Dynamic form with resizing in C# .net - c#

As a learning project in C# .net I am re-creating a Gnome 3 plugin for seeing who of the streamers you follow on Twitch is live. I have the settings form done, I am now working on the interface that is viewed from a click on the taskbar.
This is a rough image of what I want the interface to look like. When two or more streamers are live the interface would add another block and resize the form vertically similar to the menu for selecting a Wifi network in Windows.
What would be the best way for me to complete this?
My current thought is to maybe create a custom control and just place those inside a FlowLayoutPanel with some kind of code to change the vertical size of the form to match the added entries. Maybe this can be done without a custom control and be done with code inside a FlowLayoutPanel? I'm not too sure.
Ideally I would also have a click event in the panel for each streamer so I could then open a browser to their channel. A slight highlight would also be a plus (maybe change the background colour based on mouse hover).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Related

Creating a dynamic grid of controls in C#

I'm working on a personal project, and I want to create a simple GUI to accomplish this project.(Using C#) My main goal for this project is the creation of a custom grid of squares. What I would like is for the user to be able to click any of the generated squares on the GUI, and be able to change the color of that square. Now, I've looked for the past few nights but I haven't had any luck with finding anything to fit that sort of request.
Would it be easier for me to create square button controls ahead of time and just hide the ones I don't use? Or is it at all possible to dynamically create buttons in a grid shape? Or is there something more efficient than using buttons that can change color?
Thank you for any help!
EDIT: I'm planning on using Winforms, and I was going to build this GUI using a desktop application.

How to create moving toolbars in windows form C#?

Backgound :
I want to create moveable toolbars just like paint.NET or any other Designing application. A Toolbar which can be moved, closed and shown from the menubar.
i know how a toolstrip works but its permanent sort of thing. There is another way explained in some articles which uses panels to make toolbars.
While doing experiments on the toolstrip, idea came up in my mind to make two forms(one big size form and other small form) and run them simultaneously , one will act as main form and the other small form will act as a toolbar but it also didnot work. I am only able to run one form.
Requirement:
I just want to make an application look like Paint.net having different tools in a toolbar which can be used on drawing area.and when application starts, toolbar and drawing area both should be running just like in all graphics editing softwares.
Questions:
How to make a moveable toolbar that can be closed and viewed again?
How to run two forms of different sizes run simultaneously at the same time when application starts?
Note:
Need Guidance as well if i am not in the right direction, u can set my direction towards the right side.
Thanks

WPF applacation window screen shot displayed on button

i have create a few WPF applications in visual studio, and now i would like to create a final application to run all of the created apps in the final application. i would like to know how i can create a layout that displays the apps that are running inside the final app as buttons that can be clicked and cause the app to expand and allow the user to work on that app and then when finished return back to the final app and see the other apps to choose from. I imagine it would look like a Google chrome blank page that allows you see your familiar webpages and click on them to load them up. Any help or advice on what i should focus on to implement this would be much appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read over this.
Consider using a VisualBrush this takes other WPF UI (your "apps") and uses their UI as a brush for another UI element.
Raj Kumar has a simple article called Visual Brush in WPF for details.
The bit you probably want is at the bottom where he shows you rendering a controls content in another control. The magic being binding the controls visual to the element name whos UI it should render.

How can I create a button with an embedded close button

I am trying to create a panel which will have a set of "buttons" on it.
These buttons should have the following behaviour:
Appear similar to a tag (with
rounded edges)
Contain a red
cross to remove the filter/tag from
the panel, similar to the way internet
explorer tabs have an embedded cross to close the individual tab.
allow the user to click
on the tag and respond like a normal
button (as long as the click is not
in the red cross)
Number 1 is no problem, this is just appearance, however, regarding numbers 2 and 3, I am not sure if there is already code out there do to something similar...and I dont really want to reinvent the wheel if I can avoid it!
My question is: Does anyone know if there is something out there in infragistics which will do this simply, or will I need to write this myself by subclassing winform buttons?
Thanks in advance!
Is this new development or maintenance of an existing project?
If it is maintenance, you have a somewhat tougher time ahead. You'll implement a UserControl, probably segmented into two buttons. Use docking to get the behavior as correct as possible. The far right button would contain your cross image; the left (which would need to auto-expand as you resize the control) would contain your primary button behavior. Play with the visual styles until you get them right (EG, removing borders, etc).
If this is new development, and you haven't gotten too far into it, you might consider using Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) instead of WinForms. It will be easier to build the control and get it to look exactly how you want it. WPF includes an extremely powerful control compositing system which allows you to layer multiple controls on top of each other and have them work exactly as you'd expect, and it carries the added advantage of allowing full visual control out-of-the-box.
Either way, this is more work than dropping in an external component ... I've used Infragistics for years, and I can't think of anything they have which is comparable. The closest, but only if you're building an MDI application and these controls are for window navigation, is the Tabbed MDI window management tools -- and there, only the tabs (which replace window title bars) have this behavior.
I don't think that infragistics can do something like this. The UltraButton control can't.
Implementing a own control wouldn't be that hard.
your probably going to have to make a costume control for this type of work.

Non intrusive 'live' help system

I'm searching a C# component or code snipped that does something like that:
I want to inform new users about the most important program functions if he opens a new window for example.
It should be a box showing text (formated if possible) that is of course not modal and has some mechanism to 'go out of the way' if the user enters the textbox area. So that he can access what's underneath it. Alternativly the window could also stick to the border of the window, but there needs to be a way that this also works if the window is maximized.
So I want to present him with a short introduction of what he can do in every corner of my app most painlessly.
Thank you!
I use a "bar" at the top of every window to display some information about the current window/dialog.
Use tooltips. They can be programmatically controlled, and you can have them appear at will. You'll need to add the functionality to your app to keep track of what tooltips have been shown to the user already.
You can add a "balloon" style by setting the IsBalloon property to true.
You can also replace them with smaller descriptions for when the user wants to hover over the control and have them displayed again.
I'm already using tooltips heavily. However, they aren't very practical when displaying bigger amounts of data and they are bound to specific user actions.
Have you considered having a contextual menu for each form / page which contains links to Adobe Captivate style presentations for each available task? That way the user can investigate an example of how to achieve a task relating to what they are trying to achieve from within the application / site.
This approach would require a good deal of maintenance and management if your code changes regularly but coordinating it with a training department can provide rich help features in your application.
See http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/ for more information.

Categories