How can I disable a tab inside a TabControl? - c#

Is there a way to disable a tab in a TabControl?

Cast your TabPage to a Control, then set the Enabled property to false.
((Control)this.tabPage).Enabled = false;
Therefore, the tabpage's header will still be enabled but its contents will be disabled.

The TabPage class hides the Enabled property. That was intentional as there is an awkward UI design problem with it. The basic issue is that disabling the page does not also disable the tab. And if try to work around that by disabling the tab with the Selecting event then it does not work when the TabControl has only one page.
If these usability problems do not concern you then keep in mind that the property still works, it is merely hidden from IntelliSense. If the FUD is uncomfortable then you can simply do this:
public static void EnableTab(TabPage page, bool enable) {
foreach (Control ctl in page.Controls) ctl.Enabled = enable;
}

You can simply use:
tabPage.Enabled = false;
This property is not shown, but it works without any problems.
You can program the Selecting event on TabControler to make it impossible to change to a non-editable tab:
private void tabControler_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (e.TabPageIndex < 0) return;
e.Cancel = !e.TabPage.Enabled;
}

You could register the "Selecting" event and cancel the navigation to the tab page:
private void tabControl1_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (e.TabPage == tabPage2)
e.Cancel = true;
}
Another idea is to put all the controls on the tabpage in a Panel control and disable the panel! Smiley
You could also remove the tabpage from the tabControl1.TabPages collection. That would hide the tabpage.
Credits go to littleguru # Channel 9.

Presumably, you want to see the tab in the tab control, but you want it to be "disabled" (i.e., greyed, and unselectable). There is no built-in support for this, but you can override the drawing mechanism to give the desired effect.
An example of how to do this is provided here.
The magic is in this snippet from the presented source, and in the DisableTab_DrawItem method:
this.tabControl1.DrawMode = TabDrawMode.OwnerDrawFixed;
this.tabControl1.DrawItem += new DrawItemEventHandler( DisableTab_DrawItem );

Extending upon Cédric Guillemette answer, after you disable the Control:
((Control)this.tabPage).Enabled = false;
...you may then handle the TabControl's Selecting event as:
private void tabControl_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
e.Cancel = !((Control)e.TabPage).Enabled;
}

This will remove the tab page, but you'll need to re-add it when you need it:
tabControl1.Controls.Remove(tabPage2);
If you are going to need it later, you might want to store it in a temporary tabpage before the remove and then re-add it when needed.

The only way is to catch the Selecting event and prevent a tab from being activated.

The most tricky way is to make its parent equals null (make the tab alone without parent):
tabPage.Parent = null;
And when you want to return it back (will return it back at the end of pages collection) :
tabPage.Parent = tabControl;
And if you want to return it back in a specific location among the pages you can use :
tabControl.TabPages.Insert(indexLocationYouWant, tabPage);

I had to handle this a while back. I removed the Tab from the TabPages collection (I think that's it) and added it back in when the conditions changed. But that was only in Winforms where I could keep the tab around until I needed it again.

I've removed tab pages in the past to prevent the user from clicking them. This probably isn't the best solution though because they may need to see that the tab page exists.

Using events, and the properties of the tab control you can enable/disable what you want when you want. I used one bool that is available to all methods in the mdi child form class where the tabControl is being used.
Remember the selecting event fires every time any tab is clicked. For large numbers of tabs a "CASE" might be easier to use than a bunch of ifs.
public partial class Form2 : Form
{
bool formComplete = false;
public Form2()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
formComplete = true;
tabControl1.SelectTab(1);
}
private void tabControl1_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (tabControl1.SelectedTab == tabControl1.TabPages[1])
{
tabControl1.Enabled = false;
if (formComplete)
{
MessageBox.Show("You will be taken to next tab");
tabControl1.SelectTab(1);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Try completing form first");
tabControl1.SelectTab(0);
}
tabControl1.Enabled = true;
}
}
}

I've solved this problem like this:
I've got 3 tabs and I want to keep user at the first tab if he didnt log in,
so on the SelectingEvent of TabControl I wrote
if (condition) { TabControl.Deselect("2ndPage"); TabControl.Deselect("3dPage"); }

