Vista - Customer Control Lessons Leaned So Far...

All:

I have been developiing a simple (what I thought was simple) custom
control (derived from UserControl). The basic functionality is that of
a Jeopardy-style game square --- it should be a rounded rectangle that
is filled with a gradient brush that sizes itself to the grid cell
(parent) to which it is placed.

What I have learned...

* A UserControl can only have one child element. I originally used a
Rectangle, but then could not add the question/answer text (no way to
add a Label or TextBlock, etc.). Laurent Bugnion suggested using a
container for the single allowed child and add children this way. I
tried this and used a Canvas - it worked, somewhat...

* I added 2 children to the Canvas -- a rectangle and a TextBlock.
Originally, the rectangle was marked as
Horizontal/VerticalAlignment="Stretch", with no specific Width and
Height specified. This worked when the Rectangle was the direct child
of the UserControl - but failed to display when the Rectangle was the
child of the Canvas. Apparently, the Rectangle needs to have a specific
Width and Height specified - which prevents Stretch from working...
aaaarrrggghhhh

Any insights and comments welcome. I hope the above helps others..

John - jpuopolo

Hi John,

Canvas is only used for absolute positioning, that is, where you specify
Left, Top, Width and Height properties. Horizontal/VerticalAlignment are
unused.

I think you just need to explore the other subclasses of
System.Windows.Controls.Panel, depending on how you want to lay out the
elements, at least one of (or a combination of) Grid, StackPanel, WrapPanel,
or DockPanel should suit your needs.

- Doug




"john" <puopolo@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1165160006.502441.322460@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> All:
>
> I have been developiing a simple (what I thought was simple) custom
> control (derived from UserControl). The basic functionality is that of
> a Jeopardy-style game square --- it should be a rounded rectangle that
> is filled with a gradient brush that sizes itself to the grid cell
> (parent) to which it is placed.
>
> What I have learned...
>
> * A UserControl can only have one child element. I originally used a
> Rectangle, but then could not add the question/answer text (no way to
> add a Label or TextBlock, etc.). Laurent Bugnion suggested using a
> container for the single allowed child and add children this way. I
> tried this and used a Canvas - it worked, somewhat...
>
> * I added 2 children to the Canvas -- a rectangle and a TextBlock.
> Originally, the rectangle was marked as
> Horizontal/VerticalAlignment="Stretch", with no specific Width and
> Height specified. This worked when the Rectangle was the direct child
> of the UserControl - but failed to display when the Rectangle was the
> child of the Canvas. Apparently, the Rectangle needs to have a specific
> Width and Height specified - which prevents Stretch from working...
> aaaarrrggghhhh
>
> Any insights and comments welcome. I hope the above helps others..
>
> John - jpuopolo
>

Doug:

Thanks for the advice -- a StackPanel seems to do the trick... My only
challenge now is to figure out if it is possible to round the corners
of the StackPanel -- will play around with various configurations and
post the results.

Best,
John (jpuopolo)


Douglas Stockwell wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> Canvas is only used for absolute positioning, that is, where you specify
> Left, Top, Width and Height properties. Horizontal/VerticalAlignment are
> unused.
>
> I think you just need to explore the other subclasses of
> System.Windows.Controls.Panel, depending on how you want to lay out the
> elements, at least one of (or a combination of) Grid, StackPanel, WrapPanel,
> or DockPanel should suit your needs.
>
> - Doug
>
>
>
>
> "john" <puopolo@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1165160006.502441.322460@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> > All:
> >
> > I have been developiing a simple (what I thought was simple) custom
> > control (derived from UserControl). The basic functionality is that of
> > a Jeopardy-style game square --- it should be a rounded rectangle that
> > is filled with a gradient brush that sizes itself to the grid cell
> > (parent) to which it is placed.
> >
> > What I have learned...
> >
> > * A UserControl can only have one child element. I originally used a
> > Rectangle, but then could not add the question/answer text (no way to
> > add a Label or TextBlock, etc.). Laurent Bugnion suggested using a
> > container for the single allowed child and add children this way. I
> > tried this and used a Canvas - it worked, somewhat...
> >
> > * I added 2 children to the Canvas -- a rectangle and a TextBlock.
> > Originally, the rectangle was marked as
> > Horizontal/VerticalAlignment="Stretch", with no specific Width and
> > Height specified. This worked when the Rectangle was the direct child
> > of the UserControl - but failed to display when the Rectangle was the
> > child of the Canvas. Apparently, the Rectangle needs to have a specific
> > Width and Height specified - which prevents Stretch from working...
> > aaaarrrggghhhh
> >
> > Any insights and comments welcome. I hope the above helps others..
> >
> > John - jpuopolo
> >

Hi,

john wrote:
> Doug:
>
> Thanks for the advice -- a StackPanel seems to do the trick... My only
> challenge now is to figure out if it is possible to round the corners
> of the StackPanel -- will play around with various configurations and
> post the results.
>
> Best,
> John (jpuopolo)

Sure, use a Border:

<StackPanel>
<Border CornerRadius="10" BorderBrush="Red" BorderThickness="5">
<TextBlock Text="Hello" />
</Border>
</StackPanel>

HTH,
Laurent
--
Laurent Bugnion, GalaSoft
Software engineering: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
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