ListView Grouping XP Style

Download demo project - 33.2 Kb

Sample Image - GroupListView.jpg

Introduction

The controls included with Microsoft’s IDE have always been feature rich. However, Microsoft always seems to leave out as many features as they include. The ListView control is no exception to this rule. This project aims at exposing and wrapping a few cool features. First to note is the ability to group items. In Windows Explorer’s View menu, the “Arrange Icon by” menu has a “Show in Groups” option. This allows the ListView to arrange items logically into groups, generally based on file type. The next feature is the ability to set an image as the background of a ListView, whether tiled or a single image. Your My Music folder demonstrates the concept, with a music note image in the lower right hand corner. This project extends the standard ListView with the help of the Windows API to give a more feature rich control.

Code

All the dirty work happens in the ListviewAPI class. Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never used any Windows API. The code simply wraps the SendMessage API using a handful of overrides. The rest is just constants required by the API (documentation available on MSDN).

I’ll spare a long explanation. Download the test project and see for yourself. I included a bitmap file (Note.bmp) to use for setting the background image. You’ll notice, there is extra padding at the bottom of the bitmap. This is because setting the image yOffsetPercent to 100 causes the image to drop below the bottom of the ListView. However, setting the offset to 99 or less causes strange positioning when resizing the window.

History

May 25, 2004 - Support for bolded group headers

License

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

About the Author

TylerBrinks

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SelectedIndex

mrabie

17:37 16 Mar '06

First i really want to thank you on this wonderful control. I am trying to get the idex of the selected item when view_SelectedIndexChanged is fired there's no SelectedIndex??? Thanks a lot for your help
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Re: SelectedIndex

mrabie

18:43 16 Mar '06

Please ignor my question.Sorry for this post i got mix up between listview and listbox
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Re: SelectedIndex

Gil15

7:22 17 Jul '07

Ok... if (view.SelectedIndices.Count>0) { int valor = view.SelectedIndices[0]; XPListview.XPListViewItem s = view.Items[valor]; string[] v1 = {s.SubItems[1].Text,s.SubItems[2].Text, s.SubItems[3].Text}; } .... hi!!!!
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Re: SelectedIndex

Gil15

7:28 17 Jul '07

!!Sorry ... this component this available one for Vb.net 2003? since not yet I can unfold the items in the View. Hep Meee!!!!!!!!!! hi!!!!
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Re: SelectedIndex

Member 3708049

10:48 4 Dec '09

i cannot get selected sub item? if (view.SelectedIndices.Count>0) { int valor = view.SelectedIndices[0]; XPListview.XPListViewItem s = view.Items[valor]; string[] v1 = {s.SubItems[1].Text,s.SubItems[2].Text, s.SubItems[3].Text}; } this not work!
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sort within groups

umeca74

22:49 5 Jan '06

when groups are enabled, sorting items does not have any visual effect. The "sort order" within a group seems to be the order that items were added. The recommended index for InsertItem is also ignored. has anybody managed to do proper sorting _within_ a group? thanks nikos
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XPListViewItem.UseItemStyleForSubItems is ignored

Yax Ku'k Mo

10:54 5 Jan '06

Setting UseItemStyleForSubItems to true does not propagate the parent XPListViewItem's drawing information to its SubItems. Fine control, tho.
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Change row color

[Neno]

10:45 21 Nov '05

How do I change the color on every other row. When I try this I only get the first column to change color on every other row. Need som help. /Fredrik
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StackOverFlow

rafabgood

2:48 19 Sep '05

At line 61 in XPListViewItemCollection.cs return ((XPListViewItem)this[displayIndex]); This makes impossible to use any index. Anybody got a solution for that? []'s r.
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Re: StackOverFlow

rafabgood

3:00 19 Sep '05

Well, I just got a solution. If you are inside of an event, instead of casting the sender object into a XPlistview, cast it to a ListView object and work as if you were using the listview control. ListView lView = (ListView)sender; ListViewItem xItem = lView.Items[lView.SelectedIndices[0]]; []'s r.
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Re: StackOverFlow

Moshe Taieb

1:56 24 Oct '06

you should leave the casting to XPListViewItem, and call the base instead of this:

The buggy code:



public new XPListViewItem this[int displayIndex] { 

    get { 

        return ((XPListViewItem)this[displayIndex]);

    } 

    set {

        this[displayIndex] = value; 

    } 

}

change it to:

		public new XPListViewItem this[int displayIndex] { 

			get { 

				return ((XPListViewItem)base[displayIndex]);

			} 

			set {

				base[displayIndex] = value; 

			} 

		}

Re: StackOverFlow

lornen

17:05 25 Dec '06

thanks for your help!
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Compile Error

Simon Pearson

1:04 14 Sep '05

When compiling the project I'm getting the following error:

C:\Documents and Settings\Simon\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\XPListview\XPListViewItemCollection.cs(59): 'XPListview.XPListViewItemCollection.this[int]' hides inherited member 'System.Windows.Forms.ListView.ListViewItemCollection.this[int]'. To make the current member override that implementation, add the override keyword. Otherwise add the new keyword.