The user cannot click on tabs to navigate, but they can use the two buttons (Next and Back). The user cannot continue to the next if the //conditions are no met.
private int currentTab = 0;
private void frmOneTimeEntry_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tabMenu.Selecting += new TabControlCancelEventHandler(tabMenu_Selecting);
}
private void tabMenu_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
tabMenu.SelectTab(currentTab);
}
private void btnNextStep_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
switch(tabMenu.SelectedIndex)
{
case 0:
//if conditions met GoTo
case 2:
//if conditions met GoTo
case n:
//if conditions met GoTo
{
CanLeaveTab:
currentTab++;
tabMenu.SelectTab(tabMenu.SelectedIndex + 1);
if (tabMenu.SelectedIndex == 3)
btnNextStep.Enabled = false;
if (btnBackStep.Enabled == false)
btnBackStep.Enabled = true;
CannotLeaveTab:
;
}
private void btnBackStep_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
currentTab--;
tabMenu.SelectTab(tabMenu.SelectedIndex - 1);
if (tabMenu.SelectedIndex == 0)
btnBackStep.Enabled = false;
if (btnNextStep.Enabled == false)
btnNextStep.Enabled = true;
}

tabControl.TabPages.Remove(tabPage1);

This is an old question, but someone may benefit from my addition. I needed a TabControl that would show hidden tabs successively (after an action was performed on the current tab). So, I made a quick class to inherit from and called HideSuccessive() on Load:
public class RevealingTabControl : TabControl
{
private Action _showNextRequested = delegate { };
public void HideSuccessive()
{
var tabPages = this.TabPages.Cast<TabPage>().Skip(1);
var queue = new ConcurrentQueue<TabPage>(tabPages);
tabPages.ToList().ForEach(t => t.Parent = null);
_showNextRequested = () =>
{
if (queue.TryDequeue(out TabPage tabPage))
tabPage.Parent = this;
};
}
public void ShowNext() => _showNextRequested();
}

There is the XtraTabPage.PageEnabled property allowing you to disable certain pages.

Here the solution that i implement:
private void switchTapPage(TabPage tabPage)
{
foreach(TabPage page in tabControl1.TabPages)
{
tabControl1.TabPages.Remove(page);
}
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tabPage);
}
Basically, i just call this method sending the tabPage that i currently need to show, the method will remove all the tabPages on the tabControl and after that it will just add the one that i sent it.
So the rest of the tabHeaders will not shown and they will be inaccessible, because they dont even exists in the tabControl.
I took the idea from the #stormenet answer.

You can do it through the tabpages: tabPage1.Hide(), tabPage2.Show() etc.

In the form load event if we write this.tabpage.PageEnabled = false, the tabpage will be disabled.

Assume that you have these controls:
TabControl with name tcExemple.
TabPages with names tpEx1 and tpEx2.
Try it:
Set DrawMode of your TabPage to OwnerDrawFixed;
After InitializeComponent(), make sure that tpEx2 is not enable by adding this code:
((Control)tcExemple.TabPages["tpEx2").Enabled = false;
Add to Selection tcExemple event the code below:
private void tcExemple_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (!((Control)e.TabPage).Enabled)
{
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
Attach to DrawItem event of tcExemple this code:
private void tcExemple_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
TabPage page = tcExemple.TabPages[e.Index];
if (!((Control)page).Enabled)
{
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(SystemColors.GrayText))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(page.Text, page.Font, brush, e.Bounds);
}
}
else
{
using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(page.ForeColor))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(page.Text, page.Font, brush, e.Bounds);
}
}
}
It will make the second tab non-clickable.

I could not find an appropriate answer to the question. There looks to be no solution to disable the specific tab. What I did is to pass the specific tab to a variable and in SelectedIndexChanged event put it back to SelectedIndex:
//variable for your specific tab
int _TAB = 0;
//here you specify your tab that you want to expose
_TAB = 1;
tabHolder.SelectedIndex = _TAB;
private void tabHolder_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (_TAB != 0) tabHolder.SelectedIndex = _TAB;
}
So, you don't actually disable the tab, but when another tab is clicked it always returns you to the selected tab.

in C# 7.0, there is a new feature called Pattern Matching. You can disable all tabs via Type Pattern.
foreach (Control control in Controls)
{
// the is expression tests the variable and
// assigned it to a new appropriate variable type
if (control is TabControl tabs)
{
tabs.Enabled = false;
}
}

Use:
tabControl1.TabPages[1].Enabled = false;
By writing this code, the tab page won't be completely disabled (not being able to select), but its internal content will be disabled which I think satisfy your needs.

