.NET Framework / C# / Windows Forms
I'd like the FlowLayoutPanel to automatically adjust its width or height depending on number of controls inside of it. It also should change the number of columns/rows if there is not enough space (wrap its content). The problem is that if I set autosize then the flowlayoutpanel doesn't wrap controls I insert. Which solution is the best?
Thanks!
Set the FlowLayoutPanel's MaximumSize to the width you want it to wrap at. Set WrapContents = true.
Have you tried using the TableLayoutPanel? It's very useful for placing controls within cells.
There is no such thing like impossible in software development. Impossible just takes longer.
I've investigated the problem. If there is really need for Flow Layout, it can be done with a bit of work. Since FlowLayoutPanel lays out the controls without particularly thinking about the number of rows/columns, but rather on cumulative width/height, you may need to keep track of how many controls you've already added. First of all, set the autosize to false, then hook your own size management logic to the ControlAdded/ControlRemoved events. The idea is to set the width and height of the panel in such a way, that you'll get your desired number of 'columns' there
Dirty proof of concept:
private void flowLayoutPanel1_ControlAdded(object sender, ControlEventArgs e)
{
int count = this.flowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Count;
if (count % 4 == 0)
{
this.flowLayoutPanel1.Height = this.flowLayoutPanel1.Height + 70;
}
}
if the panel has initially width for 4 controls, it will generate row for new ones. ControlRemoved handler should check the same and decrease the panel height, or get all contained controls and place them again. You should think about it, it may not be the kind of thing you want. It depends on the usage scenarios. Will all the controls be of the same size? If not, you'd need more complicated logic.
But really, think about table layout - you can wrap it in a helper class or derive new control from it, where you'd resolve all the control placing logic. FlowLayout makes it easy to add and remove controls, but then the size management code goes in. TableLayout gives you a good mechanism for rows and columns, managing width and height is easier, but you'd need more code to change the placement of all controls if you want to remove one from the form dynamically.
If possible, I suggest you re-size the FlowLayoutPanel so that it makes use of all the width that is available and then anchor it at Top, Left and Right. This should make it grow in height as needed while still wrapping the controls.
I know this is an old thread but if anyone else wonders on here then here's the solution I produced - set autosize to true on the panel and call this extension method from the flow panel's Resize event:
public static void ReOrganise(this FlowLayoutPanel panel)
{
var width = 0;
Control prevChildCtrl = null;
panel.SuspendLayout();
//Clear flow breaks
foreach (Control childCtrl in panel.Controls)
{
panel.SetFlowBreak(childCtrl, false);
}
foreach (Control childCtrl in panel.Controls)
{
width = width + childCtrl.Width;
if(width > panel.Width && prevChildCtrl != null)
{
panel.SetFlowBreak(prevChildCtrl, true);
width = childCtrl.Width;
}
prevChildCtrl = childCtrl;
}
panel.ResumeLayout();
}
Are you adding the controls dynamically basing on the user's actions? I'm afraid you'd need to change the FlowLayout properties on the fly in code, when adding new controls to it, then refreshing the form would do the trick.
Related
I have a user control which consists of two controls and four buttons, arranged on a Form: the two controls are on the sides and the buttons in the middle in a vertical row.
When using the control in an app, I place it on a form.
Now, when re-sizing the form horizontally, the two controls just move left or right w/o changing their size.
What I need is that the controls stay anchored to the middle of the form and grow to the sides (sorry about the lack of clarity, I prepared screenshots but the site wouldn't let me attach them).
Is there a way to accomplish this without overriding the Resize event?
Use a TableLayoutPanel as base for your user control.
You need 3 columns and one row. The middle column needs to have a fixed size, and the other 2 you set to 50%. Not to worry, .Net is smart enough to calculate the percent they actually take.
Inside the right and left columns you put your controls and set the Dock property of both to fill. In the middle column you put a panel and set it's Dock property to fill as wall, and In that panel you put the buttons in the middle.
Set your table layout panel Dock to fill as well, and when adding the user control to the form use Dock top, bottom or fill as well.
Erratum:
The above code works most of the time, but it fails for certain Move-Resize sequences. The solution is to respond to the Move and Resize events of the parent form (the consumer of the control), not of the control itself.
