Winforms groupbox with colored border - vb.net

I have used the following code to create a groupbox with colored borders:
Public Class BorderGroupBox
Inherits GroupBox
Private _borderColor As Color
Private _borderWidth As Integer
Private _borderStyle As ButtonBorderStyle
...
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
Dim tSize As Size = TextRenderer.MeasureText(Me.Text, Me.Font)
Dim borderRect As Rectangle = e.ClipRectangle
borderRect.Y = CInt((borderRect.Y + (tSize.Height / 2)))
borderRect.Height = CInt((borderRect.Height - (tSize.Height / 2)))
ControlPaint.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, borderRect, _borderColor, _borderWidth, _borderStyle, BorderColor, _borderWidth, _borderStyle, BorderColor, _borderWidth, _borderStyle, BorderColor, _borderWidth, _borderStyle)
Dim textRect As Rectangle = e.ClipRectangle
textRect.X = (textRect.X + 6)
textRect.Width = tSize.Width + 6
textRect.Height = tSize.Height
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(New SolidBrush(Me.BackColor), textRect)
e.Graphics.DrawString(Me.Text, Me.Font, New SolidBrush(Me.ForeColor), textRect)
End Sub
End Class
The problem is, it is placed inside a scrollable container, and if it is scrolled the border isn't redrawn correctly:

You can get it to misbehave a lot worse than that:
This goes wrong because of your code using e.ClipRectangle. Note that it appears twice in your snippet. That variable does not give you the border rectangle. It tells you how much of your client area needs to be re-drawn. It is an optimization opportunity, you can draw less by omitting the parts of the client area that don't need to be refreshed.
It is usually the same size as the display rectangle, which is why it looked like it worked just fine. But not when you put it inside a scrollable container, Windows optimizes scrolls by blitting the parts of the client area that simply can be moved. And then generates a paint for the parts that are revealed by the scroll. With a small e.ClipRectangle. You can see that in the screenshot, note the small rectangles.
Replace e.ClipRectangle with Me.DisplayRectangle.

This class allows the border to be set for all of your boxes or individually by adding a border color control to the properties tab for the group box.
Public Class GroupBoxA
Inherits GroupBox
Private _borderColor As Color
Public Sub New()
MyBase.New()
Me._borderColor = Color.OrangeRed
End Sub
Public Property BorderColor() As Color
Get
Return Me._borderColor
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Color)
Me._borderColor = value
End Set
End Property
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
Dim tSize As Size = TextRenderer.MeasureText(Me.Text, Me.Font)
Dim borderRect As Rectangle = Me.DisplayRectangle
borderRect.Y = (borderRect.Y + (tSize.Height / 2))
borderRect.Height = (borderRect.Height - (tSize.Height / 2))
ControlPaint.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, borderRect, Me._borderColor,
ButtonBorderStyle.Solid)
Dim textRect As Rectangle = Me.DisplayRectangle
textRect.X = (textRect.X + 6)
textRect.Width = tSize.Width
textRect.Height = tSize.Height
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(New SolidBrush(Me.BackColor), textRect)
e.Graphics.DrawString(Me.Text, Me.Font, New SolidBrush(Me.ForeColor), textRect)
End Sub
End Class

you have to use Me.ClientRectangle instead of Me.DisplayRectangle for boder and text. If you using old way then flicker issue not solve and text of group box will not display.

Related

OnPaint event not firing

I am overriding the paint event as I need to give a text box an extra property. In this case the extra property is a border colour for a text box. When the User Control which contains the text boxes appears it does not fire the OnPaint event. I've no idea why this is happening.
My code is as follows
CustomTaskBox class
Public Class CustomTextBox
Inherits TextBox
<Browsable(True)>
<Category("Extended Properties")>
<Description("Set TextBox border Color")>
Public Sub New()
Multiline = False
BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(e As PaintEventArgs)
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
Dim buttonPen = New Pen(Color.Firebrick, 3)
Dim buttonRect = New Rectangle(0, 0, Size.Width - 1, Size.Height - 1)
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(buttonPen, buttonRect)
End Sub
End Class
Main Class
Dim _NewTextBox As New CustomTextBox
_NewTextBox.Name = textBoxName
_NewTextBox.Multiline = multiline
_NewTextBox.Text = textBoxText
_NewTextBox.Top = topForNextControl
_NewTextBox.Left = 17
_NewTextBox.Width = textBoxWidth * widthScaleFactor
_MainContent.Controls.Add(_NewTextBox)
If I recall correctly - you need to useInvalidate(); to notify that control needs to be repainted.

