Semi-transparent panel background - c#

I have a panel which sits on top of a control that renders video. I have controls (buttons, etc), on that panel which I want to be fully opaque. Now, creating a transparent panel background is doable, by overriding the CreateParams property. However, how to I make a panel with a semi-transparent (~50% opacity) background, while keeping the buttons fully opaque?
I am using .NET 2.0.

In the end it turned out that this isn't possible really, setting transparency on a panel is pretty rubbish in WinForms.
The workaround I used was to render the controls manually onto the given surface, and alter the alpha values appropriately.

You could use two panels, one placed within the other. The outer panel has no background, and hosts the inner panel and the controls, and the inner panel, whose Z-Index places it behind the controls, provides the semi-transparent background.
I'll admit that I'm suggesting this without actually verifying that this will work...

Related

How to change the back color of the scrollbar of a panel?

So I am making a dark mode option for my application and I want the scrollbar back color to also change color so that it doesn't look out of place. I have tried to search for a solution but so far I have only found code for a scrollbar as in the control. but I need to change the scrollbar of a panel. Does someone happen to know how to do this? Thanks a lot in advance.
I faced the same challenge when I started to work on custom controls that should support the Dark Mode. The problem with Panel control as well as other controls is that their ScrollBars are managed internally by those controls and there is no way to customize them.
My Idea was to create a custom ScrollBar control that supports custom colors and themes, see my answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/73613059/5514131
And in our custom Panel control, we create the custom ScrollBars internally and use the various Panel properties and events to link the custom ScrollBars to our Panel.
With the help of the Panel VerticalScroll and HorizontalScroll properties, we can know whether the default Panel scrollbars are visible or not and their properties to copy to our custom ScrollBars.
With the help of LocationChanged, SizeChanged, and other Panel events and properties we should bind the custom ScrollBars to our Panel and place them on top of the default ones to completely cover them.
I used the OnMouseWheel and OnScroll to update our custom ScrollBars when the Panel is scrolled using the code or mouse wheel.
We should dispose the custom ScrollBars when the Panel is disposed, or its handle is destroyed.
I know this isn't the best approach, but it should work to prevent the default ugly scrollbars from ruining your beautiful Dark Mode.
This workaround can be applied to other controls, I actually used it with TabControls, however, it will be more complex to implement.
Windows Forms Panel control with custom ScrollBars based on the Flat ScrollBar control https://gist.github.com/ahmedosama007/39f8b76e65300e5969110b753fe0a654

Any descent WPF Custom Window Theme, no border transparent with resize on simulated borders?

I've been looking around for quite a while now and can't really find a complete example and may just be missing some small element.
I'm trying to create a WPF Theme/Style/ControlTemplate/etc for a WINDOW. The one where Window borders set to none, allow transparency, and background set to transparent. So, yes, this means I have to define the buttons, borders, background, etc as I've found in other samples.
I've found a few links that utilize (and have that working) through the use of a "Thumb" control anchored to the lower-right.
What I'm missing is how to do resize from the respective borders that are constructed within the new ControlTemplate of the theme. I do have the buttons working for things like min/max/restore/close, but can't quite get how to handle the resize.
Thanks
I've used this link once. If I remember well, the resize border could be set to work as an arbitrary amount of pixels from the sides of the Window, even without a "real" border element.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/131515/WPF-Custom-Chrome-Library

How to resize dynamic controls in Windows Forms/Window Mobile applications?

I have a panel that has lots of labels and checkboxes. I want to grab all these controls and resize them?
How would I do this? Would this be like going through the panel for all the controls then resizing them?
Or do you think it would be better to re render the whole form again with the new sizes. However this would require me to do another request to the webservice to get the information.
I need to resize the controls because I want allow user to switch from portrait mode to landscape.
Use Dock, or for more precise control use the Anchor property. By setting Anchor to Left, Right, Top, Bottom the control will scale with the window. By setting Anchor to Right the control will move with the right border. By setting Anchor to Top and Bottom the control will scale vertically, but have a fixed width.
you can also use tablelayoutpanel and flowlayoutpanel controls.
For mobile, I think these controls are not available.
First of all, you should not just store the values from the web service in controls. They should be safely tucked away in one or more objects somewhere, to be easily accessed from your form.
I'm afraid you ahve to resize and/or change location of your controls depending on which mode you are in.
For developing resolution aware applications for .NET CF, see here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838174.aspx

Overlay Control over Winform

is it possible to overlay a control (lets say a rich text box or a link label) over onother control at a specific position on a Winform?
I have did some test with GDI+ but without luck...
You can place one control on top of the other, but it will obscure the one under it. Some controls (like Label) support transparent background, in which case it won't obscure the control under it.
Do you want both to be visible at the same time? If so, check out Giving Your Control a Transparent Background.
If it's simply a matter of putting two controls in the same place and showing one or the other, you can use Control.BringToFront() and .SendToBack(), as well as individually controlling their visibilities.
Finally, if it's text you want to draw on top of another control, you might want to look into drawing that text yourself from that other control - the TextRenderer class makes it very easy to do so.

Best Layout of a WinForms UserControl with both Static and Dynamic Content?

I have a user control that has:
a) a buttons panel at the top (it always has to be visible)
b) a panel with controls that are dynamically added and re-sized at run-time. The controls can be many, so the panel has to be scrollable.
This user control will be hosted in a form, with the following requirements:
a) The initial size of the form will try to fit in maximum part of the dynamic content.
b) On changing the form size, the control has to be re-sized accordingly.
I had played with various anchoring, docking, and auto-sizing and I don't quite get it working in the way I want to. Sometimes, it is the scrolling that messes up, sometimes it is something else.
What combination of anchoring, docking, and auto-sizing of the panels, usercontrol, form should work best to achieve the desired outcome?
I succeeded to meet the requirements. Here is my solution:
The dynamic panel is anchored to the top and the bottom of the control. It does not AutoSize, it manually changes its MaximumSize and PreferredSize after change in the contents.
The form hosts the form using:
cntrl.AutoSize = true;
cntrl.AutoSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
cntrl.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill;
The form subscribes to a custom control's event that notifies for the preferredHeight and it changes its own Height accordingly.
I'd go with a table layout panel. You can specify two rows by one column with the exact size for the buttons at the top and fill the rest with the bottom. Then put put either a normal panel or a flowlayoutpanel for the dynamic content in that area.
Without knowing the specifics of your problem I find multiple fill docked split containers with one fixed panel and/or a fixed slider usually creates a really handy resizing experience. You can also collapse panels very effectively too.

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