Develop Reference

Bring a control to front

I have a user control that uses a textbox and a list box. List box isn't visible, it only becomes visible when user starts typing or click in text box.
I have added the user control to a group box which is on the form.
Now when the listox becomes visible, it stays inside the group box, and can't see the full height. I wan't it float on top so that i can see the full height.
I have looked around, implemented some solutions but nothing worked for me.
Constructor for the user control
namespace YarCustomControl
{
public partial class YarCustom : TextBox
{
public YarCustom()
{
InitializeComponent();
_code = "";
_id = -1;
//list box handling
listBox = new ListBox();
listBox.Visible = false;
listBox.Font = this.Font;
listBox.Location = this.Location;
listBox.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.Fixed3D;
listBox.Resize += new EventHandler(listBox_Resize);
//listBox.SelectedValueChanged += new EventHandler(listBox_SelectedValueChanged);
listBox.KeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(listBox_KeyDown);
listBox.Click += new EventHandler(listBox_Click);
//test => no affect on listbox
this.Controls.Add(listBox);
listBox.Visible = false;
}
}
}
and the following method makes the listbox visible. Both SetchildIndex (commented and not commented) throw an error
private void makeListBoxVisible()
{
Form parentForm = (this.FindForm() as Form);
//parentForm.Controls.SetChildIndex(listBox, 0);
this.Controls.SetChildIndex(listBox, 0);
listBox.Visible = true;
listBox.BringToFront();
}
What is the best approach for handling something like this?
My environment is VS2010 and WinForms.

Now when the listox becomes visible, it stays inside the group box,
and can't see the full height. I wan't it float on top so that i can
see the full height.
Simply put it directly on the Form.

Placing multiple instances of same control on form

I am making an application in winforms which shows a blueprint in a picturebox, and I need to place parts on it programmatically. These parts needs to be clickable (thus they should be a user control), and then fire the corresponding click event (clicking on a part should display information unique to that part). I could say that I want to place custom buttons on my picture. Now, of course, I need only one click event, and change the displayed information according to selection, though I don't know how to "link" this event to each created button.
I have a list of parts right next to the picturebox, and selecting a part should make the associated control to appear on the form (and deselecting it should remove it, or at least make it hidden). At first, I thought I will create one control during design, and make it appear/disappear and relocate it with each selection. The problem is, that the user should be able to select multiple parts, and the program should show all selected parts on the blueprint.
As each blueprint is different, the number of parts cannot be defined in advance. Is it possible, to create multiple instances of the same control on the run? Or is there a workaround?

If you use controls for your picture elements( you do not determine anything from coordinates of mouse click) and each picture element is associated with only one menu control, then I can propose you to use the Tag property to associate the corresponding menu controls:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.CreatePictureRelatedControls();
}
private void CreatePictureRelatedControls()
{
Int32 xPictureControls = 50,
yPictureControls = 50,
xAssociatedControls = 200,
yAssociatedControls = 50,
yMargin = 10;
Int32 controlWidth = 125,
controlHeight = 20;
Int32 controlCount = 3;
// ---------Associated controls-----------------
var associatedControls = new Button[controlCount];
// Loop - creating associated controls
for (int i = 0; i < associatedControls.Length; i++)
{
var associatedButton = new Button()
{
Left = xAssociatedControls,
Top = yAssociatedControls + (i * (controlWidth + yMargin)),
Width = controlWidth,
Height = controlHeight,
Text = String.Format("associated control {0}", i),
Visible = false
};
// Event handler for associated button
associatedButton.Click += (sender, eventArgs) =>
{
MessageBox.Show(((Control)sender).Text, "Associated control clicked");
};
associatedControls[i] = associatedButton;
}
// ----------------- Picture controls ---------------
var pictureControls = new Button[controlCount];
// Loop - creating picture controls
for (int i = 0; i < pictureControls.Length; i++)
{
var pictureButton = new Button()
{
Left = xPictureControls,
Top = yPictureControls + (i * (controlWidth + yMargin)),
Width = controlWidth,
Height = controlHeight,
Text = String.Format("picture part button {0}", i),
// Use of tag property to associate the controls
Tag = associatedControls[i],
Visible = true
};
// Event hadler for picture button
pictureButton.Click += (sender, eventArgs) =>
{
Control senderControl = (Control)sender;
Control associatedControl = (Control)senderControl.Tag;
associatedControl.Visible = !associatedControl.Visible;
};
pictureControls[i] = pictureButton;
}
this.Controls.AddRange(associatedControls);
this.Controls.AddRange(pictureControls);
}
P.S. If you need to associate multiple controls then you can just set Tag property to some collection:
button.Tag = new Control[] {associated[1], associated[3]};

