We Keep Coding

UWP: Using ScaleTransform on WebView to scale/zoom contents

I am trying to use ScaleTransform to shrink a WebView, while scaling (zooming) the contents properly. i.e., If I scale the WebView to 50% of the size using ScaleTransform, the contents should likewise scale to 50% zoom level, so you can see the same contents as before, just shrunk to fit the new size of the WebView.
I know it's possible, because the AdControl does properly scale its contents when you apply a ScaleTransform, and the AdControl internally uses a WebView control to display the ad.
Example code that works with an AdControl:
double scale = 0.75;
ad.RenderTransform = new TransformGroup() {
Children = {
new ScaleTransform() { ScaleX = scale, ScaleY = scale }
}
};
If that same code is applied to a WebView control, it does shrink the size of the control, but the contents are clipped instead of shrunk.
Properly scaling the control's contents should not require the use of JavaScript injection or any other "kludgy" approaches, since it is highly doubtful that Microsoft's AdControl would use such techniques. It should all be able to be handled in the XAML or code-behind (C#).
Thanks for the help!

Setting the height of two controls to be the same

How can I make two controls share the same height. I have set the Size to be the same for both controls but when I run it, I am seeing a difference.
this.txtUserName.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(382, 45);
this.btnLogin.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 45);

Actually both have the same Height as you set them. However in order to accomodate various BorderStyles (or FlatStyles as it is called in the case of Buttons) the full size is not always visible.
So, the Button will look to be one pixel smaller on each side than the Height is has with these (current) appearances:
button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Standard
button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.System
The full Size will be visible with
button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Popup
button1.FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Flat
If you are sure about your choice of FlatStyle you may want to adapt their Height (and Location!) accordingly..
To further complicate thing the TextBox's visible Height will change if you set its BorderStyle from FixedSingle or Fixed3D to None: It will shrink by 7 (!) pixels..
Note that as far as I remember, all those details of the borderstyles depend on the Windows version & Visual Styles on the target machine.. I am running W8.1 here

Open the Form.Designer.cs and go to InitializeComponent() method for the form, you'll see initialization code for all components on the form.
If you are setting these values prior to InitializeComponent() call from the constructor, it'll be lost. Otherwise you may need to check Margin and Padding of the components.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms229627(v=vs.100).aspx

How do I make a form transparent while keeping the controls fully visible?

I would like to have a form in which the controls on the form are fully visible but the form itself is invisible. If I change the form's Opacity, this makes both the form and the controls on it semi-transparent, so this doesn't work.
I can't do this by setting the form's TransparencyKey, since I have a PictureBox on the form. If the image in the PictureBox happens to contain pixels that match the TransparencyKey, they appear as openings in the form, which I don't want.

TransparencyKey is the only way to get this. Pick the right color. Color.Fuchsia has a long tradition of being the color of choice, going back to the early days of Win32 development. Assault your eye with it to see its merits.

With the caveat that I've never used it, just ran across it once, thought "neat!" and moved on...
Look into System.Drawing.Drawing2D.GraphicsPath and setting the form's Region property. I added two buttons to the basic Windows forms application:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle(button1.Location, button1.Size);
Rectangle r2 = new Rectangle(button2.Location, button2.Size);
GraphicsPath gp = new GraphicsPath();
gp.AddRectangle(r1);
gp.AddRectangle(r2);
this.Region = new Region(gp);
}
I've approximated the shape of the button with a rectangle; with this code, you can see the form background color at the buttons' corners. You'll need to work out the enclosing path for each of your controls and add them to the path individually. You'll need to take into account any offset introduced by the form title bar or border style.
Update: I did some investigation and have a couple of possible approaches for the problem:
Using the GraphicsPath method, set pictureBox.Visible to False if there is no image loaded.
When you load an image into the picture box, analyze the image to get a list of all the colors in it, then randomly generate one that isn't. Set the form's BackColor and TransparencyKey properties to match this new color, Hans Passant's answer.

.net Resizing control won't work?

I have a couple of pictureboxes that need to be resized by aspect ratio when the window size changes. I assumed I can anchor the width, but set the height manually (i.e. anchor the left, right, and top edges; but not the bottom.) However, my control won't resize if I try changing the Size property. Why wouldn't that work? How can I resize my control?
private void Form1_Resize(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
int oldWidth = 1280;
int oldHeight = 1024;
int newWidth = webcamPictureBox.Size.Width; // this is auto-resized w/ window; becomes 591
int newHeight = (oldHeight * newWidth) / oldWidth; // this is calculated manually; becomes 472
// Control won't resize if I change the Size property
// Size property stays the same
this.webcamPictureBox.Size = new Size(newWidth, newHeight);
this.thumbnailPictureBox.Size = new Size(newWidth, newHeight);
}

You could be running into one of a few problems, I suppose:
What's the SizeMode of the PictureBox? Is it AutoSize, StretchImage, or something like that? It should probably be Normal for what you want to do.
Are you sure you have your anchoring set up correctly?
Did you debug and check the final size of the picture boxes you're trying to resize? You should verify that it's what you expect and that the form has been repainted.
These are just some ideas; your code along is not enough to provide a great response.

It's difficult to answer this question definitively with the information you've posted.
Windows forms controls problems are difficult to debug by nature because of all the controls that might be affecting what you're doing. First off, you'll want to try debugging this on your own on a form with as few controls as possible. Are there any circumstances under which the resizing behaves properly?
That said, is the Dock property set on these controls? They definitely won't resize if they're set to DockStyle.Fill.

Thanks for the ideas -- they pointed me on the right track! Everything was set up as they should be, except the TableLayoutPanel they were in was constraining their sizes. I determined this by noticing the pictureboxes' size values were simply uneditable, both in runtime and in the designer.
So I set TableLayoutPanel's AutoSize to true, and it works great!

Equivalent of Swing's pack in C#

I am developing a quick app in C#. One thing that I want to do is the equivalent of Swing's (java) pack(). This is a call that allows me to say to a form (Frame in Java), resize yourself to the size of the sum of the components within yourself.
I have searched and searched (the components change dynamically so I cannot simply hardcode the form to the right size) but I cannot find the equivalent method in C#.
Does anyone know what it is called?

You don't even need write code in order to 'pack' the form. In the forms designer, set the form's AutoSize property to true, and set the AutoSizeMode property to GrowAndShrink, repeat this for any controls on the form which may also change size.
And voila!
At runtime (only), the form will dynamically resize itself to accommodate all the controls. If you want it to keep a little distance from the controls so that the controls won't 'stick' to the edges, you can set the Padding property (I'd recommend at least a value of 12,12,12,12).

Also in xaml:
<Window SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight" />

Another solution, available only if the image is smaller than the screen:
Form frm = new Form();
PictureBox pbx = new PictureBox();
pbx.Image = Image.FromFile( _imagePath.Text );
pbx.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
frm.Controls.Add( pbx );
frm.Size = pbx.Image.Size;
frm.Show();