Resize Form from the Drawn Shape of Panel - VB.NET

I'm trying to make a form resizable based on dragging a custom shape drawn at the corner of the panel. I have a code which works fantastic if it's drawn in the main form, but if I'm trying to draw it at the corner of a panel it doesn't work, I cannot resize the form. The code is optimized to be drawn in the form, could someone help me and update it to work in a panel too?
Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
MyBase.WndProc(m)
If m.Msg = &H84 Then
Dim pos = Me.PointToClient(New System.Drawing.Point(m.LParam.ToInt32() And &HFFFF, m.LParam.ToInt32() >> 16))
If pos.X >= Me.Width - grab AndAlso pos.Y >= Me.Height - grab Then
m.Result = New IntPtr(17)
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Const grab As Integer = 14
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(e As PaintEventArgs)
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
Dim rc = New System.Drawing.Rectangle(Me.Width - grab, Me.Height - grab, grab, grab)
ControlPaint.DrawSizeGrip(e.Graphics, System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(250, 250, 250), rc)
End Sub
It looks like this:
Here
I managed to solve the problem by building my own custom control using GDI to paint the shape as standalone control, instead of painting it to an already built control, such panel.

Issue Using Graphics DrawString On Resize

Goal
I want to display a vertical text on the left of a user control to let a user know which product they are creating/editting. Like so:
How am I building it?
This user control is made up of three controls.
Label with text "Product Information". Dock=Top
User Control with a vertical draw string text of "Product #1". Dock=Left
Table Layout panel which contains X amount of user controls inside it. Dock=Fill
Here's the design view:
Here is the code for my product name user control that draws "Product #1"
Public Class uProductName
Public drawString As String = "Product #1"
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(e As PaintEventArgs)
' Call the OnPaint method of the base class.
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
' Call methods of the System.Drawing.Graphics object.
DrawVerticalString(e)
End Sub
Public Sub DrawVerticalString(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
Dim formGraphics As System.Drawing.Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics()
Dim drawFont As New System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 20)
Dim drawBrush As New System.Drawing.SolidBrush(System.Drawing.Color.Black)
Dim stringSize As New SizeF
stringSize = e.Graphics.MeasureString(drawString, drawFont)
Dim x As Single = (Me.Width / 2) - (stringSize.Height / 2)
Dim y As Single = (Me.Height / 2) - (stringSize.Width / 2)
Dim drawFormat As New System.Drawing.StringFormat
drawFormat.FormatFlags = StringFormatFlags.DirectionVertical
formGraphics.DrawString(drawString, drawFont, drawBrush, x, y, drawFormat)
drawFormat.Dispose()
drawFont.Dispose()
drawBrush.Dispose()
formGraphics.Dispose()
End Sub
End Class
Current Problem
When I start selecting buttons, the table layout panel expands to display more selections and the "Product #1" text starts to glitch. See below:
I tried to set the "Double Buffer" property to true and didn't the result. Any advice?
You need to set ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw style for your control to indicate whether the control redraws itself when resized.
Also Instead of using CreateGraphics(), use the graphics object of OnPaint method and never dispose it, because it doesn't belong to you.
Public Sub New()
' If the base class is Control, comment the next line
InitializeComponent()
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw, True)
End Sub
Public Sub DrawVerticalString(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
Dim formGraphics As System.Drawing.Graphics = e.Graphics
'...
End Sub

