User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and Custom Controls

614 Pages·2002·15.74 MB·English

by  Matthew MacDonald (auth.)

Praise for the first printing of
User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and Custom Controls:
"For more in-depth user interface work ... Highly recommended."
-David Groves, contributor to the www.devhood.com discussion group
"Overall, I must commend on the author's efforts to make the book an
enjoyable read."
-Timmy, contributor to the www. tech -critic.com discussion group
''Apress has created a reputation for publishing the best books on specialty
topics like this, and Matthew MacDonald is one of the most experienced
and seasoned technology writers. Together, they have created a great book
that will be exactly what experienced programmers are looking for. The
'Expert's Voice' on the technology is combined with a detailed discussion of
good user-interface design principles to give you the information you need
about how to design elegant user interfaces users will love.
"In addition, you'll learn how and why to extend the user interface with
your own custom controls. VB .NET's object-oriented revolution makes it
a requirement now to create your own controls that are scalable, flexible,
and reusable."
-Dan Mabbutt, About.com's Visual Basic Guide (http://visualbasic.about.com)
Praise for Matthew MacDonald's other books:
Peer-to-Peer with VB .NET (1590591054)
"Check this one out. Very good author!"
-Hazzard, contributor to the www.developersdex.com discussion group
User Interfaces in C#:
Windows Forms and
Custom Controls
MATIHEWMACDONALD
APress Media, LLC
User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and Custom Controls
Copyright ©2002 by Matthew MacDonald
Originally published by Apress in 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the
publisher.
ISBN 978-1-59059-045-4 ISBN 978-1-4302-0837-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-0837-2
'IIademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the
benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Technical Reviewer: Gordon Henshaw
Editorial Directors: Steve Anglin, Dan Appleman, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Tony Davis,
Jason Gilmore, Chris Mills, Dominic Shakeshaft, Jim Sumser, Karen Watterson, John Zukowski
Managing Editor: Grace Wong
Copy Editor: Anne Friedman
Production Editor: Karl Brooks
Project Manager: Sofia Marchant
Compositor: Diana Van Wmkle, Van Wmkle Design
Artist: Kurt Krames
Indexer: Nancy A. Guenther
Cover Designer: Kurt Krames
Manufacturing Manager: Tom Debolski
Marketing Manager: Stephanie Rodriguez
The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty. Although every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor Apress shall
have any liability to any person or entity With respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work.
The source code for this book is available to readers at http: I !'IMN. a press. com in the Downloads
section.
For Razia and Hamid
Contents at a Glance
Preface .................................................................................................................. xvii
About the Author ............................................................................................... xix
About the Technical Reviewer ...................................................................... xx
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. xxi
Introduction ...................................................................................................... xxiii
Chapter Creating Usable Interfaces .....................................
1 1
Chapter 2 Designing with Classes and Tiers .................... 23
Chapter 3 Control Class Basics ...................................................
57
Chapter 4 Classic Controls ..............................................................
83
Chapter 5 Forms ........................................................................................
143
Chapter 6 Modern Controls ..............................................................
201
Chapter 7 Custom Controls ..............................................................
259
Chapter 8 Design-Time Support for Custom Controls ..
309
Chapter 9 Data Controls ....................................................................
349
Chapter 10 MDI Interfaces and Works paces .......................... 399
Chapter Dynamic User Interface ...........................................
11 .435
Chapter 12 GDI+ Basics ........................................................................ .465
Chapter 13 GDI+ Controls .................................................................... so1
Chapter 14 Help and Application-Embedded Support .....
531
Index ....................................................................................................................
561
v
Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................. xvii
About the Author ............................................................................................... xix
About the Technical Reviewer ...................................................................... xx
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. xxi
Introduction ...................................................................................................... xxiii
Chapter 1 Creating Usable Interfaces ..................................... 1
Why Worry About the Interface? .................................................................. 2
A Brief History of User Interfaces ......................................................... 3
The Command-Line Era .................................................................................... 3
The Question-Answer Model ............................................................................ 5
The Menu-Driven Model ................................................................................... 7
The GUI Era ........................................................................................................ 8
Creativity vs. Convention ........................................................................... 10
Consistency in .NET ......................................................................................... 11
The ''Act-Like-Microsoft" Principle ................................................................. 11
Administrative Utilities .................................................................................... 12
Know Your Application Type ............................................................................ 13
Know Your User ................................................................................................ 14
Handling Complexity ........................................................................................ 15
Segiilenting Information ................................................................................. 16
Inductive User Interface .................................................................................. 17
Helpful Restrictions ...................................................................................... 17
Restricting the User's Ability to Make a Mistake ............................................ 17
Restricting the User's Choices ......................................................................... 18
Restricting the User's Imagination .................................................................. 19
Programming User Interface for the Web .............................................. 20
The Last Word ..................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 2 Designing with Classes and Tiers .................... 23
Classes and Objects ........................................................................................ 24
The Roles of Classes ......................................................................................... 24
Classes and Types ............................................................................................. 25
More About Objects ......................................................................................... 28
vii
Contents
User Interface Classes in • NET ................................................................ 29
Controls Are Classes ......................................................................................... 29
Controls Contain Other Controls .................................................................... 30
Controls Derive from Other Controls ............................................................. 33
Inheritance and the Form Class ...................................................................... 35
The Controls Collection ................................................................................... 36
Generating Code with Visual Studio .NET ...................................................... 37
Interacting with a Control ........................................................................ 39
.The View-Mediator Pattern ............................................................................. 40
Smart Controls .................................................................................................. 42
Smart Forms ..................................................................................................... 43
Encapsulation ..................................................................................................... 44
Use Enumerations and Resource Classes ...................................................... .44
Use Collections ................................................................................................. 45
Restrain from Sharing Control References .................................................... .45
Define a Data Transfer Plan ............................................................................. 45
Use a Central Switchboard .............................................................................. 45
Create Data-Driven User Interfaces ................................................................ 46
Developing in Tiers ........................................................................................ 47
Problems with Three-Tier Design ................................................................... 48
Three-Tier Design Consistency ....................................................................... 50
Fixing Three-Tier Design ............................................................................. 51
Using the DataSet ............................................................................................ 52