One more thing: due to the event firing order (Move first followed by Resize, had to move the working code from Resize() to Move(), which seems counterintuitive but it seems the right way nevertheless.
It seems indeed that it cannot be done in the Designer, but here is the solution using overrides.
It works ok, except for some control flickering which I haven't been able to overcome.
public partial class SB : UserControl
{
//variables to remember sizes and locations
Size parentSize = new Size(0,0);
Point parentLocation = new Point (0,0);
......
// we care only for horizontal changes by dragging the left border;
// all others take care of themselves by Designer code
public void SB_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.Parent == null)
return;//we are still in the load process
// get former values
int fcsw = this.parentSize.Width;//former width
int fclx = this.parentLocation.X;//former location
Control control = (Control)sender;//this is our custom control
// get present values
int csw = control.Parent.Size.Width;//present width
int clx = control.Parent.Location.X;//present location
// both parent width and parent location have changed: it means we
// dragged the left border or one of the left corners
if (csw != fcsw && clx != fclx)
{
int delta = clx - fclx;
int lw = (int)this.tableLayoutPanel1.ColumnStyles[0].Width;
int nlw = lw - delta;
if (nlw > 0)
{
this.tableLayoutPanel1.ColumnStyles[0].Width -= delta;
}
}
this.parentSize = control.Parent.Size;//always update it
this.parentLocation = control.Parent.Location;
}
//contrary to documentation, the Resize event is not raised by moving
//the form, so we have to override the Move event too, to update the
//saved location
private void SB_Move(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.Parent == null)
return;//we are still in the load process
this.parentSize = this.Parent.Size;//always update it
this.parentLocation = this.Parent.Location;
}
}
The above code works most of the time, but it fails for certain Move-Resize sequences. The solution is to respond to the Move and Resize events of the parent form (the consumer of the control), not of the control itself.
One more thing: due to the event firing order (Move first followed by Resize, had to move the working code from Resize() to Move(), which seems counterintuitive but it seems the right way nevertheless.
Before I go into my question, let me explain my setup:
First: I have a PictureBox that holds a Bitmap which is generated at runtime. This Bitmap can be different widths but always the same height.
Second: PictureBoxes do not support scrolling, therefore, I have the PictureBox docked in a panel. Initially, I had used the panel's autoscroll feature, but abandoned that after I discovered through this article that PictureBoxes have a size limit. I also learned that it's better to instead have small PictureBoxes and only draw what needs to be seen instead of the whole image.
Third: So I added a HScrollBar, which is fine and dandy, but I can't seem to figure out the math behind how big to make the scroller. I tried setting the maximum of the scrollbar to the length of the bitmap, but as you can see the size of the scroller is much smaller in mine than the one Windows puts in if I use the autoscroll feature.
My question is, what is the math behind the scroller size and how do I emulate that in my custom scrollbar?
Let me know if my question is unclear and I will try my best to make it more understandable. And thanks in advance for your help!
I figured out what was the problem. Perhaps I should have tried a little longer. :)
The answer lies in the LargeChange property. I let the Maximum at the total width of the bitmap and then set the LargeChange to the width of what I wanted to show. (i.e. the width of the PictureBox)
The size of the "scroller" is determined by the ratio of the value of LargeChange to the value of Maximum. For example, if the width to show (LargeChange) is 100 and the total width (Maximum) is 300 then the "scroller" size will be 1/3 of the scrollbar length. (100/300).
I got same problem too and tried to figure it out, I have a panel which contain another panel inside it called panelChild, and the default scrollbar is small, I need lager scrollbar, so I use HScrollBar to do that (display over-top of default scrollbar), I post my solution here, may be it helpful to someone
public Form() {
InitializeComponent();
hScrollBar.Maximum = panelChild.Width;
hScrollBar.LargeChange = panel.Width; // panel which contain panelChild, and this hScrollBar will same as panel scrollbar
hScrollBar.Scroll += HScrollBar_Scroll;
}
private void HScrollBar_Scroll(object sender, ScrollEventArgs e)
{
int diference = e.OldValue - e.NewValue;
foreach (Control c in panel.Controls)
{
c.Location = new Point(c.Location.X + diference, c.Location.Y);
}
}
I'm facing with nasty performance issue when using TableLayoutPanel. I have a simple user control with RadioButton and LinkLabel. Text of LinkLabel is dynamic so entire control have AutoSize property set to true.
