Click here to Skip to main content
15,885,891 members
Articles / Programming Languages / C#

Rubberband Behavior for WPF ListBox

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
5.00/5 (16 votes)
16 Jun 2012CPOL3 min read 50.2K   2.6K   27  
The article describes how to implement Rubberband behavior for WPF Listbox. Also it describes how to add the behavior using Expression Blend.
using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Threading;
using System.Windows.Controls.Primitives;
using System.Windows.Documents;

namespace RubberBand
{
    public class RubberBandAdorner : Adorner
    {
        private Point startpoint;
        private Point currentpoint;
        private Brush brush;
        private bool flag;
        private ScrollViewer viewer;
        private ScrollBar scrollbar;

        public RubberBandAdorner(UIElement adornedElement)
            :base(adornedElement)
        {
            IsHitTestVisible = false;
            adornedElement.MouseMove += new MouseEventHandler(adornedElement_PreviewMouseMove);
            adornedElement.MouseLeftButtonDown += new MouseButtonEventHandler(adornedElement_PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown);
            adornedElement.PreviewMouseLeftButtonUp += new MouseButtonEventHandler(adornedElement_PreviewMouseLeftButtonUp);
            brush = new SolidColorBrush(SystemColors.HighlightColor);
            brush.Opacity = 0.3;
        }

        void adornedElement_PreviewMouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
        {
            DisposeRubberBand();
        }

        void adornedElement_PreviewMouseLeftButtonDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
        {
            ListBox _selector = AdornedElement as ListBox;
            if (_selector.SelectedItems != null && (_selector.SelectionMode == SelectionMode.Extended || _selector.SelectionMode == SelectionMode.Multiple))
            {
                _selector.SelectedItems.Clear();
            }
            startpoint = Mouse.GetPosition(this.AdornedElement);
            Mouse.Capture(_selector);
            flag = true;
        }

        public static childItem FindVisualChild<childItem>(DependencyObject obj)
   where childItem : DependencyObject
        {
            // Search immediate children first (breadth-first)
            for (int i = 0; i < VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(obj); i++)
            {
                DependencyObject child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(obj, i);

                if (child != null && child is childItem)
                    return (childItem)child;

                else
                {
                    childItem childOfChild = FindVisualChild<childItem>(child);

                    if (childOfChild != null)
                        return childOfChild;
                }
            }

            return null;
        }

        void adornedElement_PreviewMouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Pressed && flag)
            {
                currentpoint = Mouse.GetPosition(AdornedElement);
                
                Selector _selector = AdornedElement as Selector;
                if (viewer == null)
                {
                    viewer = FindVisualChild<ScrollViewer>(_selector);
                }

                if (scrollbar == null)
                {
                    scrollbar = FindVisualChild<ScrollBar>(viewer);
                }

                if (_selector.Items.Count > 0)
                {
                    if (currentpoint.Y > ((FrameworkElement)AdornedElement).ActualHeight && viewer.VerticalOffset < _selector.ActualHeight && scrollbar.Visibility == System.Windows.Visibility.Visible)
                    {
                        startpoint.Y -= 50;
                    }
                    else if (currentpoint.Y < 0 && viewer.VerticalOffset > 0 && scrollbar.Visibility == System.Windows.Visibility.Visible)
                    {
                        startpoint.Y += 50;
                    }
                }

                InvalidateVisual();

                foreach (var obj in _selector.Items)
                {
                    ListBoxItem item = _selector.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(obj) as ListBoxItem;
                    if (item != null)
                    {
                        Point point = item.TransformToAncestor(AdornedElement).Transform(new Point(0, 0));
                        Rect bandrect = new Rect(startpoint, currentpoint);
                        Rect elementrect = new Rect(point.X, point.Y, item.ActualWidth, item.ActualHeight);
                        if (bandrect.IntersectsWith(elementrect))
                        {
                            item.IsSelected = true;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            item.IsSelected = false;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        protected override void OnRender(DrawingContext drawingContext)
        {
            Rect rect = new Rect(startpoint, currentpoint);
            drawingContext.DrawGeometry(brush, new Pen(SystemColors.HighlightBrush, 1), new RectangleGeometry(rect));
            base.OnRender(drawingContext);
        }

        private void DisposeRubberBand()
        {
            currentpoint = new Point(0, 0);
            startpoint = new Point(0, 0);
            AdornedElement.ReleaseMouseCapture();
            InvalidateVisual();
            flag = false;
        }
    }
}

By viewing downloads associated with this article you agree to the Terms of Service and the article's licence.

If a file you wish to view isn't highlighted, and is a text file (not binary), please let us know and we'll add colourisation support for it.

License

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


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
India India
Jawahar working as a Senior Development Engineer in Aditi Technologies,Bangalore, India. Specialist in all XAML frameworks. Very passionate on UX Design and Development. Skilled in Expression Blend, Design, WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7/8, Windows 8. Good knowledge in Entity Framework, SQLite and SQL Server also. Also had good experience with PRISM, MVVM, Caliiburn Micro and other design patterns.

He developed few products for Syncfusion Inc. Also working on some freelancing projects. Worked as a lead developer of Metro Studio from Syncfusion Inc.

An active freelancer. http://xamlfactory.elance.com

http://about.me/jawahars

http://wpfplayground.com/

Comments and Discussions