Develop Reference

How to copy a complex property value from one user control to another as design time?

TL;DR;
How can I add copy-paste capability to a complex, multiple values property that will enable me to copy the property value from one user control and paste it to another at design time?
The long story
I have created a user control (StylableControl) that has a complex property called Style.
This property contains an instance of a class called StylableControlStyles, that contains multiple instances of a class called Style, where each one holds values such as BackColor, ForeColor, Image, Gradient (another class I've created) etc'.
I've also created a custom control designer to allow editing style property for the user control. It shows a form where each style class in the style property can be edited easily.
Now I want to provide the users of this control an easy way to copy the entire content of the Style property from one instance of the user control to another instance, at design time.
I could, of course, override the ToString() method of the StylableControlStyles object to create a string representation that will encapsulate all the data saved in this object, but that would create a hugh string and of course would need a lot of work parsing it in the class converter (currenty I'm just using an ExpandableObjectConverter).
I would like to avoid that if possible.

Following Ash's advice in the comments I've used a DesignerVerb to copy and paste the Style to and from a private static member of type Style of the control designer.
So in my control designer class I have:
private static ZControlStyle _CopiedStyle;
And have added these designer verbs:
_Verbs.Add(new DesignerVerb("Copy Styles", CopyStyle));
_Verbs.Add(new DesignerVerb("Paste Styles", PasteStyle));
And the methods for copy ans paste:
private void PasteStyle(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (_CopiedStyle != null)
{
var toggleButton = Control as ZToggleButton;
if (toggleButton != null)
{
toggleButton.Style.FromStyle(_CopiedStyle);
}
else
{
(Control as ZControl).Style.FromStyle(_CopiedStyle);
}
}
}
private void CopyStyle(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var toggleButton = Control as ZToggleButton;
if (toggleButton != null)
{
_CopiedStyle = toggleButton.Style;
}
else
{
_CopiedStyle = (Control as ZControl)?.Style;
}
}

Accessing components of another form

I have two Forms in my application. A Form has the following fields: txtPower, txtTension and txtCurrent. I would like to access the values ​​filled in these TextBox through another Form. In the second Form I instantiated an object of the first Form (MotorForm), however I do not have access to the TextBox.
public MacroForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
MotorForm motorForm = new MotorForm();
motorForm.Show();
}
Is there any way?

Please do not expose the controls in your form. Never. (Unless you have a really good reason.)
If the problem is simple enough not to use MVVM (or the like) in your program (which you should consider for every program that's but trivial), you should expose the values of the instantiated form via properties. Think
public string Power
{
get { return txtPower.Text; }
set
{
if(ValidatePower(value))
{
txtPower.Text = value;
}
else
{
// throw ??
}
}
}
If we can make a sensible assumption about the type of the value we could extend this to
public double Power
{
get
{
// parse the value
// validate the value
// throw if not valid ??
// return the value
}
set
{
// validate the value
// set the value in the text box
}
}
If you exposed the txtPower object, you'd make the instantiating class depend on implementation details of the instantiated class, which is virtually never a good thing.

It seems that your problem is a perfect situation for using ShowDialog for opening your form.
To accomplish this, you need to change the Modifiers property of the controls you want to access on MotorForm and set them to Public. And also set the DialogResult property of your form somewhere to a desired value i.e OK. Anyway the easier way to do this is to set it on the button that is supposed to close the form. Suppose OK or CANCEL buttons.
Then you can create your form this way:
MotorForm motorForm = new MotorForm();
if(motorForm.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
string myValue = motorForm.txtPower.Text; //you can access your values this way
}

ObjectListView editing doesn't work

I'm trying to create a simple listbox with ObjectListView (WinForm, C#). The goal is to have a single value (a double) and a check box.
I want to be able to edit the double value by Single Click, so here are the relevant lines of code from my MyWindow.Designer.cs file (i've left out the default values for efficiency):
this.olvDepths = new BrightIdeasSoftware.ObjectListView();
this.olvColumn1 = ((BrightIdeasSoftware.OLVColumn)(new BrightIdeasSoftware.OLVColumn()));
...
this.olvDepths.CellEditActivation = BrightIdeasSoftware.ObjectListView.CellEditActivateMode.SingleClick;
this.olvDepths.CheckBoxes = true;
this.olvDepths.CheckedAspectName = "IsDefault";
this.olvDepths.FullRowSelect = true;
//
// olvColumn1
//
this.olvColumn1.AspectName = "Depth";
this.olvColumn1.Text = "";
this.olvColumn1.IsEditable = true;
I then create a list of my class (ShieldingEntry) and use the olvDepths.SetObjects() with the list. My ShieldingEntry class looks like this:
public class ShieldingEntry
{
public double Depth { get; set; }
public bool IsDefault { get; set; }
}
However, when I click the field, it doesn't go into edit mode. I've also tried the DoubleClick, SingleClickAlways, and F2Only modes and they don't work either.
The Checkbox works fine.
************** I have additional information *********************
I've pulled and build the ObjectListView source, so I could step through it.
I put a breakpoint in the OLV StartCellEdit method and it gets called and appears to setup and select the control appropriately. It just never appears...
As I noted in the comments on the answer below, I've got this control on a tabbed dialog, and if I switch to another tab, then back, the control works fine.
What am I missing?