The solution is very simple.
Remove/comment this line
this.tabControl.Controls.Add(this.YourTabName);
in IntializeComponent() method in MainForm.cs

MyTabControl.SelectedTab.Enabled = false;

Related

Getting a control name/Displaying tooltip text

I am developing a form with multiple options that simulates a signup form, and I want to display some tips and descriptions in a RichTextBox located by the options when the user's mouse hover by it's GroupBoxes.
Since I am fairly new to programming, I don't know if getting all the controls names one by one is the optimal, so I want to grab the controls' names inside of the tabControl control that I am using to organize everything.
private void TabControl1_MouseHover(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach(Control c in this.Controls)
{
string name = c.Name;
TooltipText(name);
}
}
And I also have a method where I will write the text that will be displayed in the RichTextBox.
private string TooltipText(string name)
{
if(name == "Name:")
{
return "blabla";
}
else
{
return "none";
}
}
I've tried a generic method to show a message box if the control was detected and, as I suspected, nothing showed up:
private void TooltipText(string name)
{
if(name == "LBL_Name")
{
MessageBox.Show("hey");
return;
}
}
How can I properly detect the Groupboxes or other types of Controls inside of the TabControl control, and also display the text in the box beside it?
You don't have to create your own Tool Tips. The .net WinForms provides a ToolTip class. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.tooltip?view=netframework-4.8
I added 2 radio buttons to a group box in design view.
Try it and see.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ToolTip tip = new ToolTip();
tip.AutoPopDelay = 5000;
tip.InitialDelay = 1000;
tip.ReshowDelay = 500;
tip.SetToolTip(radioButton1, "Choose to Add Onions");
tip.SetToolTip(radioButton2, "Choose to Add Pickles");
}

C# Apply focused properties to FlowLayoutPanel like button behavior

I'm trying to apply focus behavior, similar to button blue border to FlowLayoutPanel. I tried to use GotFocus and LostFocus, but clearly that's not the way to go.
private void FlowLayoutPanel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
(sender as Control).BackColor = SystemColors.GradientActiveCaption;
//More operations.
}
private void Panel_LostFocus(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
(sender as Control).BackColor = default(Color);
//More operations.
}
While clicking on the FlowLayoutPanel nothing happens and while using tab the two event are invoked one after another.
Any suggestions?
FlowLayoutPanel is not a selectable control by default. You can create a custom flow layout panel by deriving from FlowLayoutPanel and set Selectable and UserMouse control styles to make it selectable by mouse. Also to accept tab stop, set TabStop property to true:
class ExFlowLayoutPanel:FlowLayoutPanel
{
public ExFlowLayoutPanel():base()
{
SetStyle(ControlStyles.Selectable, true);
SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserMouse, true);
TabStop = true;
}
}
Then you can handle GotFocus and LostFocus or Enter and Leave events.
The only point of using a FLP is to get it to arrange child controls. It is always a child control that gets the focus, not the FLP. So sure, nothing happens. You'd have to subscribe the Enter events of all the child controls to see the focus entering the panel or one of its children. Leave is much harder to get right, that's going to flicker like a cheap motel.
Very ugly solution, you don't want to it that way. Use the Application.Idle event instead, the best alternative when getting a reliable event just isn't practical. Check the Parent of this.ActiveControl, like this:
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
Application.Idle += CheckFlpFocus;
this.Disposed += delegate { Application.Idle -= CheckFlpFocus; };
}
private bool FlpHasFocus;
private void CheckFlpFocus(object sender, EventArgs e) {
bool hasFocus = false;
for (var ctl = this.ActiveControl; ctl != null; ctl = ctl.Parent) {
if (ctl == flowLayoutPanel1) hasFocus = true;
}
if (hasFocus != FlpHasFocus) {
FlpHasFocus = hasFocus;
flowLayoutPanel1.BackColor = hasFocus ? Color.Black : Color.White;
}
}

How do i disable a tab, so that the user cannot change to it?

