How to make a label child of a rectangle

General
#1

Hi, I try to build a control from serveral other controls by instantanciating them from classes.
I have a class from rectangle and a class from label. Now it need to glue them together by making the label instance child of the rectangle instance.
Therefor I think I need the parent property of rectcontrol (Documentation says “aRectControl.Parent = newControlValue”)
but I don’t know how I can express newControlValue correctly.

#2

Dont do this this way
You’ll have very little success - eps trying to handle events etc

You can subclass & create this entirely in the IDE using the visual designer

#3

If it’s just a label and a rectangle, I would go so far as to use a Canvas instead of multiple controls.

#4

oh yes, such a composed control made in the IDE works very well. Now I’m looking for a way to clone it.

The way to build it form a canvas class I used in an other application successfully but I tried to avoid all that work to calculate the text wrapping with different text size

And finaly I would like to know what to use for “newControlValue”

#5

Use a ContainerControl to create your new control with your rectangle and label inside. You will then be able to instanciate it at will.

#6

I intend to move around the clones with the mouse and I’m not sure wether it’s possible to change the left and top of a container control when the application is running.
What about a group box?

#7

ContainerControl is a control. You can move it just like any other control.

#8

[quote=302761:@Christian Hahn]I intend to move around the clones with the mouse and I’m not sure wether it’s possible to change the left and top of a container control when the application is running.
[/quote]
Certainly
Otherwise we’d never have been able to make the IDE which has many many many container controls

#9

Short answer: you can’t do it that way. Use a ContainerControl or a Control Set.

#10

Thank you all for your tips, it took a while to try them out.
The most easy way is to use a groupbox since it’s an ordinary control with an index property.
The containercontrol has more options of course and it’s to be moved fine what I not expected first.
But I still wonder how to address a particular instance of a class derived from containercontrol.
The attempt:
Dim c As Control
For i As Integer = 0 To Self.ControlCount-1
c = Window.Control(i)
If c IsA ContainerControl Then
…
must fail since the containercontrol isn’t a control.
Anywhere I read to use a own variable of the class but I got no idea of that.
I would be grateful for some hints.

#11

ContainerControl is an EmbeddedWindowControl.

#12

You need to maintain your own list of them in an array. You cannot (easily) get them from the window control() function.

#13

…of them in an array. …
Do you mean an array of instances of the class?
So I could say: myArray(1).left = 100
I’ll try it out.

#14

Thank you very much, to store the instanceses of the containercontrols in an array realy works fine.

#15