I've used ObjectListView before, and here is what I had to do:
Handle the CellEditStarting event. This event is raised when the cell goes into edit mode. Since OLV doesn't really have built-in editors, you have to make your own. Then handle the CellEditFinishing event to validate the data before putting it back into your model.
So first, handling the CellEditStarting event:
private void objlv_CellEditStarting(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e)
{
//e.Column.AspectName gives the model column name of the editing column
if (e.Column.AspectName == "DoubleValue")
{
NumericUpDown nud = new NumericUpDown();
nud.MinValue = 0.0;
nud.MaxValue = 1000.0;
nud.Value = (double)e.Value;
e.Control = nud;
}
}
This creates your editing control. If you want to make sure the size is right, you can set the size of the control (in this case a NumericUpDown) to the cell bounds using e.CellBounds from the event object.
This will show the editor when you click in the cell. Then you can handle the editor finished event to validate the data:
private void objlv_CellEditFinishing(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Column.AspectName == "DoubleValue")
{
//Here you can verify data, if the data is wrong, call
if ((double)e.NewValue > 10000.0)
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
I don't think handling it is required, but its good practice to validate data from the user.
The editing control in the CellEditStarting event can be any control, even a user defined one. I've used a lot of user defined controls (like textboxes with browse buttons) in the cell editor.
[Edit]
I uploaded an example here dropbox link that seems to work. Might not be in the exact view as needed, but seems to do the job.

For anyone else with this problem. I had it specifically when trying to edit a 'null' value in a decimal? on the OLV on a tab page. Solution for me was to set UseCustomSelectionColors to 'False'. I didn't look elsewhere to see if it was reported as a bug. Seems like a bug.

Winforms Control Layout at Runtime

I've been working on developing a custom control which will be used in our CRM frontend. The control itself is nothing special, it simply wraps two labels, text edits, and a button into a single control. (The control is only acting as a wrapper, a bit long winded, but unfortunately our only option due to various restrictions)
I though it would be nice to give the control a Font and ForeColor property, that would change the Font and Color of the labels. Changing the font size means that the relative position of the text boxes be changed to keep everything in line. No problem.
I encapsulated the layout logic in an UpdateLayout method, which is called on the set accessor of the Font property and everything works beautifully at design time, however, at runtime, the Font of the labels is correct, but the layout of the text boxes and button are still in the default positions, hence, the labels overlap.
What am I missing in for updating the position of controls at the init stage in runtime? I've tried calling the UpdateLayout() method from both Initialize and the constructor of the control, alas to no avail.
Am i missing something obvious here?
EDIT:
As requested, I whipped up a quick test. My test control looks like so (Not including Designer code):
public partial class TestControl : UserControl
{
private Font _font;
[Browsable(true)]
public override Font Font
{
get
{
return this._font ?? SystemFonts.DefaultFont;
}
set
{
this._font = value;
this.DoLayout();
}
}
private void DoLayout()
{
this.label1.Font = this._font;
this.Size = new Size(label1.Width + textBox1.Width + 10,
label1.Height >= textBox1.Height ? label1.Height : textBox1.Height);
this.textBox1.Location = new Point(label1.Location.X + 5 + label1.Width, 1);
this.Update();
}
public TestControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
protected override void OnLayout(LayoutEventArgs e)
{
base.OnLayout(e);
DoLayout();
}
}
That works great at design time, but runtime, less so...
EDIT2:
So the above code doesn't entirely reflect the problem accurately, however, I have tried Jogy's suggestion of overriding the OnLayout method, and lo and behold, it works!
I'm relatively new to Custom Controls, so a rookie mistake on my part. This will definitely be committed to the long term memory.

Override OnLayout() method and call your UpdateLayout() there.

Thanks for supplying the code, I would provide the properties by reusing already available controls.
public override Font Font
{
get { return this.label1.Font; }
set
{
this.label1.Font = value;
// Additional code to update related controls.
}
}
Also be aware that the declaration of
private Font _font;
Delivers a non-initialized variable, and by using it in the "Do_Layout" might use a null value. Maybe change it to the following when using your code.
this.label1.Font = this.Font;

Access to a Label on the Form by my Custom control

I have created a WindowsFormControlLibrary porject. It works fine, I can drop it on the forms,call its methods,etc ...
but now as a property of it, I am passing the name of a Label to it. and I want this custom control to be able to use that label name and for example change its font to bold .
so the question is that if I have a WinForm and I have a Label on that form and my custom control on that form, then how can I tell my custom control to do something with that label which I am passing its name to it?

Instead of sending in the name of the label, send in a reference to the actual label and then the custom control can both read the name if it needs to and change the label's font and other properties.
Be careful though, it can quickly get messy to keep track of what's happening if various forms and controls change controls on other forms etc.
Edit: Added code to do what you ask for in the comments
Code isn't tested so it might not be completely correct, but something similar to this should work.
foreach (Control c in Parent.Controls)
{
if (c is Label)
{
Label l = (Label)c;
// do stuff to label l
}       
}

First, if you wish to access a Control from your UserControl, you will need to use the FindForm() method.
Second, you will be required to expose your TextBox control, for example, through a property of your form.
Then, you would need to know the type of this Form returned by this FindForm() method.
Once you know it, you need to type-cast this result to the correct type.
So, here a sample untested pseudo-code to give you the idea:
public partial class MyMainForm {
private TextBox textBox1;
public MyMainForm() {
textBox1 = new Textbox();
textBox1.Name = #"textBox1";
textBox1.Location = new Point(10, 10);
textBox1.Size = new Size(150, 23);
this.Controls.Add(textBox1);
}
public Font MyTextBoxFont {
get {
return textBox1.Font;
} set {
if (value == null) return;
textbox1.Font = value;
}
}
}
Then, assuming you have dropped your control on your form, your UserControl could have a property like so:
public partial class MyUserControl {
private Form GetContainerForm {
get {
return this.FindForm();
}
}
// And later on, where you need to set your TextBox's font:
private void SetContainerInputFieldFont(Font f) {
if (GetContainerForm == null) return; // Or throw, depending on what you need to do.
((MyMainForm)GetContainerForm).MyTextBoxFont = f
}
}

cool :) I just added a get set public property of type Label... it automatically lists all the label on the form.