I need to create some mini-windows, like the ones shown in the image bellow, in my winform main form.
It would be nice if they could be draggable, resizable, and, mainly, closable.
How can I approach this design? Has anybody already seen some control (with code available) implementing something similar?
alt text http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5765/imagea.png
A normal Form works fine for this. Set its FormBorderStyle to either FixedToolWindow or SizableToolWindow as desired.
If you want to keep your floating windows inside your main window, use MDI (Multiple Document Interface). Here is a tutorial (Google can find you many more).
Have you tried just setting the FormBorderStyle property to SizeableToolWindow?
Is that what you're after?
You can create them as resizable and draggable custom controls.
You could use my example at:
http://hourlyapps.blogspot.com/2008/07/resizable-and-movable-controls-c-net.html
Related
I have inherited a large MFC application which contains a CComboBox subclass that overrides OnPaint. Currently it does all its drawing by hand (with lines and rectangles), and renders a combo box that looks decidedly Windows 98-style. However, it otherwise works great and provides a lot of useful custom functionality that we rely on, and rewriting the entire control is probably not an option.
I would like to modernize it so that the OnPaint draws in Aero style where available (falling back to the old code when modern theming is unavailable). I've done this with some other custom controls we have, like buttons, and it works great for our purposes. I know there are some tiny behaviors that it won't get right, like gentle highlights on mouse-hover, but that's not a big deal for this app.
I have access to the CVisualStylesXP ckass, so I've already got the infrastructure to make calls like OpenThemeData, GetThemeColor or DrawThemeBackground pretty easily (via LoadLibrary so we don't force Vista as a min-system). Unfortunately, I don't know the proper sequence of calls to get a nice looking combo box with the theme-appropriate border and drop-down button.
Anyone know what to do here?
Honestly, I don't know why they originally tried to override OnPaint. Is there a good reason? I'm thinking that at least 99% of the time you are just going to want to override the drawing of the items in the ComboBox. For that, you can override DrawItem, MeasureItem, and CompareItem in a derived combo box to get the functionality you want. In that case, the OS will draw the non-user content specific to each OS correctly.
I think you best shot without diving in the depth of xp theming and various system metrics is take a look at this project: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/2584/AdvComboBox-Version-2-1
Check the OnPaint of the CAdvComboBox class - there is a full implementation of the control repainting including xp theme related issues.
Not sure if it's the same situation - but when I faced this problem (in my case with subclassed CButtons), solving it only required changing the control declaration to a pointer and creating the control dynamically.
Let's assume that your subclassed control is called CComboBoxExt.
Where you had
CComboBoxExt m_cComboBoxExt;
You'll now have
CComboBoxExt* m_pcComboBoxExt;
And on the OnInitDialog of the window where the control is placed, you create it using
m_pcComboBoxExt = new CComboBoxExt();
m_pcComboBoxExt->Create(...)
Since this is now a pointer, don't forget to call DestroyWindow() and delete the pointer on termination.
This solved my particular problem - if your control is declared in the same way, consider giving it a try.
i want to implement a UI look like IE9 or chrome.
i like the dockable tab,it can be dragged out into a new window.
and the window can also be put into as a tab.
is anyone can give me an idea how to implement it, or a library,or an example?
thank you .
AvalonDock is very good, but not quite like I wanted.
There is no dock control that comes out of the box in WPF (which is a damn shame). You can have a look at Sofa Docking, which is an open-source docking library based on AvalonDock.
I'm using DevExpress' docking control (not free). It's not perfect, but their customer support is one of the best out there, and that's a very big thing to me. I found it very hard to find any resources and answers regarding AvalonDock and SofaDock.
You could look at the Infragistics xamDockManager:
http://www.infragistics.com/dotnet/netadvantage/wpf/xamdockmanager.aspx#Overview
If you do this, you would use a DocumentContentHost:
http://help.infragistics.com/NetAdvantage/WPF/Current/CLR4.0/?page=xamDockManager_Add_Panes_to_the_DocumentContentHost_Object.html
Then you would want to disable docking of the ContentPanes on the right, left, top and bottom and there is a boolean property that can be set to control this like AllowDockingLeft:
http://help.infragistics.com/NetAdvantage/WPF/Current/CLR4.0/?page=InfragisticsWPF4.DockManager.v11.2~Infragistics.Windows.DockManager.ContentPane~AllowDockingLeft.html
Shell
{
List<Content> Contents
}
Drag: use PopUp/adorn/visualbrush to create a content thumbnail.
Drop: if out of the parent shell, creat a new shell, and add the
drag-content to the Contents List.remove it from origin parent
shell.
I would like to create a custom WPF window (WindowStyle = None, AllowsTransparency = True). However, I would like the min/max/close buttons to look identical to those on standard windows. Is this possible?
You might want to have a look at GlassWindow in FluidKit at CodePlex
http://fluidkit.codeplex.com/
The source code has a custom Window Style looking like this. It's pretty easy to modify to however you want it to look. I've used it once and it works good
You'll need to "draw" them yourself, since you're using WindowStyle=None. When choosing this option, you'll need to render your own Chrome as desired.
I have created a borderless window style wherein I draw the chrome (Borders, TitleBar, Min, Max, Close, SystemMenu, etc) and I would like to check it against an existing example. Specifically for the SystemMenu but also in case I missed something. Does anyone have or know of similar examples?
Recommended reading:
http://blogs.msdn.com/wpfsdk/archive/2008/09/08/custom-window-chrome-in-wpf.aspx
The accompanying sample contains a couple of templates that you can compare against yours.
I want to setup my WinForm to look like the Delphi7 IDE. Basically that means the window has no background (the desktop shows through), and child windows float around.
Here's a sample image:
I can handle the floating windows, but how would I go for the main window (the menu bar and the toolbar)? What are the WinForm properties required to get this layout? I can't seem to be able to get rid of the window's client area.
Thank you
Why can't you get rid of the client area? Just resize the main form so that it's as thin as you can make it.
You may be implementing the floating windows as UserControls in the main form's Controls collection. If so, there are two ways you can deal with this:
Implement the floating windows as actual windows. Show them using "frmToolWindows.Show(this);" (this will keep them always on top of your main form).
If you need to keep the floaters as UserControls, you can make the client area of your main form transparent by setting the form's TransparencyKey property to some arbitrary color (Color.Red, for example) and then setting the form's BackColor property to the same color. This will make your form transparent and able to be clicked through.
Please don't make a UI like this. It is very non-standard, and doesn't gain anything in the realm of usability. You could simplify things by keeping it all in one window like Visual Studio.