Here is what I tried to to:
Added a stackpanel to my window (Orientation: Horizontal)
Added a set of buttons to it
Set the first button's ZIndex to be higher than the second one
Increased the width of the first button
What I expected:
I expected the first button to be on top of the second button (atlest overlay)
StackPanel's width should not change unless the width of the first button is no more sufficient
What is happening actually:
First button's width increases and the second button moves towards the right accordingly. They stay on the same plane
StackPanel's width increases with increase in the first button's width
Here is my question:
I know that stackpanel has not considered ZIndex while arranging the items within itself, BUT WHY?? Shouldn't it consider the ZIndex of its children while arranging them???
The Stackpanel 'stacks' its children based on their widths, i.e. if you increase the width of an item (or increase its margin), the stackpanel will simply expand to accomodate this. If you want to force items within a stackpanel to overlap, you will have to change their location after the layout has been computed. You can perform this using a RenderTransform. See the example below:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" VerticalAlignment="Top">
<Button Content="One" Canvas.ZIndex="10">
<Button.RenderTransform>
<TranslateTransform X="10"/>
</Button.RenderTransform>
</Button>
<Button Content="One"/>
<Button Content="One"/>
<Button Content="One"/>
</StackPanel>
And yes, the ZIndex is respected. This is an attached proepry of Canvas, however, it seems to be used by the rendering engine directly rather than by Canvas, hence it works in the above code.
I tried to find some relevant info about how to set the z index of wpf layout elements and panels. Using a Canvas comes with a different set of positioning issues which I simply hadn't the time to investigate. Here is a simple solution using the Panel.ZIndex property in xaml.
<Grid>
<Border Width="100" Height="100" Margin="0,0,50,50" Panel.ZIndex="1" Background="Navy" Opacity="0.3"
VerticalAlignment="Top" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
</Border>
<Border Width="100" Height="100" Margin="50,50,0,0" Background="Fuchsia" Opacity="0.3">
</Border>
The resulting two square border elements will overlap. One can use stackpanels instead of borders and use this logic to overlap anything easily.
Here is the same code adapted to the button problem:
<Grid>
<StackPanel Panel.ZIndex="10" Margin="20,20,0,0" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Button Content="One" Width="50" Height="40">
</Button>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Margin="50,0,0,0" >
<Button Content="Two" Width="50" Height="40"/>
<Button Content="Three" Width="50" Height="40"/>
<Button Content="Four" Width="50" Height="40"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
Related
I created a grid and inside this grid it contains a TextBlock. When I maximize or adjust the size of the window the content of the TextBlock doesn't stay in the center of the Grid.
Tried to keep this as short as possible. :>
<Grid>
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="46" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="515">
<TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center">Welcome! Use the functionalities below.</TextBlock>
</Grid>
</Grid>
Grids, by default, auto expand. That is, they take up as much area as they are allowed. Your outer grid will take up the entire client area of the window while the inner grid will stick to the top left of the outer grid, just as you have coded it to. If you want the inner grid to be centered, then do something like
<Grid>
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="46" Width="515">
<TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center">Welcome! Use the functionalities below.</TextBlock>
</Grid>
</Grid>
You don't even have to include the horizontal and vertical alignment as grids will automatically centre.
If you just want to centre the TextBlock ...
<Grid>
<Grid>
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Height="46" Width="515">Welcome! Use the functionalities below.</TextBlock>
</Grid>
</Grid>
The text can be centred using the TextAlignment property.
I hope this helps
Im having trouble controlling the exact layout of a button control with XAML.
It seems that whatever i do the button is of a minimum width.
I have a simple button with only a textblock inside the button. But the button has a lot of margin and padding that i cant seem to get rid of (i know of negative margins and padding).
The things i want to know is:
1. Why in the world was it designed this way.
2. what are the groundrules for controlling the exact layout of a button?
My code is as follows:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="80"></RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="0"></StackPanel>
<Pivot Grid.Row="1">
<Pivot.Title>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Margin="-15,-3,0,0" Background="red" Width="480">
<Button Background="Blue" x:Name="btnStudies" Click="btnMenuItem_Click" Width="20">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Foreground="White"></TextBlock>
</Button>
<Button Background="Green">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Foreground="White"></TextBlock>
</Button>
<Button Background="Blue" Click="btnMenuItem_Click">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Foreground="White"></TextBlock>
</Button>
<Button Background="Blue" Click="btnMenuItem_Click">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Foreground="White"></TextBlock>
</Button>
<Button Background="Blue" Click="btnMenuItem_Click">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Foreground="White"></TextBlock>
</Button>
</StackPanel>
</Pivot.Title>
</Pivot>
</Grid>
I want five buttons in a row but these are already too wide for the screen (windows phone). Changing the width doesnt seem to have any effect (why is it there).
The textBlock control within the button the button is as wide as the text on it, but i dont seem to have any control on the width of the button. In HTML you only have padding or margin when you define it but in xaml it just seems to be there and for me its unclear how to undo that.
*****EDIT*****
After reading Rachel's reply i decided to start from the ground up.
