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WinForms Button: Autosize Maximumsize

I want to add Buttons to a FlowLayoutPanel. The Buttons might contain longer texts with spaces between the words. The Buttons are Autosize=true and AutoSizeMode = AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink. Further more I set the MaximumSize property to (maxwidth,0). maxwidth is the width of the panel. So the button does not grow too wide.
What I see is, that the widht of the Button is limited by the MaximumSize property, but when text wrapping occurs, the Button's height doesn't autosize to the height of the wrapped text. Is there a solution to that problem?
I also tried this manually sizing the button like this:
using (Graphics cg = this.CreateGraphics()) {
SizeF size = cg.MeasureString(button.Text, button.Font, 200);
button.Width = (int)size.Width+20;
button.Height = (int)size.Height+20;
button.Text = someLongTextWithSpaces;
}
But please note that I added 20 to the calculated size. It's working, but is there a proper way to determin this additional size? Maybe 2x Padding + ?????
A few hours later...
I came to this version which seems to work quite fine.
using (Graphics cg = this.CreateGraphics()) {
var fmt = TextFormatFlags.HorizontalCenter | TextFormatFlags.VerticalCenter | TextFormatFlags.WordBreak;
var prop = new Size(tableLayoutPanel1.Width - 20, 0);
var size = TextRenderer.MeasureText(button.Text, button.Font, prop, fmt);
int border = button.Height - button.Font.Height;
button.Width = (int)size.Width + border;
button.Height = (int)size.Height + border;
button.Text = someLongTextWithSpaces;
}
It seems that the initial button height is borders + the height the font. So I calculated the border subtracting button.Height-button.font.Height.
According to Hans, I now use the TextRenderer.MeasureText. I tested it without enabling VisualStyles and it worked fine. Any comments on that?

There is a proper way, but it isn't exactly very subtle. Reverse-engineering it from the ButtonRenderer class source code, the Winforms class that draws the button text, you must use the TextRenderer class to measure the text. And you must use the VisualStyleRenderer.GetBackgroundContentRectangle() method to obtain the effective drawing bounds. Note that it is smaller than the button's Size because of the border and a margin that depends on the selected visual style.
Non-trivial problems are mapping a calculated content rectangle back to the outer button size and dealing with old machines that don't have visual styles enabled. Sample code that appeared to arrive at the correct size:
private static void SetButtonSize(Graphics gr, Button button) {
VisualStyleElement ButtonElement = VisualStyleElement.Button.PushButton.Normal;
var visualStyleRenderer = new VisualStyleRenderer(ButtonElement.ClassName, ButtonElement.Part, 0);
var bounds = visualStyleRenderer.GetBackgroundContentRectangle(gr, button.Bounds);
var margin = button.Height - bounds.Height;
var fmt = TextFormatFlags.HorizontalCenter | TextFormatFlags.VerticalCenter | TextFormatFlags.WordBreak;
var prop = new Size(bounds.Width, 0);
var size = TextRenderer.MeasureText(button.Text, button.Font, prop, fmt);
button.ClientSize = new Size(button.ClientSize.Width, size.Height - margin);
}
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
using (var gr = this.CreateGraphics()) {
SetButtonSize(gr, this.button1);
}
base.OnLoad(e);
}
Not extensively tested for corner cases, can't say I recommend this.

It seems that the initial button height is borders + the height the font. So I calculated the border subtracting button.Height-button.font.Height. (See the last block of my original post)
This also works with VisualStyles enabled/disabled.

You should control the line breaks by adding newline characters in the text. Automatic text wrapping won't work with spaces alone:
button1.Text = "123232131232\r\nfgfdgfdgdfgdfgdf\r\nASDSADSDASD";
Or :
button1.Text = "123232131232" + Environment.NewLine +
"fgfdgfdgdfgdfgdf" + Environment.NewLine + "ASDSADSDASD";
If you'd rather get the automatic wrapping you could try to use TextMeasure to determine the height needed for the text and then set the button's height accordingly but that may need some extra attention..
But I suggest to consider using Labels instead. For a Label the wrapping works out of the box.. Huge Buttons with varying sizes are non-standard UI elements.

