SftTree/OCX 8.0 - ActiveX Tree Control

SftTree/OCX 8.0 Product Documentation

SftTree/OCX is an ActiveX control for the Windows™ operating system, offering easy to use multi-line, multi-column, hierarchical data displays. SftTree/OCX can be used in any ActiveX (OLE) control container, including Visual Studio (.NET), Visual Basic 6, Visual C++ (MFC), Access and many more.

New in Version 8.0

SftTree/OCX 8.0 adds modern accessibility and high-DPI support, while remaining virtually 100% upward compatible with earlier versions:

• Dark Mode, automatically following the Windows light/dark setting.
• Windows High Contrast accessibility support, honoring the user's contrast theme.
• Accessibility (Screen Readers) - built-in UI Automation support for Narrator, NVDA, JAWS and other assistive technologies, plus an Announce method for short status messages.
• Per-Monitor DPI and Scaling - Per-Monitor v2 DPI awareness with automatic scaling of images and pixel dimensions.
• A size box (resize grip) in the lower-right corner and a configurable minimum splitter bar offset.

For the complete list, see New Features.

Tree Control

SftTree/OCX offers many features from simple, graphical list box displays to complex hierarchical data displays:

• Hierarchical item display
• Fixed or variable height items
• Single and/or multiple text lines per cell with word wrap
• Single and multiple selection built-in
• Virtual mode (for flat lists only)
• Content windows for complete control over cell contents
• Splitter bar
• Printing and print preview support in conjunction with the separately available SftPrintPreview/OCX control.
• Tool Tips and Scroll Tips
• Drag & drop with automatic scrolling
• Built-in drag & drop or OLE drag & drop within and outside tree control
• Single and multiple roots
• Expand/collapse buttons
• Column headers as titles or buttons with graphics and text
• Column footers as titles or buttons with graphics and text
• Resizable columns
• Reorderable columns
• Individual column colors
• Last column open-ended or fixed-width
• Row headers as titles or buttons with graphics and text
• Row/column header and row/column footer as titles or buttons with graphics and text
• Selectable column alignment (left, right, center)
• Sorting
• Built-in sort indicators for column headers
• Cell editing using Windows controls
• Cells with individual foreground and background colors, fonts and graphics
• Cell merging
• Flyby highlighting
• Tree items with individual attributes
• All images fully customizable
• GDI+ image support (PNG, alpha-blended images)
• Windows visual styles (themes) support
• Dark mode support, automatically following the Windows light/dark setting
• Windows High Contrast accessibility support
• Per-Monitor v2 DPI awareness with automatic scaling of images and pixel dimensions
• Built-in UI Automation provider for screen reader support (Narrator, NVDA, JAWS and others)
• Right-to-left reading support
• Support for ActiveX (OLE) control containers such as Visual Studio (.NET), Visual Basic, Visual C++, Access, and many more
• Item capacity only limited by available virtual memory

Royalties

Any application that you develop can use SftTree/OCX royalty-free in run-time only mode; design-time features are not available. Each user (developer) who needs access to design-time features must license a copy of SftTree/OCX.

Source Code

The source code for the control and property pages (written in Microsoft Visual C++ using the ATL framework) is optionally available under our Enterprise Licensing program. Any application that you develop can use SftTree/OCX royalty-free (some restrictions apply), as long as only the redistributable files are shipped with your application.

Languages Supported

SftTree/OCX supports all popular ActiveX (OCX) platforms, such as Visual Studio (.NET), Visual Basic, Visual C++, and many more. SftTree/OCX can be hosted in both .NET Framework and .NET 10 (or later) Windows Forms applications. Feature limitations may exist depending on the platform used. These are generally caused by the platform, rather than our control product, which implements the current ActiveX control standards specifications. Notably drag & drop and cell editing may be limited or unavailable in some control containers.

Environments Supported

SftTree/OCX supports Windows 10, Windows 11 and their server editions using the same set of properties, events and methods.

UNICODE support is available for all platforms.

AI / LLM Documentation

The complete SftTree/OCX documentation is also published in an AI/LLM-readable format, following the llms.txt convention. The index covering all Softel vdm products is at https://softelvdm.com/llms.txt.

The product installation includes an AGENTS.md file at the installation root, which points AI coding assistants at the product's online guide and API reference. The documentation is always read online, as it is updated between product releases.