Using the code below i still have no control over how wide the button is because it uses a certain amount of padding that i cant seem to remove. The button has a width of about 110 when i define a width lower than that it doesnt change. Margins and paddings of 0 have no effect at all (dont want to use negative values just yet because that doesnt seem very intuitive). So the code below is very simple but still the button takes up an amount of space that i dont have any control over. I cant imagine a reason why it was designed this way.
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="400" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Width="300" Background="Red" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Button Background="Blue" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Width="100" Margin="0" Padding="0">
<TextBlock Text="Title" Width="Auto" HorizontalAlignment="Left" />
</Button>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
The type and size of the parent panel containing the control affects the size/layout of the child controls.
In your case, you have a Grid as your parent panel, and a Grid defaults to taking up all available space. In addition, children placed inside the grid default to taking up all available space as well unless you specify otherwise.
So your <Pivot> is being assigned a width equal to Grid.Width, and Pivot.Title sounds like it's being assigned a width equal to Pivot.Width, and StackPanel is being assigned a width equal to Pivot.Title.Width... you get the picture.
To specify that a control should not take up all available space, specify a HorizontalAlignment or VerticalAlignment property to tell it what side of the parent panel to dock the item on.
For example
<Pivot Grid.Row="1" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
or
<StackPanel OWidth="480" HorizontalAlignment="Left" ...>
If you're new to WPF's layout system, I would recommend reading through the codeproject article WPF Layouts: A Quick Visual Start to quickly learn what the main layout panels are for WPF.
I'm trying to make a footer control that has a minimum height that it will shrink to before allowing the a window resize encroaches on its view-able area. But I want a fixed width that it will adhere to until a resize of the main window encroaches on its default bounds. Given the following code, what I'm not understanding is:
-On shrinking the window size after running the sample, why is the bottom anchor of the lower canvas not respected? Instead it's anchoring to the canvas above it.
-Why is the is minimum size of the bottom panel not shrunk too before the window encroaches on its area?
-Why do I have to add the bottom canvas before the top for this demo to even layout correctly?
-Lastly, is there a way to make a Window's minimum bounds just be the sum of all the horizontal and vertical minimum bounds of the controls it contains?
<Window x:Class="TestWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="TestWindow" Height="300" Width="1278" Background="{x:Null}">
<DockPanel Background="#FFE6AFAF" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" >
<Canvas DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" MinHeight="100" Height="170" Margin="10,10,10,10" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Width="Auto">
<Canvas.Background>
<SolidColorBrush Color="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlLightColorKey}}"/>
</Canvas.Background>
</Canvas>
<Canvas DockPanel.Dock="Top,Bottom" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="Auto" Margin="10,10,10,10" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Width="Auto">
<Canvas.Background>
<SolidColorBrush Color="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlLightColorKey}}"/>
</Canvas.Background>
</Canvas>
</DockPanel>
</Window>
To start with question 3:
When using a DockPanel, the order in which you add elements matters. What happens here is that the "MinHeight=100" canvas is added first, and the DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" says: "Stretch this canvas across the bottom of the DockPanel and make it as tall as it needs to be, but no taller, because we need to keep as much space as possible available for the rest of the elements".
This process is then repeated for each consecutive element in the DockPanel until the very last element, which gets to use all the space that is left in the DockPanel (unless you set <DockPanel LastChildFill="False" ...). This example might help illustrate how the DockPanel works:
<DockPanel Width="200" Height="200" >
<Button Content="01" Background="#222" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" />
<Button Content="02" Background="#333" DockPanel.Dock="Left" />
<Button Content="03" Background="#444" DockPanel.Dock="Top" />
<Button Content="04" Background="#555" DockPanel.Dock="Right" />
<Button Content="05" Background="#666" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" />
<Button Content="06" Background="#777" DockPanel.Dock="Left" />
<Button Content="07" Background="#888" DockPanel.Dock="Top" />
<Button Content="08" Background="#999" DockPanel.Dock="Right" />
<Button Content="09" Background="#aaa" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" />
<Button Content="10" Background="#bbb" DockPanel.Dock="Left" />
<Button Content="11" Background="#ccc" DockPanel.Dock="Top" />
<Button Content="12" Background="#ddd" />
</DockPanel>
So in your case, the first canvas is anchored to the bottom and stretches horizontally across the DockPanel. Its height will always be 100 pixels, because its MinHeight says that's the lowest height it will accept.
Then, the second canvas is added, and because it's the last element, it's allowed to use all the space that's left above the first canvas.
Question 3, part "-Lastly":
Try <Window ... SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight" />
Question 2:
You mean if you shrink the window to be less than 100 pixels tall? Elements will never accept to be smaller than their minimum size (in this case 100 pixels tall). The canvas renders itself at 100 pixels, and what doesn't fit inside the window simply gets clipped.
..and I'm not sure what you mean in Question 1..
How to use VerticalAlignment="Stretch" with a Label inside a Canvas? I'm trying to center the text "Cancel" in the button as in the code below. To use fixed height and width for the label isn't a desired option.