(ListView?)-Control like in Windows Explorer

I'm wondering if there is any way to make a control like that one in windows explorer's auto start when you plugin a device.
I had thought that this could be a listview-control in a more or less modified way, but I was not able to find anything with Google. I also checked many CodeProject-pages.
Does anyone have an idea where I would be able to get the control or how I could make one myself? (I am not that good with OwnerDraw :P)
Thanks.

Actually tweaking a ListView is not any easier than ownerDrawing it. Here is an example that shows, how simple it really is.
You just script one event (DrawItem) and you are done.
This piece of code assumes:
The LV's View is set to List
You have a suitable ImageList added to your form
You have the LV's ownerDraw set to true
You have added two columns to hold the text shown in the two labels
You have made the 1st column wide enough to hold the whole stuff that gets drawn
You have made the LV's FontSize as large as the Images' Height (say 32)
Assign the appropriate ImageIndex values to the LV's Items
private void listView1_DrawItem(object sender, DrawListViewItemEventArgs e)
{
Point point0 = new Point(e.Bounds.Left, e.Bounds.Top);
Point point1 = new Point(imageList1.ImageSize.Width + 10, e.Bounds.Top + 5);
Point point2 = new Point(imageList1.ImageSize.Width + 10, e.Bounds.Top + 25);
Size size = new Size(listView1.ClientRectangle.Width, e.Bounds.Height);
Rectangle R = new Rectangle(point0, size);
Font F1 = new Font(listView1.Font.FontFamily, 11f, FontStyle.Bold);
Font F2 = new Font(listView1.Font.FontFamily, 10f);
if (e.Item.Focused) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brushes.LightBlue, R);
else if (e.ItemIndex % 2 == 1) e.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brushes.GhostWhite, R);
e.Graphics.DrawImage(imageList1.Images[e.Item.ImageIndex], point0 );
e.Graphics.DrawString(e.Item.Text, F1, Brushes.Black, point1);
e.Graphics.DrawString(e.Item.SubItems[1].Text, F2, Brushes.Black, point2);
F1.Dispose(); F2.Dispose();
}
Note that I have hard-coded a few Colors to paint every other line and also the focused item. These colors really should use the respective System colors. These come to mind:
SolidBrush brush0 = new SolidBrush(SystemColors.ControlLight);
SolidBrush brush1 = new SolidBrush(SystemColors.Highlight);
I am using the Font that is assigned to the LV but with moderate sizes. Obviously more or less anything, especially the various offsets, can be configured to your liking. But using colors from the System.Colors collection is good way to stay in keeping with your users' Windows themes.

DrawBorder doesn't work when passing a custom rectangle to it

I can't seem to make DrawBorder to work when passing a new rectangle object to it:
private void answered_choice_1_paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
Size s = new Size(Math.Max(answered_choice_1.Height, icon_correct.Height) + 4, answered_choice_1.Width + 22 + this.default_margin + 4);
Point p = new Point(answered_choice_1.Location.X - 22 - this.default_margin - 2, answered_choice_1.Location.Y - 2);
Rectangle r = new Rectangle(p, s);
if (icon_correct.Location.Y == answered_choice_1.Location.Y)
{
ControlPaint.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, r, Color.Green, ButtonBorderStyle.Solid);
}
}
However, passing a label's rectangle works:
private void answered_choice_1_paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (icon_correct.Location.Y == answered_choice_1.Location.Y)
{
ControlPaint.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, answered_choice_1.DisplayRectangle, Color.Green, ButtonBorderStyle.Solid);
}
}
As you can see from the code, my intent is to draw a rectangular border around the answered_choice_1 label and icon_correct pictureBox, so the second code excerpt does draw a rectangle but I want to draw the rectangle from the first excerpt.
Edit:
I've narrowed it down to this:
int x,y;
x = answered_choice_1.Location.X - 22 - this.default_margin - 2;
y = answered_choice_1.Location.Y - 2;
Point p = new Point(x, y);
Using the debugger I've found out that answered_choice_1.Location.Y - 2 evaluates to 210 buy y gets the value 0; This is very strange but consistent: if I call a different constructor for the Rectangle r, I get the same outcome.
Any further help would be appreciated.
Second Edit The edit before was wrong, although that's the data that I saw in the Visual Studio IDE. Humberto's comment gave me the final clue to what was going on, and I've approved his answer.

