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XPanderControls

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27 Nov 2008CPOL3 min read 281.3K   29.2K   378   93
Outlook 2007 styled expandable and collapsible panels and panel collections for grouping collections of controls.
pandercontrols.png

Introduction

The XPander library offers the option to store many user controls in one single document formula. They are optionally visible or non-visible, expanded or collapsed. The controls provide optically the Microsoft Outlook 2007 style with black, silver and blue color schemes. They also provide other styles. The included ToolStripRenderers offer some other opportunities. All the controls support visual designer, smart tag and RightToLeft features. It contains the following components.

BSE.Windows.Forms.Panel

The panel is a control that contains other controls. You can use a panel to group collections of controls such as the XPanderPanelList control. On top of the panel, there is the captionbar. This captionbar may contain an image and text. According to its dockstyle and properties, the panel is collapsible and/or closable.

panelexpanded.png

panelcollapsed.png

panelclosed.png

BSE.Windows.Forms.XPanderPanelList

The XPanderPanelList contains XPanderPanels, which are represented by XPanderPanel objects that you can add through the XPanderPanels property. The order of XPanderPanel objects reflects the order in which the xpanderpanels appear in the XPanderPanelList control.

xpanderpanellist.png

BSE.Windows.Forms.XPanderPanel

XPanderPanel controls represent the expandable and collapsible panels in XPanderPanelList. The XpanderPanel is a control that contains other controls. You can use an XPanderPanel to group collections of controls such as the XPanderPanelList. The order of xpanderpanels in the XPanderPanelList.XPanderPanels collection reflects the order of xpanderpanels controls. To change the order of tabs in the control, you must change their positions in the collection by removing them and inserting them at new indexes. You can change the xpanderpanel's appearance. For example, to make it appear flat, set the CaptionStyle property to CaptionStyle.Flat.

On top of the XPanderPanel, there is the captionbar. This captionbar may contain an image and text. According to its properties, the panel can be closed.

xpanderpanellist2.png

BSE.Windows.Forms.Splitter

This represents a splitter control that enables the user to resize docked controls. As different from the System.Windows.Forms.Splitter, the splitter supports a transparent background color.

panelsplitter.png

A splitter can be attached to a panel. If the visibility of the panel changes, the visibility of the splitter changes too.

splitter.png

All the panelcolors and properties are customizable and changeable with the visual designer.

xpandercontrolsdesigner.png

paneldesigner.png

If you want to expand a XPanderPanel in the Visual Designer, please click the captionbar.

xpanderpanelexpand.png

When the RightToLeft property value is set to RightToLeft.Yes, the horizontal alignment of the control's elements are reversed.

xpanderpanellistrighttoleft.png

Using the Code

Right click on the toolbox and choose add/remove items..., there you browse for the BSE.Windows.Forms.dll and press OK. All the controls will be added in the ToolBox under "My User Controls". Set BSE.Windows.Test as StartUp Project.

Using the RightToLeft Feature in the Test Sample

Open the Program.cs file in the BSE.Windows.Test project and remove the following comments:

C#
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    //// if you want to use the RightToLeft demo,
    //// please remove these comments
    //CultureInfo currentCulture = new CultureInfo
    // (BSE.Windows.Test.Properties.Settings.Default.Language);
    //Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = currentCulture;
    //Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = currentCulture;

    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

    //// if you want to use the RightToLeft demo,
    //// please remove these comments
    //using (CCountrySelectionForm form = new CCountrySelectionForm())
    //{
        //form.ShowDialog();
    //}

    Application.Run(new Form1());
}

Select the ar-EG culture name for the Arabic (Egypt) culture:

xpandercontrols5.png

Class Diagrams

XPanderPanelList

xpanderpanellistclass.png

Panel and XPanderPanel

panelsclass.png

Code Examples

Using the ToolstripProfessionalRenderer and the PanelsettingsManager at runtime:

C#
public class Form2 : Form
{
	private BSE.Windows.Forms.Panel panel1;
        
	public Form2()
	{
		// Create and initialize a Panel.
		this.panel1 = new BSE.Windows.Forms.Panel();
		this.panel1.Text = "panel1";
		// Set the panel background.
		this.panel1.ShowTransparentBackground = false;
		// Set the panel's DockStyle to DockStyle.Fill
		this.panel1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
		// Add the panel to the form
		this.Controls.Add(this.panel1);

		// Create and initialize a ToolStripProfessionalRenderer.
		ToolStripProfessionalRenderer renderer = 
			new BSE.Windows.Forms.Office2007Renderer();
		// Add it to the ToolStripManager.Renderer
		ToolStripManager.Renderer = renderer;

