What is the difference between a user control and a windows form in Visual Studio - C#?
Put very simply:
User controls are a way of making a custom, reusable component. A user control can contain other controls but must be hosted by a form.
Windows forms are the container for controls, including user controls. While it contains many similar attributes as a user control, it's primary purpose is to host controls.
They have a lot in common, they are both derived from ContainerControl. UserControl however is designed to be a child window, it needs to be placed in a container. Form was designed to be a top-level window without a parent.
You can actually turn a Form into a child window by setting its TopLevel property to false:
public partial class Form1 : Form {
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
var child = new Form2();
child.TopLevel = false;
child.Location = new Point(10, 5);
child.Size = new Size(100, 100);
child.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
child.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
child.Visible = true;
this.Controls.Add(child);
}
}
A windows form is a container for user controls.
The biggest difference is form.show gives a different window while usercontrol doesnt have feature like popping up without a parent. Rest things are same in both the controls like beind derived from Scrollablecontrol.
A User Control is a blank control, it's a control that's made up of other controls. Building a user control is similar to building a form. It has a design surface, drag and drop controls onto the design surface, set properties, and events. User controls can consolidate UI and code behind. User controls can only be used in the project where they're defined.
Related
I am making a game using Windows Forms, and I feel that the easiest way to make different screens (Main Menu, Settings, Etc...) is using a separate form for each screen. I have looked up up many different ways to do this. Many people talk of using form2.Show(); this.Hide();, however, this creates a new popup window.
People have also suggested using this.IsMdiContainer = true; to create a new window inside of the current window, but this is also not the functionality I want.
EDIT: Another question, multiple-guis-one-window, explains slightly that this can be achieved using UserControls, but does not elaborate with any examples, or what I should do.
I want to completely replace the current form's functionality with that of a new form.
Is there a way to achieve this? If not, is there a good alternative?
As I understood, you want to keep the same form and change the data inside that form (to not get the effect that your form was closed and reopened again).
The problem is windows form does not support such thing directly (at least not in an optimal way), I would use another UI frameworks for that. However, if you want to stick though with windows forms, you may use GroupBox or Panel tools (available from windows form design tools in Visual studio). Here you can group your elements as required, and show/hide the group/panel as required.
That is one of the best available solution for windows form AFAIK.
You want to open child forms within main form then you should try this i have create it without any User Control.
I have manage one parent form and two child forms. child forms should be open within parent form.
frmMain(Parent Form)
Set frmMain Property as Following
WindowState = System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Maximized
I have take 3 panel in frmMain window.
pnlMenu (For Display Menu)
Set pnlMenu.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Top property
Set height of this panel as you require.
pnlMain (For Display Child Forms)
Set pnlMain.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill property
pnlFooter (For Footer Section)
Set pnlFooter.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Bottom; property
Set height of this panel as you require.
I have set menubar in pnlMenu(Click on that menu for display child form in pnlMain)
frmMain.cs
public void BindFormIntoMainForm(Form Main)
{
Main.TopLevel = false;
Main.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
Main.AutoScroll = true;
pnlMain.Controls.Clear();
pnlMain.Controls.Add(Main);
pnlMain.Refresh();
Main.Show();
}
private void childToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
frmChildForm1 ChildForm1 = new frmChildForm1();
BindFormIntoMainForm(ChildForm1);
}
private void childForm2ToolStripMenuItem1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
frmChildForm2 ChildForm2 = new frmChildForm2();
BindFormIntoMainForm(ChildForm2);
}
BindFormIntoMainForm method responsible for display child form in main window.
frmChildForm1 & frmChildForm2(ChildForm)
Set both form Property as Following
FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None
Now when you click on Child Form 1 Menu then display following output:
when you click on Child Form 2 Menu then display following output:
I think it can be helpful for you.
What is the difference between a user control and a windows form in Visual Studio - C#?
Put very simply:
User controls are a way of making a custom, reusable component. A user control can contain other controls but must be hosted by a form.
Windows forms are the container for controls, including user controls. While it contains many similar attributes as a user control, it's primary purpose is to host controls.
They have a lot in common, they are both derived from ContainerControl. UserControl however is designed to be a child window, it needs to be placed in a container. Form was designed to be a top-level window without a parent.
You can actually turn a Form into a child window by setting its TopLevel property to false:
public partial class Form1 : Form {
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
var child = new Form2();
child.TopLevel = false;
child.Location = new Point(10, 5);
child.Size = new Size(100, 100);
child.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
child.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
child.Visible = true;
this.Controls.Add(child);
}
}
A windows form is a container for user controls.
The biggest difference is form.show gives a different window while usercontrol doesnt have feature like popping up without a parent. Rest things are same in both the controls like beind derived from Scrollablecontrol.
