I have a .NET 4.5 WinForm that checks for the existence of a certain file when the form loads. If the condition is met, I display the form in its entirety. If the file doesn't exist, I want to display a simple text message while hiding (setting the Visible property to false) all the other components on the form.
My issue is that the Label I want to display can only be positioned on top of a GroupBox. Well, not only but it is most aesthetically pleasing being in that location. If I set the visibility of the container to false then it hides the message as well.
Is there a way to "break out" the Label from the GroupBox?
Worst comes to worst, I will hide the indivial components within the GroupBox and live with the border that remains. I am just curious if there is a way to do this.
I found a solution using only the designer. ChrisF's answer got me thinking, and the correct method isn't to place the label behind the container, but rather to place the container on top of the label. This seems to be a quirk of the VS designer.
I created a new WinForm and added a label and a groupbox, without the two of them overlapping. Then:
Right-click the label and Send to Back, or alternatively right-click the container and Send to Front
Drag or resize the container to cover the label
And that's it... the label appears behind the container. I guess the designer correctly notes the z-index when both components have the same parent container, and placing the label on top of the groupbox changes its parent container.
To have the label on the form in the position you want, but outside the group box use the "send to back" option to push it behind the group box. It won't be visible at design time, but it will be in the right place.
Then if the file is not found you can make the group box invisible revealing the label behind.
Another alternative is to position the label outside the group box (off to the left or right and outside the form) and then move it into position at the same time as making it visible.
I know you want to benefit the capability of design support to position your label correctly right at design time, however doing so will set the groupbox as Parent of your label, you can't drag and drop that label on your form. So just try the following code to change the Parent from groupbox to the form at runtime and maintain the design location, that way changing your groupbox's visible won't affect the visible of your label:
public Form1(){
InitializeComponent();
Load += (s,e) => {
var loc = label1.PointToScreen(Point.Empty);
label1.Parent = this;
label1.Location = PointToClient(loc);
};
}
Related
I want to create a textbox on a WinForms form, where the user cannot input text directly. Instead, the content of the textbox should only be "bubbles" (with a "delete" button), showing a text value.
I'm struggeling to find the correct term for this kind of control/behaviour. It should look a bit like the "Tags"-field on StackOverflow when creating a new question.
Are there any existing controls/settings that allow such behaviour? (I have DevExpress if that helps)
Sorry for the vague question, if i knew better terms for what i'm looking for, i'd probably find something...
Instead of a textbox, the container for your bubbles should most likely be a Panel.
You can style it as needed, set the border, background color, etc.
If you don't want to manually position the "bubbles" inside it, use a FlowLayoutPanel. It will automatically put it's children controls in a flow.
Check out the properties of the control to specify how you want controls to be laid out.
The individual bubbles can also be Panels or other container controlls, so that you can add a label and a button (or image to serve as a button) to each.
You might even extend the panel class to automatically add a label and a delete button to each.
something like this (please note this is more like pseudo code. I wrote it up of the top of my head here, some adjustment may be needed)
Public Bubble : Panel {
Public Bubble(string text) {
Label title = new Label { Text = text };
Controls.Add(title);
Button delete = new Button { Text = "Delete" };
Controls.Add(delete);
//also hook up events here, ie delete.click+= whatever
}
}
You can further extend the custom class for your specific needs.
Set styles on the button and label as needed to achive the look you want.
Don't forget to hook up events such as mouse over, button click, etc.
Then just fill the FlowLayoutPanel with these custom controls and you should be good to go
I am doing my college project onclick event I do not want to open a new form but show the component in the same form by disabling the components of the previous option.
For instance, if I click on ADD button, it will open a new form with details to be added to save.
But, I want to show all those components of ADD form in the same form where click event occurs.
My design is something like, all options will be in left hand side and the result / form with component has to be displayed in the right hand side without opening a new form.
Use Panels.
The Panel Control is a container control to host a group of similar child controls. One of the major uses I have found for a Panel Control is when you need to show and hide a group of controls. Instead of show and hide individual controls, you can simply hide and show a single Panel and all child controls.
panel-in-C-Sharp
working-multiple-panels-c-sharp
Use Panel Control
Add multiple panels one over the other, like a stack.
Either use:
panel1.Visible=false ; panel2.Visible=true on button click
panel1.Enabled=false ; panel2.Enabled=true on button click
according to your design
Refer this video: link
I have the following Code:
marathonPanel.Visible = false;
resultPanel.Visible = true;
but only the marathonPanel gets invisible and the resultPanel stays invisible.
When I check the value of resultPanel.Visible it is set to false.