		// Get the ProfessionalColorTable colorTable for the current renderer.
		BSE.Windows.Forms.ProfessionalColorTable colorTable = 
		    renderer.ColorTable as BSE.Windows.Forms.ProfessionalColorTable;
		if (colorTable != null)
		{
			// Get the PanelColors panelColorTable for the 
			// current  colortable.
			BSE.Windows.Forms.PanelColors panelColorTable = 
						colorTable.PanelColorTable;
			if (panelColorTable != null)
			{
				// Set the panel properties for the form 
				// controls collection
				BSE.Windows.Forms.PanelSettingsManager.
				SetPanelProperties(this.Controls, panelColorTable);
			}
		}
	}
}

Adaption of the Panel Colors

Create a colortable that derives from BSE.Windows.Forms.PanelColors and overwrite the protected method InitColors:

C#
public class YourPanelColors : PanelColorsOffice
{
    protected override void InitColors(Dictionary<panelcolors.knowncolors>, rgbTable)
    {
        base.InitColors(rgbTable);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.BorderColor] = Color.FromArgb(101, 147, 207);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.InnerBorderColor] = Color.White;
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionCloseIcon] = Color.Black;
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionExpandIcon] = Color.FromArgb(21, 66, 139);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionGradientBegin] = 
					Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionGradientEnd] = 
					Color.FromArgb(173, 209, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionGradientMiddle] = 
					Color.FromArgb(199, 224, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelContentGradientBegin] = 
					Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelContentGradientEnd] = 
					Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCaptionText] = Color.FromArgb(22, 65, 139);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.PanelCollapsedCaptionText] = 
					Color.FromArgb(21, 66, 139);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelBackColor] = Color.Transparent;
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionCloseIcon] = Color.Black;
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionExpandIcon] = 
					Color.FromArgb(21, 66, 139);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionText] = Color.FromArgb(21, 66, 139);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionGradientBegin] = 
					Color.FromArgb(227, 239, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionGradientEnd] = 
					Color.FromArgb(199, 224, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelCaptionGradientMiddle] = 
					Color.FromArgb(173, 209, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelFlatCaptionGradientBegin] = 
					Color.FromArgb(214, 232, 255);
        rgbTable[KnownColors.XPanderPanelFlatCaptionGradientEnd] = 
					Color.FromArgb(253, 253, 254);
    }
}    </panelcolors.knowncolors>

Or you may set the ColorScheme property to ColorScheme.Custom and fill the CustomColors properties with your colors.

Credits

  • Thanks to Phil. Wright for his Office 2007 ToolStrip Renderer. That gave me an insight into toolstrip rendering.
  • Thanks to Bernhard Jenny for many tips.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


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Comments and Discussions

 
AnswerRe: Great control, but why is caption height fixed ? Pin
Uwe Eichkorn17-Jan-08 19:41
Uwe Eichkorn17-Jan-08 19:41 
GeneralRe: Great control, but why is caption height fixed ? Pin
EUros30-Jan-08 2:11
EUros30-Jan-08 2:11 
Questionhorizontal aligment? Pin
radioman.lt13-Dec-07 2:36
radioman.lt13-Dec-07 2:36 
AnswerRe: horizontal aligment? Pin
Uwe Eichkorn20-Dec-07 8:32
Uwe Eichkorn20-Dec-07 8:32 
GeneralVeryGood Pin
Member 27610909-Dec-07 22:20
Member 27610909-Dec-07 22:20 
GeneralExactly what I was looking for Pin
GoOrange20-Nov-07 11:33
GoOrange20-Nov-07 11:33 
GeneralRe: Exactly what I was looking for Pin
Uwe Eichkorn21-Nov-07 20:44
Uwe Eichkorn21-Nov-07 20:44 
GeneralNicely Done Pin
Mike Hankey17-Nov-07 17:09
mveMike Hankey17-Nov-07 17:09 
GeneralThanks For Supporting Arabic Language Pin
Samer Abu Obaid9-Oct-07 23:51
Samer Abu Obaid9-Oct-07 23:51 
GeneralAt last!! Pin
Joe Sonderegger1-Oct-07 1:44
Joe Sonderegger1-Oct-07 1:44 
AnswerRe: At last!! Pin
Uwe Eichkorn1-Oct-07 8:12
Uwe Eichkorn1-Oct-07 8:12 
GeneralRe: At last!! Pin
Uwe Eichkorn17-Jan-08 22:14
Uwe Eichkorn17-Jan-08 22:14 
Generalnice work! Pin
TheCardinal30-Sep-07 1:24
TheCardinal30-Sep-07 1:24 
QuestionQuestion for you... Pin
krsanford25-Jul-07 4:52
krsanford25-Jul-07 4:52 
GeneralGreat!Very good!Thank you! ^_^ Pin
qingtianyu95-Jul-07 15:44
qingtianyu95-Jul-07 15:44 
GeneralRe: Great!Very good!Thank you! ^_^ Pin
Uwe Eichkorn5-Jul-07 19:53
Uwe Eichkorn5-Jul-07 19:53 
GeneralCongratulations! Pin
Adam Juhos14-Apr-07 2:54
Adam Juhos14-Apr-07 2:54 

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