Adding button into a Listview in WinForms - winforms

Question

Is there a way to add a button control to a cell in inside a ListView in a WinForms app?

Answer 1

Here is a code of a class ListViewExtender that you can reuse. It's not a derived class of ListView, basically you just declare that a specific column is displayed as buttons instead of text. The button's text is the subItem's text.
It allows big sized list views without problems, does not use p/invoke, and also works with horizontal scrollbars (some code proposed as answers here don't or are quite slow with a great number of items). Note it requires the extended ListView to have FullRowSelect set to true and view type set to Details.
This is a sample code that uses it:
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent(); // you need to add a listView named listView1 with the designer
listView1.FullRowSelect = true;
ListViewExtender extender = new ListViewExtender(listView1);
// extend 2nd column
ListViewButtonColumn buttonAction = new ListViewButtonColumn(1);
buttonAction.Click += OnButtonActionClick;
buttonAction.FixedWidth = true;
extender.AddColumn(buttonAction);
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
{
ListViewItem item = listView1.Items.Add("item" + i);
item.SubItems.Add("button " + i);
}
}
private void OnButtonActionClick(object sender, ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(this, #"you clicked " + e.SubItem.Text);
}
}
}
Here is the ListViewExtender code and associated classes:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
public class ListViewExtender : IDisposable
{
private readonly Dictionary<int, ListViewColumn> _columns = new Dictionary<int, ListViewColumn>();
public ListViewExtender(ListView listView)
{
if (listView == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("listView");
if (listView.View != View.Details)
throw new ArgumentException(null, "listView");
ListView = listView;
ListView.OwnerDraw = true;
ListView.DrawItem += OnDrawItem;
ListView.DrawSubItem += OnDrawSubItem;
ListView.DrawColumnHeader += OnDrawColumnHeader;
ListView.MouseMove += OnMouseMove;
ListView.MouseClick += OnMouseClick;
Font = new Font(ListView.Font.FontFamily, ListView.Font.Size - 2);
}
public virtual Font Font { get; private set; }
public ListView ListView { get; private set; }
protected virtual void OnMouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
ListViewItem item;
ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem sub;
ListViewColumn column = GetColumnAt(e.X, e.Y, out item, out sub);
if (column != null)
{
column.MouseClick(e, item, sub);
}
}
public ListViewColumn GetColumnAt(int x, int y, out ListViewItem item, out ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)
{
subItem = null;
item = ListView.GetItemAt(x, y);
if (item == null)
return null;
subItem = item.GetSubItemAt(x, y);
if (subItem == null)
return null;
for (int i = 0; i < item.SubItems.Count; i++)
{
if (item.SubItems[i] == subItem)
return GetColumn(i);
}
return null;
}
protected virtual void OnMouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
ListViewItem item;
ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem sub;
ListViewColumn column = GetColumnAt(e.X, e.Y, out item, out sub);
if (column != null)
{
column.Invalidate(item, sub);
return;
}
if (item != null)
{
ListView.Invalidate(item.Bounds);
}
}
protected virtual void OnDrawColumnHeader(object sender, DrawListViewColumnHeaderEventArgs e)
{
e.DrawDefault = true;
}
protected virtual void OnDrawSubItem(object sender, DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e)
{
ListViewColumn column = GetColumn(e.ColumnIndex);
if (column == null)
{
e.DrawDefault = true;
return;
}
column.Draw(e);
}
protected virtual void OnDrawItem(object sender, DrawListViewItemEventArgs e)
{
// do nothing
}
public void AddColumn(ListViewColumn column)
{
if (column == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("column");
column.Extender = this;
_columns[column.ColumnIndex] = column;
}
public ListViewColumn GetColumn(int index)
{
ListViewColumn column;
return _columns.TryGetValue(index, out column) ? column : null;
}
public IEnumerable<ListViewColumn> Columns
{
get
{
return _columns.Values;
}
}
public virtual void Dispose()
{
if (Font != null)
{
Font.Dispose();
Font = null;
}
}
}
public abstract class ListViewColumn
{
public event EventHandler<ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs> Click;
protected ListViewColumn(int columnIndex)
{
if (columnIndex < 0)
throw new ArgumentException(null, "columnIndex");
ColumnIndex = columnIndex;
}
public virtual ListViewExtender Extender { get; protected internal set; }
public int ColumnIndex { get; private set; }
public virtual Font Font
{
get
{
return Extender == null ? null : Extender.Font;
}
}
public ListView ListView
{
get
{
return Extender == null ? null : Extender.ListView;
}
}
public abstract void Draw(DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e);
public virtual void MouseClick(MouseEventArgs e, ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)
{
if (Click != null)
{
Click(this, new ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs(e, item, subItem));
}
}
public virtual void Invalidate(ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)
{
if (Extender != null)
{
Extender.ListView.Invalidate(subItem.Bounds);
}
}
}
public class ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs : MouseEventArgs
{
public ListViewColumnMouseEventArgs(MouseEventArgs e, ListViewItem item, ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem subItem)
: base(e.Button, e.Clicks, e.X, e.Y, e.Delta)
{
Item = item;
SubItem = subItem;
}
public ListViewItem Item { get; private set; }
public ListViewItem.ListViewSubItem SubItem { get; private set; }
}
public class ListViewButtonColumn : ListViewColumn
{
private Rectangle _hot = Rectangle.Empty;
public ListViewButtonColumn(int columnIndex)
: base(columnIndex)
{
}
public bool FixedWidth { get; set; }
public bool DrawIfEmpty { get; set; }
public override ListViewExtender Extender
{
get
{
return base.Extender;
}
protected internal set
{
base.Extender = value;
if (FixedWidth)
{
base.Extender.ListView.ColumnWidthChanging += OnColumnWidthChanging;
}
}
}
protected virtual void OnColumnWidthChanging(object sender, ColumnWidthChangingEventArgs e)
{
if (e.ColumnIndex == ColumnIndex)
{
e.Cancel = true;
e.NewWidth = ListView.Columns[e.ColumnIndex].Width;
}
}
public override void Draw(DrawListViewSubItemEventArgs e)
{
if (_hot != Rectangle.Empty)
{
if (_hot != e.Bounds)
{
ListView.Invalidate(_hot);
_hot = Rectangle.Empty;
}
}
if ((!DrawIfEmpty) && (string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.SubItem.Text)))
return;
Point mouse = e.Item.ListView.PointToClient(Control.MousePosition);
if ((ListView.GetItemAt(mouse.X, mouse.Y) == e.Item) && (e.Item.GetSubItemAt(mouse.X, mouse.Y) == e.SubItem))
{
ButtonRenderer.DrawButton(e.Graphics, e.Bounds, e.SubItem.Text, Font, true, PushButtonState.Hot);
_hot = e.Bounds;
}
else
{
ButtonRenderer.DrawButton(e.Graphics, e.Bounds, e.SubItem.Text, Font, false, PushButtonState.Default);
}
}
}
}

