c# flickering Listview on update - c#

I have a list view that is periodically updated (every 60 seconds). It was anoying to me that i would get a flicker every time it up dated. The method being used was to clear all the items and then recreate them. I decided to instead of clearing the items I would just write directly to the cell with the new text. Is this a better approach or does anyone have a better solution.

The ListView control has a flicker issue. The problem appears to be that the control's Update overload is improperly implemented such that it acts like a Refresh. An Update should cause the control to redraw only its invalid regions whereas a Refresh redraws the control’s entire client area. So if you were to change, say, the background color of one item in the list then only that particular item should need to be repainted. Unfortunately, the ListView control seems to be of a different opinion and wants to repaint its entire surface whenever you mess with a single item… even if the item is not currently being displayed. So, anyways, you can easily suppress the flicker by rolling your own as follows:
class ListViewNF : System.Windows.Forms.ListView
{
public ListViewNF()
{
//Activate double buffering
this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer | ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
//Enable the OnNotifyMessage event so we get a chance to filter out
// Windows messages before they get to the form's WndProc
this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.EnableNotifyMessage, true);
}
protected override void OnNotifyMessage(Message m)
{
//Filter out the WM_ERASEBKGND message
if(m.Msg != 0x14)
{
base.OnNotifyMessage(m);
}
}
}
From: Geekswithblogs.net

In addition to the other replies, many controls have a [Begin|End]Update() method that you can use to reduce flickering when editing the contents - for example:
listView.BeginUpdate();
try {
// listView.Items... (lots of editing)
} finally {
listView.EndUpdate();
}

Here is my quick fix for a C# implementation that does not require subclassing the list views etc.
Uses reflection to set the DoubleBuffered Property to true in the forms constructor.
lvMessages
.GetType()
.GetProperty("DoubleBuffered", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic)
.SetValue(lvMessages, true, null);
Update for 2021:
I got pinged on this old post with a comment and I would write this code differently now. Below is an extension method that will add a new method to a ListView to be able to set the double buffered property to true/false as required. This will then extend all list views and make it easier to call as reqired.
/// <summary>
/// Extension methods for List Views
/// </summary>
public static class ListViewExtensions
{
/// <summary>
/// Sets the double buffered property of a list view to the specified value
/// </summary>
/// <param name="listView">The List view</param>
/// <param name="doubleBuffered">Double Buffered or not</param>
public static void SetDoubleBuffered(this System.Windows.Forms.ListView listView, bool doubleBuffered = true)
{
listView
.GetType()
.GetProperty("DoubleBuffered", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic)
.SetValue(listView, doubleBuffered, null);
}
}

If this can help, the following component solved my ListView flickering issues with .NET 3.5
[ToolboxItem(true)]
[ToolboxBitmap(typeof(ListView))]
public class ListViewDoubleBuffered : ListView
{
public ListViewDoubleBuffered()
{
this.DoubleBuffered = true;
}
}
I use it in conjonction with .BeginUpdate() and .EndUpdate() methods where I do ListView.Items manipulation.
I don't understand why this property is a protected one...even in the .NET 4.5 (maybe a security issue)

Yes, make it double buffered. It will reduce the flicker ;) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.listview.doublebuffered.aspx

Excellent question and Stormenent's answer was spot on. Here's a C++ port of his code for anyone else who might be tackling C++/CLI implementations.
#pragma once
#include "Windows.h" // For WM_ERASEBKGND
using namespace System;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
using namespace System::Data;
using namespace System::Drawing;
public ref class FlickerFreeListView : public ListView
{
public:
FlickerFreeListView()
{
//Activate double buffering
SetStyle(ControlStyles::OptimizedDoubleBuffer | ControlStyles::AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
//Enable the OnNotifyMessage event so we get a chance to filter out
// Windows messages before they get to the form's WndProc
SetStyle(ControlStyles::EnableNotifyMessage, true);
}
protected:
virtual void OnNotifyMessage(Message m) override
{
//Filter out the WM_ERASEBKGND message
if(m.Msg != WM_ERASEBKGND)
{
ListView::OnNotifyMessage(m);
}
}
};

You can use the following extension class to set the DoubleBuffered property to true:
using System.Reflection;
public static class ListViewExtensions
{
public static void SetDoubleBuffered(this ListView listView, bool value)
{
listView.GetType()
.GetProperty("DoubleBuffered", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
.SetValue(listView, value);
}
}

The simplest Solution would probably be using
listView.Items.AddRange(listViewItems.ToArray());
instead of
foreach (ListViewItem listViewItem in listViewItems)
{
listView.Items.Add(listViewItem);
}
This works way better.