Now I have a Panel with AutoScroll set to true and TableLayoutPanel auto sized and with 2 columns inside it. This TableLayoutPanel is populated with above-mentioned user controls:
private void PopulateLocationItemsTable(Control[] Controls)
{
//Suspend outher Panel and set AutoScroll to false just in case.
panelLocationItemsTableCountainer.SuspendLayout();
panelLocationItemsTableCountainer.AutoScroll = false;
//Suspend TableLayoutPanel
tableLocationItems.SuspendLayout();
Controls = Controls.OrderBy(c => c.Text).ToArray();
//Populate left column
int verticalPosition = 3;
int leftColumnControlsNumber = Controls.Length / 2;
for (int i = 0; i < leftColumnControlsNumber; i++)
{
tableLocationItems.Controls.Add(Controls[i], 0,0);
Controls[i].Location = new Point(10, verticalPosition);
verticalPosition += 17;
}
//Populate right column
verticalPosition = 3;
for (int i = leftColumnControlsNumber; i < Controls.Length; i++)
{
tableLocationItems.Controls.Add(Controls[i], 0, 1);
Controls[i].Location = new Point(10, verticalPosition);
verticalPosition += 17;
}
//Resume TableLayoutPanel
tableLocationItems.ResumeLayout(true);
//And restore outher Panel state
panelLocationItemsTableCountainer.AutoScroll = true;
panelLocationItemsTableCountainer.ResumeLayout(true);
}
The problem is that user controls initially populated in FormLoad event and the Form just hangs for around 10 seconds before it actually appears. This is completely unacceptable for me.
This issue goes away if I set AutoSize property of user control to false. I also was tried to put user controls directly to the outher Panel and it also works fine. The problem is just with TableLayoutPanel. Is anyone faced such issue and found the solution? Of corse I can place my user controls myself directly to the Panel calculating right coordinales but using TableLayoutPanel is a "correct" way for such tasks.
Using the TableLayoutPanel is the right approach but you'll want to think of the columns in that control as static widths. I had an application where I faced almost exactly the same problem using that panel and realized I'd just been looking at it all wrong.
If there are two columns, and my container (e.g. a form) is 300 pixels wide, then each column is 150 pixels wide (minus padding and stuff) so the controls inside those columns have to react rather than the columns reacting.
The other reason you really need to look at it this way is because the engine doesn't layout everything in memory first (like the WPF framework does) so it's extremely in efficient at its core since it commits the changes immediately.
I have several panels in a windows form application, they are sorted in two columns and maximally 4 rows, so maximally 8 panels. The number of elements included in every single panel changes during the runtime, so not to waste place on monitor I set all of them to autosize. The problem is, I dont know how I can keep them placed correctly, like how to make that when the first one shrinks that the other three come up a bit so there is not too much space between them.
Try to use the TableLayoutPanel or the FlowLayoutPanel (or possibly even a SplitContainer). They all can be very useful for this kind of task. You find them in the section Containers in the Toolbox. You can keep the right distance by setting the margins of the panels appropriately. The TableLayoutPanel gives you different options for sizing the rows and columns (absolute or percent size or auto). Also by working with the Dock or the Anchor properties of the panels and controls you can attain a dynamic behavior when resizing or adding and removing controls.
You might also have to set the MinimumSize and MaximumSize properties of the controls.
You can add controls like this the TableLayoutPanel
int count = tableLayoutPanel1.Controls.Count;
int newColumn = count % 2;
int newRow = count / 2;
if (newRow >= tableLayoutPanel1.RowCount) {
tableLayoutPanel1.RowCount++;
// Set appropriate row style
tableLayoutPanel1.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle { SizeType = SizeType.AutoSize });
}
var newControl = new Button { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
tableLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(newControl, newColumn, newRow);
I'm trying to center a fixed size control within a form.
