Invisible member of Control Set (labels)

General
1

Mac / Xojo 2021 r3.1 / API 2 controls /

I have another post discussing another problem with placing member of a label set of controls over the white rectangles which are members of their own set.

This problem refers to occasional members of the set of controls not being visible in the IDE. The set of labels all contain the text “AS”.

In the IDE, the vast majority are visible. But there are exceptions. Below you can notice that the AS is missing from the third from left grid rectangle.

Screen Shot 2021-12-18 at 6.38.52 AM

If I select that particular member of the set of “AS” labels, it can be seen.

Screen Shot 2021-12-18 at 6.39.13 AM

Screen Shot 2021-12-18 at 6.39.32 AM

It happens to be member 12 of the set. When it is not “selected” it is invisible. There are a few other instances of this phenomena over the grid. I have not shown the entire grid in the images.

The white rectangle is always in the back.

I do not understand what is “different” about the occasional members of the control set of labels “AS”. Anybody have an idea?

2

Compare its parent property with others. See If some have values, and some have Nil. A label on top of a rectangle should have its parent as such rectangle. This would define the painting composition order as Xojo does not have a z-order.

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3

  1. Is the parent property visible in the IDE somewhere? Or do I have to write code to assess it.

  2. Is there a way to set the parent property to Nil in the IDE?

Thanks for input.

4

To answer part of my own question:

If you right-click on the particular member of the label set in the Navigator, one of the options is to “Unparent it”

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5

I’m seeing another crazy thing. I have put a label in a window, Then created a rectangle and dragged it to cover the label, pressed run. The label shows up. That’s not expected.

6

As xojo has said many many many times, DONT overlap controls. Xojo is not made for that.

Either user propper container like a ContainerControl or make the GUI by drawing it into a canvas

7

I’m plenty of rectangles with labels on top of them. The day Xojo says I can’t do it, will be the day I’ll move away from Xojo for ANY other tool, because ANY other tool can do such silly thing.

8

Thanks for the feedback. Is this in the documentation? I have managed to get away with this a lot despite my recent problems. I did not realize this was “forbidden”.

9

The select AS lable seems to be a child of the ABOVE rectangle, i think it lost it’s correct parent so it wil be invisble. Drag it ito the bove one and back into the correct one note the red border around the rectangle indicates it’s parent (or placement parent)

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10

Good catch. I see a vague red contour on the above rectangle too.

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11

Robert,

Are you creating a bunch of basically identical squares? It appears that you have covered a window (or a portion of a window) with squares and controls and have placed each item separately.

If so, I strongly suggest you look into the ContainerControl. With it you can make one square with the desired controls places as you want them. Then you can place the copies of the container control on the window as desired.

This makes things much easier to develop and maintain.

-Bob Gordon

3 Likes
12

Another good catch and advice. Once you get one square working ok, you’ll get all squares working ok.

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13

Thanks for the nudge. I somehow assumed that I could not make a set of ContainerControls. I will look into this. My approach of dealing with multiple sets of 100 controls is/was a pain.