Question

hello creating a custom object may be a widely published topic, but my lack of coding skills proves problematic in actually implementing what i’m trying to do.

in a nutshell i’m adding controls at runtime in a flowpanelLayout. right now it’s just listboxes, that code is all working fine. i would like a way to label the listboxes that are getting added, i can’t think of a better way to do this than to use a text label. i was thinking it would be slick to create some sort of custom control (if possible) which is a listbox and a textlabel like one above the other or something. this way i can add the new custom control in my current code and assign the listbox attributes and label text, etc all in one motion.

this is what i was thinking, maybe there’s even a better way to do this.

my current listview creation code:

public void addListView()
        {

            ListView newListView = new ListView();
            newListView.AllowDrop = true;
            newListView.DragDrop += listView_DragDrop;
            newListView.DragEnter += listView_DragEnter;
            newListView.MouseDoubleClick += listView_MouseDoubleClick;
            newListView.MouseDown += listView_MouseDown;
            newListView.DragOver += listView_DragOver;
            newListView.Width = 200;
            newListView.Height = 200;
            newListView.View = View.Tile;
            newListView.MultiSelect = false;

            flowPanel.Controls.Add(newListView);
            numWO++;

            numberofWOLabel.Text = numWO.ToString();
        }

maybe the actual best answer is simply to also add a textlabel here and define some set coordinates to put it. let me know what you think.

if a custom control is the way to go, please provide some resource or example for me – i’d appreciate it.

Answer 1

Here is a custom user control that can do that:
You just need to set TitleLabelText to set the title.

[Category("Custom User Controls")]
public class ListBoxWithTitle : ListBox
{
    private Label titleLabel;
    public ListBoxWithTitle()
    {
        this.SizeChanged +=new EventHandler(SizeSet);
        this.LocationChanged +=new EventHandler(LocationSet);
        this.ParentChanged += new EventHandler(ParentSet);

    }
    public string TitleLabelText
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    //Ensures the Size, Location and Parent have been set before adding text
    bool isSizeSet = false;
    bool isLocationSet = false;
    bool isParentSet = false;
    private void SizeSet(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        isSizeSet = true;
        if (isSizeSet && isLocationSet && isParentSet)
        {
            PositionLabel();
        }
    }
    private void LocationSet(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        isLocationSet = true;
        if (isSizeSet && isLocationSet && isParentSet)
        {
            PositionLabel();
        }
    }
    private void ParentSet(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        isParentSet = true;
        if (isSizeSet && isLocationSet && isParentSet)
        {
            PositionLabel();
        }
    }
    private void PositionLabel()
    {
        //Initializes text label
        titleLabel = new Label();
        //Positions the text 10 pixels below the Listbox.
        titleLabel.Location = new Point(this.Location.X, this.Location.Y + this.Size.Height + 10);
        titleLabel.AutoSize = true;
        titleLabel.Text = TitleLabelText;
        this.Parent.Controls.Add(titleLabel);
    }

}

Example use:

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        ListBoxWithTitle newitem = new ListBoxWithTitle();
        newitem.Size = new Size(200, 200);
        newitem.Location = new Point(20, 20);
        newitem.TitleLabelText = "Test";
        this.Controls.Add(newitem);
    }