I also tried
resultPanel.BringToFront();<br>
resultPanel.Visible = true;
Can anyone help me?
This happens when you design two overlapping panels in Visual Studio Form Designer. It is too easy to drag one panel inside the other and the dragged one becomes the child of the first.
I usually draw the panels in different locations. The first one in the expected place, the second one in a different place, then at Runtime move the second one on the same spot of the first one.
in Form_Load
resultPanel.Left = marathonPanel.Left;
resultPanel.Top = marathonPanel.Top;
This is a common designer accident, caused by Panel being a container control. Overlapping two panels is a problem. Your resultPanel will end up as a child of marathonPanel. So when you make marathonPanel invisible, the child will always be invisible as well.
Use View + (Other Windows) + Document Outline to fix the problem. Drag resultPanel and drop it on the form. Edit the Location property by hand, don't move the control with the mouse or the panel will suck it right back in.
Another way to do it is to intentionally mis-place it so it won't be sucked-up and fix the Location property in the form constructor. A more friendly hack that works better in the designer is to use a TabControl instead. Check the sample StackPanel in this answer.
There is another way to find out such issues .
if you look at *.resx file , it will tell which control is taking place as parent and which is child
Also you can view this thing in Document outline which is available in Visual Studio.
I have program with two tabs in a TabController, I also have a panel I want to always have in front. Despite what tabpage I am in. I tried setting the panel to BringToFront(), but that don´t seem to work when I change tabpage. Any suggestions how to solve this?
If the Panel is contained by the TabPage, then you'd have to manually switch it to the current tab whenever the tab changes, then call BringToFront().
An alternative would be to make the Panel so it's directly contained by the Form, but in front of the TabControl (like it's "floating" over it). Then it would just stay there. You'd have to either manually fiddle with the Panel's Location() property to get it right (you couldn't drag it over the TabPage as then it would drop into it), or you could position it properly via code in the Load() event of the Form.
Edit:
For instance, if you properly positioned "panel1" in the TabPage at design-time, you could switch it to the Form using code like this:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Point pt = panel1.PointToScreen(new Point(0, 0));
panel1.Parent = this;
panel1.Location = this.PointToClient(pt);
panel1.BringToFront();
}
Set the panel outside the tabcontroller and set it's dockstyle. Also set the dockstyle of the tabcontroller.
Panel belongs to a specific tabpage. When you change to another tabpage and call BringToFront(), it doesn't make anything, because you're on another tabpage right now. So you need to workaround that with righting some code. There are two ways:
1) You can place that panel on every tabpage in design time (if you don't need some shared data on that panel).
2) You should hook OnTabPageChanged event and move panel from old tabpage to the page you switched to (if you do need some shared data on that panel). I think this is your case.
I have a C# Forms tab application. Each TabPage has a menu on the left (Outlook style navigation panel), and a Panel on the right for content.
If I want the content panel for tab page 0, how would I go about fetching it? I'm a bit stumped because I don't know how to index into the controls collection on a tab page. The following is underlined in red, so I believe its wrong.
Panel panel = tabControl.TabPages[0].Controls["Panel"];
EDIT: remove Window in Panel sub question. It will be moved to a separate question.
Sorry about the beginner questions. I'm a C/C++ guy with lots of MFC time, and C# UI is a bit frustrating at the moment.
foreach (Control control in tabControl1.TabPages[0].Controls)
{
// if (control.Name == "panel1")
}
You can always call this recursively on control.Controls to find a control in any hierarchy. control.Name can be used to find your specific control.
You can't show a Form, inside a Panel. You could create Custom Control where you can add your functionality and add that control to a Panel.
in order to create a new form for example you need to create a variable of what ever form that it is you want to create.
example
Form2 frm2 = new Form2();
frm2.Show();
if you want to show that form in the panel then the panel would be the Owner keep in mind the difference between Owner and Parent
please paste what ever code you have so far and we can suggest the necessary changes
Finally, how does one display a Window in a Panel? - you don't want to do that. If you want a window and a panel to share a piece of UI functionality, create a user control with all the the functionality and then you can place it in a form or in a panel.
A possibility to encapsulate complex UI content is to create a UserControl. This way you can create a reusable piece of complex UI you can basically add as a "blob" inside a form.
The reason why
Panel panel = tabControl.TabPages[0].Controls["Panel"];
is underlined red is because the Controls collection returns a Control which might be a Panel but also might be something else. So you need to cast it:
Panel panel = tabControl.TabPages[0].Controls["Panel"] as Panel;
if (panel != null)
{
// got a panel here so do something
}
Also: MSDN has some good resources - you should make use of it.