, wxID_ANY, wxEmptyString , wxNullBitmap , wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxRIBBON_PANEL_DEFAULT_STYLE );
m_ribbonPanel2->SetBackgroundColour( wxSystemSettings::GetColour( wxSYS_COLOUR_WINDOW ) );
m_ribbonButtonBar2 = new wxRibbonButtonBar( m_ribbonPanel2, wxID_ANY, wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, 0 );
m_ribbonButtonBar2->AddHybridButton( wxID_ANY, wxT("Card Select"), wxArtProvider::GetBitmap( wxART_MISSING_IMAGE, wxART_TOOLBAR ), wxEmptyString);
m_ribbonBar2->Realize();
bSizer26->Add( m_ribbonBar2, 1, wxALL, 0 );
I have been looking at wxwidgets.org.
I have been referencing the samples.
I have looked for similar questions.
If I get linked(in comments) to a resource that has an answer, I'll compose an answer if there isn't one.

Answer 1

The reason this happens is because the ribbon auto-sizes your button to a size that's smaller the auto size of the panel it's contained in. If you add at least two buttons to a panel then it looks fine.
But fear not, there is a way around this. I had to crack open the source code to figure it out, so it might be a bit of a hack. I am not sure if the developers plan on exposing the functionality or not.
The buttonbar.h header does not expose the members of wxRibbonButtonBarButtonSizeInfo or wxRibbonButtonBarButtonBase, so first you have to declare them in your source:
class wxRibbonButtonBarButtonSizeInfo
{
public:
bool is_supported;
wxSize size;
wxRect normal_region;
wxRect dropdown_region;
};
class wxRibbonButtonBarButtonBase
{
public:
wxRibbonButtonBarButtonInstance NewInstance();
wxRibbonButtonBarButtonState GetLargestSize();
bool GetSmallerSize(wxRibbonButtonBarButtonState* size, int n = 1);
wxString label;
wxString help_string;
wxBitmap bitmap_large;
wxBitmap bitmap_large_disabled;
wxBitmap bitmap_small;
wxBitmap bitmap_small_disabled;
wxRibbonButtonBarButtonSizeInfo sizes[3];
wxClientDataContainer client_data;
int id;
wxRibbonButtonKind kind;
long state;
};
Now that you have these members declared, you can simply change the "x" value of the "LARGE" size of the button that you added to the bar:
wxRibbonButtonBarButtonBase* newButton = buttonBar->AddButton( wxID_NEW,
"New", wxArtProvider::GetBitmap(wxART_NEW, wxART_TOOLBAR) );
newButton->sizes[wxRIBBON_BUTTONBAR_BUTTON_LARGE].size.x = 48;
And viola! Your single button, now having the correct width, will be displayed correctly on the panel. It seems that 48 pixels is the correct minimum size.
Also, you don't need a horizontal sizer to contain the ribbon. I typically just stack a ribbon and panel in a vertical sizer and then use the panel for the "main" part of the window.
wxFrame* frame = new wxFrame( NULL, wxID_ANY, "wxTestProject",
wxDefaultPosition, wxSize(640,480) );
wxRibbonBar* ribbon = new wxRibbonBar( frame, wxID_ANY );
wxPanel* panel = new wxPanel( frame );
wxBoxSizer* sizer = new wxBoxSizer( wxVERTICAL );
sizer->Add( ribbon, 0, wxGROW, 0 );
sizer->Add( panel, 1, wxGROW, 0 );
frame->SetSizer( sizer );