Simple solution
yourlistview.BeginUpdate()
//Do your update of adding and removing item from the list
yourlistview.EndUpdate()

I know this is an extremely old question and answer. However, this is the top result when searching for "C++/cli listview flicker" - despite the fact that this isn't even talking about C++. So here's the C++ version of this:
I put this in the header file for my main form, you can choose to put it elsewhere...
static void DoubleBuffer(Control^ control, bool enable) {
System::Reflection::PropertyInfo^ info = control->GetType()->
GetProperty("DoubleBuffered", System::Reflection::BindingFlags::Instance
| System::Reflection::BindingFlags::NonPublic);
info->SetValue(control, enable, nullptr);
}
If you happen to land here looking for a similar answer for managed C++, that works for me. :)

This worked best for me.
Since you are editing the cell directly, the best solution in your case would be to simply refresh/reload that particular cell/row instead of the entire table.
You could use the RedrawItems(...) method that basically repaints only the specified range of items/rows of the listview.
public void RedrawItems(int startIndex, int endIndex, bool invalidateOnly);
Reference
This totally got rid of the full listview flicker for me.
Only the relevant item/record flickers while getting updated.
Cheers!

Try setting the double buffered property in true.
Also you could use:
this.SuspendLayout();
//update control
this.ResumeLayout(False);
this.PerformLayout();

In Winrt Windows phone 8.1 you can set the following code to fix this issue.
<ListView.ItemContainerTransitions>
<TransitionCollection/>
</ListView.ItemContainerTransitions>

For what it's worth, in my case, I simply had to add a call to
Application.EnableVisualStyles()
before running the application, like this:
private static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
Otherwise, double buffering is not enough. Maybe it was a very old project and new ones have that setting by default...

If someone would still look an answer for this, I used a timer for a slight delay and it solved the problem nicely. I wanted to highlight (change colour) for the entire row on mouse move event, but I think it would work for item replacement etc. For me listView.BeginUpdate() and listView.EndUpdate() didn't work, DoubleBuffered property also didn't work, I have googled a lot and nothing worked.
private int currentViewItemIndex;
private int lastViewItemIndex;
private void listView_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
ListViewItem lvi = listView.GetItemAt(e.X, e.Y);
if (lvi != null && lastViewItemIndex == -1)
{
listView.Items[lvi.Index].BackColor = Color.Green;
lastViewItemIndex = lvi.Index;
}
if (lvi != null && lastViewItemIndex != -1)
{
currentViewItemIndex = lvi.Index;
listViewTimer.Start();
}
}
private void listViewTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
listView.BeginUpdate();
listView.Items[lastViewItemIndex].BackColor = Colour.Transparent;
listView.Items[currentViewItemIndex].BackColor = Colour.Green;
listView.EndUpdate();
lastViewItemIndex = currentViewItemIndex;
listViewTimer.Stop();
}

