I'm developing a WPF application. In this application, I have a Window which contains a WrapPanel. Inside the WrapPanel are a series of StackPanels which have varying heights, but all the same width. The number and size of the StackPanels is not known at design time (they are generated dynamically).
These StackPanels normally stack fine on top of each other, and then "wrap" to another column when there is no more room in the WrapPanel. To achieve this, I had to set a fixed height for my WrapPanel (with the height set to "Auto", it would continue down the page instead of wrapping to another column). However, when by chance I have a StackPanel that is too large to fit in the WrapPanel height, it is simply truncated. An image of this situation is below.
My question is, can I query the height of each StackPanel before I Show() this to the user, and set the WrapPanel height based on the largest StackPanel? Is there a better way to do this?
First, have you ensured that this issue is not caused by the WrapPanel reaching its maximum available dimensions (i.e. if its size is being constrained by its parent Window or element)? Because if this is the case, then you'll need to either look at restructuring your overall layout, or wrap it in a ScrollViewer.
If the above is not the case, and the WrapPanel has plenty of room to 'grow', this does indeed seem like a strange issue. You say the StackPanels are generated dynamically. So in your code, you must be calling myWrapPanel.Children.Add(stackPanel). After this line of code, you could try adding something like the following:
myWrapPanel.Height = myWrapPanel.Children.Cast<FrameworkElement>().Max(e => e.ActualHeight);
EDIT: just realized this will only work if a single StackPanel takes up the entire height, as in your image. but perhaps it will start you on the right track!
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I started my app by placing rectangles and other objects on a stackpanel. That worked will until I wanted to split my rectangles and have two columns of rectangles. The vertical stackpanel worked well until I needed to split my rectangles into two columns and put stuff on the left and stuff on the right.
So I converted to a canvas. Now
mainCanvas.Children.Add(grid); // seems to replace what the last Add placed on screen. Any ideas how to control the position of items added to the canvas?
Edit:
Ok clearly a canvas is the wrong panel to use. Two column's of stackpanel's might be made to work. But when I look at what I am actually trying to accomplish, the column's aren't limited to two, but could be n number of columns. Why? Because the application is a flowchart style app that builds a custom language script. The diamond decision shape splits one column into two which can split into two more extra.
I wonder about using a single stack panel and just making a grid with multiple grids horizontally in it. But mouse events would have to be smart enough to know which grid in the grid your actually in. Not undoable I think, but not trivial...just looking to see if there is a obvious use this choice that i am missing by being a wpf rookie.
Edit2:
The issue I have with just using a grid is that when the window is stretched a
grid does not resize to the new window size.
making a grid of multiple other grids, then using isMouseOver to test to see which grid in the single child of the stackpanel actually needs mouse highlighting works.
With a grid, i can say that i want one element to take up 3/4 of the page and one to take up 1/3 of the page by using width = "3*" and width = "1*"
Is it possible to do the same with Stackpanels? Or is the only way to do it by placing the stackpanels inside a grid?
In the .NET Framework, there are a number of different Panel classes. Some of them like the Grid and DockPanel provide resizing capabilities that resize the Panel children, while others don't. Generally, the ones that provide this functionality have a cost in terms of CPU and/or RAM.
Therefore, when requiring a Panel for simple layout purposes, these Panel types should be avoided and a simple StackPanel should be used instead. Other times, we require this extra functionality and so we should use one of these more expensive Panels.
Please see the Panels Overview page on MSDN for a much fuller description of the .NET Panels.
So, to actually answer your question(s), no, a StackPanel cannot use similar sizing capabilities as the Grid and you can't do what you want even if you place StackPanels inside a Grid because although the Grid's cells may change size when the parent is resized, the StackPanels contained within will not.
I am trying to write a XAML UI in WPF where the main window container (a panel) would host children.
The tricky part is I want the children to resize when the window resizes (e.g. when it's being maximized on a screen) and I want them to occupy the maximum of the available space without stretching.
But at the same time I would like them to be allowed to wrap like a wrap panel when possible.
I have designed a quick mockup for easier understanding.
Image mockup on Imgur (25.2KB)
The top one shows a panel hosting 3 elements which all share the same width and the same height. Two are on the first line, the third one takes advantage of the 2nd line to display.
If all were displayed on the first line, they would be of a smaller width.
The bottom one shows a panel hosting 8 elements which all share the same width and the same height (smaller than in the first mockup so they can fit in one screen). The first two lines have 3 elements each while the last line has only 2.
My initial idea was to use a Stackpanel but they strech your child elements and, as far as I know, they don't allow dynamic sizing of their children depending on the number of elements.
Then I had a look at the wrappanel which does the wrapping very nicely but requires you to set the children size in order to do its magic (I might have missed something but I couldn't find a way around it).
Do you have any idea how I could implement this behaviour while keeping my pannel flexible?
The application which is going to use it will have a different number of children to put in the panel depending on the user's settings.
Ah, I forgot to mention that there should obviously be no vertical scrolling, everything should fit on one screen like a dashboard. That's the point of this panel, make sure that everything fits but displays as big as possible, with no distortion.
If you have any question, just ask.
Thank you for your help.
I'm trying to recreate the layout of the Weather app in XAML / C#. I have a ListView full of ListViewItems. It is one of several objects within a ScrollViewer. The end result should be that the user can scroll horizontally through the Objects, but stop on the ListView and scroll vertically.
For the effect to work, the ScrollViewer must match the height of the page, and the ListView must match the height of the ScrollViewer, without stretching it.
I can't figure out how to do this without using code-behind to find the Window.Current.Bounds and apply the height to the ScrollViewer, this seems like a dirty hack. Is there a way to do this purely in XAML?
The ListView has its own scrollbar stuff, without needing a ScrollViewer. Otherwise to make things stretch it should be pretty easy - how are you putting things in the ScrollViewer? Through a Grid? A StackPanel?
This may be what you are looking for, but you may find it useful to achieve a 'weather app' look and feel:
http://dotnetbyexample.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-winrt-behavior-to-turn-flipview-into.html
I have a control that inherits from Grid, it is a grid of hexagons that are generated dynamically according to the properties.
each of the hexagons is a button and a child of the Grid, and they have a style that displays them as hexagons.
what I want is for the grid to change its size according to the total size of the hexagons.
(I can calculate the exact size needed, but I don't know how to set it).
Basically you've got several options. A simple one is calculating the size yourself and assigning to the Grid's Width and Height.
A more elaborate solution would be to ask yourself a question: which layout is needed for my items? There are some standard containers which do the layout themselves and can grow/shrink with the content. For example, if your objects are just aligned in a line, you can go for StackPanel.