S
Soe
Hello everyone,
before I start, I'd like to say that I'm a NOBODY in
terms of creating custom controls. So, please I'd really
appreciate if anyone helping me to guide me with more
detail
I am just writing a small program that will have
--------------------------------------------------
1)
Dockable windows (optional: tabs) like Visual Studio
--------------------------------------------------
2)
<<<This is going to be long>>>
******
To make it short, I want something like the
Visual Studio form designer for
placing & resizing controls.
******
I want to read in a text file with the properties of
various controls (width,height,location) to be placed on
a panel at runtime.
Once this is done, I want to be able to move AND resize
those controls with click-&-drag on that panel rather
than the control's original purpose.
For example,
if I've a ComboBox, I want a small rectangular box to
show up around it indicating that the control has been
selected. Then, if I drag the control with my mouse, I
want it to be moved on the panel.
In addition, I want to be able to resize the control
using the rectangular selection box corner points.
--------------------------------------------------
3)
Finally, I want to have a collapseable small little panel
like the "Property" panel at the bottom in Macromedia
Dreamweaver MX with a small little "collapseable" marking
at a corner of the panel.
So that the user can click on the "marking" and collapse
it.
But I think the panel control like in Visual Studio would
do the trick. I just wanted a nice professional looking
GUI coz I'm such an annoying perfectionist in terms of
GUI design.
--------------------------------------------------
So to sum everything up....
I guess #1 and #3 are going to need some kind of
special control.
I found a library on the www.CodeProject.com for the
Visual Studio like dockable panel. However, no offense,
but they're not really bug free.
For example, when the panels are in "Auto-Hide" mode,
the drawing of those panels don't work perfect.
--------------------------------------------------
I don't want to sound so demanding.
But please please help me cuz I want to learn a lot
of things, and it's just so hard to find good online
resource where they explain and teach these kinds of
stuffs...I'm really hoping that this MSDN newsgroup is
the only place where I can get my answers...
Question #1
-----------
So, can anyone help me how I can get a good quality
controls for those dockable panels for my application?
I know that the code from the www.CodeProject.com works,
but not perfect.
I really hope this discussion thread to be a tutorial for
everyone to learn really good stuffs that are
-- HIDDEN from developers
-- NOT FREE. Only commercially available
I want that kind of knowledge to be available to everyone.
Please help me on this good intention ;-)
I gurrantee that I'll publish whatever I've learned from
this on my website and teach other people also...
So please please, if there are any gurus out there, help
me....
((
I know I know, I'm asking a lot of things here
in one thread. I just don't know how to split
this up anymore...
))
thanks,
Soe
before I start, I'd like to say that I'm a NOBODY in
terms of creating custom controls. So, please I'd really
appreciate if anyone helping me to guide me with more
detail
I am just writing a small program that will have
--------------------------------------------------
1)
Dockable windows (optional: tabs) like Visual Studio
--------------------------------------------------
2)
<<<This is going to be long>>>
******
To make it short, I want something like the
Visual Studio form designer for
placing & resizing controls.
******
I want to read in a text file with the properties of
various controls (width,height,location) to be placed on
a panel at runtime.
Once this is done, I want to be able to move AND resize
those controls with click-&-drag on that panel rather
than the control's original purpose.
For example,
if I've a ComboBox, I want a small rectangular box to
show up around it indicating that the control has been
selected. Then, if I drag the control with my mouse, I
want it to be moved on the panel.
In addition, I want to be able to resize the control
using the rectangular selection box corner points.
--------------------------------------------------
3)
Finally, I want to have a collapseable small little panel
like the "Property" panel at the bottom in Macromedia
Dreamweaver MX with a small little "collapseable" marking
at a corner of the panel.
So that the user can click on the "marking" and collapse
it.
But I think the panel control like in Visual Studio would
do the trick. I just wanted a nice professional looking
GUI coz I'm such an annoying perfectionist in terms of
GUI design.
--------------------------------------------------
So to sum everything up....
I guess #1 and #3 are going to need some kind of
special control.
I found a library on the www.CodeProject.com for the
Visual Studio like dockable panel. However, no offense,
but they're not really bug free.
For example, when the panels are in "Auto-Hide" mode,
the drawing of those panels don't work perfect.
--------------------------------------------------
I don't want to sound so demanding.
But please please help me cuz I want to learn a lot
of things, and it's just so hard to find good online
resource where they explain and teach these kinds of
stuffs...I'm really hoping that this MSDN newsgroup is
the only place where I can get my answers...
Question #1
-----------
So, can anyone help me how I can get a good quality
controls for those dockable panels for my application?
I know that the code from the www.CodeProject.com works,
but not perfect.
I really hope this discussion thread to be a tutorial for
everyone to learn really good stuffs that are
-- HIDDEN from developers
-- NOT FREE. Only commercially available
I want that kind of knowledge to be available to everyone.
Please help me on this good intention ;-)
I gurrantee that I'll publish whatever I've learned from
this on my website and teach other people also...
So please please, if there are any gurus out there, help
me....
((
I know I know, I'm asking a lot of things here
in one thread. I just don't know how to split
this up anymore...
))
thanks,
Soe