<Button Name="buttonCancel" Width="80" Height="40" IsCancel="True" Padding="0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch">
<Canvas>
<Label Canvas.Top="0" Canvas.Left="0" Padding="0" FontSize="10">Esc</Label>
<Label VerticalContentAlignment="Center" HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">Cancel</Label>
</Canvas>
</Button>
Use a binding to the Canvas's ActualWidth:
<Canvas>
<Label Width="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Canvas}}, Path=ActualWidth}">...</Label>
</Canvas>
But as mentioned above, if you are interested in dynamic stretching layouts, the Canvas is not the ideal choice of control.
A Canvas does not perform any scaling layout of its contents; if you want to scale the contents, you could use Grid in this case, which will, by default, scale both Label elements to fill the Content space.
Assuming you need the canvas for other objects that are of a fixed nature, you could overlay the Canvas on a Grid, and then put the labels in the grid. You can put the labels before the canvas to make them background z-index (overwritten by canvas objects) or after the canvas to make them higher z-index (will overwrite canvas objects). For example:
<Button Name="buttonCancel" Width="80" Height="40" IsCancel="True" Padding="0" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch">
<Grid>
<Label Padding="0" FontSize="10">Esc</Label>
<Label VerticalContentAlignment="Center" HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">Cancel</Label>
<Canvas>
<!-- Your Canvas content here -->
</Canvas>
</Grid>
</Button>
Repeating my solution from the comments, since (a) you really don't want a Canvas and (b) it sounds like this solved your problems, so I'll make it an answer where it will be more visible to others.
Canvas is meant for fixed-pixel-size layouts, which is probably the least common case. You should replace your Canvas with a Grid as shown below, so that both Labels are laid out dynamically (and independently) within the available space:
<Grid>
<Label Padding="0" FontSize="10">Esc</Label>
<Label VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center">Cancel</Label>
</Grid>
I was wondering if I can have 2 controls in a horizontal-oriented StackPanel so that the right item should be docked to the right side of the StackPanel.
I tried the following but it didn't work:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
<Button Width="30" HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right<Button>
</StackPanel>
In the snippet above I want the Button to be docked to the right side of the StackPanel.
Note: I need it to be done with StackPanel, not Grid etc.
You can achieve this with a DockPanel:
<DockPanel Width="300">
<TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
<Button HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right</Button>
</DockPanel>
The difference is that a StackPanel will arrange child elements into single line (either vertical or horizontally) whereas a DockPanel defines an area where you can arrange child elements either horizontally or vertically, relative to each other (the Dock property changes the position of an element relative to other elements within the same container. Alignment properties, such as HorizontalAlignment, change the position of an element relative to its parent element).
Update
As pointed out in the comments you can also use the FlowDirection property of a StackPanel. See #D_Bester's answer.
Yo can set FlowDirection of Stack panel to RightToLeft, and then all items will be aligned to the right side.
For those who stumble upon this question, here's how to achieve this layout with a Grid:
<Grid>
<TextBlock Text="Server:"/>
<TextBlock Text="http://127.0.0.1" HorizontalAlignment="Right"/>
</Grid>
creates
Server: http://127.0.0.1
Could not get this working using a DockPanel quite the way I wanted and reversing the flow direction of a StackPanel is troublesome. Using a grid is not an option as items inside of it may be hidden at runtime and thus I do not know the total number of columns at design time. The best and simplest solution I could come up with is:
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Column="1" Orientation="Horizontal">
<!-- Right aligned controls go here -->
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
This will result in controls inside of the StackPanel being aligned to the right side of the available space regardless of the number of controls - both at design and runtime. Yay! :)
This works perfectly for me. Just put the button first since you're starting on the right. If FlowDirection becomes a problem just add a StackPanel around it and specify FlowDirection="LeftToRight" for that portion. Or simply specify FlowDirection="LeftToRight" for the relevant control.
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Right" FlowDirection="RightToLeft">
<Button Width="40" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="3">Right</Button>
<TextBlock Margin="5">Left</TextBlock>
<StackPanel FlowDirection="LeftToRight">
<my:DatePicker Height="24" Name="DatePicker1" Width="113" xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit" />
</StackPanel>
<my:DatePicker FlowDirection="LeftToRight" Height="24" Name="DatePicker1" Width="113" xmlns:my="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit" />
</StackPanel>
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="Left" />
<Button Width="30" Grid.Column="1" >Right</Button>
</Grid>
If you are having a problem like the one I had where labels were centered in my vertical stack panel, make sure you use full width controls. Delete the Width property, or put your button in a full-width container that allows internal alignment. WPF is all about using containers to control the layout.
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<TextBlock>Left</TextBlock>
<DockPanel>
<Button HorizontalAlignment="Right">Right</Button>
</DockPanel>
</StackPanel>
Vertical StackPanel with Left Label followed by Right Button
I hope this helps.
for windows 10
use relativePanel instead of stack panel, and use
relativepanel.alignrightwithpanel="true"
for the contained elements.
Maybe not what you want if you need to avoid hard-coding size values, but sometimes I use a "shim" (Separator) for this:
<Separator Width="42"></Separator>