Related

Find out which winforms controls are accessed from a background thread

We have built a huge winforms project, already in progress for multiple years.
Sometimes, our users get an exception which looks like this one.
The resolution of this problem seems to be:
don't acces UI components from a background thread
.
But since our project is a very big project with a lot of different threads, we don't succeed in finding all these.
Is there a way to check (with some tool or debugging option) which components are called from a background thread?
To clarify:
I created a sample winforms project with a single Form, containing two Button
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
button1.Text = "Clicked!";
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Task.Run(() =>
{
button2.BackColor = Color.Red; //this does not throw an exception
//button2.Text = "Clicked"; //this throws an exception when uncommented
});
}
}
The background color of button2 is set to red when the button is clicked. This happens in a background thread (which is considered bad behavior). However, it doesn't (immediately) throw an exception. I would like a way to detect this as 'bad behavior'. Preferably by scanning my code, but if it's only possible by debugging, (so pausing as soon as a UI component is accessed from a background thread) it's also fine.
I've got 2 recommendations to use together, the first is a Visual Studio Plugin called DebugSingleThread.
You can freeze all the threads and work on one at a time (obviously the non-main-UI threads) and see each threads access to controls. Tedious I know but not so bad with the second method.
The second method is to get the steps in order to reproduce the problem. If you know the steps to reproduce it, it will be easier to see whats causing it. To do this I made this User Action Log project on Github.
It will record every action a user makes, you can read about it here on SO: User Activity Logging, Telemetry (and Variables in Global Exception Handlers).
I'd recommend you also log the Thread ID, then when you have been able to reproduce the problem, go to the end of the log and work out the exact steps. Its not as painful as it seems and its great for getting application telemetry.
You might be able to customise this project, eg trap a DataSource_Completed event or add a dummy DataSource property that sets the real Grids DataSource property and raises an INotifyPropertyChanged event - and if its a non-main thread ID then Debugger.Break();.
My gut feeling is you're changing a control's (eg a grid) data source in a background thread (for that non-freeze feel) and thats causing a problem with synchronisation. This is what happened to the other DevExpress customer who experienced this. Its discussed here in a different thread to the one you referenced.
Is your app set to ignore cross threading intentionally?
Cross-thread operations should be blowing up all the time in winforms. It checks for them like crazy in just about every method. for a starting point check out https://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System.Windows.Forms/winforms/Managed/System/WinForms/Control.cs.
Somewhere in your app, somebody might have put this line of code:
Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = False;
Comment that out and run the app, then follow the exceptions.
(Usually you can fix the problem by wrapping the update in an invoke, e.g., in a worker thread if you see textbox1.text=SomeString; change it to `textbox.invoke(()=>{textbox1.text=SomeString;});.
You may also have to add checking for InvokeRequired, use BeginInvoke to avoid deadlocks, and return values from invoke, those are all separate topics.
this is assuming even a moderate refactor is out of the question which for even a medium sized enterprise app is almost always the case.
Note: it's not possible to guarantee successful discovery of this case thru static analysis (that is, without running the app). unless you can solve the halting problem ... https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/63403/is-the-halting-problem-decidable-for-pure-programs-on-an-ideal-computer etc...
I did this to search for that specific situation but of course, need to adjust it to your needs, but the purpose of this is to give you at least a possibility.
I called this method SearchForThreads but since it's just an example, you can call it whatever you want.
The main idea here is perhaps adding this Method call to a base class and call it on the constructor, makes it somewhat more flexible.
Then use reflection to invoke this method on all classes deriving from this base, and throw an exception or something if it finds this situation in any class.
There's one pre req, that is the usage of Framework 4.5.
This version of the framework added the CompilerServices attribute that gives us details about the Method's caller.
The documentation for this is here
With it we can open up the source file and dig into it.
What i did was just search for the situation you specified in your question, using rudimentary text search.
But it can give you an insight about how to do this on your solution, since i know very little about your solution, i can only work with the code you put on your post.