I want to make a quiz, which goes through the questions, keeping in mind that while question 1 is being used, the others are disabled. Once the Next button is clicked it should change directly to Q2, disabling Q1 and so on.
How do I make it disable the previous tab and keep the current one enabled after the Next button is clicked?
As stated previously tabs can be selected by index.
So as before, let's disable all other tabs:
foreach(TabPage tab in tabControl.TabPages)
{
tab.Enabled = false;
}
(tabControl.TabPages[0] as TabPage).Enabled = true;
Now the way to prevent navigating to any other tab is simple:
private void tabControl_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (!e.TabPage.Enabled)
{
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
The only downside is that they will appear selectable, meaning they are not grayed out. You would have to do this yourself if you want the look to appear unavailable as well.
Another solution (the simplest I think) :
Using a global variable (here currentSelectedTab)
Using the event Selecting
// currentSelectedTab is the Only Tab I want enabled.
TabPage currentSelectedTab = tabWizardControl.TabPages[0];
private void tabWizardControl_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
int selectedTab = tabWizardControl.SelectedIndex;
//Disable the tab selection
if (currentSelectedTab != selectedTab)
{
//If selected tab is different than the current one, re-select the current tab.
//This disables the navigation using the tab selection.
tabWizardControl.SelectTab(currentSelectedTab);
}
}
A Tab can be accessed by its index, like so:
tabControl.TabPages[0]
So, say you're starting on tab 1 (index = 0), you want to disable all the other tabs.
// This can be done manually in the designer as well.
foreach(TabPage tab in tabControl.TabPages)
{
tab.Enabled = false;
}
(tabControl.TabPages[0] as TabPage).Enabled = true;
Now, when you press the Next button, you want to disable the current tab, enable the next one, AND GO to the next one. But remember to check if the tab exists!
if(tabControl.TabCount - 1 == tabControl.SelectedIndex)
return; // No more tabs to show!
tabControl.SelectedTab.Enabled = false;
var nextTab = tabControl.TabPages[tabControl.SelectedIndex+1] as TabPage;
nextTab.Enabled = true;
tabControl.SelectedTab = nextTab;
DISCLAIMER: This is not tested, but it should be something along these lines.
You stated that you got an error about object not containing a definition for Enabled - my code typecasts each tab page as a TabPage. However I have not tested it.
I followed this way:
i) A global with currentIndex value.
ii) Add SelectedIndexChanged Event Handler to tabControl.
iii) In the SelectedIndexChanged handler set the index back to currentIndex.
iv) Change currentIndex in your NextButton Click Event
This may work:
currentIndex = 0; //global initial setting
tabControl1.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(tabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged);
void tabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tabControl1.SelectedIndex = currentIndex;
return;
}
private void nextButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
currentIndex += 1;
if (currentIndex >= tabControl1.TabPages.Count)
{
currentIndex = 0;
}
foreach (TabPage pg in tabControl1.TabPages)
{
pg.Enabled = false;
}
tabControl1.TabPages[currentIndex].Enabled = true;
tabControl1.SelectedIndex = currentIndex;
}

