Question

In java swing I can insert panels into panels and so on, and not have to build a brand new window for every view of my applicaiton, or mess around removing and adding controls.

Theres a panel clas sin C# however I cant see any way of creating a ‘panel form’ or basically just a form in form designer thats a panel and its contents.

How do I do this then and work the way I did with java swing?

Answer 1

Usually i just dock different forms within eachother setting the IsMdiContainer Property to true on the parent window. Then i create subforms that i dock using the following function:

static class FormUtil {     static public void showForm(Form sender, Control reciever)     {         sender.ControlBox = false;         sender.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;         sender.ShowInTaskbar = false;         sender.TopLevel = false;         sender.Visible = true;         sender.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;          reciever.Controls.Clear(); //clear panel first         reciever.Controls.Add(sender);     }  } 

then whenever i need to dock a form inside a panel on the parents form i just do:

FormUtil.showForm(new SomeForm(), this.splitContainer1.Panel1); 

This allows me to delegate some of the form creation to different designers. Works like a charm for me, love to hear if theres a better way of doing it.