A User Control is a blank control, it's a control that's made up of other controls. Building a user control is similar to building a form. It has a design surface, drag and drop controls onto the design surface, set properties, and events. User controls can consolidate UI and code behind. User controls can only be used in the project where they're defined.
I would like to know how I could possibly modulate my views in an application. Let me explain.
Instead of building my view and adding all the components in one screen. I want to say put each panel in its own class / form and then have a main form where I can add and remove these 'modular' panels.
Is this possible and how would I go about doing it?
In Windows Forms there is the concept of an empty component called UserControl, that can be freely designed and added at any time to another component or form container. UserControls are used very often in order to create flexible and exchangable UI. You can create a UserControl item in Visual Studio like this:
Name the new control:
After that you can design your UI control:
When your are done with the design, compile your project/solution and go to the form where you want to add your newly designed control. In the toolbar panel you will see your new UserControl, which can be added to the form with drag & drop (with the mouse):
You can create as many UserControls as you want and add/remove them to/from your form.
All of this steps can be done completely in the code. In order to create new view of this kind, you need to create a new class that inherits the predefined UserControl class:
public class EditorUserControl : UserControl
{
}
Every Control element has a ControlsCollection that holds/contains components of type Control that are drawn when the UI is shown. In order to add your new control to the main panel you need to add it to the controls collection:
public partial class EditorUserControl : UserControl
{
public EditorUserControl()
{
var button = new Button();
button.Text = "Import";
this.Controls.Add(button);
}
}
Note, that when adding components manually, you are responsible for sizing and position them. Predefined layout panels can help you here:
TableLayoutPanel - layout with cells
SplitPanel - horizontal or vertical predefined resizable panels
etc.
Now all that left is to add the new user control to the main form just like you added the UI elements to your own control:
var simpleEditor = new EditorUserControl();
simpleEditor.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
this.Controls.Add(simpleEditor);
You can adjust the UI control settings through its predefined properties.
You can mix predefined containers and UserControls in order to achieve the desired UI:
There are a lot of good beginners tutorials for C# and VS and .NET:
Channel9 tutorials
MSDN Visual Studio UI tutorials
Composite UserControl tutorial
Developing with Windows Forms Documentation and Examples
This is definitely possible. I will use WinForms but there are similar ways in WPF such as frames.
In WinForms you can create a new User Control for each 'modular' panel which will automatically create .cs and .designer.cs files just like in a normal Form. You can then add logic and functionality to the panels as if they were forms themselves. All that would then remain is to add the logic to the form to load the default panel on startup and think of ways of how other panels can be brought into view (e.g. a next button or having a panel on each tab in a tab control). Showing a panel in a form (or any other user control for that matter) is achieved by creating an instance of your desired panel and adding it to you form/control's Controls property like so:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
MyPanel panel = new MyPanel();
this.Controls.Add(panel);
}
I have a Windows Forms application that opens MDI child forms. When I select those forms, I need to set or render its windowstate to Maximized. The problem is, when I navigate between the open forms, it reverts back to the normal window state, and when I set the window state to maximized again, it shows the transition from normal to maximized state and it doesn't look nice.
How can a Windows application be created that have an MDI parent form that opens many MDI childs in maximized window state?
Here's an answer based on using the MDI "Parent Form and Child Form paradigm," with the following assumptions :
you have a MenuStrip control 'Dock = 'Top on your MDIParentForm, and you've implemented the automatic MDI &Window menu handler as described in : How to: Create an MDI Window List with MenuStrip
you are creating new child forms that :
a. do not have a MaximizeBox, MinimizeBox, etc., but may have ControlBox (for closing them)
b. these child forms may be resizable or not : we won't consider the implications of that here.
You want these MDIChildForms to display maximized in the MDIParent Form, but not to obscure the MDIParentForm's menu.
Okay : assuming you have all your child Forms fully designed, "waiting in the wings" : we might see some code like this in your MDIParentForm code :
// create instances of your child forms
Form2 f2 = new Form2();
Form3 f3 = new Form3();
Form4 f4 = new Form4();
Form5 f5 = new Form5();
private void MDIParentForm1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
f2.Text = "subForm1";
f3.Text = "subForm2";
f4.Text = "subForm3";
f5.Text = "subForm4";
f2.MdiParent = this;
f3.MdiParent = this;
f4.MdiParent = this;
f5.MdiParent = this;
f2.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f3.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f4.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f5.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
f2.Show();
f3.Show();
f4.Show();
f5.Show();
}
At this point, the dock style 'Fill applied to the child forms will make them full-screen, and keep them from obscuring the MDIParentForm menu : and the menu will allow you to auto-select which one is frontmost.
