How to structure a stacked form with WPF XAML? - c#

On my Window, I've got a GroupBox. I'd like to build out a horizontally aligned form inside of that GroupBox. By horizontally aligned, I mean a form where the label and the input reside on the same grid row or x axis. Separate form labels + inputs reside on their own row.
Since a GroupBox can only have one child content, I assume I need to either use a Grid or StackPanel. I'm trying to use a StackPanel because that seems simpler and should achieve what I'm aiming for.
The issue I'm trying to figure out is how to group the input and label into one unit so they can reside horizontally next to each other, but stack vertically as a pair within the StackPanel.

It's probably best to use a Grid that way you an get the labels and inputs to line up vertically. While it's not impossible with a stack panel it's a whole lot harder. If you set the grid's RowDefinition heights to "Auto" the grid will only be as tall as it needs to be:
<GroupBox>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Text="Label1"/>
<TextBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding Input1}"/>
<TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" Text="Label2"/>
<TextBox Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding Input2}"/>
etc.
</Grid>
</GroupBox>
You'll probably need to play around with margins and/or padding and horizontal alignments to get the layout exactly how you want it, but this should give you the control you need to achieve what you want.

you can use a stackpanel with orientation equal to vertical inside your groupbox and inside that stackpanel you can have another stackpanel with orientation equal to horizantal for your label and input just like following sample code.
<GroupBox Header="Sample GroupBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Name="input1" Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="input1"/>
<TextBox/>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="input2" Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="input2"/>
<TextBox/>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Name="input3" Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label Content="input3"/>
<TextBox/>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox>

One feature you might find useful is grid shared size scope. It can help you align elements in multiple different Grids, by sharing their column\row sizes, like this:
<GroupBox Header="Sample GroupBox">
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True">
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="firstGroup" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="secondGroup" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Content="input11" Grid.Column="0" />
<TextBox Grid.Column="1" Width="100"/>
</Grid>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="firstGroup" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="secondGroup" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Content="input2222222" Grid.Column="0" />
<TextBox Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="firstGroup" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="secondGroup" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Content="input3333333333333" Grid.Column="0" />
<TextBox Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox>
I don't say that it is necessary in the code above, but that is just example. Often, you want to use grid in for example ItemTemplate of ItemsControl, and you want all items to be aligned. Here shared size scope might help.

Related

Expand the Grid with when the Expander is expanded

I have a problem designing my GUI in wpf.
How do i set the Grid ColumnDefinition Width dynamically,
I have a expander. And when the expander is clicked the grid should also expand and adjust with the size of the expander
As of now i have this GUI
enter image description here
And this is the xaml code
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="127"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="665*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Expander Background="Gray" x:Name="expander" ExpandDirection="Right" Expanded="Expander_Expanded" >
<Expander.Header>
<TextBlock Text="Objects">
<TextBlock.LayoutTransform>
<RotateTransform Angle="-90"/>
</TextBlock.LayoutTransform>
</TextBlock>
</Expander.Header>
<StackPanel Margin="10,4,0,0">
<CheckBox Margin="4" Content="Option 1" />
<CheckBox Margin="4" Content="Option 2" />
<CheckBox Margin="4" Content="Option 3" />
</StackPanel>
<!-- Stuff XD -->
</Expander>
<Grid Grid.Column="1" Background="Red"/>
</Grid>
As of now the ColomnDefinition width is 127
I want it to adjust to at least 30. So the window will be filled with other stuff
like this
enter image description here
But my problem is how do i expand the grid when the expander is expanded.
And another thing. I can't get the size of the expander when expanded. It gives me NaN which i can't use to set the columndefinition width
Thank you so much. Sorry for my bad english
Use Auto in first column Width and it will define size of expander based on content.
If you would like that column "0" has some min Width just set the property MinWidth. (but in that case I will not recommend, but show below)
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" MinWidth="30"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
Also I will recommend use GridSplitter, then you will have splitter between two columns that allows to change width of columns by user in UI
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" MinWidth="30"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="5"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<GridSplitter Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="DarkSalmon"/>
Also in expander you can only have one user-control, so "stuff" you said need to be inside some layout control like stack-panel,dock or another grid etc.
Let me know if it works as you expected.