public static void SearchForThreads(
[System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CallerMemberName] string memberName = "",
[System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CallerFilePath] string sourceFilePath = "",
[System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CallerLineNumber] int sourceLineNumber = 0)
{
var startKey = "this.Controls.Add(";
var endKey = ")";
List<string> components = new List<string>();
var designerPath = sourceFilePath.Replace(".cs", ".Designer.cs");
if (File.Exists(designerPath))
{
var designerText = File.ReadAllText(designerPath);
var initSearchPos = designerText.IndexOf(startKey) + startKey.Length;
do
{
var endSearchPos = designerText.IndexOf(endKey, initSearchPos);
var componentName = designerText.Substring(initSearchPos, (endSearchPos - initSearchPos));
componentName = componentName.Replace("this.", "");
if (!components.Contains(componentName))
components.Add(componentName);
} while ((initSearchPos = designerText.IndexOf(startKey, initSearchPos) + startKey.Length) > startKey.Length);
}
if (components.Any())
{
var classText = File.ReadAllText(sourceFilePath);
var ThreadPos = classText.IndexOf("Task.Run");
if (ThreadPos > -1)
{
do
{
var endThreadPos = classText.IndexOf("}", ThreadPos);
if (endThreadPos > -1)
{
foreach (var component in components)
{
var search = classText.IndexOf(component, ThreadPos);
if (search > -1 && search < endThreadPos)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Found a call to UI thread component at pos: {search}");
}
}
}
}
while ((ThreadPos = classText.IndexOf("Task.Run", ++ThreadPos)) < classText.Length && ThreadPos > 0);
}
}
}
I hope it helps you out.
You can get the Line number if you split the text so you can output it, but i didn't want to go through the trouble, since i don't know what would work for you.
string[] lines = classText.Replace("\r","").Split('\n');
Try that:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Add the event handler for handling UI thread exceptions to the event.
Application.ThreadException += new ThreadExceptionEventHandler(exception handler);
// Set the unhandled exception mode to force all Windows Forms errors to go through the handler.
Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException);
// Add the event handler for handling non-UI thread exceptions to the event.
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += // add the handler here
// Runs the application.
Application.Run(new ......);
}
Then you can log the message and the call stack and that should give you enough information to fix the issue.
I recommend you update your GUI to handle this situation automatically for your convenience. You instead use a set of inherited controls.
The general principle here is to override the property Set methods in a way to make them Thread Safe. So, in each overridden property, instead of a straight update of the base control, there's a check to see if an invoke is required (meaning we're on a separate thread the the GUI). Then, the Invoke call updates the property on the GUI thread, instead of the secondary thread.
So, if the inherited controls are used, the form code that is trying to update GUI elements from a secondary thread can be left as is.
Here is the textbox and button ones. You would add more of them as needed and add other properties as needed. Rather than putting code on individual forms.
You don't need to go into the designer, you can instead do a find/replace on the designer files only. For example, in ALL designer.cs files, you would replace System.Windows.Forms.TextBox with ThreadSafeControls.TextBoxBackgroundThread and System.Windows.Forms.Button with ThreadSafeControls.ButtonBackgroundThread.
Other controls can be created with the same principle, based on which control types & properties are being updated from the background thread.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace ThreadSafeControls
{
class TextBoxBackgroundThread : System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
{
public override string Text
{
get
{
return base.Text;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.Text = value; });
else
base.Text = value;
}
}
public override System.Drawing.Color ForeColor
{
get
{
return base.ForeColor;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.ForeColor = value; });
else
base.ForeColor = value;
}
}
public override System.Drawing.Color BackColor
{
get
{
return base.BackColor;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.BackColor = value; });
else
base.BackColor = value;
}
}
}
class ButtonBackgroundThread : System.Windows.Forms.Button
{
public override string Text
{
get
{
return base.Text;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.Text = value; });
else
base.Text = value;
}
}
public override System.Drawing.Color ForeColor
{
get
{
return base.ForeColor;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.ForeColor = value; });
else
base.ForeColor = value;
}
}
public override System.Drawing.Color BackColor
{
get
{
return base.BackColor;
}
set
{
if (this.InvokeRequired)
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { base.BackColor = value; });
else
base.BackColor = value;
}
}
}
}

