How to add a custom control on TOP of another one - c#

I'm using a winForm. I have 2 custom controls that I want to add dynamically.
The first one is added at the opening of the form. The second one is added when the user clicks a button. Nothing magic here. The problem is that when I instanciate and add the second control, instead of appearing on top of the other one, it appears under.
There must be a way to add the control in a way that will make it fully visible (on top of the rest).
Here is how I create the second control (same way as the first control). I tried using show/hide methods, but this won't change the stack order.
private void lbRappel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
NoteCallBack noteCallBack = new NoteCallBack("test");
this.Controls.Add(noteCallBack);
noteCallBack.Location = new Point(200, 250);
}
Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Mathieu

You could try the BringToFront control function:
private void lbRappel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
NoteCallBack noteCallBack = new NoteCallBack("test");
this.Controls.Add(noteCallBack);
noteCallBack.Location = new Point(200, 250);
noteCallBack.BringToFront();
}

Can you create them at design time with the z-order you want, then only make them visible at runtime?

Related

Tab system using panels

I'm trying to make it to where a panel becomes visible and it sent to the front so it can be seen and interacted with, like this.
private void SettingsButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SettingsPanel.Visible = true;
SettingsPanel.BringToFront();
}
The problem is that after clicking a few of the buttons, it will either display the wrong panel or none at all. Is there a way to fix this?
EDIT: Before y'all ask, i'm using WinForms.
OK, so I was wrong, WinForms is smarter than I thought. Here's a test you can do. I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do, but this should help you along. To start, we're going to build a small WinForms app. With one exception, we aren't going to set any properties of the controls we drop on the screen:
Create a new WinForms app
In the designer, drop a Panel (which will be named panel1) on the form
In the properties pane, set the BorderStyle to FixedSingle (that's the only property we are going to set)
Make two copies of that panel (panel2 and panel3). Position them so that panels do not overlap at all.
On each panel drop a couple of controls (I put labels (labels 1-3) and textboxes (also 1-3)) on each one
Beside each panel (arranged so that there is no overlap) drop three buttons on the form (buttons 1-3) make it so that visually, each button is associated with the similarly numbered panel
Duplicate panel3 including its contained controls (so that you get panel4, label4 and textbox4). Position the duplicate so that it significantly overlaps panel 3
Now we're going to look at the code that the designer creates for your form. Don't mess with this code (you can, but if you don't know what you are doing, it can turn out bad - and, we're keeping this simple).
In the Solution Explorer click the unfilled triangle to the left of Form1.cs. Note that it rotates and turns solid. Also note that Form1.Designer.cs is displayed. That's a normally hidden source file that contains all the designer created code that corresponds with the form and the controls you dropped on it.
Open Form1.Designer.cs
Click the little grey plus sign icon next to Windows Form Designer generated code
Inspect the file. Note that every action you did in the designer has a corresponding line of code in the Designer.cs file (more or less)
Look at the code for one of the panels (say panel1).
See that it includes:
this.panel1.Controls.Add(this.textBox1);
this.panel1.Controls.Add(this.label1);
Scroll all the way down to the Form1 code and see that the panels and buttons get added to the Form's Controls collection:
Like:
this.Controls.Add(this.button3);
this.Controls.Add(this.button2);
this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
this.Controls.Add(this.panel4);
this.Controls.Add(this.panel3);
this.Controls.Add(this.panel2);
this.Controls.Add(this.panel1);
Note that the order is reversed. The order is important, it sets the Z-Order (i.e., what overlaps what) for the form and the controls on the form.
Wiring up the buttons
Select all three buttons and press <Enter>. This will open the Form1.cs file and generate three button click handlers that you can fill in.
Use this code for the three button handlers:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
var wasVisible = panel1.Visible;
panel1.Visible = !wasVisible;
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
panel2.BringToFront();
}
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
panel3.BringToFront();
}
The first one will toggle the first panel's visibility (I put in an extra variable so you can set a breakpoint and see what's going on). The second one brings panel2 to the front, changing its Z-Order (it's called Z-Order because the position on the screen is measure in X and Y, which the overlap position is related to the "depth" of the screen, or the Z-coordinate). The last one does the same thing to panel3.
Run the program.
When you press the first button, the first panel and its controls disappear (this surprised me, WinForms is smarter than I thought)
When you press the second button, nothing appears to happen. This is because the only thing that panel2 intersects is the form, and panel2 already covers the form, so you don't see any effect. (and because WinForms is smarter than I thought)
When you press the third button, panel2 (and it's controls) jump to the front of the stack of controls, covering the intersecting part of panel4.
Does this help you understand how Visible and BringToFront() work?
What you're describing is similar to a TabControl alternative. Here's an example:
You can manage the current panel simply by making it visible and docked to fill. Hide the other panels.
public partial class FormTabsAlternative
: Form
{
int m_current = 0;
List<Panel> m_tabs = new List<Panel>();
public FormTabsAlternative()
{
InitializeComponent();
AddTab(pnl1);
AddTab(pnl2);
AddTab(pnl3);
AddTab(pnl4);
SetUpTabsAndButtons();
}
private void AddTab(Panel pnl)
{
m_tabs.Add(pnl);
pnl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
}
private void OnLeftClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (m_current > 0)
{
m_current--;
SetUpTabsAndButtons();
}
}
private void OnRightClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (m_current < m_tabs.Count - 1)
{
m_current++;
SetUpTabsAndButtons();
}
}
private void SetUpTabsAndButtons()
{
for (int index = 0; index < m_tabs.Count; index++)
{
var panel = m_tabs[index];
panel.Visible = index == m_current;
}
btnLeft .Enabled = m_current > 0;
btnRight.Enabled = m_current < m_tabs.Count - 1;
}
}

