in my application i want to implement an options dialog like you have in VisualStudios if you go to Tools->Options in the menubar. How can i do this? My first idea was to use pages and navigation but maybe there's an easier approach?
It's probably not the easiest way but I wrote this snippet that match your goal and it's a good exercise.
In an empty Windows Forms project add a ListBox (listBox1) and a Panel (panel1). Then create 2 UserControls (UserControl1 and UserControl2), these will be the content that is shown when you click the list.
In your Form1 class we create a ListItem class that will contain your menu options as such:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public class ListItem
{
public string Text { get; set; }
public UserControl Value { get; set; }
public ListItem(string text, UserControl value)
{
Text = text;
Value = value;
}
};
...
}
After that you add items to the ListBox right after InitializeComponent() in Form1:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
listBox1.DisplayMember = "Text";
listBox1.ValueMember = "Value";
listBox1.Items.Add(new ListItem("Item1", new UserControl1()));
listBox1.Items.Add(new ListItem("Item2", new UserControl2()));
}
This will make it so when you use listBox1.SelectedItem it will return an object that you can cast to a ListItem and access the associated UserControl.
To make use of this behaviour, go to designmode and double-click the ListBox, this'll add code for the SelectedIndexChanged event. We use this event to display the UserControl in the Panel panel1. This will clear any old Panel content and add a selected UserControl:
private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
panel1.Controls.Clear();
UserControl control = (listBox1.SelectedItem as ListItem).Value;
if(control != null)
{
panel1.Controls.Add(control);
control.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
}
}
I suggest you try adding a button or something to differentiate the UserControls and play around. Have fun! :)
You should create a new Window and show that as opposed to create a page and navigate to it. Then you would call .show() on the new window for it to show.
Then you would change the look of the new window to however you want, the same as editing pages.
If you build your options into a full object model that matches the structure of the options window, then the best way is to use whatever navigation-aware UI binding that your MVVM toolkit uses. The options window would start off as a new root level window to which you would bind the root of your options data model.
So, in short think of the options dialog as a mini-application that uses the same structure as your main MVVM application, but with a different data model root.
If you plan to allow the user to cancel the changes to the options, then you would want your options data model to be clonable so that you can populate the options window with the clone and then swap out the real options with the new data if the user presses OK on the options window. If they select cancel you can just throw the cloned object away and destroy the window.
Related
This is probably a basic question, but I can't find answers because the terms are generic.
I am building a WinForm aplication. Its purpose is to set up memory in a certain chip. I think the best way to organize the application is to have a user control for each chip type, derived from a generic parent class. Think of the children as "iphone," "android" and "blackberry," derived from a parent class "phone".
VS2017 Designer has a Panel where I want the control to be. On startup, I generate an object of the base class and add it to the panel. When I press a button, the old object is deleted and replaced with a new one. Each class has just one control, a label with distinctive text.
The problem is, after I press the button, I see both texts. The panel's Controls collection has just one element, but I see the text from both objects. I have tried Refresh, Update and Invalidate withe the same results.
What do I have to do to make the old text "go away" so the only thing I see is the latest object?
private ChipMemBase ChipMemControl = new ChipMemBase();
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
//tbFeedback.Text = string.Format(fmtString, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
cbChipName.SelectedIndex = 0;
tbVersion.Text = Version;
OriginalWindowColor = tbFeedback.BackColor;
ShowChipMemControl();
PrintToFeedback(Version);
}
private void ShowChipMemControl()
{
var ctl = pnlChipMem.GetChildAtPoint(new Point(5,5));
if (null != ctl)
{
if (ctl != ChipMemControl)
{
pnlChipMem.Controls.Remove(ctl);
ctl.Dispose();
pnlChipMem.Update();
Refresh();
}
}
if (null != ChipMemControl)
{
pnlChipMem.Controls.Add(ChipMemControl);
}
}
private void btnMakeChipMemory_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ChipMemControl = new ChipMemGen2();
ShowChipMemControl();
}
Screenshots before and after clicking Create
Your ShowChipMemControl gets the control at point 5,5 and checks if it's a ChipMemControl then removes it.
I'm guessing that the reason it's not getting removed is that the control at point 5,5 is not a ChipMemControl.
You can use:
pnlChipMem.Controls.Clear()
to remove all the controls
Or:
ChipMemControl cmc = pnlChipMem.Controls.OfType<ChipMemBase>().FirstOrDefault();
if (cmc != null)
{
pnlChipMem.Controls.Remove(cmc);
cmc.Dispose();
}
To only remove the first instance of ChipMemBase on your pnlChipMem panel.
Got it. The problem was from inheritance, not window behavior. Control lblDefault in the base class, carrying the inconvenient text, was still present in the child class. I had to make it Public in the base class and remove it in the child class constructor:
InitializeComponent();
Controls.Remove(lblDefault);
lblDefault.Dispose();
lblDefault = null;
The clue was this article and project:
dynamically-and-remove-a-user-control
I have a user control with a button which when clicked opens a new user control.
