Creating your own themes, visual stlyes

[Jeffrey Wisneski]

Hello,

I am happy with the diagram control, however I am experiencing some issues with visual styles / themes / skins. I need to ask the following questions,

#1 How do I create my own themes with the Syncfusion tool? I attempted to dim a variable as a new Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.VisualStyle and that did not make available the underlying properties.

#2 I need to display the Diagram Control next to the PropertyEditor. The Diagram control was set to a dock style of fill and the property editor was set to right. I confirmed that the call, Me.Controls.Add, added the property editor to the form first then the diagram control. This resulted in the diagram control scroll bars drawn behind the property editor. After making some changes and including panels to house the controls the problem continued. Finally, I created a main form that includes the symbol pallete and the property editor and this calls a System.Windows.Forms.UserControl that includes the diagram control. The display of all the controls windows are placed as expected, however, when I attempt to update the style /skin / theme the property window does not update, the symbol palette does paint with the new style. Is there an explicit call that will refresh the property window?

#3 The PropertyEditor does not have a visualstyle property? How does it know to change its appearance?

#4 The SymbolPalette properties for backcolor and headerbackcolor, I attempt to change these during run time and view their values. The values do not update as expected. Is there a specific way to code the values?

If you need me to create an example that demonstrates my questions, please let me know. Thank you for your time and help.

[e-mail]
Technology Enterprise Group, Inc.
Office [phone] Ext. 1
www.teginc.com

[Administrator]

Hi Jeff,

The Essential Diagram control class, Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Diagram.Controls.Diagram, is a subclass of the System.Windows.Forms.Control type and does not provide a VisualStyle property. Is this property something that is provided by the Control class?

Likewise the Essential Diagram PropertyGrid does not have a common VisualStyle property either. The VisualStyle property implemented by the PaletteGroupBar and PaletteGroupView controls used for the diagram symbol palette is something that is implemented by the respective control type to allow it to be customized, and is not available across the board for all Essential Studio controls.

As for varying the Z-order of the controls on your form, you can do so by right-clicking the mouse and selecting the ''Bring To Front'' or ''Send To Back'' options. This will let you specify the control location relative to the scrollbars.

The Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Diagram.SymbolPalette is a special type of diagram Model that serves to hold a collection of SymbolModels. It is not a Windowed control, and does not support a backcolor in that sense. If you are looking to change the backcolor of the PaletteGroupView control that is used for displaying the symbol palette, then you will have to directly set the PaletteGroupView.BackColor property.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you require additional clarification on any of these issues.

Thanks,
Prakash Surendra
Syncfusion Inc.,

[Jeffrey Wisneski]

What is the Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.VisualStyle?
How do I create my own enumeration to use with the Syncfusion controls?

I have a variable defined as a
Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Diagram.SymbolPalette
I attempt to access the .HeaderBackColor, .BackColor, and .CurrentPalette.BackgroundStyle.Color properties at run-time. I place a break in the code and watch. The properties do not change value. What must I do to update the value?

[Administrator]

Hello Jeff,

The VisualStyle enumeration is used by certain Essential Tools controls, and is not something that is supported across the board for all Syncfusion products. The Essential Diagram controls do not have this option.

Per my earlier update the SymbolPalette class is a model type used by Essential Diagram for hosting a collection of symbol models. This does not implement properties such as headerbackcolor, backcolor etc., It looks like you are trying to configure the appearance of the symbol palette control that displays the diagram symbol palette. If so then you will have to set the appropriate properties on the Essential Diagram PaletteGroupBar and PaletteGroupView controls that are used for implementing the symbol palette. The PaletteGroupView control implements the inner client region that displays the symbol models, while the PaletteGroupBar control provides the outer container control for hosting the PaletteGroupView controls.

Please refer to the Essential Studio class reference docuementation on the GroupBar/GroupView/PaletteGroupBar/PaletteGroupView controls to get an idea about the visual attributes that can be set for these controls. You could also try dragging an instance of the PaletteGroupBar and PaletteGroupView control to a form in the VS.NET design mode, and play around with the various properties in the VS.NET Properties window to get an idea about the supported styles.

If you still have difficulty customizing the symbol paltte, then please provide us with a brief description on the display style that you are seeking to achieve, and we will try to provide you with a sample that shows it.

Thanks,
Prakash Surendra
Syncfusion Inc.,