As a complete beginner in .net (particularly c#, coming from a vb6 background *grin*), I have little (no) clue as to what this means, or how to fix this, but I'm very eager to learn.

Appreciate any help coming my way!

Simon

StackoverflowException

laszlo varga

11:23 2 Sep '05

Hello!

And thank you for your great and fascinating Control.
I do really love to use it but i have to use "lvwSuche.Items[0].Selected == true"
so that if some items are existing, the first one should be selected by some conditions.
Afterall i become always a System.StackOverflowException here:



		public XListViewItem this[int displayIndex] 

		{ 

			get 

			{ 

				return ((XListViewItem)this[displayIndex]); 

			} 

			set 

			{

				this[displayIndex] = value; 

			} 

		}

Please help me

Regards, Laszlo Varga

Re: StackoverflowException

iixulf

18:51 23 Mar '06

modify the code as below: public XListViewItem this[int displayIndex] { get { return ((XListViewItem)base[displayIndex]); } set { base[displayIndex] = value; } } Xu Lifu
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Using or not using Application.EnableVisualStyles();

Paulo Aboim Pinto

0:57 4 Aug '05

Hello I'm having problems using the Visual Styles. If I use the image don't refresh when record get over it If I use it, when I select a record I cannot deselect. Have you haver get this error? How did you resolve it? tkx in advance (()) Paulo Aboim Pinto Odivelas - Portugal
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Re: Using or not using Application.EnableVisualStyles();

Paulo Aboim Pinto

1:18 4 Aug '05

we have to define the SmallImageList and LargeImageList for this work perfectly.
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Indicating that list is empty

Paulo Aboim Pinto

0:54 4 Aug '05

I've implemented this feature after reading the article: http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/extlistviewarticle.asp

I just change the WndProc method in XPListView.cs:

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
base.WndProc(ref m);

if (this.Items.Count == 0)
{
_b = true;
Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();
int w = 0;
w = this.Width;
w -= g.MeasureString(_msg, this.Font).ToSize().Width;
w = w/2;
g.DrawString(_msg, this.Font, SystemBrushes.ControlText, w, 30);
}
else
{
if (_b)
{
this.Invalidate();
_b = false;
}
}

switch (m.Msg) {
case ListViewAPI.OCM_NOTIFY:
ListViewAPI.NMHDR lmsg = (ListViewAPI.NMHDR) m.GetLParam(typeof(ListViewAPI.NMHDR));

switch (lmsg.code) {
case (int)ListViewAPI.NM_CUSTOMDRAW:
NotifyListCustomDraw(ref m);
break;

case (int)ListViewAPI.LVN_GETDISPINFOW:
break;

case (int)ListViewAPI.LVN_ITEMCHANGING:
break;

default:
break;
}
break;
}
}

Add this variable as global in the class:
private bool _b = true;
private string _msg = "There are no items to show in this view";

Hope you can add this feature to the download version

(())
Paulo Aboim Pinto
Odivelas - Portugal

Group Headers

Calum McLellan

21:58 10 Jul '05

Hi,

Thanks heaps for sharing Smile | :)

I have translated this to VB.NET and got the groups working fine, except that the group headers aren't bold. I have looked through your code and done a bit of debugging and I am passing the same parameters in the SendMessage calls. Did you have to do anything in particular to get the group headers to display properly or do you just do the SendMessage call?

Thanks
Calum

Re: Group Headers

Calum McLellan

9:39 15 Jul '05

Hi,

Figured it out. You need to set the defaults for NM_CUSTOMDRAW in the WndProc Sub...

If anyones interested...

    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
        MyBase.WndProc(m)
        Select Case m.Msg
            Case OCM_NOTIFY
                Dim lmsg As NMHDR = CType(m.GetLParam(GetType(NMHDR)), NMHDR)
                Select Case lmsg.code
                    Case NM_CUSTOMDRAW
                        m.Result = New IntPtr(CDRF_DODEFAULT)
                End Select
        End Select
    End Sub

Cheers
Calum

Selection problem

Mific99

7:58 6 Jul '05

I'm using your control in conjunction with a treeview control.

When I select an item in the listview control, a background color emphasized this selected item (it's a standard behaviour).

Now, when I select an item in the treeview control, the backgroup color of the selected item in the listview disappeared. But internally this item is always selected (I can retrieve it by program). What's wrong ?

ListViewItem DesignMode

JP CADT

21:26 30 Jun '05

I can't add an ListViewItem in DesignMode. Because my Project deletes the Items when Compiling. I want to use this awesome control Can any one help? Thx
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Collapsable group?

Kozmoz

1:17 14 Jun '05

Is it possible to make the groups collapsable? "Try Not! Do. Or Do Not. There is no Try..." Master Yoda
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Re: Collapsable group?

Acoustic

4:30 15 Jun '05

Yes, but you have to intercept the window messages and do custom painting. It just takes quite a bit of extra work.
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Add group manuel

deltadk

22:15 14 Apr '05

Hello Is there any other way, then to use the AutoGroupByColumn function to add a group. The thing I want is to add a group manuel, so when I start a new section, in the listview, I first add the group to name the section. Thanks in advanced
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