OwnerDraw DrawItem event on my combobox also changes the Text property value

My question is basically, does implementing DrawItem for my ComboBox in WinForms, change my Text property, why and I can I stop it?
Because my OwnerDraw event works perfectly except the Text property "also" gets set to the same logic as all the items in Items[] (ie implemented in DrawItem event below)
For context, I show URL's in the list, but some are so long I basically chop them and put the text "..." at the end - to make it more readable. I have DataSource set so that it renders one property of my class "DisplayUrl" but uses another "Url" for the actual value. (MyUrl below)
At the end of some code, I explicitly set cmbUrl.Text = "THE FULL TEXT"
But somehow the DrawItem event is also effecting the "Text" property because even after running this code, once the DrawItem event is finished my Text property is set to the same as Item[0]. ie With the text chopped off - as in "THE FULL T..."
void cmbUrl_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
var text = ((MyUrl)((ComboBox)sender).Items[e.Index]).DisplayUrl;
var brush = text.Contains("bla) ? Brushes.DarkGreen : Brushes.Black;
// Fill in the background
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(e.BackColor), e.Bounds);
if (e.Index < 0) return;
// Work out where every thing goes
int nX = e.Bounds.Left;
int nY = e.Bounds.Top;
const int nMarg = 2;
int nH = e.Bounds.Height - (2 * nMarg);
// Draw the Colour Gymph
var penFore = new Pen(e.ForeColor);
var rectGymph = new Rectangle(nX + nMarg, nY + nMarg, nH, nH);
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(brush, rectGymph);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(penFore, rectGymph);
var fullWidth = nX + nH + (2 * nMarg);
e.Graphics.DrawString(text, e.Font, brush, fullWidth, e.Bounds.Top);
}

I think you want to show your the full Text in your combobox and just want to show the short text in Items drop-down list, so the solution may be this:
private void cmbUrl_DropDown(object sender, EventArgs e){
cmbUrl.DisplayMember = "DisplayUrl";
}
private void cmbUrl_DropDownClosed(object sender, EventArgs e){
cmbUrl.DisplayMember = "Url";
}

