XPander Controls Converged

• Download source files - 63.8 Kb
• Download demo (Binaries only) - 50.2 Kb

Introduction

There are a number of XP like grouping controls on CodeProject and elsewhere:

• Just another C# Collapsing Group Control
• Windows XP style Collapsible Panel Bar
• Office 2003 Line Control
• TaskVision

(Please let me know if I missed someone!)

Thanks to all those who wrote those nice controls. All these controls implement a number of features, however no single control implements all those features. So I decided to shamelessly copy their code and "Converge" everything in one! ;-) Also most of them were in C#, so I decided to start with VB.NET for this one. I used VS 2003 but they should work in VS 2002 also.

Feature list

• Images on the left side of caption.
• Animated expand/collapse. Animation can be switched off and the timing can also be changed. Gives the feeling of gradual fade away.
• Drawing in gray if disabled.
• Gradient fills.
• Different chevron styles
• Can be shown as non-collapsible
• Tooltips
• Office 2003 line style for the caption
• Completely customizable

Using the control

You can use it in two ways:

1. Drop XPanderList control to your form and then drop XPander controls to the XPanderList control.
2. Or just drop XPander control to your form.

Most of the properties exposed on the controls are self-explanatory but some important ones are:

• CaptionStyle - Choose a caption style. FlatLine makes it look like, Office 2003 flat caption with a line in the end, style.
• ChevronStyle - Different chevron styles. Image, ArrowsInCircle, Triangle.
• CollapsedImage, ExpandedImage, ExpandedHighlightImage, CollapsedHighlightImage - Specify your own bitmaps for chevrons! (Make sure that you have ChevronStyle set to Image.)
• Image - Image on the left side of the caption.
• CanToggle - Is the user allowed to expand/collapse? If False chevrons are not displayed, clicking on the caption does nothing and mouse cursor remains default.
• ShowTooltips - Whether to show tool tips or not. Tool tip text is same as the caption text.
• Animated - Enable/disable animation.
• AnimationTime - How fast/slow (time). Used only if Animated is True. Value 0 behaves as if Animated=False
• CaptionTextHighlightColor - Caption is drawn in this color when hovering.
• CaptionHeight - Caption height can be adjusted. All child controls on this "group" are repositioned automatically with caption height change.

There are more properties for adjusting caption attributes like height, font, colors and so on.

Also methods Expand(), Collapse() are available on XPander and ExpandAll(), CollapseAll() are available on XPanderList.

Using the code

The "original articles" do such a good job of explaining the code so I will not repeat it here. They can be found with the links above.

Points of interest

Note that properties like CaptionLeftColor of type Color (and other properties like it) can be "Reset" using the VS.NET designer. This is achieved by using the DefaultValue attribute:

<Description("Determines the ending (dark) " + _ 
    "color of the caption gradient fill."), _
    DefaultValue(GetType(Color), "198, 210, 248"), _
    Category("Caption")> _
Public Property CaptionRightColor() As Color

To draw disabled strings I use:

ControlPaint.DrawStringDisabled(g, CaptionText, _ 
    m_CaptionFont, capcolor, CaptionRectF, format)

Similarly to draw disabled images I use:

ControlPaint.DrawImageDisabled(g, m_ExpandedImage, _ 
    Me.Width - m_ExpandedImage.Width - 8, 2 + _ 
    imageOffsetY, Me.CaptionRightColor) 

Credits

Once again since this is more a copy/paste/organize operation then "new code", all credits go to those who wrote the original controls namely Daren May, Derek Lakin, Rob Tomson and the people who made TaskVision.

Revision history

• Ver 1.2
  • New properties for pane color handling to get a look similar to Longhorn group boxes!. PaneBottomRightColor, PaneTopLeftColor, PaneOutlineColor
  • New property ImageOffset between image and caption top.
  • New property CaptionTextAlign, can be Left,Middle or Right
  • New CaptionStyle=WrapAroundLine
  • New ChevronStyle=PlusMinus
• Ver 1.1
  • DrawChevronImage replaced by ChevronStyle. Currently you can select Image, ArrowsInCircle, Triangle or None.
  • FlatCaptionStyle replaced by CaptionStyle which can be Normal or FlatLine.
  • Reorganized most of the code to make it much more readable.
  • CaptionCurveRadius is also exposed now. Set it to 0 to remove curved captions.
  • Standard border styles can be used with BorderStyle. Enable border drawing by setting DrawBorder to True

Note: If you are already using version 1.0, you will have to change your form code to use CaptionStyle and ChevronStyle instead of FlatCaptionStyle and DrawChevronImage.

