Extending Silverlight Controls and adding controls in XAML - silverlight-4.0

I have some controls that I put up in a view and I decided that it would be best to combine these and make a custom control. I know how to extend a control and add dependency properties, but I don't know how to add controls to my extended control via xaml. I am assuming this is the fastest approach? I have not found any tutorials online that explain how to do this. Thanks in advance.

Related

VB.Net: Winforms Designer: Use verbs from custom control in parent custom control

We're developing a custom control (to make our lives easier), which included a customs (external) grid control and some default buttons and text. The grid control has the option to add columns by clicking the small arrow on the top right of the grid in designer, like shown in the picture.
We want to keep this option when putting our new custom control on a (win)form. Is there any way we can achieve this?
I've already looked into the 'verbs' and I can add my own custom verbs to the new control, but I'm not sure the arrow is a verb (as it does not show the option on the bottom of the properties). I also haven't been able to find how to use the verbs from the grid control.
Thank you very much!
I've found the solution to my problem.
I thought the way to add columns was a custom control when in reality, it was a default CollectionEditor. This, in combination with Smart Tag, solved my problem.

windows form control property?

Good day everyone,
I just want to ask how to do this on vb.net using vs2010
It's like a label(i'm not sure if it's really a label), like this
and when you put the cursor on it, it will show a "button"?.. like this,
The Control to create the menu is called a toolstrip:
Tutorial for this:
Tooltrips - basics
.Net Heaven
To add those labels when hovering above it, you must use a tooltip.
There is a built in option (that doesn't require an extra control)
Tutorial: MSDN- How to: Use ToolTips in ToolStrip Controls
But you could implement the behavior yourself using the control "tooltip".
Here's some tutorials on how to implement it:
Tooltips
.Net Heaven
Dotnetperls
Enjoy

Adding programmatically a control on top of others

I'm looking for adding a control on top of others controls during runtime.
I read that the only way of playing with the Z-Order of controls is by playing with the order of the controls inside the Form.Controls Collection. I find this solution very weird and weak and I'm looking for an alternative.
Does anyone has an idea? I just want to make some kind of modal dialog that'll show below another user control to notice the user that the user control is currently doing something.
Edit: I tried using Control.BringToFront() but it doesn't work at all.
Thanks a lot!
You're looking for the BringToFront() method.

Creating your own component in vb.net 2008

How do you create your own custom component for vb.net 2008? I want it to simply output to a .dll, not a whole winforms app.
So, here is what I have done so far:
Made a class library project
Added a custom control object
Confused myself badly
Googled it, to no avail
How can I control the component? For example, I want my component to not have a visible design view, I want it to stay below like the stopwatch component and the notifyicon component and such, it is not something to be designed. Then, how do I edit the possible properties a user can control, and make them effect the end result? What do I place the code which powers the component on? The class library file, or something else?
Thanks for your help! I have a whole set of components I am going to create, this will get me going much faster than trial and error.
I think you may want to check some walkthrough on how to create components. Such as this one: Walkthrough: Authoring a Component with Visual Basic. Once you are done with that one, there are more walkthroughs on various related topics, such as how to use design-time support, implementing designers and so on.
OK... This is a really abbreviated example. You should start by basing yous off of an existing .net component.
Public Class MyControl
Inherits DataGridView
'...add your properties/functionality...'
End Class
Then compile the DLL, and add it as a reference to whatever project you are working on. Once added, you can add the controls in the DLL into your toolbox.
This has more instructions on how to modify a UserControl (slightly different from the one above, but it explains well. This is a general explanation.
#comments -
Yes, there, are things that will do what you want. Start with a class that inherits Form instead of DataGridView in the example I gave you, and the changes described in the links provided.
"Your properties and functionality" is whatever you want to do that the base control does not do.

Sharepoint form layout in VB

OKay, I'm from a PHP background, but I've just been tasked with developing some custom Web Parts in SharePoint. I've figured out how to create and deploy a basic "Hello world" web part in VB. Okay so far.
What I'm stuck on is a really basic, stupid point - how the hell do I lay out things in a VB web part?
For an example, here's a label and a textbox:
protected overrides sub createchildcontrols()
mybase.createchildcontrols
dim mylabel as new label
dim mytextbox as new textbox
mylabel.text ="My label text"
mytextbox.text ="My textbox"
me.controls.add(mylabel)
me.controls.add(mytextbox)
How would I, for example, get mylabel and my textbox to appear on different lines, rather than running one after the other as they do now? In PHP I'd just wrap them in some top break them onto differnt lines, but how do I do it here?
There are a number of ways to go about it. The easiest, if you really just want the controls to appear on different lines would be to add an ASP.net LiteralControl with a BR tag between them.
Aside from that, you can always use the ASP.net formatting controls, like Table to break your controls into sections for output.
Additionaly, everything that derives from WebControl has an Attribues and CssClass property for setting formatting based on style-sheets you can use.
The last method, and the most customizable, but hardest to maintain and change, would be to override the webpart's Render method and generate your HTML completely by hand in the WebPart.
Alternately, you could scrap this altogether, and employ the SmartPart to develop ASP.net user controls for use inside of SharePoint, giving you the options to use the Visual Studio designer tools to layout your controls on the form.
You should override the Render() method. By default this method just renders all the child controls you have added in the CreateChildControls() method, but overriding it lets you write additional HTML elements around the controls.
I usually code in C#, but I think the following example should work in VB:
Protected Overrides Sub Render(ByVal writer As System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter)
writer.Write("<h1>Custom webpart rendering</h1>")
me.mylabel.RenderControl(writer)
writer.Write("<br />")
me.myTextbox.RenderControl(writer)
End Sub
Give it a try...
I've been developing web parts for an ASP.NET site using the standard web user control model, which gives you access to the VS designer and means your UI can be standard HTML. ASP.NET then wraps the UserControl into a GenericWebPart at runtime to host it in a WebParts site.
I know that Sharepoint doesn't support this model out of the box but I've just found this which might help you...
http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2006/12/02/announcing-the-return-of-the-smartpart.aspx
Smart Part (or a variation of it) is the easiest way to go. Why mess with rendering direct html when you can develop a user control more easily?
Plus if you are not an expert in VB, having Visual Studio Designer will help with creating user controls
i blogged about this very topic. Easily build a rich UI for a web part without using SmartPart
Thanks for all the responses. I've gone with EvilGoatBobs solution as the most immediately easy to implement.
This is my first time on StackOverflow and your helpful answers have made it a really good introduction to the site! :)