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Window window = new Window
{
Title = "Window2",
Content = new UserDataControl2()
};
window.ShowDialog();
}
I need to pass a collection to the new user control. How can I do it?
The easiest way is to create a custom constructor for your user control.
// Button_Click event
Window window = new Window
{
Title = "Window2",
Content = new UserDataControl2("My Data");
};
// User Control class.
string _info;
public UserDataControl2(string info)
{
_info = info.
};
You could also create a method or property in the user control to receive the data as well. Use whichever seems more appropriate in your context.
The best way is passing object to DataContext of this Window. For this you will need to create a class where store this parameters (ViewModels) and after "binding" to the Window (View). After you can pass this object assigning to Datacontext.
Look to MVVM model to understand better what I mean.
MVVM Pattern Made Simple
MVVM in Depth
I haven't done this for a while so am not quite sure how to do what I need, but I am sure it is pretty simple.
Basically, I have a form with a navigation pane. I want to make it so when a user clicks a button on that pane, say 'Home' it changes the content on the form, but doesn't actually switch to another form, if you get me?
As in, I would like the navigation pane to stay as it is the entire time and I only want the content of the form to change. It is almost like the 'TabControl' tool in Visual Studio's 'Toolbox' although instead of the tabs being directly above the content, I want them to be buttons displayed in a side pane. See the image below for a better understanding. Thanks!
(Side pane, and header stays the same regardless on what button is pressed, but the content changes.)
I'd implement this using UserControls. One UserControl is shown when a button is clicked. I'd create an interface (for example IView) that would be implemented by each UserControl that declares common functionality, like for example a method to check whether you can switch from one to another (like a form's OnClosing event) like this:
public interface IView
{
bool CanClose();
}
public UserControl View1: IView
{
public bool CanClose()
{
...
}
}
public UserControl View2: IView
{
public bool CanClose()
{
...
}
}
Then, switching views is quite easy:
private bool CanCurrentViewClose()
{
if (groupBox1.Controls.Count == 0)
return true;
IView v = groupBox1.Controls[0] as IView;
return v.CanClose();
}
private void SwitchView(IView newView)
{
if (groupBox1.Controls.Count > 0)
{
UserControl oldView = groupBox1.Controls[0] as UserControl;
groupBox1.Controls.Remove(oldView);
oldView.Dispose();
}
groupBox1.Controls.Add(newView);
newView.Dock = Dock.Fill;
}
In a button you could do this:
private void btnHome_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (CanCurrentViewClose())
{
ViewHome v = new ViewHome();
// Further initialization of v here
SwitchView(v);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Current View can not close!");
}
}
I've successfully used this approach on many occasions.
Simplest way is to place multiple Panels as content holders, implement content manager which keeps references to Panels and with it show/hide desired panel.
Simple, but for smaller apps it will work
You can simply use a TabControl which has as many TabPages as you want. For the TabControl you can set the Alignment property to Left
I create a user control and add a textbox to it. In my windows form I add the user control i created and add a textbox and a button. How to copy the text I input from the textbox of Form to textbox of Usercontrol and vice versa. Something like
usercontrol.textBox1.text = textBox1.text
You could add to your User Control code a public property that delegates into the TextBox's Text property:
public string MyTxtBoxValue { get { return this.txtBox.Text; } }
And you could also have a setter to that, of course, if needed.
What you don't want to do, however, is exposing the whole TextBox by making it public. That is flawed.
From Form to Usercontrol
Form Code
public string ID
{
get { return textBox1.Text; }
}
private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
userControl11.ID = ID;
}
Usercontrol Code
public string ID
{
set { textBox1.Text = value; }
}
There are multiple ways to access your user control text box data. One way to accomplish this would be to expose the text box on the user control at a scope that can be accessed via the form it's loaded on. Another way would be raising an event on the button click of the user control and subscribing to it on the parent form.
Although some stuff are inherited when creating a custom user control, for the most part you have to define your own properties. (like text value, etc..)
I would take a look at this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6hws6h2t.aspx
good luck!
i'm using a main form and edit form, and i want to use the edit form text boxes in the main form, how can i do it?
edit
can't use user controls.
The easiest way would be create properties that expose the text fields. Call your edit form, then read the properties back.
public class MainForm
{
private void OnEditClick()
{
EditForm editForm = new EditForm();
DialogResult result = editForm.ShowDialog(this);
//check the result for ok/cancel etc if your using them.
whatever = editForm.TextBox1;
whatever2 = editForm.TextBox2;
}
public class EditForm
{
public string TextBox1 { get { return textBox1.Text;} }
public string TextBox2 { get { return textBox2.Text;} }
// etc
}
You could expose the whole control, but if all you care about is the contents of the text boxes, creating properties to expose just those is cleaner.
Does it have to be live? If not, add a property on the edit form and store the value (like an OpenFileDialog does when retrieving the .Filename). After it's closed, retrieve back the property and place it in the main form.
If it does need to be live, you probably need to use events (implement something close to INotifyPropertyChanged in Silverlight) then have the mainform attach to the edit form's events and update the controls as necessary (remember to check if InvokeRequired!)