VB.NET - Non-client painting with Graphics.FromHwnd as Handle

I'm trying to do some non-client area painting to get a MS Office like windowsform. I have one or two other posts of the sort, but here is the one that is done with Graphics.FromHwnd passing IntPtr.Zero as arg. I consulted a lot of information, that I tried and just simply cannot get it to work. Dwm functions, GetWindowDC, and or combination of these. Nothing works. Except this example that I post.
Public Class Form6
Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
MyBase.WndProc(m)
Select Case m.Msg
Case WinAPI.Win32Messages.WM_ACTIVATEAPP
Me.Invalidate()
End Select
End Sub
Private Sub Form6_LocationChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.LocationChanged
Me.Invalidate()
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
Dim usedColor As Color = Color.Beige
Me.BackColor = usedColor
Dim usedBrush As Brush = New SolidBrush(usedColor)
'Dim hDC As IntPtr = WinAPI.GetWindowDC(Me.Handle.ToInt64)
Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromHwnd(IntPtr.Zero)
'Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(hDC)
'Caption
Dim rect As Rectangle = New Rectangle(Me.Left, Me.Top, Me.Width, SystemInformation.CaptionHeight + 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Height)
g.FillRectangle(usedBrush, rect)
'left border
rect = New Rectangle(Me.Left, Me.Top + SystemInformation.CaptionHeight + 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Height, (Me.Width - Me.ClientSize.Width) / 2, Me.ClientSize.Height)
g.FillRectangle(usedBrush, rect)
'right border
rect = New Rectangle(Me.Right - 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Width, Me.Top + SystemInformation.CaptionHeight + 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Height, (Me.Width - Me.ClientSize.Width) / 2, Me.ClientSize.Height)
g.FillRectangle(usedBrush, rect)
'bottom border
'If on maximize this border isn't drawn, by default the windowsize "drawing" is correct
If Me.WindowState <> FormWindowState.Maximized Then
rect = New Rectangle(Me.Left, Me.Bottom - 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Width, Me.Width, 2 * SystemInformation.FrameBorderSize.Height)
g.FillRectangle(usedBrush, rect)
End If
End Using
'WinAPI.ReleaseDC(Me.Handle.ToInt64, hDC)
End Sub
Private Sub Form6_Resize(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Resize
Me.Invalidate()
End Sub
Private Sub Form6_SizeChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.SizeChanged
Me.Invalidate()
End Sub
End Class
To generate graphics, I pass IntPtr.Zero for the hole screen.
I tried the GetWindowDC API (commented in code), and nothing happens. The handle was passed as Me.Handle, Me.Handle.ToInt32 and .ToInt64, and no result.
The invalidate called is to try to draw in every situation possible.
Problems that bring me here:
Form does not start up painted (can't figure it out);
Resizing flickers a lot (probably because the handle is to the entire screen, even form being double-buffered);
On the resizing, it's visible the painting over the cursor (again probably because of the handle for the graphics isn't the form's handle);
On mouse over control buttons (min, max and close), all drawing disappears;
Although I can detect problems, I can't get other ways to work, like the famous GetWindowDC, regardless of how many examples I tried that don't work, or even the DWM functions.
Being the purpose of getting my own "Office" like form, I ask some help in getting improvements to this code or some other ideas, that are welcome.
[EDIT]
Another flavor of the above code. This code was tried in form_load event, but nothing happened.
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
If Not DwmAPI.DwmIsCompositionEnabled(True) Then
Dim myHandle As IntPtr = WinAPI.FindWindow(vbNullString, Me.Text)
Dim hDC As IntPtr = WinAPI.GetWindowDC(myHandle)
Dim rect As WinAPI.RECT
With rect
.Left = 0
.Right = Me.Width
.Top = 0
.Bottom = 30
End With
Using g As Graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(hDC)
g.DrawString("TESTER", New Font(Me.Font.Name, 50), Brushes.Red, New Point(0, 0))
End Using
WinAPI.ReleaseDC(myHandle, hDC)
End If
End Sub
The result is this:
http://postimg.org/image/yyg07zf87/
As it would be clear, I want to have whatever if graphics drawn over titlebar and not under, although it's visible that the coords for the drawing are from full form area and not client area. If I doublebuffer the form, nothing is drawn. Any ideas?
Thanks for your patience. Best regards.

How can you create a custom window (not a form object) in VB.net?