Now, if you want to do fancier stuff : like resizing the child Forms, tiling them, cascading them. You are going to have to change the 'Dock property of these child windows : and then you can make use of the built-in MDI paradigm window arranging facilities as described here : How to: Arrange MDI Child Forms
And if you want to create multiple instances of one type of pre-defined child form : How to Create MDI Child Forms ... see the example on how to use a 'New menu entry : may prove useful.
If you want the window state to always be maximized, I'd recommend switching away from an MDI Form. A TabControl may work better, in that case.
MDI forms have quite a few usability issues, which is why they are not commonly used anymore, and tend to be replaced with other controls/options.
After reading Reeds answer and especially your comment:
problem with tabcontrol is, i have a
lot of controls used per child form
Maybe this will help:
Don't put your controls into a Winform. Instead encapsulate them into a UserControl (maybe it already works by changing your inheritance from Form to UserControl).
Now put every UserControl on it's own TabPage and set its Dock property to Fill. Now you are able to change each UserControl on it's own, without any interference to another control on another TabPage (as far as you don't built in any connection).
If you intend to give up on MDI, you could have a look at docking frameworks like WeifenLuo or DigitalRune. These are free, for other options you can have a look here: http://windowsclient.net/downloads/folders/controlgallery/tags/Windows+Forms+Docking+Windows/default.aspx
EDIT:
If I remember well, DigitalRune allows the usage of windows forms as containers for docked content so the migration effort would be smaller.
I'm rewriting an old application and use this as a good opportunity to try out C# and .NET development (I usually do a lot of plug-in stuff in C).
The application is basically a timer collecting data. It has a start view with a button to start the measurement. During the measurement the app has five different views depending on what information the user wants to see.
What is the best practice to switch between the views?
From start to running?
Between the running views?
Ideas:
Use one form and hide and show controls
Use one start form and then a form with a TabControl
Use six separate forms
Creating a bunch of overlaid panels is a design-time nightmare.
I would suggest using a tab control with each "view" on a separate tab, and then picking the correct tab at runtime. You can avoid showing the tab headers by putting something like this in your form's Load event:
tabControl1.Top = tabControl1.Top - tabControl1.ItemSize.Height;
tabControl1.Height = tabControl1.Height + tabControl1.ItemSize.Height;
tabControl1.Region = new Region(new RectangleF(tabPage1.Left, tabPage1.Top, tabPage1.Width, tabPage1.Height + tabControl1.ItemSize.Height));
What I do is to have a Panel where your different views will sit on the main form.
then create user controls for your different views.
Then when I want to switch between a'view' you dock it to Panel on the main form.. code looks a little like this.
i preffer this because you can then reuse your views, like if you want to open up a view in a tab you can dock your user controls inside tab pages.. or even inherit from
tabpage instead of usercontrol to make things a bit more generic
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
public enum FormViews
{
A, B
}
private MyViewA viewA; //user control with view a on it
private MyViewB viewB; //user control with view b on it
private FormViews _formView;
public FormViews FormView
{
get
{
return _formView;
}
set
{
_formView = value;
OnFormViewChanged(_formView);
}
}
protected virtual void OnFormViewChanged(FormViews view)
{
//contentPanel is just a System.Windows.Forms.Panel docked to fill the form
switch (view)
{
case FormViews.A:
if (viewA != null) viewA = new MyViewA();
//extension method, you could use a static function.
this.contentPanel.DockControl(viewA);
break;
case FormViews.B:
if (viewB != null) viewB = new MyViewB();
this.contentPanel.DockControl(viewB);
break;
}
}
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
FormView = FormViews.A; //simply change views like this
}
}
public static class PanelExtensions
{
public static void DockControl(this Panel thisControl, Control controlToDock)
{
thisControl.Controls.Clear();
thisControl.Controls.Add(controlToDock);
controlToDock.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
}
}
Tabbed forms are usually good... but only if you want the user to be able to see any view at any time... and it sounds like you might not.
Separate forms definitely works, but you need to make sure that the switch is seemless...if you make sure the new form appears the same exact size and location of the old form, it will look like it thew same for with changing controls.
The method I often use is actually to pre-setup all my controls on individual "Panel" controls and then show and hide these panels as I need them. The "Panel" control is basically a control container... you can move the panel and all controls on it move relative. And if you show or hide the panel, the controls on it do the same. They are great for situations like this.
The method I often use is actually to
pre-setup all my controls on
individual "Panel" controls and then
show and hide these panels as I need
them.
Instead of making each view a panel within a single form you could make each view a UserControl. Then create a single form and write code to create and display the correct UserControl in the Form and to switch from one to the next. This would be easier to maintain because you will have a separate class for each view instead of a single Form class with 6 panels each with their own controls -- that seems difficult and error prone to maintain.
I would also check out Composite Application Guidance for WPF or Smart Client Software Factory