An Aqua Button Control Written in C# for .Net

• Download source files - 35 Kb
• Download demo project - 15 Kb

Introduction

I have written a number of applications and always been a little disappointed at how drab they look using the standard VS controls. I had been looking for an easy way for brightening up these apps and in the end resorted to writing my own button control based on the "The Aqualizer Strikes Back!" work found on the Code Project site. 

Using this, control bitmaps are created "on the fly" according to the attributes of the control. Colour, Height, Width, Font Size and Text. The slow rendering speed of the graphics is negated by using cached bitmaps. For each button two Png files are produced. One is the colour of the button and the other which is clear and is used when the mouse hovers over the button and when the button is disabled. Using this control you gain the advantages of both options - flexible image generation and - speed.

Using the Control in your own Applications

The control can be used as a normal button control "as is". Simply add the project to your solution and you can add the control to your forms. Remember the aquabutton control must be compiled before it can be added to the form in the form editor. Use the properties ButtonText, ButtonColour, FontSize and TextColour to set the text and colours of the button.

Points of Interest

New Properties on the Button

Using VS 2003 I spent quite some time trying to make Text and ForeColor do my bidding. For one reason or another I found these to be unreliable and decided in the end to use my own properties. Hence ButtonText, ButtonColour, FontSize and TextColour are used.

Making the Button's Text Property viewable on the form editor

To add my own properties to the Aqua Button Control I found it useful to use the Description, Default Value and the Browsable attributes. The sample below shows how this is. Useful tips in setting the properties can be given in the description field.

[Description("The text visible on the control. Use \\n for line breaks")]
[DefaultValue("Not Set")
[Browsable()>
public string ButtonText
{
    set
    {
        base.Text="not set";
        initialise();
        m_text=value;
        redrawButton();
    }

    get
    {
        return m_text;
    }
}

Deriving your own Button Classes

If in a moment of madness, if you feel inclined to base your own control on the Aqua Button control, it is perfectly possible to override the CreateImage() method to produce alternative designs (e.g. diamonds, emeralds etc). The helper classes for the graphics are are provided for doing all of this. You may have to make some of them public.
To understand how to do this, just use the class provided to get yourself started. For more information about how the algorithms work I suggest you take a look at the excellent "Aqualiser Strikes Back" article. In overriding  CreateImage() be sure to cache the images in the same way as the base class or performance will suffer.

private void createBaseImages()
{
    /* Call the overrideable CreateImage routines to get the bitmaps/images */
    m_image=CreateImage( m_buttonColour );
    m_nofocusImage=CreateImage( Color.White );
    this.Image = m_image;
}

Limitations

• The behaviour of the button is slightly limited in that it does not provide the dialog type behaviour. With minor tweaks (or with me being prompted) this may be remedied in future releases.
• The buttons still lack feedback on pressing. They need either a click are a visual action to complete the effect.
• The 2D graphics library used dictates that the code is compiled with the "allow unsafe code" option set. For this reason it is best to hive the control into it's own library as not to enforce this option on other assemblies.
• The bitmap is not rendered until the the Text property is changed from "Not Set". At this point every time the font, size, text or colour is changed a new bitmap is rendered. This is OK for released applications, but can mean a lot of bitmaps can be created in your %temp% directory during development.

Feedback

I use this control a lot in my own applications as it brightens up the UI dramatically. I realise that the control is not a completely finished and has shortcomings (not serious ones hopefully). Feedback is gratefully accepted and where fitting will be incorporated in later versions of the control.