Happy XPanding!

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Bugs during Mouse Hover netfusion 1:09 30 Apr '09   Hello my friend, I've found that your controls is very very interesting. But when i put a panel on the XPander and put windows control on it, then i hover on the XPander caption, the redraw look pretty ugly . Is there any property that i can set to make this redraw looks nicer? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink using this in visual web developer dualshock03 0:43 10 Mar '08   Hi i want to ask how to use this in an asp.net web application? i'm sttrugling how to make use of it for my web page.. i tried referencing this control but i cant use it in the toolbox.. any help pls.. vbrokkie Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Bug!? help me! scheisse83 11:26 12 Sep '07   Hi When i try to open a winform using the XPanderControl, i get this error on a Dialog Box: "The control XPanderControl.XPanderList has thrown an unhandled exception in the designer and has been disabled. Exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Stack Trace: at XPanderControl.XPanderListDesigner.OnPaintAdornments(PaintEventArgs e)" This error only happened to me when i try to open the the winforms on another pc. But when i open the winforms in my pc i have no problem at all. Can anyone help me with these problem, i dunno what's wrong. 11 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink programming work? Alex Niswander 8:47 20 Jan '07   Hello, We might be looking for some help with a programming project. Email me from our website for more information: www.chiro-chart.com Thank you, Alex Niswander Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote) Header has a verticle gradient instead of horizontal rwbaker 4:02 23 Jun '06   When I use the XPander control, my header has a verticle gradient instead of a horizontal gradient like the screenshot shows. Any idea why? Or how to fix? Thanks! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Header has a verticle gradient instead of horizontal ssamayoa 8:06 1 Jul '06   Open XPaner.vb and change line 1090 from this: Dim CaptionBrush As New LinearGradientBrush(rc, m_CaptionLeftColor, m_CaptionRightColor, LinearGradientMode.Vertical) To this: Dim CaptionBrush As New LinearGradientBrush(rc, m_CaptionLeftColor, m_CaptionRightColor, LinearGradientMode.Horizontal) Regards. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Header has a verticle gradient instead of horizontal rwbaker 10:18 1 Jul '06   I tried that before I posted and it didn't work. But I'll try it again as I must have done something wrong. Thanks for the answer! -rich Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Thanks a lot! CodingWolf 15:50 29 Mar '06   Appreciate your work and sharing! That is the perfect control I'm looking for, and it help me so much in my work Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink XPander returning an error in VS.NET 2005 Nick4978 21:24 4 Nov '05   Do you know how I could modify the XPander control to not error out when trying to place it in VS.NET 2005? It goes on further in the stack, but I'll leave it at and if you need the rest, I can provide it. Note that this is using the upgrade wizard from a 2003 project to 2005. Currently I receive the following error: Failed to create component 'XPander' The error messasge follows: 'System.NullReferenceException: Object not set to an instance of an object. at System.Resources.Tools.StronglyTypedResourceBuilder.DefineResourceFetchingProperty(String propertyName, String resourceName, ResourceData data, CodeTypeDeclaration srClass, Boolean internalClass, Boolean useStatic) at System.Resources.Tools.StronglyTypedResourceBuilder.InternalCreate(Dictionary`2 resourceList, String baseName, String generatedCodeNamespace, String resourcesNamespace, CodeDomProvider codeProvider, Boolean internalClass, String[]& unmatchable) Thanks, Nick Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.71/5 (4 votes) Re: XPander returning an error in VS.NET 2005 bqStony 4:14 13 Feb '06   hi. I am working to on VS 2005. And i have no problem with that. have you add correct the DLL to your toolbar and Reference list? Works the Example Project? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.67/5 (3 votes) Expanding left to right avantip180 11:02 7 Oct '05   Can this control support expanding from left to right instead of up to down? Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Expanding left to right mkg 7:35 10 Oct '05   Unfortunately not at this moment. It should be fairly easy to implement though. If you look at the Expand and Collapse methods in XPander.vb, you will see that all they do is change the height of the control. Replacing the code in ChangeHeight to change width instead would do the trick. You will have to change the Timer1_Tick code also. If I ever get around to posting a new version, I will make sure to include that. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink I want to ask you How to run it when having error? myphuong244 20:24 31 Aug '05   When i have done with these helping from you, it has run but now it has another error:Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Because I am the first doing VB.Net project so I can't understand it clearly. Now can you help? Thank you very much. -- modified at 1:25 Thursday 1st September, 2005 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: I want to ask you How to run it when having error? mkg 7:37 10 Oct '05   It seems you are accessing an object with "new"ing it. Unfortunately I can't help you more with the limited information in your question. If you post a code snippet here, may be I can tell you more. