SplitButton control, written in C#

[kerrywano]

I'm glad I found your post. I was looking for some cool new (free, of course) components to kind of spice up a new internal application. I could be using this to replace quite a few comboboxes.

Personally, I'm a VBer, but I can read much of C#. I know it isn't of any particular consequence, but I have converted the latest version to VB.NET 2.0 for anyone interested.

Thanks,

[Wyatt]

I'm glad I found your post. I was looking for some cool new (free, of course) components to kind of spice up a new internal application. I could be using this to replace quite a few comboboxes.

Personally, I'm a VBer, but I can read much of C#. I know it isn't of any particular consequence, but I have converted the latest version to VB.NET 2.0 for anyone interested.

Thanks,

Sure, e-mail it to me and I'll add it to the first post.

-Wyatt

[Aaron]

Hi,

The FlatStyle "Flat" does not work for this SplitButton. Do you have an idea how i can accomplish that?

Thanks,
Aaron

[Wyatt]

Hi,

The FlatStyle "Flat" does not work for this SplitButton. Do you have an idea how i can accomplish that?

Thanks,
Aaron

The flat style is not a theme-inherited style - that is, it doesn't look like the themed buttons in Vista & XP. This means it will not change from one version of Windows to another. So, to accomplish the 'Flat' look is actually a rather simple task.

Just open up the project in Visual Studio (or whichever development environment you use) and edit the 'OnPaint(PaintEventArgs pevent)' method in the SplitButton.cs file. Then it's just a matter of replacing the existing code with a switch statement for each of the button's states:

Code: Select all

switch(State)
{
   case PushButtonState.Default:
      //TODO: insert painting code
   break;
   case PushButtonState.Disabled:
      //TODO: insert painting code
   break;
   case PushButtonState.Hot:
      //TODO: insert painting code
   break;
   case PushButtonState.Normal:
      //TODO: insert painting code
   break;
   case PushButtonState.Pressed:
      //TODO: insert painting code
   break;
}


Then where each comment is, replace it with drawing code that draws the rectangle background and the 1px/2px black frame for that particular button state.

The reason I didn't (and won't) implement the alternate FlatStyles is because they look amateur.

However, if you're developing for a client with those particular stylistic needs, then who am I to impose my own standards?

[JoeRip]

What I'd like is a simple dropdown that allows me to have a different width for the control than for the dropdown list. Since I can't find a forms-friendly control that does that (ie, not a toolstrip bound control), I use your split button, even though I don't need the split itself.

So, given this - is there any way I can get the drop down list to drop if the user clicks anywhere in the button, as opposed to just the right side? I want it to function exactly as if they had right clicked, essentially.

[Wyatt]

What I'd like is a simple dropdown that allows me to have a different width for the control than for the dropdown list. Since I can't find a forms-friendly control that does that (ie, not a toolstrip bound control), I use your split button, even though I don't need the split itself.

So, given this - is there any way I can get the drop down list to drop if the user clicks anywhere in the button, as opposed to just the right side? I want it to function exactly as if they had right clicked, essentially.

Well, you'll have to change a few methods. For example, the OnKeyDown method will have to be changed to

Code: Select all

        protected override void OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs kevent)
        {
            if (showSplit)
            {
                if (kevent.KeyCode.Equals(Keys.Down) || kevent.KeyCode.Equals(Keys.Space))
                {
                    ShowContextMenuStrip();
                }
            }

            base.OnKeyDown(kevent);
        }


and make similar changes to OnKeyUp. Though, the main thing you'll need to change is to OnMouseDown:

Code: Select all

        protected override void OnMouseDown(MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            if (!showSplit)
            {
                base.OnMouseDown(e);
                return;
            }

            //always show the context menu, no matter where clicked
            ShowContextMenuStrip();
        }


And obviously you'll want to change the drawing code to never draw the "split" line. There will be other subtleties that you'll need to work out to get it working perfectly, but that should get you started.

If you need more help, feel free to ask.

[mc_ginley]

Hey you,
just wanted to say a big thank you. Your control is EXACTLY what i was looking for!!! Really good work. Thanks a lot.
regards
jOe

[Guy]

First thing's first: this is so far the best SplitButton implementation I've come across. Thanks!

Now, on to the whining!

If I set an image on the SplitButton, and have nothing set for the "SplitMenu" property, then the image is drawn on the button and everything is right in the world. But as soon as I set the SplitMenu property, the button is redrawn without the image. This happens on all the "TextImageRelation" enums I've tried. I assume it's gotta be happening in the OnPaint override, but I'm having trouble tracking it down. Any ideas good sir?

Thanks!

[Wyatt]

First thing's first: this is so far the best SplitButton implementation I've come across. Thanks!

I'm glad this control is so popular.

Now, on to the whining!

If I set an image on the SplitButton, and have nothing set for the "SplitMenu" property, then the image is drawn on the button and everything is right in the world. But as soon as I set the SplitMenu property, the button is redrawn without the image.

That's because I didn't implement the image painting in the code. I'll have a fixed version listed on the first post (and a blog post) tomorrow night.

Edit, Feb. 8, 2008: The new version (1.6) has image support. Tell me if you find any bugs.

[Guy]

Thanks Wyatt!