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How can i get a click event? alfredopfr 11:53 30 Jun '09   I need get click event for my button, but only i have a load event, help me!1 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Can the corner radius be adjusted? Member 2275006 6:40 10 Mar '09   Can the corner radius be adjusted for a more tradional rectangular button look? The edges as they are now seem to be a little pointed. Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink BackColor Transparent problem !!! honma 15:13 21 Jan '09   BackColor = Color.Transparent nfdhgfhgfhfgnhnhnnhgnghghgfmhgnhgfnhgfhnfhgfhnyg Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Is this can use for smart device? Chanuri 20:24 29 Dec '08   Is this Sample can use for smart device development? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Is this can use for smart device? Rad1cal 7:07 7 Jan '09   The guts of the technique is the generation of the bitmap. This can be used for most things. However I am not sure of the extent of the graphics library capabilities for smart devices. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How to change shape of the button? sarvind1907 3:26 5 Aug '08   I want to change shape of the button to rectangle ?how can i do it? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Can the text be made brighter? DutchJohn 10:55 11 May '08   Hi, very pretty control indeed. I do have one remark: the text, even when set to white, is hardly readable on darker button colors. Can you tell me what and where to tweak to brighten the text a bit? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can the text be made brighter? aberg 10:47 6 Jul '08   Hi Yes, change the texttrans variable to a lower value or zero. Currently at 0.75 I think. You'll find it in aquabutton.cs Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Cannot Download or view Screenshots Sukhjinder_K 21:00 8 Dec '07   There seems to be some problem with codeproject.com can't view and download your work. If possible please put link to some alternate location having your work. Thanks... Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How to asign short cut key sudhir paliwal 5:10 22 Oct '07   Hi, I have downloaded and run, it is very very nice. But i want to asign short cut as in vb6 we use "&" sign in the caption, how can i do it in this control ? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: How to asign short cut key Rad1cal 5:11 29 Nov '07   Apologies for the delay in replying - I've been offline for a while. I'm afraid you will need to write that in yourself. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Can Aqua Buttons be used with Web Form?? B-RadG 11:10 18 Jul '07   I am trying to use the buttons on my VB .Net web form and I'm getting errors detecting the Systems.Windows, I was under the impression this would work for a web form also. Is this the case?? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can Aqua Buttons be used with Web Form?? Rad1cal 7:44 24 Jul '07   Not web forms - however it can be easily adapted as it shows you how to generate a bitmap which you can use on the webform. I would recommend you cache the buttons on the server so that subsequent visitors to the site can use the same images making the site quicker. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink very nice Alexandros200510 0:47 20 Oct '06   very nice control. congratulations. I changed it a little bit and instead of changing the image on mouse enter and mouse leave it now changes the image on mouse_down and mouse_up Now it seems as if it can be pressed. Simply add event handlers for mouse_down and mouse_up and there copy the code from mouse_enter and and mouse_leave and also delete or comment the code for mouse_enter and mouse_leave afterwards. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: very nice Rad1cal 13:40 20 Oct '06   Thanks, I will give it a try and see if I like the behavior. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink very cool wurakeem 3:41 17 Oct '06   This looks very noteworthy and I'd like to use it but I have two questions: 1. can you implement a "Clicked" look ? Make it appear "pressed in" when user clicks it. 2. can you post a vs.net 2003 solution ? Since you mentioned it is .net 1.0 and .net 2.0 compatible and you know better what needs to be converted to make it work on .net 1.0, this conversion would be much appreciated by all the shops that use .net 1.0 today (like mine). Again, great job! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: very cool Rad1cal 6:17 17 Oct '06   Will do. The changed bit will take a short while longer as I need a spare moment. Glad you liked it. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: very cool Rad1cal 1:10 18 Oct '06   wurakeem wrote: can you post a vs.net 2003 solution ? Have uploaded versions for .Net Frameworks 1 and 2 (i.e. 2003 and 2005) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Very nice visual Lutz Morrien 0:36 17 Oct '06   Nice project, I love the buttons visual appearance Lutz Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Which Visual Studio was that?... Petru66 5:26 17 Oct '06   My Visual Studio 2003 complains that the solution and projects were created with a newer version. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Which Visual Studio was that?... Rad1cal 6:15 17 Oct '06   It was written in 2003 and posted with 2005. However it should be code compatible with 2003. You would need to create a new solution and project. I will post an alternative shortly. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Which Visual Studio was that?... Petru66 6:23 17 Oct '06   Ok, thanks. Actually it needs .NET framework 2.0. I was able to use the code by simply creating a new project with the same controls (!) and copying the code from your AquaButton.cs. And it worked without problems. Thanks! It's a very neat control. The only think (but maybe it's on my screens only) is the faded color of the text. Somehow I don't get it sharp. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Which Visual Studio was that?... Rad1cal 1:11 18 Oct '06   Petru66 wrote: The only think (but maybe it's on my screens only) is the faded color of the text. This is more to do with the algorithm. Blurring for the effect causes black text to grey a little. May look at refining this a bit. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Which Visual Studio was that?... Rad1cal 1:07 18 Oct '06   Have uploaded versions for .Net Frameworks 1 and 2 (i.e. 2003 and 2005) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink

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