Project Description
If you hate data binding, you'll love this!
These controls keep themselves up-to-date automatically. Create visually stunning, highly interactive Windows forms. Update Controls simplify UI programming.
With other controls, you set properties like "Text" to put data into the form. When the data changes, you have to set the property again. But with Update Controls, you implement events like "GetText". The controls automatically update themselves when the data changes. The themed controls add visually stunning refractive lighting effects commonly seen in Vista and WPF applications. But you can use these in XP and Windows Forms!
Two sections are added to your Visual Studio toolbox. The Update Controls section contains the standard Windows controls with update behavior. These controls include UpdateTextBox, UpdateTreeView, and UpdateGrid, among others. Build your forms using these controls instead of the standard Windows controls. To attach them to data, handle Get and Set events instead of setting properties. The Update Controls Themes section contains controls that have an appealing refractive three-dimensional look. These controls include ThemedButton, ThemedCheckBox, and ThemedRadioButton -- better-looking variations of the standard controls -- and Header -- a static text area with a refractive background. Here you will also find the Theme component, which controls the appearance of all controls in this section. The library generates properties for your own data classes. Access your data through these properties and the controls automatically discover dependencies. Change your data through these properties -- from other controls, other windows, or even other threads -- and the controls automatically update themselves.
Example
The UpdateTextBox control fires the GetText event when it needs to update itself. It fires the SetText event when the user changes the text.
public partial class ContactForm : Form
{
private Contact _contact;
public ContactForm(Contact contact)
{
_contact = contact;
InitializeComponent();
}
private string firstNameTextBox_GetText()
{
return _contact.FirstName;
}
private void firstNameTextBox_SetText(string value)
{
_contact.FirstName = value;
}
}
The GetText event will be fired before the form is displayed, and each time the FirstName property changes. A Dynamic object in the data model wires up this event.
public class Contact
{
private string _firstName;
#region Dynamic properties
// Generated by Update Controls --------------------------------
private Dynamic _dynFirstName = new Dynamic();
public string FirstName
{
get { _dynFirstName.OnGet(); return _firstName; }
set { _dynFirstName.OnSet(); _firstName = value; }
}
// End generated code --------------------------------
#endregion
}