Adding Space into a StackPanel full of Textboxes

I am new at C# & XAML development. I created a metro app with several textboxes. These textboxes are loaded in XAML data through a StackPanel in C# code, it has to be hardcoded. The problem is, I have no clue how I can add some empty spaces between every single textbox. Has anyone an idea?
The Code :
private void AddLastestCreatedField()
{
// Load the last created Field From DB
DBFunction.FieldTypes latestField;
DBFunction.Class1 myDBClass = new DBFunction.Class1();
latestField = myDBClass.GetLastestField();
// add new textbox and put it on the screen
var dragTranslation = new TranslateTransform();
//Generate the TextBox
TextBox fieldTextBox = new TextBox();
fieldTextBox.Name = "fieldTextBox_" + latestField.ID.ToString();
fieldTextBox.FontSize = 15;
fieldTextBox.Background.Opacity = 0.8;
ToolTip toolTip = new ToolTip();
toolTip.Content = latestField.Description;
ToolTipService.SetToolTip(fieldTextBox, toolTip);
fieldTextBox.IsReadOnly = true;
// Add Drag and Drop Handler for TextBox
fieldTextBox.ManipulationMode = ManipulationModes.All;
fieldTextBox.ManipulationDelta += fieldTextBox_ManipulationDelta;
fieldTextBox.ManipulationCompleted += fieldTextBox_ManipulationCompleted;
fieldTextBox.RenderTransform = dragTranslation;
dragTranslationDict.Add(fieldTextBox.Name, dragTranslation);
fieldTextBox.RenderTransform = dragTranslation;
// Add TextBox to a List to control later
TxtBoxList.Add(fieldTextBox);
// Generate TextBlock for each TextBlock
TextBlock fieldTextBlock = new TextBlock();
// fieldTextBlock.Name = "fieldTextBlock_" + cnt.ToString();
fieldTextBlock.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Right;
fieldTextBlock.HorizontalAlignment = Windows.UI.Xaml.HorizontalAlignment.Right;
fieldTextBlock.Name = "fieldTextBlock_" + latestField.ID.ToString();
fieldTextBlock.Text = latestField.Name;
fieldTextBlock.FontSize = 15;
fieldTextBlock.Height = 33;
// Add Drag and Drop Handler for TextBlock
var dragTranslation2 = new TranslateTransform();
fieldTextBlock.RenderTransform = dragTranslation2;
dragTranslationDict2.Add(fieldTextBlock.Name, dragTranslation2);
// Add TextBlock to a list to control later
TxtBlockList.Add(fieldTextBlock);
TextBoxStack.Children.Add(fieldTextBox);
TextBlockStack.Children.Add(fieldTextBlock);
}

I'll skip the usual "What have you tried?" question and say you probably can get what you need by setting the Margin property on the TextBox - the Margin property will add "space" around the control size as a sort of padding (not to be confused with the Padding property, which will add space inside the control extents)

I don't know what you are really up to, but either use the Margin-property of the textbox. It defines, how much space there will be around the control,
See MSDN for more information.

Temperature TextBox In C#

I need some code to convert standard C# TextBox to temperature TextBox which means adding "°C" to end of the text in the textbox with another color than the default color.

To get the degree symbol you can use character code 176 e.g.
Char degree = (Char)176
You can then append this to your textbox content or I would just add a label to the right of the textbox with the degree symbol if you want to control the forecolor easily.

TextBox is a plain text editor. To get different colours you would have to muck around with a rich text box. Why not put the "°C" in a label positioned to the right of the text box? That would also make your parsing and rendering code much easier.

You could probably create your own control which inherits from TextBox and then override Text property to automaticaly add °C though other color inside the same TextBox could be problem.
Why you want to have °C in TextBox ?
Can't it just be label right after TextBox ?
You can set static text and color to what you want.

The other solutions proposed here are probably sufficient for your application; however, if you had the need to implement this with re-usability in mind, here is a custom control solution which you may extend to better suit your application:
public class TemperatureTextBox : ContainerControl
{
private const int BORDER_SIZE = 1;
// Exposes text property of text box,
// expose other text box properties as needed:
public override string Text
{
get { return textBox.Text; }
set { textBox.Text = value; }
}
private TextBox textBox = new TextBox()
{
Text = string.Empty,
BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None,
Dock = DockStyle.Fill
};
private Label label = new Label()
{
Text = "°C",
TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter,
Size = new Size()
{
Width = 32
},
BackColor = SystemColors.Window,
Dock = DockStyle.Right
};
public TemperatureTextBox()
{
this.BackColor = SystemColors.Window;
this.Padding = new Padding(BORDER_SIZE);
this.Controls.Add(label);
this.Controls.Add(textBox);
this.PerformLayout();
}
// Constrain control size to textbox height plus top and bottom border:
protected override void OnResize(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnResize(e);
this.Height = (textBox.Height + (BORDER_SIZE * 2));
}
// Render a border around the control:
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(
SystemPens.ControlDarkDark,
new Rectangle()
{
Width = (this.Width - BORDER_SIZE),
Height = (this.Height - BORDER_SIZE)
});
}
}
Simply create a new class and drop this code in and rebuild you solution. It will create a new TemperatureTextBox control in the toolbox which can be dropped onto a new form and visually designed.
This example exposes the Text property of the underlying text box by overriding the custom control's text property. You may want to expose other properties, and events depending on what your application needs to accomplish.