Inheriting System.Windows.Forms.Button
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Hey all, As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I'm currently coding a class which inherits from System.Windows.Forms.Button. My goal is to create a ShapedButton class, with a built in functionality to shape the button according to a drawing in a Bitmap object. I do not intend to write a new UserControl, encapsulating a button. My intension is to directly inherit the Button class. However, the problem is that it would be immpossible to design my ShapedButton in design view, and I would have to manually write the code to InitializeComponent(). How can I use my ShapedButton in the designer? Do I have to create a UserControl? If that's the case, then how can I inherit Button? There's no multi-inheritance, and I would have to inherit UserControl first... Thanks in advance, Shy.
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Hey all, As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I'm currently coding a class which inherits from System.Windows.Forms.Button. My goal is to create a ShapedButton class, with a built in functionality to shape the button according to a drawing in a Bitmap object. I do not intend to write a new UserControl, encapsulating a button. My intension is to directly inherit the Button class. However, the problem is that it would be immpossible to design my ShapedButton in design view, and I would have to manually write the code to InitializeComponent(). How can I use my ShapedButton in the designer? Do I have to create a UserControl? If that's the case, then how can I inherit Button? There's no multi-inheritance, and I would have to inherit UserControl first... Thanks in advance, Shy.
shyagam wrote:
How can I use my ShapedButton in the designer?
Do NOT write any code in InitialiseComponent, the IDE recreates that code.
shyagam wrote:
If that's the case, then how can I inherit Button?
You can't, as you say, once you inherit from UserControl, that's it, excepting for interfaces.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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shyagam wrote:
How can I use my ShapedButton in the designer?
Do NOT write any code in InitialiseComponent, the IDE recreates that code.
shyagam wrote:
If that's the case, then how can I inherit Button?
You can't, as you say, once you inherit from UserControl, that's it, excepting for interfaces.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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Christian Graus wrote:
Do NOT write any code in InitialiseComponent, the IDE recreates that code.
What can I do than in order to gain the ability to design the button in the designer?
It's not exactly what you wan't, but it might help you out a little bit because it enables you to use at least some designer abilities. To outwit the designer do the following: Let's say you have a class
MyButtonderived fromButton. To place an instance, first place a usual Button Control on your form by using the designer (let's name it myButton1). In your code replace the designer generated codeprivate System.Windows.Forms.Button myButton1;withprivate MyButton myButton1;and inInitializeComponent()use your own class, which results in replacingthis.myButton1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();withthis.myButton1 = new MyButton();. This should make the designer switch to your own data type permanently and your own properties and events should also be listed by the designer. Hope this helps. -
It's not exactly what you wan't, but it might help you out a little bit because it enables you to use at least some designer abilities. To outwit the designer do the following: Let's say you have a class
MyButtonderived fromButton. To place an instance, first place a usual Button Control on your form by using the designer (let's name it myButton1). In your code replace the designer generated codeprivate System.Windows.Forms.Button myButton1;withprivate MyButton myButton1;and inInitializeComponent()use your own class, which results in replacingthis.myButton1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();withthis.myButton1 = new MyButton();. This should make the designer switch to your own data type permanently and your own properties and events should also be listed by the designer. Hope this helps.Well... I didn't try your suggestion, so I can't tell you if it works... :) I have found my truly beautyful solution (in my opinion at least ;P). I have discovered that after inheriting System.Windows.Forms.Button, the icon of my file in the solution explorer, changed itself to a component's icon. So I started reading about components, and finally I've discovered my solution: A component is defined as a class which implements the IComponent interface, or inherits from a class which directly/indirectly implements the IComponent interface. So I checked the heirarchy of the Button class, and there it was! Button indirectly implements the IComponent interface. So I kept on reading, and found that with some simple attributes added to your class, your class can have what is called a "Design-Time Support"![^] Thank you all again. I hope this info would help others to achieve similar goals.
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Well... I didn't try your suggestion, so I can't tell you if it works... :) I have found my truly beautyful solution (in my opinion at least ;P). I have discovered that after inheriting System.Windows.Forms.Button, the icon of my file in the solution explorer, changed itself to a component's icon. So I started reading about components, and finally I've discovered my solution: A component is defined as a class which implements the IComponent interface, or inherits from a class which directly/indirectly implements the IComponent interface. So I checked the heirarchy of the Button class, and there it was! Button indirectly implements the IComponent interface. So I kept on reading, and found that with some simple attributes added to your class, your class can have what is called a "Design-Time Support"![^] Thank you all again. I hope this info would help others to achieve similar goals.
Hi I was just searching for that solution - great !!! My problem was that I could not open the designer after I derived a class from TreeView (I got HTML errors in the designer) X| . Now I added the following property to the derived class: [Designer(typeof(SimpleControl.Design.SimpleDesigner))] then I reopend the form in designer - in voala the garphic was displayed ! Thanks a lot for that hint!:-D:-D