How to create custom Button using .NET

Introduction

Button bar control supporting

• Keyboard Support
• Full Designer Support
• Supports Custom Drawing

This Article Sample Project Source code,

Features

ButtonBar control has the following features

• 6 Pre-defined Themes
• Supports alpha blend image
• Full Keyboard support
• Full Design Time support
• Supports Saving/Loading of layout colors
• Supports Disabled back color
• Supports HotKeys

Using the Code

This control is array of buttons aligned vertical.

Use the designer to fine tune appearance.

Keyboard

• Enter Key - Select button. Move by arrow key or hover over a button to select and press enter.
• Down Key - Move to next button.
• Up Key - Move to previous button.

ButtonBar

Properties

• Appearance - Appearance object containing Global Appearance information.
• ButtonWidth- Width of buttons. Control resizes itself to button.
• DisableTransparency - Gets or Sets Disabled State Transparency.
• ImageTransparency - Gets or Sets Background Image transparency.
• Items - Collections of buttons.
• Padding - Gets or sets distance of button from control boundry.
• SelectedItem - Get current selected button.
• ShowBorders - Gets or Sets wether borders will be shown or not.
• Spacing - Gets or Sets distance between buttons.
• ThemeProperty - Property used to Get or Set which theme should be used. See also ThemeProperty.
• UseMnemonic - Indicates wether to use shortcut keys or not.

Events

• BarClick - Occurs when Bar is clicked. This fired when clicked on area other than buttons.
• CustomDrawBackGround - Occurs when ButtonBar requests drawing. This can be used to implement custom draw.
• CustomDrawItems - Occurs when BarItem requests drawing. This can be used to implement own drawing.
• ItemClick - Occurs when a button is pressed. This is also fiered when Shortcut key is pressed or Enter key is pressed.
• ItemsChanged - Occurs when BarItem of Items is changed.
• ItemsChanging - Occurs when BarItem of Items is changing.
• ItemsClearing - Occurs when Items is clearing.
• ItemsInserted - Occurs when BarItem of Items is inserted into collection.
• ItemsInserting - Occurs when BarItem is being inserted on Items.
• ItemsRemoved - Occurs when BarItem of Items is removed from collection.
• ItemsRemoving - Occurs when BarItem is being removed from Items.
• SelectionChanged - Occurs when Button Selection changes.
• SelectionChanging - Occurs when Button Selection is about to change.

Methods

• HitTestInfo HitTest(Point pt) - Performs HitTest for specified point.pt Point of hit. Returns HitTestInfo object containing information related to hit. e.g. Location, button index etc.
• HitTestInfo HitTest(int x, int y) - Performs HitTest for specified point.x and y coordinate of Point of hit. Returns HitTestInfo object containing information related to hit. e.g. Location, button index etc.
• bool ExportAppearance(string fileName) - Saves current color scheme of the Calander control to a xml file. fileName is path of xml file to which data will be written. Returns wether save was successful or not.
• bool ImportAppearance(string fileName) - Loads the color scheme from a xml file. fileName is location of xml file containing color scheme. Returns wether Load was successfull or not.
• EnsureVisibility(int index) - Ensures given item is visible. Scrolls to item if not visible. index is index of item which needs to be shown.
• State GetButtonState(BarItem barItem) - Gets Current State of button.BarItem of which state is to be determined.State of button.
• bool SelectItem(BarItem item) - Reset the appearance of Calander control to default value.Item to be selected..Returns wether item was selected or not.

ThemeProperty

Properties

• UseTheme - Gets or Sets wether to use predefined theme or custom colors.
• ColorScheme - Gets or Sets ColorScheme to be applied. Please Note : This will not be applicable when UseTheme is set as false.

Events

• ThemeChanged - Fired when UseTheme or ColorScheme is changed.

Methods

• bool DefaultChanged() - Returns wether ThemeProperty properties has changed or not.
• void Reset() - Resets current object to use default value for each property.

Appearance

Properties

• Bar - Gets appearance of ButtonBar.
• IsEmpty- Indicates Appearence is Empty or not.
• Item - Gets appearance of BarItem.

Events

• AppearanceChanged - Occurs when properties related to drawing has been modified.

Methods

• Assign(Appearance appearance) - Assigns properties of appearance to current object.
• bool DefaultChanged() - Returns wether property values has changed or not.
• Reset() - Resets current appearance to default appearance.

AppearanceBar

Properties

• AppearanceBorder - Gets border appearance of ButtonBar.
• BackStyle - Gets background style of ButtonBar.
• CornerRadius- Gets corner radius of ButtonBar
• DisabledMask- Gets or Sets disabled mask color of ButtonBar.
• FocusedBorder - Gets or Sets focused border color of ButtonBar.
• IsEmpty - Indicates current object is Empty or not.
• NormalBorder - Gets or Sets Normal border color of ButtonBar.

Events

• AppearanceChanged - Occurs when properties related to drawing has been modified.

Methods

• Assign(AppearanceBar app) - Assigns Values of supplied AppearanceBar to current object.app AppearanceBar object whose value is to be assigned.
• bool DefaultChanged() - Returns wether ThemeProperty properties has changed or not.
• Reset() - Resets current appearance to default appearance.

AppearanceItem

Properties

• AppearenceText - Gets AppearenceText of the item.
• BackStyle - Gets Back style of Item in Normal state.
• ClickStyle- Gets Back style of Item in Pressed state.
• DisabledBorder - Gets or Sets border color of Item in Disabled state.
• DisabledForeGround - Gets or Sets text color of Item in Disabled state.
• DisabledStyle - Gets Back style of Item in Disabled state.
• Gradient - Gets or Sets Gradient of Item BackColor. This will updating this will update Gradient for all State.
• HoverBorder - Gets or Sets border color of Item in Hover state.
• HoverForeGround - Gets or Sets text color of Item in Hover state.
• HoverStyle - Gets Back style of Item in Hover state.
• IsEmpty - Indicates current object is Empty or not.
• NormalBorder - Gets or Sets border color of Item in Normal state.
• NormalForeGround - Gets or Sets text color of Item in Normal state.
• SelectedBorder - Gets or Sets border color of Item in Selected state.
• SelectedForeGround - Gets or Sets text color of Item in Selected state.
• SelectedHoverStyle - Gets Back style of Item in SelectedHover state.
• SelectedStyle - Gets Back style of Item in Selected state.

Events

• AppearanceChanged - Occurs when properties related to drawing has been modified.

Methods

• Assign(AppearanceItem app) - Assigns properties of app to current object.
• bool DefaultChanged() - Returns wether ThemeProperty properties has changed or not.
• Reset() - Resets current appearance to default appearance.

Known Issues

• Some Event handler does not get created with proper signature by designer. They Need to be fixed manually.

Version History

• 2 December 2009: Initial draft of the control

Sample Project  code

Download Demo files -58 kb

Download Help files -539 kb

Download Src files -105 kb

Download Lib files -48 kb