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File metadata and controls

132 lines (89 loc) · 4.71 KB
title WaynesTextBox
parent CustomControls Package
permalink /tB/Packages/CustomControls/WaynesTextBox/
has_toc false

WaynesTextBox class

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A single-line editable text field. The user can type, select with the mouse or with shift-modified cursor keys, jump word-by-word with Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right, double-click to select a word, and copy / cut / paste / select-all with the standard Windows shortcuts. The control draws its own caret, selection highlight, and inline text decorators (squiggle for ERROR, underline for WARNING, background highlight for INFO) on top of the configurable background.

The control paints three visual states (NormalState, HoverState, FocusedState) controlled by parallel WaynesTextBoxState sub-objects, each of which has its own background fill, borders, corners, text rendering, selection colours, caret colour, and decorator colours.

The current text is held in Value. Surrogate-pair characters are handled correctly by the cursor / selection logic --- the caret never appears between the high and low halves of a pair.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    txtName.Value = ""
    txtName.NormalState.TextRendering.Padding.Left = 6
    txtName.NormalState.TextRendering.Padding.Right = 6
End Sub

The three states are styled independently --- a common pattern is to give the focused state a heavier border in an accent colour and brighten its fill, so the active field stands out from its siblings:

Private Sub Form_Load()
    With txtName.NormalState
        .BackgroundFill.ColorPoints.SetSolidColor vbWhite
        .Borders.SetSimpleBorder StrokeSize:=1, ColorRGB:=&HC0C0C0
        .Corners.SetAll tbCurve, 4
        .TextRendering.Padding.Left = 6
        .TextRendering.Padding.Right = 6
    End With

    With txtName.FocusedState
        .BackgroundFill.ColorPoints.SetSolidColor vbWhite
        .Borders.SetSimpleBorder StrokeSize:=2, ColorRGB:=&HC07014  ' accent blue
        .Corners.SetAll tbCurve, 4
        .TextRendering.Padding.Left = 6
        .TextRendering.Padding.Right = 6
    End With
End Sub
  • TOC {:toc}

Inline text decorators

As the user types, the control automatically marks any occurrence of three literal strings inside Value:

The colours are configurable per visual state. The substrings themselves are hard-coded into the control's paint logic in the current release.

Properties

Anchors

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Which sides of the control are attached to its container during resize. Anchors. Inherited.

Dock

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How the control is docked inside its container. A member of DockMode. Inherited.

FocusedState

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The WaynesTextBoxState used when the control has the keyboard focus. Pre-set with focus-specific defaults --- orange caret, blue selection background.

Height

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The control's height in pixels. PixelCount. Inherited.

HoverState

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The WaynesTextBoxState used when the mouse is hovering over the textbox without it having focus.

Left

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The horizontal offset of the control's left edge from its container, in pixels. PixelCount. Inherited.

Name

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The unique design-time name of the control on its parent form. String. Inherited.

NormalState

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The WaynesTextBoxState used when the textbox is idle --- not focused and not hovered.

TabIndex

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The position of the control in the form's TAB-key navigation order. Long. Inherited.

TabStop

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Whether the user can reach the control by pressing TAB. Boolean. Inherited. Default: True.

Top

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The vertical offset of the control's top edge from its container, in pixels. PixelCount. Inherited.

Value

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The current text in the field. String. Default: "Textbox".

Syntax: object.Value [ = string ]

Visible

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Whether the control is currently displayed. Boolean. Inherited. Default: True.

Width

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The control's width in pixels. PixelCount. Inherited.