Your "size" calculation looks like it is doing height for width, and width for height:
Size s = new Size(Math.Max(answered_choice_1.Height, icon_correct.Height) + 4,
answered_choice_1.Width + 22 + this.default_margin + 4);
Since it's hard to tell what the rest of the code looks like, I can only guess that reversing it might work:
Size s = new Size(answered_choice_1.Width + 22 + this.default_margin + 4,
Math.Max(answered_choice_1.Height, icon_correct.Height) + 4)

I think you're trying to paint a border around a pair of controls: an icon aligned to the left of a label. Is this the case?
+------------------------------+
| |
| ICON answered_choice_1 |---> border on a 4px margin around both controls
| |
+------------------------------+
^ ^
| 22px |
If so, your painting code has a problem. It's trying to use the "surface" (Graphics instance) of answered_choice_1 to paint outside its area. It won't work.
Instead, you can place the icon and the label inside a Panel, then paint the panel's border whenever you need. Somewhat like you already did, but referring to panel_1 instead of answered_choice_1:
private void panel_1_paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (icon_correct.Location.Y == answered_choice_1.Location.Y)
{
ControlPaint.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, panel_1.DisplayRectangle, Color.Green, ButtonBorderStyle.Solid);
}
}
Alternatively, you can assign a FixedSingle border style to the panel, but AFAIK the border color will be system defined.

How to auto resize and adjust Form controls with change in resolution

I have noticed that some applications change their controls' positions to fit themselves as much as possible in the current resolution. For example, if the window is maximized, the controls are set in such a way that the overall GUI looks balanced.
Is it possible to make or implement this functionality in Visual studio 2010 using C#?

Use Dock and Anchor properties. Here is a good article. Note that these will handle changes when maximizing/minimizing. That is a little different that if the screen resolution changes, but it will be along the same idea.

Use combinations of these to get the desired result:
Set Anchor property to None, the controls will not be resized, they only shift their position.
Set Anchor property to Top+Bottom+Left+Right, the controls will be resized but they don't change their position.
Set the Minimum Size of the form to a proper value.
Set Dock property.
Use Form Resize event to change whatever you want
I don't know how font size (label, textbox, combobox, etc.) will be affected in (1) - (4), but it can be controlled in (5).

float widthRatio = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width / 1280;
float heightRatio = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height / 800f;
SizeF scale = new SizeF(widthRatio, heightRatio);
this.Scale(scale);
foreach (Control control in this.Controls)
{
control.Font = new Font("Verdana", control.Font.SizeInPoints * heightRatio * widthRatio);
}

..and to detect a change in resolution to handle it (once you're using Docking and Anchoring like SwDevMan81 suggested) use the SystemEvents.DisplaySettingsChanged event in Microsoft.Win32.

sorry I saw the question late,
Here is an easy programmatically solution that works well on me,
Create those global variables:
float firstWidth;
float firstHeight;
after on load, fill those variables;
firstWidth = this.Size.Width;
firstHeight = this.Size.Height;
then select your form and put these code to your form's SizeChange event;
private void AnaMenu_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
float size1 = this.Size.Width / firstWidth;
float size2 = this.Size.Height / firstHeight;
SizeF scale = new SizeF(size1, size2);
firstWidth = this.Size.Width;
firstHeight = this.Size.Height;
foreach (Control control in this.Controls)
{
control.Font = new Font(control.Font.FontFamily, control.Font.Size* ((size1+ size2)/2));
control.Scale(scale);
}
}
I hope this helps, it works perfect on my projects.

