Window Form, Panel, can't set ZOrder at run time/design time

[Adil Akram]

I'm using VS 2005, .net 2.0 for a desktop application (Window Form app).

I can't set ZOrder of Panel control neither at design time by toolbar/menu
command "Bring to Front"/"Sent to Back" nor at run time by calling
BringToFront method of panel. And Panel control doesn't support SetTopLevel
method etc. I tried this while Dock=Fill and Dock=None but its not working at
all.

Please tell me how can I change Panel's ZOrder specially at run time, I have
to show different panels at different times. Is there any way to do this or I
have to set their Visible to true/false to achieve this.

[Marc Gravell]

Seems to work fine for me (below)... what are you doing differently?
But yes - changing the visibility is an option, and it sounds like what you
are doing is very similar to the TabPage implementation too...

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form()) {
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Click += delegate {
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
form.Controls.Add(p);
}
Application.Run(form);
}

}
}

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
The only thing I'm doing different is you are creating it at run and I added
it at design time to the form and that is not any different in .net because
designer also adds the same instantiation code. So, the only difference is
your controls creation code is in Main() method and mine is in Form's
constructor.

I checked it again, its still not working neither at design time, nor at run
time even I checked the SendToBack method of panel at run time but its not
working. I can do it with Visible but I have 4-5 panels up and down and I
have to take of visibility of all panels.

Have you executed your code in .net 2.0?

regards,
Adil

"Marc Gravell" wrote:

Seems to work fine for me (below)... what are you doing differently?
But yes - changing the visibility is an option, and it sounds like what you
are doing is very similar to the TabPage implementation too...

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form()) {
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Click += delegate {
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
form.Controls.Add(p);
}
Application.Run(form);
}

}
}

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
Another thing different I'm doing, I forget to tell you is I put my panel
controls inside the SplitContainer control's panel.

regards,
Adil

"Marc Gravell" wrote:

Seems to work fine for me (below)... what are you doing differently?
But yes - changing the visibility is an option, and it sounds like what you
are doing is very similar to the TabPage implementation too...

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form()) {
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Click += delegate {
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
form.Controls.Add(p);
}
Application.Run(form);
}

}
}

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
I tried placing several panels in same project on another form and their
BringToFront/SendToBack working both at design time and runtime. I think the
SplitterContainer is the real culprit and prevents panels to work properly.

Have you any solution for the panels inside SplitterContainer to work or
I'll have to use Visible property.

regards,
Adil

"Marc Gravell" wrote:

Seems to work fine for me (below)... what are you doing differently?
But yes - changing the visibility is an option, and it sounds like what you
are doing is very similar to the TabPage implementation too...

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form()) {
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Click += delegate {
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
form.Controls.Add(p);
}
Application.Run(form);
}

}
}

[Marc Gravell]

Have you executed your code in .net 2.0?
Yes

Marc

[Marc Gravell]

Still works fine for me... Have you any code that demonstrates this?

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form())
using (SplitContainer sc = new SplitContainer())
{
sc.Panel1.BackColor = Color.Red;
sc.Panel2.BackColor = Color.Blue;
AddPanels(sc.Panel1);
AddPanels(sc.Panel2);
sc.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
form.Controls.Add(sc);
Application.Run(form);
}

}

private static void AddPanels(SplitterPanel panel)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10 * i, 10 * i);
b.Click += delegate
{
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
panel.Controls.Add(p);
}
}
}

Marc

[Chris Dunaway]

Adil Akram wrote:

Marc,
I tried placing several panels in same project on another form and their
BringToFront/SendToBack working both at design time and runtime. I think the
SplitterContainer is the real culprit and prevents panels to work properly.

Have you any solution for the panels inside SplitterContainer to work or
I'll have to use Visible property.

I gather you are trying to have one or more panels inside a
SplitterContainer and then selectively show and hide them?

Rather than using panels, use UserControls. You can design them
separately and show them inside the panels of the SplitterContainer.

You can also do this using forms instead of UserControls.

