How to make custom form control in c# - c#

I was trying to do something in visual studio the other day when I realized, if I could just make a form control to do it for me it would be allot easier, except I have no idea how to do that, I want the form control to have grids, each square having its own color property, if anyone knows how to make form controls, or even better knows how to make something like what I just described, I would be very happy :D

This MSDN article is a basic step by step outline of how you can write a customer control.
Unfortunatly MS has not figured out how to do avoid link rot -- so you may need to search creating custom winform controls to find this if you come in the future.
You are usually best servered by subclassing an existing control and customizing it.
You might also find some of the freely available winform control projects a gold-mine of useful info if you get serious about this.
However, it sounds likely what you should consider doing is creating a "User Control", this is usually simpler for a composite of few existing controls. This
article on the types of controls for winforms may be a useful overview for you.
Beyond that you really should use S/O if you are trying to resolve a specific problem you are having when you are coding. Google is a more appropriate tool for finding tutorials, etc.

1) Inside your project: Solution Explorer --> Right Click the .csproj --> Add UserControl
2) Drag and drop gridBox or any control you want into your custom control.
3) Check the ToolBox, your custom control should be located at the very first selection

Related

Is it possible to generate code properly through a toolbox custom control?

Ok, so long story short, I was working on a .NET WEBFORMS project which was capable of creating ASPX pages through an ASPX form, which was basically a drag and drop controls page which, we could say, seemed to be a basic but functionality acceptable page/wizard/aspx-creator.
Well, now my higher-ups decided that approach is not a worthy solution and, I don't know why, they got into their heads that this, instead of this ASPX creator form, could be implemented through custom controls added to the toolbox.
So, my doubt is... is that even possible? Or better, is that a reasonable solution? I mean, the first cons I've already found is the fact It seems that it's impossible to yield CodeBehind code by the drag and drop method.
Thanks in advance!
Custom Controls
This MDSN walkthrough teaches you aboutmaking custom web controlls for asp. these would be able to appear in your tool box and could be dragged into its respective place, is this waht you are looking for?
EDIT:
Re-reading it looks like you want to be able to drag in bits of code and have certain regions prompted for edits, this CAN be done, using snippets. if you type propg or propfull and tab twice it constructs that code and tells you what bits to edit right? you can make your own snippets!
Creating custom snippets
failful msdn tutorials to the rescue once more!

Simpler Breadcrumb Bar Sample

my question is very simple. I am building an app(WPF CSharp) and I need user to give me paths that my app is going to use. Previously I added textboxes to show pathways, however, later I decided that it would be cool to use a Win 7 style Explorer navigation bar, which is a Breadcrumb bar. I found a great open source component for it here (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/tree/WPFBreadcrumbBar.aspx) however, I could not use it in my app. I added references both to Toolbox section and Project>References section. I can also add the control to my WPF window from Toolbox, yet I could not figure out how to fill it, how to change and show items in it etc. With respect to component author, I think article on Codeproject is not very 'understandable'(XAML? I want C# code please) and also PopulateItems event, for instance, did not work for me. So, if someone give me a basic example on how to add items to this bar easily, change items, or shortly, shows me how to make it work, I will appreciate for that,
Thanks.
I Guess it depends on how you want to present it. If you want to use a tab control to simulate the functionality you could go this route:
http://www.wpfblogger.com/post/BreadCrumb-TabControl-Style-for-WPF-40.aspx

Developing wizard UI - WPF

All in WPF:
Developing a wizard application, user has to answer a number of simple questions before brought to the main app. The main app is then prefilled with the information obtained from the wizard.
I started with a Window which I then planned to add usercontrols to. The main window would have the user control in the first row, then Next and Previous buttons to control moving between the controls in the second row. This way I could easily control the logic to switch between screens like:
WizardControl1.IsVisible = false;
WizardControl2.IsVisible = true;
But for some reason, user controls do not have setter for IsVisible. Hurray.
So then I thought I would just use seperate windows for each section of the wizard. The problem with this approach is that now when stepping between, the window opens in random positions, and by steppign through the wizard with next, the next window pops up randomly which is really distracting and frustrating.
So how can I develop a wizard properly? I don't get why this is so hard...not exactly rocket science... replacing text and controls and storing input after pressing next/previous!
Thanks
Check this link:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/InternationalizedWizard.aspx
This is the article about building wizard in WPF by Josh Smith, it's seems to be nice pattern.
I found it's helpful for me, hope you'll too.
There is also an open source Avalon Wizard control on codeplex.
I'd probably aproach this using data binding and template selectors. Have the wizard form bind to a "WizardData" class, which exposes a list of "WizardPage" base classes.
The WizardData class can expose properties defining the correct info on the forms, and display a control for the main page that uses a template selector to determine the proper control to display based on the actual type of the particular wizard page.
It sounds like more work than it is, really. It also gives you the benefit of good separation between code and UI (all "work" is done by the WizardData and WizardPage classes), and the ability to test logic independent of the UI.
It's also a very WPF/MVVM way of approaching the problem.
I recognize this does not directly address your question, but I thought I'd mention it as a possible alternative. I've used Actipro's Wizard control with pretty good results, and when I have needed support, they have been very responsive. I am not affiliated with them in any way; I just like not having to write the plumbing to manage a wizard.
The property is called "Visibility".
I find that I do better when I dynamically add and removing controls rather than hide them.
I was looking for a Wizard solution too. I have the need to stick with stock WPF components so I implemented the wizard using a standard form and a tab control.
I only hide the tabs at runtime so there available in the IDE. At runtime just use Back, Next, Finish... to navigate thru the tab items
works good

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.

Suggestions for a C# custom tabcontrol?

Has anybody got any suggestions for a custom tabcontrol implemented in C# and which adheres to these criteria:
Allows the tabs to be placed along the side of the control.
Tab text must read horizontally.
Allow custom colouring.
Open source or no cost.
I prefer not to get my hands dirty with ownerdrawing if a solution already exists.
You probably don't have a need for this anymore but anyone else who stumbles upon it might find it useful.
I found this tabcontrol on CodeProject it is also very easy to Draw your own tabs with it, they even give you a example on the site.
Y(et)A(nother)TabControl
A couple more tab controls.
TabStrip Control
TabStrips: A TabControl in the Visual Studio 2005 way!
The tab control in WPF fulfills all of your requirements. You can override the template and go to town on it.

Categories