I'm designing a UI in Visual Studio 2010, and I've come across a slight problem. I'm fairly new to XAML and this method of design, so this might be a rookie mistake. I've looked around but can't seem to find reference to a similar problem.
Basically, I have a grid with 2 rows, one of which contains a stackpanel and 5 columns. The stackpanel sits behind the columns and is used to paint the background of the entire row. When I add a background colour to the other row, I get an annoying line at the top of the stackpanel which just looks out of place. I've tried several things (showGridLines = false, transparent borders etc) but cannot seem to get rid of it. The best way to show it is through an image:
See http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/2220/tempym.jpg
One oddity I've noticed is that when I resize the window, at certain points the line disappears. Obviously this is not a solution (not least because it's going to be run full screen), but adds to the mystery of the line...
This is a trivial problem, but it is annoying me and will continue to do so until I can get rid of it, so any help would be appreciated. I've omitted the xaml for simplicity, but will post if required.
Based on the oddity you noticed, try setting SnapsToDevicePixels to true on the grid or window. Sounds like the borders are falling in between pixel boundaries and is being anti-aliased.
Or rather, if you're using .NET 4.0, use UseLayoutRounding instead.
Related
I cannot believe i have to ask this, but i tried everything.
How can i achieve the simple effect the toolbar at the top has here?
My App has the same structure. I tried with a dockpanel and a gridpanel. I think it has something to do with the border. An actual Border acts as expected, but the shadows behaviour is a complete mystery.
Edit: Of course, after not getting anywhere for hours i figure it out 2 minutes after my post. It has something to do with the background of the elements over which the shadow is supposed to be cast. I worked around it by adding an extra 2-3px row into my grid so the shadow has somewhere to be displayed fully.
Thanks for the designkit, that looks great.
I'm having the following code to set the width of the first panel to the width I need (for some reason I need to divide the expectedWith by two to get the actual width to be my expectedWith - don't know why).
splitContainer1.SplitterDistance = expectedWith / 2;
The next thing I need is that the first panel is fixed, means that if you resize the window, only the second panel gets larger and the first stays in size. To achieve this I use the following line:
splitContainer1.FixedPanel = FixedPanel.Panel1;
Problem now: it seems that the FixedPanel-property completly ignores the size of the first panel. It doesn't matter which value I set the SplitterDistance-property to if I used the FixedPanel-line. It is always the same. It doesn't even matter if I set SplitterDistance in the form designer.
Is there a solution to this?
I can answer my own question. This only happens if the content of the appropriate panel is using DockStyle.Fill in its Dock-property. The solution is to set the DockStyle.Fill value right after setting FixedPanel. This was also responsible for the "divide by two"-behaviour explained in the question.
Thanks to John Willemse.
I ran into this same problem, and was tempted to use the original poster's advice and just divide the desired SplitterDistance by two, as it always seemed to be (nearly but not exactly) twice the width that I asked for.
I tried changing the DockStyle of the children of the two panels to None before setting the SplitterDistance, but in my case it did not have any impact on the problem.
I solved the problem by changing when the SplitterDistance gets set. Originally I was setting the SplitterDistance on the panel before calling Form.Show(). Setting the SplitterDistance after the form is shown seemed to cure it.
Since you only want a fixed first panel and a dynamic second one, couldn't you use a TableLayoutPanel instead of a SplitContainer?
The DockStyle.None is a step in the right direction. But it needs 3-6 iterations (shaking the Splitter), until the Panel-Window has the expected dimensions. Strange!
I've figured this out. I needed to have a page open and load the splitter positions from the registry but was very frustrated with the way the watch I set up showed that it kept going back to the design time setting of the control.
To fix it all you do is change the property of "FixedPanel" from "None" to panel1 or panel2. Which is up to you. it only really comes into play when the minimum setting is not small enough and/ or when you have a splitcontainer within another sizable container. the fixed panel stays fixed then. Both panels can be resized as you choose using a mouse though so the word fixed is a little ambiguous in that regard.
so take the design time control. drop it on the form. resize it to fit your requirement and anchor it as necessary. nothing else except making one of the panels fixed. There is a property called "IsSplitterFixed" don't touch it, it's one of the reasons this control becomes unstable and must stay false, the panel.minsize properties should be set at design time based on requirements and you will always have to take cognisance of their values.
live happily ever after!
How can it be done? If there are, for example, four groups of buttons in menu-like panel. How would you dock them to their initial location if the window is resized?
I am trying this using DockPanel and HorizontalAlign, but it seems to only be work for the last button on the right when the window is resized. But how do you dock(anchor) a group of buttons? Maybe put them in border object and use HorizontalAlign for it? Is there more elegant way to do this?
