Visual Studio 2005 - IDE Enhancements

IDE Enhancements
IDE Enhancements
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XP Theme Support
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Attaching a Database with Your Application Displaying Data from a Web Service -->
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XML Support, Separation of view from Data, Data Binding, Data Caching
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Home Professional Set default to show samples in VB C# C++ J#

Windows Forms - XP Theme Support
Visual Studio 2005 improves support for Windows XP Themes in Windows Forms 2.0. Windows XP Theme support allows your Windows Form applications to have a completely modern and up-to-date look and feel. In the past, many of you had difficulty implementing the Windows XP look and feel for you client applications. It was particularly confusing when dealing with EnableVisualStyles() and trying to figure out why certain controls still wouldn't render properly. Moreover, you had to set each control's FlatStyle property to System.

All of these issues have been fixed in Windows Forms 2.0. Applications created with Visual Studio 2005 call EnableVisualStyles() by default. Additionally, the controls render properly without your having explicitly to set the FlatStyle property.
This walkthrough demonstrates Windows Forms 2.0's improved support for visual styles by building a simple application with controls for switching between four different visual styles.
See the Visual Studio 2005 Client Development Guided Tour Walkthrough Requirements page for a list of the requirements needed to run this walkthrough. NOTE: In addition to these requirements, this walkthrough requires the Windows XP operating system, configured to use the Windows XP style in the Display control panel Appearance tab.

1Open Visual Studio 2005 and create a new Windows Application project named "XP Themes". Using the Solution Explorer, open the Program.cs file. Note that visual styles have been enabled by default.
(NOTE: In Visual Basic you will need to click the Show All Files button in the Solution Explorer window before opening the designer partial file and then expand My Project Application.myapp and then open Application.Designer.vb. In J#, the designer-generated code is within a named region Windows Form Designer generated code in the Form1.jsl source code file.)
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2Switch over to the Form1 design view. Drag the following controls from the Toolbox onto Form1:
Button
CheckBox
ComboBox
TabControl
3Note that the controls appear with XP styling by default.
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The new Application object property, VisualStyleState, can be used to enable visual styles selectively on client areas, non-client areas, or across the entire control. (The client area is the area inside the form, exclusive of the title bar and scroll bars.) By default, an application's VisualStyleState is ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabled. This means that the entire form, in terms of title bars and the client area, will be set to use XP Themes.

4Drag four RadioButton controls from the Toolbox onto Form1. Accept the default names. Resize the form to fit. In the Properties window, set each control's Text property to the following values, respectively:

radioButton1: ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabled
radioButton2: ClientAreaEnabled
radioButton3: NonClientAreaEnabled
radioButton4: NoneEnabled
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Each of the RadioButton controls has a corresponding VisualStyleState enumeration value. Clicking one of the four RadioButton controls will assign the Application.VisualStyleState property to the corresponding value and refresh the Form. This demonstrates how to selectively enable visual styles.

5In the Properties window for radioButton1, click on the lightning bolt icon switch to the event. In the Click event, type radioButton_Click and press Enter. In the resulting handler add the following:
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If RadioButton1.Checked Then Application.VisualStyleState = _ VisualStyleState.ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabledElseIf RadioButton2.Checked Then Application.VisualStyleState = _ VisualStyleState.ClientAreaEnabledElseIf RadioButton3.Checked Then Application.VisualStyleState = _ VisualStyleState.NonClientAreaEnabledElseIf RadioButton4.Checked Then Application.VisualStyleState = _ VisualStyleState.NoneEnabledEnd If
' Repaint the form and all child controls.Me.Invalidate(True)
6To the top of Form1 add a reference to System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles:
imports System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles
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using System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles;
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import System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles.*;
7Right-click Form1 and select View Designer. In the Properties window for each of the three remaining RadioButton controls, set the Click event to radioButton_Click.
8Select the Debug Start Debugging menu command (F5) to run the application.
9In the running application, click each of the four RadioButton controls to see the effect of selectively enabling visual styles.












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if (radioButton1.Checked) { Application.VisualStyleState = VisualStyleState.ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabled; }else if (radioButton2.Checked) { Application.VisualStyleState = VisualStyleState.ClientAreaEnabled; }else if (radioButton3.Checked) { Application.VisualStyleState = VisualStyleState.NonClientAreaEnabled; }else if (radioButton4.Checked) { Application.VisualStyleState = VisualStyleState.NoneEnabled; }// Repaint the form and all child controls.this.Invalidate(true);
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if (radioButton1.get_Checked()){ Application.set_VisualStyleState( VisualStyleState.ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabled);}else if (radioButton2.get_Checked()){ Application.set_VisualStyleState( VisualStyleState.ClientAreaEnabled);}else if (radioButton3.get_Checked()){ Application.set_VisualStyleState( VisualStyleState.NonClientAreaEnabled);}else if (radioButton4.get_Checked()){ Application.set_VisualStyleState( VisualStyleState.NoneEnabled);}// Repaint the form and all child controls.this.Invalidate(true);
6To the top of Form1 add a reference to System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles:
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imports System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles
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using System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles;
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import System.Windows.Forms.VisualStyles.*;
7Right-click Form1 and select View Designer. In the Properties window for each of the three remaining RadioButton controls, set the Click event to radioButton_Click.
8Select the Debug Start Debugging menu command (F5) to run the application.
9In the running application, click each of the four RadioButton controls to see the effect of selectively enabling visual styles.

The first screenshot shows how the application looks when ClientAndNonClientAreasEnabled is selected. The entire application renders in the XP style. When only the client area is enabled all the controls on the Form reflect the XP style. The non-client areas, however, such as the Form border and its controls, do not. The remaining two options are reflected in the other screenshots.
In closing its worth pointing out that Visual Studio 2005 extends support for visual styles into owner-drawn controls as well. To draw your own control you can subclass the VisualStyleRenderer class, which includes methods for drawing different parts of the current theme. Use VisualStyleInformation class to determine details about the current style. You can use derived renderers, such as ButtonRenderer, to draw pieces of these controls in your own control, allowing you to leverage the rendering capabilities of existing controls. This allows you to draw your control through visual styles-aware parts of common controls, reducing the amount of custom rendering code required. You can tell what element parts are predefined by using VisualStyleRenderer.IsElementDefined method call. By using suitable renderers when available, and calling out to custom rendering code otherwise, you can future-proof your code, as future version of Windows Forms may add more elements and parts.
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