Answer 2

The ListView itself (or ListViewItem) does not function as a container of any kind so no way to add controls directly, however it is doable. I have used this extended ListView with a lot of success: Embedding Controls in a ListView.

Answer 3

This is the BEST custom listview control for WinForms.
ObjectListView

Answer 4

To make the extender of Simon Mourier working is missing the following line:
extender.AddColumn(buttonAction);
This is, it should look like:
ListViewExtender extender = new ListViewExtender(listSummary);
ListViewButtonColumn buttonAction = new ListViewButtonColumn(2);
buttonAction.Click += OnButtonActionClick;
buttonAction.FixedWidth = true;
extender.AddColumn(buttonAction);

Answer 5

Maybe this could be of interest?
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/list/extendedlistviews.aspx

Answer 6

No, a standard Windows Forms ListView doesn't support embedded controls. You could try to build your own custom control, or you could use something like http://www.codeproject.com/KB/list/EXListView.aspx.

Answer 7

No and yes, ListView itself does not support such functionality, but you can create a button on top of it, so that it appears to the user as integral part of the listview. (I suppose this is what the ExtendedListView mentioned above does too).

Answer 8

Maybe it worths mentioning, the list view control might be designed in WPF as an usercontrol/custom control with buttons in its ListViewItems, and then use this control in the WinForms application, in an ElementHost control.

Answer 9

I accidentally come across a discussion before, hope this help: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winforms/thread/ee232cc4-68c5-4ed3-9ea7-d4d999956504/

Answer 10

You could use a GlacialList. It allow you to put ANY control inside a list cell and it's simple to use. You will just need to join a GlacialList.dll document to the reference part of your Solution. If you click the link it will show you how it works and how to use it and download it.
If you have a System.IO.FileNotFoundException on the InitializeComponent() just download source code from the above link, compile and use this .dll (inside bin/Debug subfolder) to your project .
Here is an example of what it looks like:

Answer 11

This looks like the simplest answer I have come across... just added an ItemCommand to the ListView.
See this link: handle-the-button-click-event-from-an-asp-net-listview-control