Here I like to use https://www.netresize.net/index.php?c=3a&id=11#buyopt. But it is paid version.
You also can get their source codes if you buy 1 Site License (Unlimited Developers).
How ever I am finding the nuget package solution.

add this code at page load do for all control or add all control in containers
int x;
Point pt = new Point();
x = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width - 1024;
x = x / 2;
pt.Y = groupBox1.Location.Y + 50;
pt.X = groupBox1.Location.X + x;
groupBox1.Location = pt;

in the form load event add this line
this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;

private void MainForm_Load( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
this.Size = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Size
}

this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;

Overriding DrawItem for ListBox - unselected items are not redrawn

This is a C# desktop application. The DrawStyle property of my ListBox is set to OwnerDrawFixed.
The problem: I override DrawItem to draw text in different fonts, and it works. But when I start resizing the form at the runtime, the selected item is drawn correctly, but the rest of them are not redrawn, causing text looking corrupt for unselected items.
Here's my code:
private void listDevices_DrawItem(object sender, DrawItemEventArgs e)
{
e.DrawBackground();
string textDevice = ((ListBox)sender).Items[e.Index].ToString();
e.Graphics.DrawString(textDevice,
new Font("Ariel", 15, FontStyle.Bold), new SolidBrush(Color.Black),
e.Bounds, StringFormat.GenericDefault);
// Figure out where to draw IP
StringFormat copy = new StringFormat(
StringFormatFlags.NoWrap |
StringFormatFlags.MeasureTrailingSpaces
);
copy.SetMeasurableCharacterRanges(new CharacterRange[] {new CharacterRange(0, textDevice.Length)});
Region[] regions = e.Graphics.MeasureCharacterRanges(
textDevice, new Font("Ariel", 15, FontStyle.Bold), e.Bounds, copy);
int width = (int)(regions[0].GetBounds(e.Graphics).Width);
Rectangle rect = e.Bounds;
rect.X += width;
rect.Width -= width;
// draw IP
e.Graphics.DrawString(" 255.255.255.255",
new Font("Courier New", 10), new SolidBrush(Color.DarkBlue),
rect, copy);
e.DrawFocusRectangle();
}
listDevices.Items.Add("Device001");
listDevices.Items.Add("Device002");
Also, the item that is drawn correctly (the selected one) is flickering on form resizing. No biggie, but if anyone know why.... tnx

Put the following code in the Resize event:
private void listDevices_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e) {
listDevices.Invalidate();
}
This should cause everything to be redrawn.
To stop the flickering, you need double buffering.
To do this, make a new class, derived from ListBox, and put the following in the constructor:
this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, true);
Or just paste this into a code file:
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace Whatever {
public class DBListBox : ListBox {
public DBListBox(): base() {
this.DoubleBuffered = true;
// OR
// this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, true);
}
}
}
Replace "Whatever" with the namespace your project uses, or make it something more useful. AFter compiling, you should be able to add a DBListBox in the form designer.

I repro the problem. There are several mistakes in the code, the font name is "Arial", you should not adjust rect.Width, you forget to call Dispose() on the fonts, brushes and regions. But they don't explain the behavior. There's something wrong with the clipping area that prevents the text from being properly updated. I don't see where that occurs, the Graphics object state is okay.
Graphics.DrawString() is a very troubled method, you should really avoid it. All Windows Forms controls, including ListBox, use TextRenderer.DrawText(). That solves the problem when I use it. I know measuring is more difficult, you could work around that by displaying the IP address at a fixed offset. Looks better too, they'll line up in a column that way.
It flickers because you use e.DrawBackground(). That erases the existing text, you draw the text right back on it. I don't think double-buffering is going to fix that, you'd have to draw the entire item so you don't have to draw the background. Tricky if you can't get the exact size of the text with the large font, a workaround is to draw into a bitmap first.