As the title states, is it possible / how can you create a custom window to draw onto? Normally, you would just use a form and form controls, but I want my own window with a handle that I'll attach hooks to and handle the paint events and the like. Is this possible? Essentially, I just need a container for my program's image that isn't a Form. If not in VB.Net, is it possible in C#?
EDIT:
I'm just not very fond of how the window draws (even with control over paint event). I removed the form border and the control bar and replaced them with my own functions (to place the max/min/exit buttons, title, form borders + sizing, etc) so the form I'm using is essentially just a floating panel - though with built in hooks that are nice of course. But the form still flickers too much and so I wanted to handle everything myself. I use doublebuffering on all controls I use and I use setbounds to move/resize controls as opposed to setting width/height individually (reduced some of the flicker). I draw the form border in the form's paint event, the rest is drawn as controls (including the form's top bar).
I mostly hate the black boxes that I see when I expand the form (generally don't see that when decreasing window size, but still some small amount of flicker). An alternative method, perhaps a different draw style (in VB 2010) or something, would work as well I guess.
EDIT (again):
The black box issue happens regardless of how many controls are on the form. If I try to manually resize it (the custom empty form control posted below that inherits from Form), using setbounds on each mousemove during a click and drag event (does not occur when not intended, so I know it's not running the sub more than it has to).
EDIT (code):
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/900/j9c.png
So even on a blank "SimpleForm" (as posted in the first answer") with no controls, when resized to be larger (in the pic, resized northeast), black boxes are drawn under where the form will be drawn. Controlstyles / backbuffering done as posted in the second answer, as well as the createparams posted by Hans. This is what I used to set the form bounds:
Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As CreateParams
Get
Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
cp.ExStyle = cp.ExStyle Or &H2000000
cp.Style = cp.Style Or &H2000000
Return cp
End Get
End Property 'CreateParams
Public Sub New(ByRef ContentFolder As String, ByRef x As Integer, ByRef y As Integer, ByRef w As Integer, ByRef h As Integer)
FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None
'Note, I have tried the original suggested control styles in many combinations
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer Or ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw Or ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint Or ControlStyles.UserPaint
UpdateStyles()
OL = x 'Used for resizing, to know what the original bounds were - especially in maximizing, didn't like the standards maximize call
OT = y
OW = w
OH = h
BackColor = Color.White
BorderColor = New Pen(BarColor.Color)
MinimumSize = New Size(200, 200)
TransparencyKey = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 128)
CF = ContentFolder
ControlBar = New FormBar(Me, "Explorer woo", CF)
AddHandler Me.Load, AddressOf EF_Load
AddHandler Me.MouseUp, AddressOf EF_MouseUp
AddHandler Me.MouseDown, AddressOf EF_MouseDown
AddHandler Me.MouseMove, AddressOf EF_MouseMove
AddHandler Me.LostFocus, AddressOf EF_LostFocus
End Sub
Public Sub EF_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
SetFormBounds(OL, OT, OW, OH)
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnSizeChanged(ByVal e As EventArgs)
ControlBar.SetBar(Width) 'Sets the width of controlbar to new width, and updates position of the 3 top-right form buttons
If Not (_backBuffer Is Nothing) Then
_backBuffer.Dispose()
_backBuffer = Nothing
End If
RaiseEvent Resized(Me, e) 'Resizes controls in custom handler, in this example, it is unused - with controls, they don't flicker when resized though
MyBase.OnSizeChanged(e)
End Sub
Private Sub SetFormBounds(ByRef l As Integer, ByRef t As Integer, ByRef w As Integer, ByRef h As Integer)
If w < Me.MinimumSize.Width Then
w = Me.MinimumSize.Width
l = Left
End If
If h < Me.MinimumSize.Height Then
h = Me.MinimumSize.Height
t = Top
End If
If l = Left AndAlso t = Top AndAlso w = Width AndAlso h = Height Then Exit Sub
ControlBar.SetBar(w)
SetBounds(l, t, w, h)
'Used for detecting if user coords are on the form borders with L-shaped areas so as to not include too much of the interior of the bar, Borderthickness = pixel width of border
CornerRects = New List(Of Rectangle) From {{New Rectangle(0, 0, BorderThickness, 15)}, {New Rectangle(0, 0, 15, BorderThickness)}, {New Rectangle(Width - 15, 0, 15, BorderThickness)}, {New Rectangle(Width - BorderThickness, 0, BorderThickness, 15)}, {New Rectangle(0, Height - 15, BorderThickness, 15)}, {New Rectangle(BorderThickness, Height - BorderThickness, 10, BorderThickness)}, {New Rectangle(Width - BorderThickness, Height - 15, BorderThickness, 15)}, {New Rectangle(Width - 15, Height - BorderThickness, 10, BorderThickness)}}