Disabling buttons problem on C#

Ok so I'm trying to move items from one listbox to another by using multiple buttons i.e
I have 2 buttons cmdRight and cmdRight2 which are both disabled on form load
If the user selects a single item on the first listbox a cmdRIght button enables but cmdRight2 is still disabled , if the user selects multiple items on the first listbox a cmdRight2 button enables but cmdRight is disabled.
I've got the move buttons to work but the problem I'm having is after moving multiple items with the cmdRight2 button the cmdRight button enables (which it shouldn't it should only enable after selecting a single item in the listbox). I've tried numerous if statements etc. and yet it still happens.
I'm new to C# so any help would be appreciated.
Thank You
private void lbList1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.lbList1.SelectedItems != null)
{
cmdRight.Enabled = true; //enable cmdRight
cmdClear.Enabled = true; //enable cmdClear
if (this.lbList1.SelectedItems.Count > 1)//if multiple items selected
{
cmdRight.Enabled = false;
cmdRight2.Enabled = true; //enable cmdRight2
}
}
}
private void cmdRight2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (int i in lbList1.SelectedIndices)
{
lbList2.Items.Add(lbList1.Items[i].ToString());
}
while (lbList1.SelectedItems.Count > 0)
{
lbList1.Items.Remove(lbList1.SelectedItems[0]);
}
cmdRight2.Enabled = false;
}
private void cmdRight_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lbList2.Items.Add(lbList1.SelectedItem); //Add selected item from list1 to list2
lbList1.Items.Remove(lbList1.SelectedItem);//remove the selected item in list1
cmdRight.Enabled = false; //disable cmdRight
}
How about creating one method EnableButtons that enables/disables to buttons according to given criteria like "enable cmdRight2 only if.... is true".
Then, call the method whenever some of the criteria might change. The advantage of this over the way you're doing it now is that the criteria within the method are "absolute" (in that the buttons are either enabled or disabled in one go) instead of "relative" (enable the button when the user does this or that).
You could also call this method from the Application.Idle event instead of calling it in response to some user action.
EDIT
Declare the following method:
private void EnableButtons()
{
controlX.Enabled = (<condition...>);
controlY.Enabled = (<condition...>);
}
You can either invoke that method from the positions in code where something should change in the buttons' enabled states, or you can do the following in the constructor of the form:
public Form1()
{
// Other code...
Application.Idle += new <The respective event handler>;
}
Then, declare a method with the respective signature for the event and call EnableButtons there. This method would be called in situations where your application is "idle" (waiting for user actions).
I think you want
if (this.lbList1.SelectedItems.Count == 1)
{
}
else if(this.lbList1.SelectedItems.Count > 1)
{
}
else
{
}
instead of
if (this.lbList1.SelectedItems != null)
Then you could place all of this in a method called "EnableButtons" as mentioned elsewhere
The problem is that you are removing the items one by one, so when only one item is left, you essentially have one item selected so your program enables the cmdRight. The easiest way around this is to have
cmdRight2.Enabled = false;
cmdRight.Enabled = false;
at the end of the cmdRight2_Click method.

Winforms c# - Set focus to first child control of TabPage

Say I have a Textbox nested within a TabControl.
When the form loads, I would like to focus on that Textbox (by default the focus is set to the TabControl).
Simply calling textbox1.focus() in the Load event of the form does not appear to work.
I have been able to focus it by doing the following:
private void frmMainLoad(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (TabPage tab in this.tabControl1.TabPages)
{
this.tabControl1.SelectedTab = tab;
}
}
My question is:
Is there a more elegant way to do this?
The following is the solution:
private void frmMainLoad(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ActiveControl = textBox1;
}
The better question would however be why... I'm not entirely sure what the answer to that one is.
Edit: I suspect it is something to do with the fact that both the form, and the TabControl are containers, but I'm not sure.
Try putting it in the Form_Shown() event. Because it's in a container, putting in the Form_Load or even the Form() constructor won't work.
Try to use textbox1.Select() instead of textbox1.Focus(). This helped me few times.
You just need to add the Control.Select() for your control to this code. I have used this to set focus on controls during validation when there are errors.
private void ShowControlTab(Control ControlToShow)
{
if (!TabSelected)
{
if (ControlToShow.Parent != null)
{
if (ControlToShow.Parent.GetType() == typeof(TabPage))
{
TabPage Tab = (TabPage)ControlToShow.Parent;
if (WOTabs.TabPages.Contains(Tab))
{
WOTabs.SelectedTab = Tab;
TabSelected = true;
return;
}
}
ShowControlTab(ControlToShow.Parent);
}
}
}
I had a user control within another user control. textbox1.Select() worked for me but textbox1.Focus() did not work.
You can also try setting Tabstop to false, textbox1.Focus(), TabStop true.
private void ChildForm1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ActiveControl = txt_fname;
}
i use this code it works fine on win tab control or dotnetbar supertab contrl

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