Other Types of Application .............................................................................. 54
The Last Word ..................................................................................................... 54
Chapter 3 Control Class Basics ...................................................
57
The Windows Forms Package ........................................................................... 57
The .NET Solution ............................................................................................ 56
The Control Class ............................................................................................ 60
Position and Size ............................................................................................ 64
Color ...................................................................................................................... 66
Fonts and Text ................................................................................................... 69
Access Keys ....................................................................................................... 71
Control Relations ............................................................................................ 71
Focus and the Tab Sequence ........................................................................ 72
Responding to the Mouse and Keyboard ................................................... 75
A Mouse/Keyboard Example ........................................................................... 78
Mouse Cursors .................................................................................................. 79
Graphics and Painting ................................................................................... 79
Low-Level Members ............................................................................................ 81
The Last Word ..................................................................................................... 82
viii
Contents
Chapter 4 Classic Controls ..............................................................
83
Types of Controls ............................................................................................ 83
Invisible Controls ............................................................................................. 83
Provider Controls ............................................................................................. 85
ActiveX Controls ............................................................................................... 86
Should You Import ActiveX Controls? ............................................................. 89
The Classic Control Gallery ...................................................................... 90
Labels ................................................................................................................ 90
UnkLabel .......................................................................................................... 91
Button ................................................................................................................ 94
TextBox .............................................................................................................. 94
CheckBox and RadioButton ............................................................................ 96
PictureBox ......................................................................................................... 97
List Controls ...................................................................................................... 97
Other Domain Controls ................................................................................. 10 2
Organizational Controls ................................................................................ 10 4
The Date Controls .......................................................................................... 105
The DateTimePicker ...................................................................................... 10 6
MonthCalendar .............................................................................................. 108
Menus .................................................................................................................... 111
The Menu Class .............................................................................................. 112
The MainMenu and ContextMenu Classes .................................................. 114
The Menultem Class ...................................................................................... 115
The Visual Studio .NET Menu Designer ....................................................... 118
Attaching a Menu ........................................................................................... 118
Menu Events ................................................................................................... 119
Copying and Cloning a Menu ........................................................................ 121
Merging a Menu .............................................................................................. 121
Owner-Drawn Menus .......................................................................................... 122
An Owner-Drawn Menu Control ................................................................... 125
Drag-and-Drop ................................................................................................... 130
"Fake" Drag-and-Drop ................................................................................... 130
Authentic Drag-and-Drop ............................................................................. 132
Validation ......................................................................................................... 135
A Validation Example ..................................................................................... 136
Validating with the ErrorProvider ................................................................. 138
Validating with Regular Expressions ............................................................. 140
The Last Word ................................................................................................... 142
ix
Contents
Chapter 5 Forms ........................................................................................
143
The Form Class ................................................................................................. 143
Form Size and Position .................................................................................. 148
Scrollable Forms ............................................................................................. 152
Showing a Form .............................................................................................. 154
Custom DialogWmdows ................................................................................ 155
Form Interaction ............................................................................................ 158
Form Ownership ............................................................................................ 161
WmdowsXP Styles ......................................................................................... 163
Prebuilt Dialogs ............................................................................................ 165
Resizable Forms .............................................................................................. 171
The Problem of Size ........................................................................................ 171
Minimum and Maximum Size ....................................................................... 172
Anchoring ....................................................................................................... 173
Docking ........................................................................................................... 177
Splitting Windows .......................................................................................... 180
Docking with Panels ....................................................................................... 181
Other SplitWmdows ....................................................................................... 183
Irregularly Shaped Forms ........................................................................... 186
Shaped Form Content .................................................................................... 188
Moving Shaped Forms ................................................................................... 190
Forms with Holes ............................................................................................ 192
Visual Inheritance ........................................................................................ 193
Making an Ancestor Control Available ......................................................... 195
Adding an Ancestor Property ........................................................................ 196
Overriding an Event Handler ......................................................................... 197
The Last Word ................................................................................................... 199
Chapter 6 Modern Controls ..............................................................
201
The ImageList ................................................................................................... 201
Dealing with the ImageList in Code .............................................................. 203
ListView and TreeView ................................................................................. 205
Basic ListView ................................................................................................. 206
Advanced ListView Tricks ........................................................................... 211
Label Editing ................................................................................................... 215
Adding Information to a ListView .................................................................2 16
Basic TreeView ................................................................................................. 217
TreeView Structure ......................................................................................... 218
TreeViewNavigation ...................................................................................... 219
Manipulating Nodes ...................................................................................... 223
Selecting Nodes .............................................................................................. 226
X