Chris

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
Thank you very much for your follow up. I again missed to mention that I'm
using a SplitterContainer inside another SplitterContainer, first one
(Parent) has vertical orientation and 2nd (Child) has horizontal orientation.
I just like to mention if it may help to find some clue.

But even with this addition to your code, its still working properly and its
annoying me so much that why it is not working for me not even at design
time. My project is currently not so big, it has a single form only and I
check it out and find nothing different I'm doing in it.

Here's your coding with addition of another child SplitterContainer and its
working.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form())
using (SplitContainer sc = new SplitContainer())
{
SplitContainer scl = new SplitContainer();
scl.Orientation = Orientation.Horizontal;

scl.Panel1.BackColor = Color.Red;
scl.Panel2.BackColor = Color.Blue;
AddPanels(scl.Panel1);
AddPanels(scl.Panel2);
sc.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
scl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
sc.Panel1.Controls.Add(scl);
form.Controls.Add(sc);
Application.Run(form);
}

}

private static void AddPanels(SplitterPanel panel)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10 * i, 10 * i);
b.Click += delegate
{
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
panel.Controls.Add(p);
}
}
}
regards,
Adil

"Chris Dunaway" wrote:

Adil Akram wrote:

Marc,
I tried placing several panels in same project on another form and their
BringToFront/SendToBack working both at design time and runtime. I think the
SplitterContainer is the real culprit and prevents panels to work properly.

Have you any solution for the panels inside SplitterContainer to work or
I'll have to use Visible property.

I gather you are trying to have one or more panels inside a
SplitterContainer and then selectively show and hide them?

Rather than using panels, use UserControls. You can design them
separately and show them inside the panels of the SplitterContainer.

You can also do this using forms instead of UserControls.

Chris

[Adil Akram]

Chris,
Thank you for your assistance and suggesting alternatives.

I have another alternate solution to use the Visible property of Panels to
show hide but it requires to do more management/coding to set visible false
for one and setting true for other.

I would just like to know that is there any known bug/design flaw in panels
ZOrder as in my case its not working not even at design time or is there
something I'm doing wrong?

regards,
Adil


"Chris Dunaway" wrote:

Adil Akram wrote:

Marc,
I tried placing several panels in same project on another form and their
BringToFront/SendToBack working both at design time and runtime. I think the
SplitterContainer is the real culprit and prevents panels to work properly.

Have you any solution for the panels inside SplitterContainer to work or
I'll have to use Visible property.

I gather you are trying to have one or more panels inside a
SplitterContainer and then selectively show and hide them?

Rather than using panels, use UserControls. You can design them
separately and show them inside the panels of the SplitterContainer.

You can also do this using forms instead of UserControls.

Chris

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
Thanks for staying to resolve the problem. I indentified the problem,
actually I while dropping panels on form I dropped one on top of other that
causes one to be child of other that is why its not coming front of its
parent.
regards,
Adil

"Marc Gravell" wrote:

Still works fine for me... Have you any code that demonstrates this?

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
using (Form form = new Form())
using (SplitContainer sc = new SplitContainer())
{
sc.Panel1.BackColor = Color.Red;
sc.Panel2.BackColor = Color.Blue;
AddPanels(sc.Panel1);
AddPanels(sc.Panel2);
sc.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
form.Controls.Add(sc);
Application.Run(form);
}

}

private static void AddPanels(SplitterPanel panel)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Panel p = new Panel();
Button b = new Button();
b.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10 * i, 10 * i);
b.Click += delegate
{
p.SendToBack();
};
b.Text = "Panel " + i.ToString();
p.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
p.Controls.Add(b);
panel.Controls.Add(p);
}
}
}

Marc

[Marc Gravell]

Glad you resolved it.

As a future guide, if you see this again have a look at the document outline
([Ctrl]+[Alt]+T) - makes it easy to see what nests where.

Marc

[Adil Akram]

Marc,
Thanks its very helpful to view controls outline.

regards,
Adil

"Marc Gravell" wrote:

Glad you resolved it.

As a future guide, if you see this again have a look at the document outline
([Ctrl]+[Alt]+T) - makes it easy to see what nests where.

Marc