Check if data has changed after setting binding source

I use a binding source so that all my controls are bound to datasource. Like this:
var category = categoryRequest.Get(id);
bindingSource.DataSource = category;
This works fine.
I've also implemented INotifyPropertyChanged on the DTO classes (even though this should not be done), so that a change in the object's properties is reflected immediately in the corresponding controls. This also works.
However, if the user loads an object, changes some text in some controls and decides to close the form, I would like to determine if data has been changed and prompt a "Are you sure?" message.
Currently, the way I'm doing it is like this:
public static bool DataChanged(this Form form)
{
bool changed = false;
if (form == null)
return changed;
foreach (Control c in form.Controls)
{
switch (c.GetType().ToString())
{
case "TextBox":
changed = ((TextBox)c).Modified;
break;
//Other control types here...
}
if (changed)
break;
}
return changed;
}
But I don't think this is the best way to do it because:
Each control type needs to the added manually
Checking if lists have changed won't work
Is there a better way to achieve what I need?
Do you want to check it only once? Like before closing the window.. If you do you can
declare public static bool changed=false; in the form class and change its value to true from where you have implimented the INotifyPropertychanged.
you can display a messagebox anywhere in the form as follows.
if(changed)
{
if (MessageBox.Show("Are you sure?","some caption",MessageBoxButtons.YesNo)==DialogResult.Yes)
{
//Do this if user presses YES
}
}
I realize this is an older thread, but I would suggest a simple solution:
if (YourTextBox.Modified)
{
// Your code goes here.
}
I think it has been around since version 1.0. You will find further information here.
Just subscribe to the BindingSource's ListChanged event and set an IsDirty flag based on the event.
categoryBindingSource.ListChanged += new System.ComponentModel.ListChangedEventHandler(categoryBindingSource_ListChanged);
and set IsDirty = true in the event method...
void customerAccountBindingSource_ListChanged(object sender, system.ComponentModel.ListChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ListChangedType == System.ComponentModel.ListChangedType.ItemChanged)
_isDirty = true;
}

how to set up class instance control events?

I have a class Viewer that creates two linked FastColoredTextBoxes. I want the two boxes to scroll together horizontally. I have this code:
public class Viewer : Panel
{
public FastColoredTextBox HeaderRow = new FastColoredTextBox();
public FastColoredTextBox Editor = new FastColoredTextBox();
public Viewer(int _Top, int _Left, int _Height, int _Width, bool _HasHeaderRow, Control control)
{
this.Editor.Scroll += new ScrollEventHandler(Editor_Scroll);
}
void Editor_Scroll(object sender, ScrollEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ScrollOrientation == ScrollOrientation.HorizontalScroll)
{
this.HeaderRow.HorizontalScroll.Value = this.Editor.HorizontalScroll.Value;
}
this.HeaderRow.UpdateScrollbars();
}
}
It doesn't work. I've never tried to do attach events to controls in a class instance before. If I declare the controls in my form and attach a very similar event (minus the .this's) it works fine. Thank you.
i think that for the next time try to tell yourself " what could it be?" and maybe debug a little, like a breackpoint for example. as you probably understood, you had a little mistake in the line
this.HeaderRow.HorizontalScroll.Value = this.HeaderRow.HorizontalScroll.Value;
you meant to write
HeaderRow.HorizontalScroll.Value = Editor.HorizontalScroll.Value;
you just got mixed between the two or something, which happens to all of us. but the first thing i would do is to think and debug it, check the values and let someone look at it. only then post it here.

Does data binding work on invisible control?

