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Getting Started |
Controls Toolbox |
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Controls are the graphical elements on a form that the user interacts with. Stardraw Control comes with a library of controls, many of which can be customized to fit the graphical look or usability requirements of your application.
The available controls in the Stardraw library are shown in the Controls Toolbox on the left side of the Forms View. It is divided into three groups, Windows, Controls and Components, each of which have particular applications and uses:
The Controls Toolbox
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Group |
Description |
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Windows |
Contains a standard set of controls that most Windows programs use. These include text boxes, buttons, labels, check-boxes, etc. most of which also react to any XP or Vista Themes that you may be using. |
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Controls |
Contains some advanced graphical controls such as sliders, gauges, knobs and other 'widgets' that are more familiar in the physical world, and can be used to emulate actual controls on real devices. |
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Components |
Components are non-visible controls that provide background automation, such as timed or scheduled events, and advanced scripting. At run-time, components do not have any visible appearance. |
To add a control to any form, simply click and drag the control from the Controls Toolbox and drop it onto your form. Selecting any control on your form will display the control's design-time properties in the Property Grid on the right side of the screen:
The Property Grid
At design-time, components are displayed in the form's Component Tray area at the bottom of the Forms View:
The Component Tray
The Forms and Controls reference has a complete list of controls and how to use them.
Tips
The Panels Control is a Windows control that is worth a specific mention. These can greatly aid in simplifying your graphical layout, providing regions of your form that can be reused by different groups of controls, at different times or in different operator contexts.
Many windows controls and advanced controls can also support background images and transparency, which means you can create high-impact visual designs, that aren't constrained by the grey, boxy, rectangular character of traditional Windows applications. You can find out about these effects and more in the Forms and Controls reference and in the Graphics Templates topic.
Scripts are a very powerful type of component that allow you to access the advanced programming capabilities of Stardraw Control. Scripts, whilst not for the fainthearted, can programmatically access devices and controls within your application, as well as external resources such as files or databases. Refer to the Components section for more information.