Silverlight Toolkit TreeView control and expandability - c#

Is it possible to configure the TreeView control in the Silverlight tookit such that some or all of the hierarchy levels will be automatically expanded and ideally something that can't be collapsed at that level.
I'm using this control in large part due to the ease of handling hierarchical data and the ease with which I CAN expand/collapse levels. I'm being asked to do this selectively (i.e. only at the first level should I allow expand/collapse). I'm examining a Hierarchical Data Template to try and make this happen, but am having little luck and will certainly consider other options including a different control entirely if need be. My boss DOES want me to avoid having to purchase a control if at all possible.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Steve

Just an FYI for the community. I was provided and answer to this question here. The upshot is that this can be accomplished with a combination of data templates and styles.

Related

Custom GUI object

I know how to create a simple XAML interface for a page, but I spend a lot of my time copying and pasting code since I have no idea how to create reusable XAML in a proper way, I know about styles but they don't quite fill the role. What I would prefer to do is to call them in the following way:
<CustomElement attribute1="bla" attribute2="{Binding somethingElse}"/>
Just like all the other GUI objects in the Silverlight framework.
Any help or hint would be useful.
Basically there are two options. Both solutions act like any other Silverlight control. They can be inserted at random places in pages like you would normally insert a Button or a StackPanel. The option of choice depends on the specific reuse scenario.
Create a UserControl. These define their own XAML layout and are very easy to create. Consider looking at ScottGu's tutorial.
Create a custom control. Custom controls also define their own XAML layout but through templating and styling. They are harder to create but support templating; this means other developers can decide that they will use the code behind your control, but specify a completely different layout. For more information look at Silverlight templating.
For a (much) better understanding, please look at this page comparing the features of UserControls and custom controls more in-depth.

How to make custom form control in 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

WPF layout changes (Fill, Full, Snapped)

I am working on a Win8 app destined for the Windows Store. Hurdles I am trying to overcome is how to deal with the different ways an app can be displayed.
Currently, my main pages is a LayoutAwarePage so it has logic to handle different visual states. However, my question is more how to make my page render differently depending on its state.
I thought, initially, that you basically created a layout for each state that the application supports. But it seems like the VisualStateManager portion of the XAML is just an area where you make piecemeal modifications to the design (hide an element, change an alignment).
I am working with a grid that has many columns and rows to organize my controls and it looks great in fullscreen. However, this doesn't work at all in the snapped state, as most of my controls become hidden off screen. I could certainly add a ScrollViewer control, but this is basically a hack and a usability nightmare for a user.
Thanks for any insight!
It might be that your app doesn't lend itself to snapped view. You are allowed to simply display a message / image that states this. Alternatively, consider just showing the columns that are most important.
The standard MS way seems to be to replace horizontal oriented controls with vertical ones - maybe a listview or something would look better. You'll probably find your code easier to read if you have one control for snapped and another for full screen.
Not exactly related to your question, but Blend works very well with XAML to allow you to manipulate the grid or show the relevant control.
Here is a very good guide from Jerry Nixon.
http://blog.jerrynixon.com/2012/12/walkthrough-implementing-snapview-in.html

What are things/points to keep in mind while developing a reusable custom control?

Windows Form (in C#) - I need to create a custom listbox control for the following requirement:
There is a listbox with a long list of items. I want the user to be able to click in the list, and then start typing and have it automatically take them to the matching item (I call this "type ahead"). It needs to be able to do this for as many characters as they type that have a match.
This control should be really reusable without much changes.
What are things/points I should keep in mind while developing a reusable custom control? (if you provide a good pattern as a sample... will be more helpful)
In Real World scenario the first decision should be buy vs build. if your application is a serious one and not just for hobby and there is budget for it I would check some of those great controls collections like DevExpress or Telerik for WinForms. You would need a grid as well at some point, eventually, and surely your custom or framework one cannot compete theirs.
I refer to those libraries because i believe they already have a listbox with autocomplete as you described in your requirements. check the online demos on their websites...

Multiple selection in a TreeView

I am using a Windows Forms TreeView control in my program. I would like to allow the user to select multiple nodes at the same level by dragging their mouse pointer around (also called a "lasso" selection). I don't think a standard TreeView allows that.
My question is what would be the best way to achieve this? Do I have to write custom selection behaviour of my own in perhaps a custom or derived control? Where do I start?
I don't need a detailed explanation. Just a small nudge in the right direction.
This is not going to be easy to do with a standard WinForms TreeView control. The TreeView control only supports single selection per tree. It is not possible to simultaneously select multiple nodes in the tree.
In order to get this behavior you would likely end up needing to create a very similar class to TreeView which allowed for multiple selection. Another option is to derive from TreeView and enable multiple selection by overriding specific behaviors. Here is an article on how to do the latter.
http://www.arstdesign.com/articles/treeviewms.html
Consider implementing multiple selection in a control that supports multiple selection like listview. If you follow standards that most Windows users understand you'll end up with a solution that is easier to implement and easier to use.
If you really need something more elaborate you might need to consider developing a custom control.

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