This is a .net problem with winforms, not asp.net.
I have a windows form with several tabs. I set data bindings of all controls when the form is loaded. But I have noticed that the data bindings of controls on the second tab do not work. Those bindings work only when the form is loaded and when I select the second tab. This brings the suspicion to me: data bindings work only when bound controls become visible.
Anyone can tell me whether this is true or not? It is not hard to test this but I would like to know some confirmation.
Thanks
You are correct. A data-bound control are not updated until the control is made visible.
The only reference I can find for this at the moment is this MSDN thread.
Your issue has to do with the behavior of the TabControl. See Microsoft bug report. I posted a workaround for that problem which subclasses the TabControl and 'Iniatalizes' all the tab pages when the control is created or the handle is created. Below is the code for the workaround.
public partial class TabControl : System.Windows.Forms.TabControl
{
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e_)
{
base.OnHandleCreated(e_);
foreach (System.Windows.Forms.TabPage tabPage in TabPages)
{
InitializeTabPage(tabPage, true, Created);
}
}
protected override void OnControlAdded(ControlEventArgs e_)
{
base.OnControlAdded(e_);
System.Windows.Forms.TabPage page = e_.Control as System.Windows.Forms.TabPage;
if ((page != null) && (page.Parent == this) && (IsHandleCreated || Created))
{
InitializeTabPage(page, IsHandleCreated, Created);
}
}
protected override void OnCreateControl()
{
base.OnCreateControl();
foreach (System.Windows.Forms.TabPage tabPage in TabPages)
{
InitializeTabPage(tabPage, IsHandleCreated, true);
}
}
//PRB: Exception thrown during Windows Forms data binding if bound control is on a tab page with uncreated handle
//FIX: Make sure all tab pages are created when the tabcontrol is created.
//https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/351177
private void InitializeTabPage(System.Windows.Forms.TabPage page_, bool createHandle_, bool createControl_)
{
if (!createControl_ && !createHandle_)
{
return;
}
if (createHandle_ && !page_.IsHandleCreated)
{
IntPtr handle = page_.Handle;
}
if (!page_.Created && createControl_)
{
return;
}
bool visible = page_.Visible;
if (!visible)
{
page_.Visible = true;
}
page_.CreateControl();
if (!visible)
{
page_.Visible = false;
}
}
}
We've encountered a similar problem. We're trying to write to 2 bound, invisible fields so that we can change the format that we write to our dataset. This works fine when the objects are visible, but stops working when the visible property was changed to false.
To get round it, I added the following code:
// Stop our screen flickering.
chSplitContainer.Panel2.SuspendLayout();
// Make the bound fields visible or the binding doesn't work.
tbxValueCr.Visible = true;
tbxValueDb.Visible = true;
// Update the fields here.
<DO STUFF>
// Restore settings to how they were, so you don't know we're here.
tbxValueCr.Visible = false;
tbxValueDb.Visible = false;
chSplitContainer.Panel2.ResumeLayout();
I've struggled with this myself and concluded that the only workaround, besides subclassing apparently (see hjb417's answer), was to make the other tab visible. Switching to the other tab and going back to the previous immediately before the form is visible doesn't work. If you do not want to have the second tab visible, I've used the following code as a workaround:
this.tabControl.SelectedTab = this.tabPageB;
this.tabPageB.BindingContextChanged += (object sender, EventArgs e) => {
this.tabContainerMain.SelectedTab = this.tabPageA;
};
Assuming tabPageA is the visible tab, and tabPageB is the invisible one you want to initialize. This switches to pageB, and switches back once the data binding is complete. This is invisible to the user in the Form.
Still an ugly hack, but at least this works. Off course, he code gets even uglier when you have multiple tabs.
Sorry for necromancing this thread, but it is easy to force the invisible controls' databinding/handles to be ready using this method:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/190296c5-c3b1-4d67-a4a7-ad3cdc55da06/problem-with-binding-and-tabcontrol?forum=winforms
Simply, let's say if your controls are in tab page tpg_Second (or tabCtl.TabPages[1]), before you do anything with their data, call this first:
tpg_Second.Show()
This will not activate any of the tab pages, but viola, the databinding of the controls should work now.
This is not something I've come across directly. However, you might be experiencing a problem with the BindingContext. Without more details it's hard to say, but if I were you I'd set a breakpoint and make sure the controls are all bound in the same context.
Based on the answers, I made this method that works for me:
public partial class Form1: Form
{
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
forceBindTabs(tabControl1);
}
private void forceBindTabs(TabControl ctl)
{
ctl.SuspendLayout();
foreach (TabPage tab in ctl.TabPages)
tab.Visible = true;
ctl.ResumeLayout();
}
}
In addition to solving the problem, the tabs are loaded at the beginning and are displayed faster when the user clicks on them.

How can you make a DataGridView scroll one item at a time using the mouse wheel?