Out of interest, is there a non-idiotic way of doing this? What I really want is something analogous to the text-align css property.
At the moment, I'm setting the padding property of the surrounding form to a suitable size and setting the Dock property of the control to fill.
You could achieve this with the use of anchors. Or more precisely the non use of them.
Controls are anchored by default to the top left of the form which means when the form size will be changed, their distance from the top left side of the form will remain constant. If you change the control anchor to bottom left, then the control will keep the same distance from the bottom and left sides of the form when the form if resized.
Turning off the anchor in a direction will keep a control centered when resizing, if it is already centered. In general, a control not anchored maintains its proportional position to the dialog. E.g. If you put a control at X=75% of the dialog width and turn off left/right anchors, the control will maintain its center at X=75% of the dialog width.
NOTE: Turning off anchoring via the properties window in VS2015 may require entering None (instead of default Top,Left)
myControl.Left = (this.ClientSize.Width - myControl.Width) / 2 ;
myControl.Top = (this.ClientSize.Height - myControl.Height) / 2;
Since you don't state if the form can resize or not there is an easy way if you don't care about resizing (if you do care, go with Mitch Wheats solution):
Select the control -> Format (menu option) -> Center in Window -> Horizontally or Vertically
I found a great way to do this and it will work with multiple controls. Add a TableLayout with 3 columns. Make the center column an absolute size (however much room you need). Set the two outside columns to 100%. Add a Panel to the center column and add any controls you need and place them where you want. That center panel will now remain centered in your form.
To center Button in panel o in other container follow this step:
At design time set the position
Go to properties Anchor of the button and set this value as the follow image
In addition, if you want to align it to the center of another control:
//The "ctrlParent" is the one on which you want to align "ctrlToCenter".
//"ctrlParent" can be your "form name" or any other control such as "grid name" and etc.
ctrlToCenter.Parent = ctrlParent;
ctrlToCenter.Left = (ctrlToCenter.Parent.Width - ctrlToCenter.Width) / 2;
ctrlToCenter.Top = (ctrlToCenter.Parent.Height - ctrlToCenter.Height) / 2;
You can put the control you want to center inside a Panel and set the left and right padding values to something larger than the default. As long as they are equal and your control is anchored to the sides of the Panel, then it will appear centered in that Panel. Then you can anchor the container Panel to its parent as needed.
It involves eyeballing it (well I suppose you could get out a calculator and calculate) but just insert said control on the form and then remove any anchoring (anchor = None).
you can put all your controls to panel and then write a code to move your panel to center of your form.
panelMain.Location =
new Point(ClientSize.Width / 2 - panelMain.Size.Width / 2,
ClientSize.Height / 2 - panelMain.Size.Height / 2);
panelMain.Anchor = AnchorStyles.None;
To keep the control centered even the form or parent control were resize.
Set the following properties of the parent element (you can set it through the property window):
parentControl.AutoSize = true;
parentControl.AutoSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
Put this code in the Resize event of the form or the parent control (if the control is inside of another control).
controlToCenter.Left = (parentControl.Width- controlToCenter.Width) / 2;
controlToCenter.Top = (parentControl.Height - controlToCenter.Height) / 2;
If the parent control is docked to the form, add this line of code.
//adjust this based on the layout of your form
parentControl.Height = this.ClientSize.Height;
So, I am currently working on a pagination control and I came up with the following to achieve the below result.
Add a PanelLayout to your container (e.g. form or usercontrol)
Set the PanelLayout properties:
Dock: Bottom (or Top)
AutoSize: False
This will center the PanelLayout horizontally.
Now, in your codebehind, do something like this:
public MyConstructor()
{
InitializeComponent();
for (var i = 0; i<10; i++)
{
AddButton(i);
}
}
void AddButton(int i)
{
var btn = new Button();
btn.Width = 30;
btn.Height = 26;
btn.Text = i.ToString();
this.flowLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(btn);
btn.Anchor = AnchorStyles.None;
}
There is a ceveat, however. If I make my form too small (horizontally) buttons will "disappear" outside of the viewport. In my case, that's not a problem, but you could take care of this by writing code that listens to the Resize event, and remove elements (buttons) based on the viewport Width.