Hi Jammerms,

Can you please tell me which NetAdvantage version you are using?

Thanks
Purnima

Thanks Dave, we started down the path of manually drawing the border, but we got pulled off that task when they decided to design around the problem.

Is there a reason I would have to manually draw the border around a ribbon tool while the other components like ribbon groups have the ability to access the border properties directly?  There are four different border properties that I can see on the ribbon group appearance; those would all be useful for the buttons, too.

More to the point, if the ToolbarButton has those border settings in its appearances, why are they not honored?  Seems like a bug.  Is that the case, or am I missing something?

Thanks,

J

Hello.

When a Button is drawn in a toolbar or ribbon what is actually being drawn is a ButtonToolUIElement. This class is a part of the Infragistics UIElement framework and all of the WinForms controls in the toolset use UIElements of various sorts. The ButtonToolUIElement doesn't draw a border by default. The appearance properties are on the ToolbarButton, however it's the ButtonToolUIElement that's actually resposible for drawing the rectangle and the other graphics that you see and this class doesn't draw any borders.

If you would like the ButtonTools to draw borders we can submit a feature request for you. In the meantime, the draw filter will work and will enable you to draw any border that you like. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Sincerely,
Charlie
Windows Forms Development Team
MCTS

Charlie,

It sounds like you are saying that the ToolbarButton has properties (via its appearance) that are not able to be used because the class that actually draws the tool (the ButtonToolUIElement) is not coded to do so.  That sounds like a pretty straightforward bug:  the property is available to be set but is not actually implemented.  

Yes, please submit a 'feature request' to honor the existing appearance properties of the ToolbarButton.  I see how to use the work-around provided for drawing a red rectangle; if I need to set BorderAlpha or BorderColor3DBase, then I'll write in again.

Thanks again for your help,

J

And where is the DrawFilter property of the ButtonTool?

How do we use even the DrawFilter class that you have specified?

Hello.

I have attached a working sample with the draw filter code above included. The DrawFilter property exists on all Net Advantage Windows Forms controls. In the sample you'll see this line of code in Form_Load where we set the DrawFilter property:

this.ultraToolbarsManager1.DrawFilter = new DrawFilter();

A draw filter is simply a class that implements the Infragistics.Win.IUIElementDrawFilter interface. To set the DrawFilter property on an Infragistics Net Advantage control, you simply set the property to an instance of a class that implements it. This interface has two methods: GetPhasesToFilter and DrawElement. GetPhasesToFilter is where you tell the control which parts of the drawing you want to take over and DrawElement is where the actual drawing is done.

In the sample, you'll see that GetPhasesToFilter simply returns DrawPhase.BeforeDrawBorders because this is the only part of the drawing that we want to take over. In DrawElement, we check the DrawPhase to make sure it is BeforeDrawBorders and if so, we then check to see which element is being drawn. If we are drawing a ButtonToolUIElement, then we simply invoke drawParams.DrawBorders(UIElementBorderStyle.Solid, Border3DSide.All, Color.Red, rect, rect). In the code I chose the color red and a solid UIElementBorderStyle, however you can choose any color or border style that you like.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hello.

The DrawFilter and CreationFilter properties don't exist on the button itself or on any other part of the control; they exist on the root control object, which in this case is the ultraToolbarsManager, because they can apply to any part of the control at any time. I was going to instruct you on getting a reference to the button tool that the ButtonToolUIElement refers to and then determine if that is the correct button, but you have already figured that out.

When you employ a draw filter or a creation filter in your project you have to determine which part of the control you are referring to from the UIElement that is being drawn. A toolbar can have many tools and you need to get a reference to the tool itself to determine if you want the draw filter to take over. A WinGrid can have many cells and you will need to get a reference to the specific cell from the CellUIElement to determine if you need to apply the draw filter, etc.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Well, I was asking for a DrawFilter for the ButtonTool itself. Not the toolbar manager.

In the ToolbarManager - I have - Text buttons, groups, checkboxes and icon+text buttons. Now I want to pick and choose which button should have border and which ones should not. I cant globally apply border to all items.

But I found it. I can put  a check inside DrawElement as what button it is and apply the border accordingly.

A shorter of doing this would be appreciated. But good for now.