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
If _backBuffer Is Nothing Then
_backBuffer = New Bitmap(Me.ClientSize.Width, Me.ClientSize.Height)
End If
Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(_backBuffer)
g.Clear(SystemColors.Control)
'Draw Control Box
g.TextRenderingHint = Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.SingleBitPerPixelGridFit
g.FillRectangle(BarColor, 0, 0, Width, ControlBar.Height)
If ControlBar.Title <> "" Then g.DrawString(ControlBar.Title, ControlBar.Font, ControlBar.FontBrush, ControlBar.TextLeft, ControlBar.TextTop)
g.DrawImage(FormBar.bmpCorners(0), 0, 0) 'Makes transparent corner, very small bitmap created at run-time
g.DrawImage(FormBar.bmpCorners(1), Width - FormBar.bmpCorners(0).Width, 0)
'Draw Control Box buttons top right
If ControlBar.ExitButton.Enabled = True Then g.DrawImage(ControlBar.ExitButton.Img, ControlBar.ExitButton.Rect.X, ControlBar.ExitButton.Rect.Y)
If ControlBar.MaximizeButton.Enabled = True Then g.DrawImage(ControlBar.MaximizeButton.Img, ControlBar.MaximizeButton.Rect.X, ControlBar.MaximizeButton.Rect.Y)
If ControlBar.MinimizeButton.Enabled = True Then g.DrawImage(ControlBar.MinimizeButton.Img, ControlBar.MinimizeButton.Rect.X, ControlBar.MinimizeButton.Rect.Y)
If Not ControlBar.Ico Is Nothing Then g.DrawImage(ControlBar.Ico, 5, 5) 'Draw Control Box icon (program icon) if it is set
'Draw the form border
For i = 0 To BorderThickness - 1
g.DrawLine(BorderColor, i, ControlBar.Height, i, Height - 1)
g.DrawLine(BorderColor, Width - 1 - i, ControlBar.Height, Width - 1 - i, Height - 1)
g.DrawLine(BorderColor, BorderThickness, Height - 1 - i, Width - BorderThickness, Height - 1 - i)
Next
g.Dispose()
e.Graphics.DrawImageUnscaled(_backBuffer, 0, 0)
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaintBackground(ByVal pevent As PaintEventArgs)
End Sub
It is not really possible at all, in either language. This isn't a language thing, or even a framework (i.e. WinForms) thing. Rather, it's more because of the design of Windows itself. Essentially, everything in Windows is a window, and the Form class represents a basic top-level window that can be displayed directly on the desktop. If you want a window displayed on the desktop, you need to use the Form class. Moreover, if you want to have a window handle that you can attach hooks to, you'll need to use this class; it's the one with all the necessary plumbing to get that going.
But that doesn't mean it has to look like a default Form object does. The appearance is infinitely customizable. Start by setting the FormBorderStyle property of your form to remove the default window frame/chrome. That will give you a completely blank slate. Then, do like you said and handle its Paint event. Except that when you're wanting to handle the events of a derived class, you should override the OnXxx method directly, instead of subscribing to the events. So you'd have this code:
Public Class SimpleForm : Inherits Form
Public Sub New()
' Alter the form's basic appearance by removing the window frame,
' which gives you a blank slate to draw onto.
FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None
' Indicate that we're painting our own background.
SetStyle(ControlStyles.Opaque, True)
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
' Call the base class.
MyBase.OnPaint(e)
' Paint the background...
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brushes.MediumAquamarine, Me.ClientRectangle)
' ...and then the foreground.
' For example, drawing an 'X' to mark the spot!
Using p As New Pen(Color.Navy, 4.0)
e.Graphics.DrawLine(p, 0, 0, Me.Width, Me.Height)
e.Graphics.DrawLine(p, Me.Width, 0, 0, Me.Height)
End Using
End Sub
End Class
Of course, such a window has severe usability problems. For starters, the user has no way to move it around on the screen or to close it. You'll need to handle those things yourself if you're eliminating the default border.
Can you show the method you are using to enable double buffering? Here's an article that addresses this. Perhaps it will help.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140811193726/http://bobpowell.net/doublebuffer.aspx
Basically, the code is like this (from the article):
Private _backBuffer As Bitmap
Public Sub New
InitializeComponents()
Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint OR _
ControlStyles.UserPaint OR _
ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer, True)
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
If _backBuffer Is Nothing Then
_backBuffer = New Bitmap(Me.ClientSize.Width, Me.ClientSize.Height)
End If
Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(_backBuffer)
'Paint on the Graphics object here
g.Dispose()
'Copy the back buffer to the screen
e.Graphics.DrawImageUnscaled(_backBuffer, 0, 0)
End Sub 'OnPaint
'Don't allow the background to paint
Protected Overrides Sub OnPaintBackground(ByVal pevent As PaintEventArgs)
End Sub 'OnPaintBackground
Protected Overrides Sub OnSizeChanged(ByVal e As EventArgs)
If Not (_backBuffer Is Nothing) Then
_backBuffer.Dispose()
_backBuffer = Nothing
End If
MyBase.OnSizeChanged(e)
End Sub 'OnSizeChanged