How to add pop-box alike? c# vs2013

I would like to improve my application's interface. Is it possible to add something like this(refer to image below)?:
When you click the name or move the cursor to the name, a pop up box will appear with user's main info. If possible, can you teach me the appropriate tools to use. I don't mind if it is basic tools, so i can make a little similar to the image.
BTW, i'm using visual studio 2013.
Here is an (absolutely minimal) example of a pop-up Panel that takes care of the showing and hiding:
Panel popPanel = new Panel();
private void linkLabel1_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
popPanel.Parent = linkLabel1.Parent;
popPanel.Location = new Point(linkLabel1.Left - 20, linkLabel1.Top + 10);
//popPanel.displayData(someDataClassFromSender);
popPanel.Show();
popPanel.MouseLeave += (ss, ee) => { popPanel.Hide(); };
}
For the layout and display of the info on the Panel (or some other control) you should create a class PopUpPanel and give it a method to load the data it shall display..
If it is a web application go check out http://bootsnipp.com/snippets/featured/fancy-navbar-login-sign-in-form
Just change the event from click to hover.
And get youserlf a copy of bootstrap http://getbootstrap.com/

Need Methodology to replicate a panel with button and shifting other buttons in a same time

Here is my form
If I click on "Add" on the first panel I want to create "Strategy1_2" just below the first and shift all others panels down.
If I click again I want to create Strategy1_3 (...)
I know how to create a button but not how to duplicate a entire panel.
Here is my code for a button is it far from this procedure ?
private void addstrat1_i_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
panel3strat.Width += 200;
Button addstrat1_2 = new Button();
addstrat3_2.Size = new Size(210, 41);
addstrat1_2.Location = new Point(31,89);
addstrat1_2.Visible = true;
panel1strat.Controls.Add(addstrat3_2);
}
The best way would be that you create a UserControl for your strategy panel. You can then insert the UserControls to a FlowLayoutPanel. This will resolve your issue with placing controls exactly and to create a copy of some panels.
Be aware that you can run out of resources (e.g. windows handles) when adding to much controls on your form. This can be solved by only showing a certain amount of controls and shifting the data through this "fixed" controls while scrolling.
I recommend having two methods: CreatePanelBlock() that will issue a UserControl that you'll add to your container, and BindPanelWithData(...) that will setup the dependencies.
Remember, you may make your panel as a custom control.

Add UserControl to a variable location in C#

So I am trying to add a UserControl to a windows form, however I want to add it in a variable location when a button is clicked.
So I have a groupbox in one location and I want the first one to go to the extreme left directly under the groupbox, I then want the next one to be in a position relative to the first, and all subsequent ones to be in a position in relation to the one before. However with restricted space a new line of these controls would have to be eventually created.
I am not sure if this is possible, or how I would do it. Currently I only know how to define a specific point for the control to be created at.
The only part of the code that really matters:
private void addpilot_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
PilotControl newPilot = new PilotControl();
newPilot.Location = new Point();
this.Controls.Add (newPilot);
}
I think that this behavior could be similar to a WrapPanel. If it is not, you may try to solve this using another Panel, or also, implementing your own panel to create an specific location behavior.
Try seen Panels Overview in the MSDN.
Look into docking and flow controls.

ContextMenuStrip renders at top left Windows

When i render contextmenustrip, it gets render at the top left of my PC Screen. I have a listview, which contains 5-6 items and on right click of each item, the context Menu strip gets displayed.Also i need to change the color of context menu strip including backgrounds and text as well.
Thanks in advance!
By far the simplest way is to just set the ListView.ContextMenuStrip property to your CMS, everything is automatic then. You can do so in the designer.
If you need a custom handler for some reason, to check if the right item was clicked for example, then you can call the Show() method property with code like this:
private void listView1_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) {
if (allowContextMenu(listView1.SelectedItems) {
contextMenuStrip1.Show(listView1, e.Location);
}
}
You haven't shown any code, but if you're not calling the Show overload that takes a control as a parameter, the new Point(0, 0) that your obviously passing will put the menu in the upper left of the screen.

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