WPF Expander - Horizontal Alignment set to Right, but jumps to left on when expanded

I've got a WPF Expander that is right aligned. That bit shows correctly on the screen, but when you expand it the expander and the text "show/hide historic data" jumps to the left of the screen. Close the expander and it returns to the correct (right) alignment.
I've tried various approaches but am unable to find why this is happening or more importantly how to keep an expanded expander right aligned
<Grid Grid.Row="1"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="0" >
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource SubHeader}" Text="Historic Data Sets" />
<Rectangle Style="{StaticResource HeaderLine}"/>
</StackPanel>
<Expander Header="show/hide historic data"
Grid.Column="1"
IsEnabled="True"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
ExpandDirection="Down">
<!-- some other stuff in the second row such as grid... -->
</Expander>
YOu can take control of the Header by explictly marking it as a TextBlock and then change itÅ› HorizontalAlignment property:
<Expander.Header>
<TextBlock
Width="200"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
Text="Show information.."></TextBlock>
</Expander.Header>

Button on title of ChildWindow (Silverlight) design issue

I'm designing Silverlight ChildWindow and I met one intersting problem. I defined a button on a window title as follows:
<ChildWindow.Title>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="This is textblock" Grid.Column="0"/>
<Button Content="Help" Name="btnHelp" Grid.Column="1" Width="100"
Margin="300,0,0,0" />
</Grid>
</ChildWindow.Title>
This window is resizable. When you try to resize the window, the "btnHelp" button is covered by the close button, and the "btnHelp" button is not aligned to the edge of the window also. I tried before to use a StackPanel, also I used margins in both variants (StackPanel and Grid) and they didn't help me properly. The variant in the code is latest:) Could you please give a hint, what can I do with that?
Thanks in an advance.
This is a result of what appears to be a strange choice in the ChildWindow's control template -- the Title content is not stretched, so you can't really right-align anything without hard-coding it. So, you could go ahead and just apply fixed widths to the Grid column widths:
<controls:ChildWindow.Title>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="250"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="This is textblock" Grid.Column="0"/>
<Button Content="Help" Name="btnHelp" Grid.Column="1" />
</Grid>
</controls:ChildWindow.Title>
That's quick-and-dirty, but not very satisfying. An alternative would be to modify the ControlTemplate (at the link above) so that it behaves how you would expect. Find the ContentControl that displays the Title, and make it stretch to fill the available space, by adding HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch":
<Style TargetType="controls:ChildWindow" x:Key="MyChildWindowStyle">
<!-- etc ... -->
<ContentControl Content="{TemplateBinding Title}" FontWeight="Bold"
HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" IsTabStop="False" Margin="6,0,6,0" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<!-- etc ... -->
</Style>
This allows you to use the normal layout controls like Grid, and it will render as expected:
<controls:ChildWindow Style="{StaticResource MyChildWindowStyle}"
...
<controls:ChildWindow.Title>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="This is textblock" Grid.Column="0"/>
<Button Content="Help" Name="btnHelp" Grid.Column="1" Width="100"/>
</Grid>
</controls:ChildWindow.Title>

Trouble with Grid and StackPanel - Bindings

OK, I'm having issues properly using a ScrollViewer (containing an ItemsControl) inside a StackPanel.
The thing is the scrolling works, however :
No matter how much the user scrolls down, the bottom lines of the tables are not visible
When scrolling is... "released", the table pops back up...
<ScrollViewer Height="Auto">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Items, Mode=TwoWay}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,0,0,0" x:Name="ResTable">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.10*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.30*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.30*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.30*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding [num]}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding [A]}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Text="{Binding [B]}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" />
<TextBlock Grid.Column="3" Text="{Binding [C]}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" />
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</ScrollViewer>
Any ideas?
P.S.
I've had a look at some of the other answers to similar issues, but none seems to be working...
My main idea is to display a table, with a fixed header, and scrollable contents (populated via Bindings) - ok, and there are also a couple of things on the top of the page (apart from the table I mean)
I guess the issue is that you should probably use parent element like Grid, not StackPanel, because StackPanel has its drawbacks when resizing child items with scrolls and so on.
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!-- Put headers in Grid.Row="0" -->
<!-- Put Scrollviewer in Grid.Row="1" -->
</Grid>
Also Height="Auto" attribute can be removed from ScrollViewer, you might want to use VerticalAlignment="Stretch" for item to take all the available space. I hope this is what you are trying to achieve.

WPF listbox two items side by side

Basically I want to create a form. It might be a little long after I am done so I wanted to use a list box so the form is scrollable. I would like to have a label with a text box next to it for input from the user. How can I have the label and text box side by side in the list box?
Also, if anyone has any other suggestions on how to create a form please let me know.
Do not use a ListBox to add scrolling capability, use the ScrollViewer for that.
Could you sketch/draw an image that explains your ideas?
<Grid>
<ScrollViewer>
<Grid ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="auto" />
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Label Target="{Binding ElementName=textBlock}"
VerticalAlignment="Center">_Name:</Label>
<TextBox Grid.Column="1"
x:Name="textBlock"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
Text="Enter text here" />
</Grid>
<Border Grid.Column="1">
<TextBlock Text="Anything you like" />
</Border>
</Grid>
</ScrollViewer>
</Grid>
There are many other options. E.g., you could put the ScrollViewer inside the Border in my example. That would make the content of the Border scrollable instead of the entire form. Key is to determine what you want it to look like and how you want it to behave.
The best way to do that is by drawing or prototyping in a designer such as Expression Blend.
Wrap your containing panel (e.g. Grid) in a ScrollViewer - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms750665.aspx

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