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: I want to ask you How to run it when having error? myphuong244 18:00 10 Oct '05   Thank you when you reply for your that letter. But i don't use XPander, i have used that idea for do otherwise for my project.Thank you for your time. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink XPander Control have error? myphuong244 18:29 31 Aug '05   When i have done with these helping from you, it has run but now it has another error:Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Because I am the first doing VB.Net project so I can't understand it clearly. Now can you help? Thank you very much. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote) Run XPander Controls have errors! myphuong244 19:18 29 Aug '05   Hello! Before running,I go to Toolbox, add components XPander and XPanderList from Components, Then I have run it but this message i have recieved from it. "A Project with an Output Type of class Library cannot be started direct...." Please help me. Thank You. -- modified at 1:22 Thursday 1st September, 2005 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Run XPander Controls have errors! mkg 8:58 31 Aug '05   You are making a simple mistake here. The Xpander project only builds a dll not an exe. You can only "run" either the demo project (included in the downloads) or create a new EXE project yourself and set it as startup (right click on the project in the Solution Explorer and select "Set as Startup Project") Hope this helps Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Little bug titan_pi8 6:31 1 Aug '05   Hello, First of all, I want to thank you for making such a nice control! It's really awsome, works great!! I found a small bug: the MouseLeave event is never raised. This is because you have overriden it but forgot to call 'myBase.OnMouseLeave' So this is the code snippet that contains this small bug: Protected Overrides Sub OnMouseLeave(ByVal e As System.EventArgs) If m_IsCaptionHighlighted Then m_IsCaptionHighlighted = False Cursor.Current = Cursors.Default Invalidate() End If End Sub So this needs to be inserted right before 'End Sub': MyBase.OnMouseLeave(e) Again, thanks a lot, Pieter Agten! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Little bug mkg 8:59 31 Aug '05   You are right. Thanks for finding the bug. I will update the article and the code soon. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Adding XPander to XPanderList at Runtime slipmat 18:10 17 Mar '05   Hi, I've been struggling to get XPanderList to recognize an XPander that is added at runtime. I have been using xpanderlist.controls.add(XPander) Is it possible to place XPander at runtime? I have dimmed the Xpander Friend WithEvents also, but no luck. Thanks There is no place like 127.0.0.1 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Transparent Background romias 3:49 4 Feb '05   Hi, first of all... congrats!!... it's a very nice and helpful control. Jumping to the issue... I need the XpanderList to support transparent background... I've set the background colors to Transparent and the XpanderList shows a Black one. I looked into the code willing to find a harcoded 'Color.Black' but I didn't find nothing like that... I also change some Color values but I don't get any changes... Do you know how to fix this? Tnks in advance!! Matías Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Transparent Background mkg 6:08 10 Feb '05   Try this. In XPanderList.vb::OnPaintBackground use the following.. If Me.BackColor.A = 0 Then MyBase.OnPaintBackground(pevent) Else Dim rect As Rectangle = New Rectangle(0, AutoScrollPosition.Y, Me.Width, Me.Height) Dim b As LinearGradientBrush = New LinearGradientBrush(Me.DisplayRectangle, m_BgColorLight, m_BgColorDark, LinearGradientMode.Vertical) pevent.Graphics.FillRectangle(b, Me.DisplayRectangle) End If see if it helps atleast for "purely transparent" colors! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Transparent Background mkg 6:26 10 Feb '05   Let me also explain a little about what this new code does. The If loop checks the alpha component of the BackColor property (which is 0 if you set it to "Transparent") and then simply calls the base code. What this does is to "simulate" transparency. As per MSDN: If the SupportsTransparentBackColor bit is set to true, and the BackColor is set to a color whose alpha component is less than 255, OnPaintBackground will simulate transparency by asking its parent control to paint the background. This is not true transparency. (You can change the code to check for any transparency with If Me.BackColor.A < 255 ) So if the parent of your XPanderList is not derived from "Control" it won't work. Also if you have another control in between your XPanderList and its parent, you won't see the other control. So the code I suggested above is not the perfect solution. I will try to post a better one but for now this one just might work for you. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 3.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Transparent Background romias 7:50 10 Feb '05   At this moment your offer of "unreal" transparency is all I need. Thanks from Uruguay Matías Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink

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