A Collection of Simple Widgets

• Download SimpleWidgets2_210_Source - 473.9 KB
• Download SimpleWidgets2_210_Library - 4.3 MB
• Download SimpleWidgets2_210_Demo - 122.9 KB

Introduction

This is release 2.1.0 of the library. It adds methods to, and fixes bugs in, the SimpleCodeBuilder class. Note that there are incompatibilities between newer (2.x) and older (1.x) releases of the library. Refer to the History section for more details.

The SimpleWidgets2 Library is a collection of simple .NET Framework/.NET Windows Forms controls and utilities. They are primarily intended for use in more complex controls and widgets.

The SimpleWidgets2 library is compiled using .NET Framework 3.5, .NET Framework 4.6.2, and .NET 6.0.

All public and protected classes, methods and properties and fully documented using standard C# XML documentation comments. The project includes help files in both .chm and .mshc formats. Refer to the Overview section in the help file for more details on using the library.

The SimpleWidgets2_210_Demo download includes the following files:

The SimpleWidgets2_210_Library download includes:

The SimpleWidgets2_210_Source download includes the source for all of above programs, as well as source for unit tests, and the necessary files for building the help files.

Using the Library

There are many classes in the SimpleWidgets2 library. The main classes are Filler, Filler2, Line, and Polygon. They all provide full Visual Studio Designer support (for .NET Framework projects).

Filler

The Filler class is an area filler class. It supports the following fill types:

• Empty fills,
• Solid fills (using a single color),
• Hatched fills (using a hatch color, hatch pattern, and background color),
• Linear gradient fills (using any number of colors), and
• Path gradient fills.

Linear gradient fills have a direction, specified by an angle value. Path gradient fills radiate out from a center point, either as a rectangle or as an ellipse. For example, this is a gradient with an angle of 57 degrees:

Include a public type of Filler in a control and it will automatically be supported by Visual Studio Designer. The following code segment shows a member of type Filler named AreaFill:

private GAW.SimpleWidgets2.Filler areaFill = new GAW.SimpleWidgets2.Filler();
public GAW.SimpleWidgets2.Filler AreaFill
{
    get { return areaFill; }
    set { areaFill = value; }
}

If such a code sample was part of a control, and that control was added to form, this property could be set within designer:

Selecting the "..." button brings up the FillerEditorDialog.

Filler2

The Filler2 class is an area filler class similar to Filler but with fewer options for gradient fills. It supports the following fill types:

• Empty fills,
• Solid fills (using a single color),
• Hatched fills (using a hatch color, hatch pattern, and background color), and
• Gradient fills (using any number of colors).

Filler2 is intended for use in a control where the gradient direction (if a gradient fill is chosen) is context dependent. For example, imagine a control with a spinning arrow. If a gradient fill was chosen for the arrow, and the control designer wanted the gradient to always flow in the direction the arrow was pointing, then Filler2 should be chosen as the fill over Filler. It would not make sense for the user to be able to select a gradient direction if the control ignored the selected direction.

Line

The Line class represents a line, of any size (thickness), color, and dash style. It is intended to be used to draw lines and/or paths using the .NET Graphics class.

The LineEditorDialog class implements a dialog which allows for the editing of a Line object:

Polygon

The Polygon class represents a polygon, either empty, or composed of any number of points. It is intended to be used to draw paths using the .NET Graphics class.

The PolygonEditorDialog class implements a dialog which allows for the creation and editing of a Polygon object. The polygon is constructed by entering the X and Y coordinates for each point. Points can be added, deleted, or re-ordered:

Other Classes

The following table summarizes most, but not all, of the other classes in the SimpleWidgets library.

Unit Tests and Code Coverage

Unit tests have been added to this release using NUnit 3. Code coverage of the unit tests was measured using the Fine Code Coverage extension.

The majority of the unit tests were added to confirm that constructors, getters and setters were behaving as expected. A number of bugs were found with these simple tests! There is some code coverage of internal code (for example, the CatColorPicker.LayoutCalculator class is covered 100%). Unfortunately, there is very little coverage of the actual GUI code - painting and responding to events. I am still searching for a satisfactory way of unit testing the GUI code.

Code coverage for the release version of the library compiled for .NET Framework 4.6.2 is at 81.9%. Branch coverage is at 56.8%. Measuring code coverage consistently works for all versions of the library.

The required packages to compile and run the unit tests in Visual Studio are:

• NUnit 3.13.2 or later.
• NUnit3TestAdapter 4.1.0 or later.

Code coverage was measured using Fine Code Coverage extension by Fortune Ngwenya
(version 1.1.188). This is an excellent free tool which I highly recommend!

Future Changes

Once the issues with Visual Studio Windows Forms Designer for .NET applications has been resolved, SimpleWidgets will be updated. Hopefully this will happen soon...

Other changes to be made for future release include:

• More refactoring of GUI code (especially that involved with layout calculation) to make it easier to unit test.
• Enhance the PolygonEditorDialog allowing points or groups of points to be dragged.
• Allow resizing of the GradientEditor.

History

• December 30, 2022 - Release 2.1.0
  • Added SimpleCodeBuilder.Add method overloads for Boolean, Size, and Point.
  • Fixed a bug in some SimpleCodeBuilder.Add method overloads where a null value being assigned might be preceded by the new keyword.
  • Fixed some minor documentation errors.
• December 4, 2022 - Release 2.0.0
  • Added Resizer class.
  • Added XML serialization to the Filler, Filler2, Line, and Polygon classes.
  • Added SimpleCodeBuilder class.
  • Added the method Redraw to the LinearGradientPanel class.
  • Added unit tests (and fixed several minor bugs).
  • Removed the LinearGradientBrush2 class; added new method Utils.PaintWithLinearGradientBrush to replace lost functionality.
  • Changed project so that the library and apps are compiled with Visual Studio 2022 for .NET Framework 3.5, .NET Framework 4.5.2, and .NET 6.0.
  • Changed help files to work with Sandcastle Help File Builder 2021.11.7.0.
  • Changed library name to SimpleWidgets2 and namespace to GAW.SimpleWidgets2 to avoid conflicts with earlier versions of the library.
• January 19, 2016 - Release 1.1.1
  • Fixed bug where SetStartPosition was positioning the form with the upper left corner at the specified point, not the center of the top edge as stated in the documentation.
  • Updated SetStartPosition and SetStartPositionBelowControl such that the form position is adjusted to keep it in the working area of the screen.
  • Fixed bug where Black was missing from the list of web colors.
• September 13, 2015 - Release 1.1.0
  • Fixed bug where FillerPanel and Filler2Panel were using nested UserControls, making it impossible for mouse messages to be intercepted.
  • Fixed bug where Utils.SetSetPosition() would not always function properly on the non primary display of a multiple display system.
  • Added additional constructors to FillerEditorDialog and Filler2EditorDialog allowing the window to be positioned immediately beneath a specified control.
  • Changed form border style of various dialogs from fixed dialog to fixed tool window.
  • Changed titles on various dialogs.
  • Changed Line class so that a width of zero is an empty (not visible) line.
  • Added alpha value selector to CustomColorPicker control.
• September 13, 2014 - Release 1.0.2
  • Converted .csproj files to Visual Studio 2013 format.
  • Converted help files to work with SandCastle Help File Builder 2014.5.31.0.
• February 5, 2014 - Release 1.0.1
  • Fixed some missing documentation tags.
• February 2, 2014 - First release