Article-22214-Interactive-Tools-Palette-Part-3

This repository is an article-derived reference project based on the original MQL5 article. It does not claim to reproduce the full original source code unless files are explicitly attached.

Overview

This reference repository documents the architecture described in MQL5 article 22214, which upgrades a previously static chart sidebar into an interactive drawing palette for MetaTrader 5.

The article focuses on the interaction layer required to make a rendered tools panel operational. It describes a data-driven tool registry, sidebar and flyout canvases, hit-testing, chart event routing, scrolling, drag-and-snap behavior, bottom-edge resizing, live theme switching, and a multi-click drawing engine for creating chart objects.

Original Article

• Article ID: 22214
• Title: Interactive Tools Palette Part 3
• Author: Allan Munene Mutiiria
• Publication date: 2026.05.16
• Category: MQL5 / UI / Chart interaction / drawing tools
• URL: https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/22214

Repository Purpose

This repository serves as a technical reference and possible reconstruction base for the interaction system presented in the article.

Its purpose is to capture the described design and implementation elements for:

• interactive sidebar behavior on MT5 charts
• flyout-based tool selection
• event-driven UI handling through chart events
• deterministic tool placement workflows for 1-click, 2-click, and 3-click drawing objects

Because the processed input contains article content rather than a confirmed complete attached code package, this repository should be treated as a reference/reconstruction project.

Key Concepts

• Tool palette interaction layer on top of bitmap/canvas UI
• OnEvent / OnChartEvent style centralized event routing
• Sidebar hit-testing for buttons, grip area, theme toggle, close button, and resize grip
• Flyout panel management with pointer triangle and scroll support
• Theme manager with dark/light live switching
• Tool registry with dynamic tool arrays per category
• Active-tool contract as the source of truth
• Drawing engine with click-count-based placement logic
• Sidebar scrolling, thumb dragging, and edge snapping
• MQL5 chart object creation for lines, channels, Fibonacci tools, shapes, and annotations

Algorithm / Architecture Summary

The article presents a ten-class hierarchy that evolves the prior visual sidebar into a full interaction system:

1. Expanded tool/icon definitions

• 35 tool icon definitions
• TOOL_TYPE enumeration
• ToolDefinition, CategoryDefinition, and expanded ThemeColorSet

2. Canvas primitives

• High-resolution triangle fill via scanline rasterization for flyout pointer rendering

3. Theme manager

• Dark/light theme application
• Live toggle behavior

4. Tool registry

• Category population
• Reverse lookup from active tool to category
• Required click count lookup
• Tool label lookup

5. Canvas layer

• Sidebar canvas
• Sidebar high-resolution canvas
• Flyout canvas
• Flyout high-resolution canvas

6. Sidebar layout

• Panel geometry
• Scroll metrics
• snap-to-edge logic
• hit-testing for panel regions

7. Flyout panel

• Category flyout visibility and placement
• item hit-testing
• scrollable item list
• pointer-aware rendering

8. Sidebar renderer

• Hover/active visual states
• sidebar scroll pill overlay

9. Chart event handler

• chart resize handling
• mouse wheel scrolling
• mouse move processing
• drag, resize, thumb-drag, and hover-state updates

10. Drawing engine and top-level shell

• object placement from chart clicks
• single-click, two-click, and three-click creation flows
• tool activation/deactivation
• cleanup of created chart objects

The article explicitly maps tools to click requirements:

• 0 clicks: pointer, crosshair
• 1 click: horizontal/vertical line, text, arrows, thumbs, price label, stop sign, check mark, Fibonacci time zones
• 2 clicks: trend/ray/extended/info lines, shapes, several Fibonacci and Gann tools, regression/stddev channels
• 3 clicks: parallel channel, Fibonacci channel, pitchfork variants

Mentioned or Attached Files

Explicitly attached files

No attached source files were available in the processed input.

Files mentioned in the article text

• Tools Palette Part 3.mq5

Statistics

• Tools covered: 35
• Categories covered: 8
• Classes described: 10
• Theme color fields: 19
• Interaction scenarios highlighted: 5
• select and place a chart object
• scroll overflowing categories
• drag and snap the panel
• resize from the bottom
• switch theme live

Tags

MQL5, MetaTrader 5, UI, Canvas, Chart Events, Drawing Tools, Sidebar, Flyout Menu, Hit Testing, Theme Switching

Difficulty

Advanced

Requires familiarity with:

• MQL5 OOP and inheritance
• chart object APIs
• canvas rendering with CCanvas
• chart event processing
• coordinate conversion and hit-testing
• UI state management

Limitations

• The full original source code is not confirmed as attached in the processed input.
• This README is based on article analysis and quoted excerpts, so the repository should be treated as a reference/reconstruction project.
• Some surrounding dependencies from earlier series parts are referenced but not fully included in the provided text, such as prior icon/category definitions and previously implemented primitive helpers.
• Buildability cannot be guaranteed from the article text alone.

Reference

• Allan Munene Mutiiria, Interactive Tools Palette Part 3, MQL5 article 22214 https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/22214