Question

I have two quick button questions in VS.

First, I want to create a glowing button (annoying I know, spare me) when there’s an update available. I’m using a buttonx from dotnetbar, and I would something along the lines of what it would look like to keep clicking the button, but to do it automatically.

I currently have a timer set up to change its checked state every half a second, but it doesn’t fade the colors in and out as it does when you click it…

I also want to know how to disable the button, but have it look normal.

Answer 1

I created a custom UserControl to draw a button using GDI+. It doesnt “glow” as such, but you can do something similar to produce a external glow effect.

public partial class AquaButton : UserControl
{
    private bool m_IsMouseOver = false;

    protected string m_text = string.Empty;

    [Category("Appearance")]
    [Description("Gets / Sets Button Text")]
    [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Always), Browsable(true),
    DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Visible),
    Bindable(true)]
    public override string Text
    {
        get { return m_text; }
        set { m_text = value; this.Invalidate(); }
    }

    public AquaButton()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void AquaButton_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        this.Width = 130;
        this.Height = 28;
    }

    private void AquaButton_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
    {
        Graphics g = e.Graphics;

        g.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;

        ExtendedGraphics eg = new ExtendedGraphics(g);

        //SolidBrush br1 = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(130, 125,236,255));
        LinearGradientBrush br1 = new LinearGradientBrush(
            new Point(60, 0),
            new Point(60, 28),
            Color.FromArgb(125, 236, 255),
            Color.FromArgb(0, 130, 255)
            );
        eg.FillRoundRectangle(br1, 1, 1, 124, 25, 12);

        if (m_IsMouseOver)
        {
            GraphicsPath GP = new GraphicsPath();
            GP.AddEllipse(25, -7, 70, 70);
            PathGradientBrush PGB = new PathGradientBrush(GP);
            PGB.CenterColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 0);
            PGB.SurroundColors = new Color[] { Color.FromArgb(0, 0, 0, 0) };
            g.FillRectangle(PGB, 0, 0, 130, 26);
        }

        Pen pn1 = new Pen(Color.Black, 2f);
        eg.DrawRoundRectangle(pn1, 1, 1, 124, 25, 12);

        Rectangle rect1 = new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, this.Height);

        StringFormat strForm = new StringFormat();
        strForm.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
        strForm.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center;

        g.TextRenderingHint = System.Drawing.Text.TextRenderingHint.AntiAlias;
        g.DrawString(m_text,
            new Font(FontFamily.GenericSansSerif, 11, FontStyle.Bold),
            Brushes.Black,
            rect1,
            strForm
            );
    }

    private void AquaButton_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        m_IsMouseOver = true;
        this.Invalidate();
    }

    private void AquaButton_MouseLeave(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        m_IsMouseOver = false;
        this.Invalidate();
    }
}