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.NET Forum / Windows Forms / WinForm General / December 2004Usercontrols. Are they worth the effort?
I have a form that is approximatly 5000 lines of code. I estimate that about 70% of this is designer generated code for my controls on the form. Would it be worth it to group some of the controls on the form into user controls to reduce the size of the form? What else can/should be done to keep the size of forms reasonable? I have heard that user contorls cause all kind of weird behaviour in the IDE? >I have a form that is approximatly 5000 lines of code. I estimate that >about 70% of this is designer generated code for my controls on the form. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > What else can/should be done to keep the size of forms reasonable? Is the size of the form creating a specific problem? If so, what problem is it causing? You would then want to make sure that your usercontrol solution solved this particular problem. If it isn't causing a specific problem, then you've already got your solution! :-) John Saunders I would never create a user control simply to group things on a form. User controls certainly are worth the hassle. In fact, they're a wonderful innovation. However, I would use them only when a group of controls performs a single, simple function that I could state in one sentence. For example, I have a complicated user control that allows the user to enter a normalized or denormalized fraction. It consists of a text box and three combo boxes, but all work in concert to do a single, simple thing. I use it wherever I need to have the user enter a fraction that could be denormalized. On the other hand, I would never (for example) create a user control to enter dimensional information for lumber products. That's far too vague a requirement, and it would be used in too few places. I also have inherited text boxes that expect only integers, or only decimal values, or only monetary amounts. Again, they offer functionality that I will need often in the future, so I put it in a user control rather than recreating it every time (and possibly getting it wrong). > I also have inherited text boxes that expect only integers, or only > decimal values, or only monetary amounts. Again, they offer > functionality that I will need often in the future, so I put it in a > user control rather than recreating it every time (and possibly getting > it wrong). On a related note: is it possible to subclass an existing control to add functionality to it, _and_ get the forms designer to play nice with your version of the control, without going to the trouble of creating a whole user control? For instance, I want to subclass PictureBox to give it more display modes (that is, I really dislike the default clip-or-stretch behaviors for images that exceed the dimensions of the PictureBox), but that's all. I'd like it if, when I drag a PictureBox into my app, I get an instance of a myPictureBox class, rather than of a System.Windows.Forms.PictureBox. Can I do this without explicitly creating a user control just to hold my subclassed control? >> I also have inherited text boxes that expect only integers, or only >> decimal values, or only monetary amounts. Again, they offer [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > Can I do this without explicitly creating a user control just to hold my > subclassed control? How would VS.NET know to substitute your class for the one in the Toolbox? Is there some difficulty putting your class into the toolbox? John Saunders The short answer is yes. In fact, that's what I did for my specialized TextBoxes, but I didn't want to muddy the discussion on this thread with that detail. So, you can subclass PictureBox and insert your custom PictureBox on forms just as you would a normal PictureBox. The only detail is that you need to place your new PictureBox class in the tool box in Visual Studio. VS will not "know" to use your PictureBox specialization whenever you add a PictureBox to your Form, particularly since there could be multiple specializations (just as I have multiple specializations of TextBox). Or, you could cheat like I do and simply insert a normal PictureBox and then modify the code that the Designer inserts into your Form class. You have to change it in only two spots: the declaration and the instantiation. :) What do you mean by "size of the form"? Is it a display real estate problem, a memory problem, a source code problem, or other? >I have a form that is approximatly 5000 lines of code. I estimate that >about 70% of this is designer generated code for my controls on the form. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > I have heard that user contorls cause all kind of weird behaviour in the > IDE? Free MagazinesGet these publications absolutely FREE for up to 12 months. There are no hidden fees and no obligation. Simply choose a title, complete the application form and submit it. Read more ...
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