We'd like to override DataGridView's default behavior when using a mouse wheel with this control. By default, the DataGridView scrolls a number of rows equal the SystemInformation.MouseWheelScrollLines setting. What we'd like to do is scroll just one item at a time.
(We display images in the DataGridView, which are somewhat large. Because of this scroll three rows (a typical system setting) is too much, often causing the user to scroll to items they can't even see.)
I've tried a couple things already and haven't had much success so far. Here are some issues I've run into:
You can subscribe to MouseWheel events but there's no way to mark the event as handled and do my own thing.
You can override OnMouseWheel but this never appears to be called.
You might be able to correct this in the base scrolling code but it sounds like a messy job since other types of scrolling (e.g. using the keyboard) come through the same pipeline.
Anyone have a good suggestion?
Here's the final code, using the wonderful answer given:
/// <summary>
/// Handle the mouse wheel manually due to the fact that we display
/// images, which don't work well when you scroll by more than one
/// item at a time.
/// </summary>
///
/// <param name="sender">
/// sender
/// </param>
/// <param name="e">
/// the mouse event
/// </param>
private void mImageDataGrid_MouseWheel(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
// Hack alert! Through reflection, we know that the passed
// in event argument is actually a handled mouse event argument,
// allowing us to handle this event ourselves.
// See http://tinyurl.com/54o7lc for more info.
HandledMouseEventArgs handledE = (HandledMouseEventArgs) e;
handledE.Handled = true;
// Do the scrolling manually. Move just one row at a time.
int rowIndex = mImageDataGrid.FirstDisplayedScrollingRowIndex;
mImageDataGrid.FirstDisplayedScrollingRowIndex =
e.Delta < 0 ?
Math.Min(rowIndex + 1, mImageDataGrid.RowCount - 1):
Math.Max(rowIndex - 1, 0);
}
I just did a little scrounging and testing of my own. I used Reflector to investigate and discovered a couple things. The MouseWheel event provides a MouseEventArgs parameter, but the OnMouseWheel() override in DataGridView casts it to HandledMouseEventArgs. This also works when handling the MouseWheel event. OnMouseWheel() does indeed get called, and it is in DataGridView's override that it uses SystemInformation.MouseWheelScrollLines.
So:
You could indeed handle the MouseWheel event, casting MouseEventArgs to HandledMouseEventArgs and set Handled = true, then do what you want.
Subclass DataGridView, override OnMouseWheel() yourself, and try to recreate all the code I read here in Reflector except for replacing SystemInformation.MouseWheelScrollLines with 1.
The latter would be a huge pain because it uses a number of private variables (including references to the ScrollBars) and you'd have replace some with your own and get/set others using Reflection.
I would subclass the DataGridView into my own custom control (you know, add a new Windows Forms --> Custom Control file and change the base class from Control to DataGridView).
public partial class MyDataGridView : DataGridView
Then override the WndProc method and substitute something like so:
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == 0x20a)
{
int wheelDelta = ((int)m.WParam) >> 16;
// 120 = UP 1 tick
// -120 = DOWN 1 tick
this.FirstDisplayedScrollingRowIndex -= (wheelDelta / 120);
}
else
{
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
Of course, you'll have the check that you don't set FirstDisplayedScrollingRowIndex to a number outside of the range of your grid etc. But this works quite well!
Richard
Overriding OnMouseWheel and not calling base.OnMouseWheel should work. Some wheel mice have special settings that you may need to set yourself for it to work properly. See this post http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=126295&SiteID=1
UPDATE: Since I've now learned that the DataGridView has a MouseWheel event, I've added a second, simpler override.
One way to accomplish this is to subclass the DataGridView and override the WndProc to add special handling of the WM_MOUSEWHEEL message.
This example catches the mouse wheel movement and replaces it with a call to SendKeys.Send.
(This is a little different than just scrolling, since it also selects the next/previous row of the DataGridView. But it works.)
public class MyDataGridView : DataGridView
{
private const uint WM_MOUSEWHEEL = 0x20a;
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == WM_MOUSEWHEEL)
{
var wheelDelta = ((int)m.WParam) >> 16;
if (wheelDelta < 0)
{
SendKeys.Send("{DOWN}");
}
if (wheelDelta > 0)
{
SendKeys.Send("{UP}");
}
return;
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}
2nd take (with the same caveats as mentioned above):
public class MyDataGridView : DataGridView
{
protected override void OnMouseWheel(MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Delta < 0)
SendKeys.Send("{DOWN}");
else
SendKeys.Send("{UP}");
}
}

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