To summarize the comments: I don't know your background but it seems you are used to another way of UI design where you do not explicitely have to specify grouping etc in code. While that might seem more elegant, it is not: the designer generated code is awful and the whole system is not as flexible nor srtaightforward as what WPF gives you..
With WPF you get a clear one-to-one relationship between your intent (treating buttons as a group within a layout) and the actual code (put the buttons in a stackpanel/grid/...). Or draw a border around buttons and organize them vertically within the border vs in xaml use a border with a stackpanel inside. It won't get any more elegant than that.
Read up on WPF layouts and once you'll get a grip of it you will quickly see that it is rather powerful and beatiful at the same time. I found this tutorial pretty helpful when just starting with layouts. And google provides lots and lots and lots more information, as usual.
Like stijn said, put the buttons in a Grid or a Stackpanel and you'll be fine.
You may not think it's beautifull, but it's the best solution for your problem.
I just switched over to WPF from just regular C# .NET for the more advanced UI design controls. I have managed to become extremely confused over what should be extremely simple, and I hope someone can help.
Basically I want to have sections on either side (for the most part these will be list-boxes inside of expanders), one list-box in the bottom-middle, and then a large rich text box taking up the middle.
My understanding was that I could just take a DockPanel, set the ChildFill to true, dock each one where it should go, and leave the last one to fill the space. The list boxes alone don't seem to work at with the DockPanel, and the DockPanel does not seem to expand when I change the size of the window.
So basically my questions are...
1) Why does the DockPanel not expand/shrink when I change the size of the window?
2) Buttons seem to work fine in the Dock Panel (like all of the examples I found) but using List Boxes instead does not seem to work properly. Why is this?
3) If I put the list boxes inside of Expanders instead, if I have say two of these on the left side, and I shrink the top expander, will the bottom expander grow upwards to fill the gap?
I can't really afford anything like ActiPro, and I was not able to get the AvalonDock controls to show up on the MSVC 2010 toolbar, so I am pretty much stuck using the default controls.
1). I have just tested the DockPanel and it does expand / shrink when the Window is resized - Have you removed the Grid that is placed in the Window by default in Visual Studio? If you mean it doesn't resize proportionally to the Windows size then i think you will need to use a Grid.
2). Again, list boxes work fine for me - Can you provide some more detail explaining why they don't work properly?
3). It depends on what you mean by "Grow upwards". If the top expander is closed, only the header will be displayed and the bottom expander will move up to take the space taken by the first expanders content (this is the default behaviour).
Do you have some XAML you can post as this will help identify your problems.
Just ran into a bunch of random but probably very simple questions while learning to work with WPF. If anyone can answer any of these it would be most appreciated.
I have a Rectangle that I styled to my liking, and then a StackPanel that I am actually placing the content (bunch of labels) in. It looks like Rectangle doesn't have a closing statement so how can I make it the parent of the StackPanel (I want the panel to move with it)?
I need to display text (labels) in a table form. It will only be two columns, and 8 rows (row count may change). I initially looked into just using a Grid, but as this is a intended for Layouts, it didn't work as expected. I also checked out DataGrid, but this seems confusing and overly complicated for my needs. Is there any simple Table style element I can use?
I have some Animated Expanders and I want to give the other UI content elements in my application a similar looking title bar. I haven't seen any sort of element for this, so I am wondering if I just need to use a Label or something and style it as close as possible to match, or if something already exists that I should use instead. If I need to use a label, what is the proper way to group/attach it with the element that it is the title bar for?
Do any controls exist for WPF that would allow for a Mac style menu bar? Something similar to where the icons move and expand as they are mouse over.
I have a grid that has two expanders (one above the other) with Height="Auto", and two rows set to Height="Auto" so that when the top is minimized, the bottom one moves up to close the gap. I am using a MinHeight right now to make sure they are at least somewhat expanded, but I would like to make them take up the full 100% of the Grid height. What should I do for this?
A rectangle cannot have child content, a better approach might be to use a Border, you can use this as that parent of your stackpanel, applying a Background and BorderBrush to make it look like a rectangle.
For a simple table layout Grid is the way to go. Is your problem that you need it to be dynamic? If so, you can create multiple grids with SharedSizeGroup on the columns to make them look like a single grid. See: How to align separate Grids created via templates along their columns / rows?
Learn about creating your own templates!
Not that I know of, but it would be relatively simple to do, create a storyboard that scales the item on mouse over.
No idea ... running out of steam!
As Andrzej Nosal mentioned, these really should be separate questions!