Pixata custom controls for Lightswitch

I do not know if I'm doing stupid things, but once I added a list of data in an Expandable Panel a vertical scroll bar is missing, try looking in the properties box but found nothing. Any tips?

Victor Perez

Hi,
I just updated pixata control extension and noticed many enhancement.  I just wonder if it is possible to make the background color of stylable label to transparent?  When I use other themes, I need to adjust all stylable labels in my screen, its a time consuming for me.  

Hello,

At the moment, there isn't a mechanism to do that, although it's a good idea. The main problem is that it would mean fiddling with the colour picker, which is a major job. mainly because I didn't write it. It is an open-source control that I used, and there is a lot of code in it.

I'll keep this in mind, and see if I can find some neat way of adding this functionality. Sorry I can't offer a quick fix.

I would also like to vote for this enhancement, in particular because this worked in the previous version.

Thanks for your contribution to the Lightswitch community!

Hi Mr Yossu,
your control set is really great! I just used the Dynamic Color Viewer  for the first time; if the control is bound to a numeric Computed field, I alwas see a message box indicating a Null Ref exception if the computed property changed. The correct color is displayed anyway.
Any idea what's wrong here?
When binding to a normal integer field, the behaviour is correct!

Thanks a lot and continue the good work!
Regards
Robert

Hello Robert,

I don't think it's the fact that it's computed that's the problem, as that was what I designed it for. It sounds to me like your property is nullable, which might be the issue.

Anyway, I have just uploaded a new version which includes code to check for null values in the controls, so this should avoid the problem altogether.

Please download the latest (v1.32) and see if it fixes the problem.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi,

You're the best - I'm speechless about your speed! Now it works - thanks a LOT!!
Hmmm, for a computed property I cannot select nullable; and I made sure everytime a value of 1...5 was returned. But anyway, now it works and I'm happy :-)
Best regards
Robert

Hi Robert,

If you look at the properties for your computed field, you'll see a checkbox named "Is Nullable" down at the bottom. If you check this, you can set the property to null. This is rarely useful in LS computed properties (which is presumably why the default is non-nullable), but it can be done.

However, if you just want to have a value that means "don't show an image," then the best thing to do is return zero (or any other integer not in the range 1-5).

Glad it's all sorted now

First of all, thanks for the many useful controls! I was wondering if you could include an option to change the direction of expansion for the extending group control. I find vertical extension much more usable (e.g. accordion control in the style of the Outlook nav bar)

Hello Chris,

Yes, that's definitely something I would like to add. I had thought about it even before I released the control, and now you're the second person to suggest it, so I guess it's worth doing! Main problem is finding the time. I could produce a separate vertical control, but I would like to be able to use the one, and have the option of choosing the direction. I just need to find the time!

Thanks again.

Hello! Yersterday, I downloaded and installed the lastest version , later in my lightswitch project, I added a staticProperty, and drag and drop into screen design, but cannot see the pixata controls in the list.. What's happen? Only see: Custom Control, label and texbox.. 

I am using the VS2012 Update 2.. 

Please, can you help me?

Great controls!!

edujimenez86@hotmail.com

Hello,

Are you sure you enabled the controls in the project properties? I can't think of any other way that they wouldn't be shown?

Also, what type is the static property? If it's a string, then you should see quite a few of the Pixata controls.

If you still have a problem, let me know.

Thanks!! I forgot enable the controls in the project properties..

Glad you got it sorted!

Here is yet another request :) Would it be possible to add the options for scroll bars similar to what we have with the built-in group layout controls?

I have a Row Layout as the main container inside the Expandable Panel and I would like to have a vertical scroll bar, but for some reason I cannot get that  scroll bar to show up at all... The only way I could make it work is to put the ExpandablePanel inside a Row Layout itself and then enable the vertical scroll bar on that outer Row Layout. The drawback of that approach is that the vertical scroll bar remains visible even when the ExpandablePanel is collapsed.

The new OnCollapsed and OnExpanded events will allow me to show and hide that outer scroll bar, but it would be even better/easier if the ExpandablePanel itself had the scroll bar capability which will then automatically show and hide them on expand and collapse.

Thanks again for a great control! 

Hello again,

Another good idea! My main problem here is that there is even less documentation on creating group controls than there for creating data-bound ones (and if you knew how poor the docs were for that, you'd understand what I mean!), and I've been struggling with the layout of this panel for some time. Someone else reported an issue that I can't fix, mainly because I don't have any information on what's going on inside the bits that Lightswitch adds.

Anyway, I'll keep this one in mind, as it is a very good point. I really can't promise when I'll have time though, so don't be upset if I don't respond as quickly as I did last time!

Thanks again.

The ExpandablePanel control is an amazing control, thanks so much for adding it to your collection. Is there a way to access OnCollapsed() and OnExpanded() type events?
Thanks in advance

Hello,

I hadn't though of that, but I don't see any reason why it can't be done. I'll try and find time either today or tomorrow (no promises though!) and see if I can add that.

Thanks for the great suggestion!

OK, couldn't resist the challenge!

I've just released version 1.29, which includes the two events you suggested.

I've also updated the Expandable Panel's documentation to include a code sample for how to use them. Please see http://dotnetwhatnot.pixata.co.uk/PixataCustomControls/Expandable_Panel.aspx for more info.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Thank you, it works great and makes the control even more useful!
Regards

Hi Alan,

Referring to the above in the latest version re Stylable labels etc, I have to suggest this is a bit of a backward step only when you consider that for some of the colour properties you have to virtually make the top half of the run-time designer disappear before you can select your choice and then of course you can't see the effect in said designer.

More importantly though, you are unable to manually key in a hex colour code in the situation where you know what you want, as I do ( scrolling around the colour palette in the hope of finding your precise hex is NOT an option)! In the previous version you had the option of picking from a long colour list of NAMED colours, which was good for reference.

I have no wish to be negative and as you know have been full of praise for the work you have done with these controls and I certainly don't want you to think I'm nitpicking! It's just that, having tried to use this latest version re the label configuartion, the blocking off of those capabilities ( at least please consider manual hex keying )is currently a retrograde step!

Many Thanks,

Ian Mac

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the feedback, it's very much appreciated. I had always intended to use a colour picker, rather than the overly long dropdown list, but never had the time to spend getting a custom editor to work until recently.

One of the main issues is that writing a colour picker is not a simple task, so I used an open-source one. This saved me a lot of time, but had the downside that it's hard to modify, as it means trawling through someone else's code (and there is quite a lot of it). It took longer than I expected to implement the picker in Lightswitch, and I ran out of time to modify the picker itself.

As for your two points specifically, I am aware of the amount of space it takes up, and have had a go at adding an option to expand and collapse it, so that it doesn't take up any more space than the dropdown list by default. Unfortunately, I found it very hard to modify the open-source control, which is why it was released in its non-collapsible state. However, this is still on my list of things to do.

The other point caught me out though. I had assumed (possibly correctly for the majority) that it would be easier to pick a colour this way, and hadn't considered the need to specify one exactly. This is a very good point, and requires some consideration. I'm reluctant to go back to the old dropdown, as I think the new editor is much better overall, but I understand your concerns.

I will try and have a look at this and see if I can add a textbox for direct entry. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks again for the feedback.

OK, you got me working!

I've just uploaded version 1.27 which has a modified colour picker. You can now enter specific colours in a textbox below the picker.

I haven't had time to look at collapsing the picker, but as that is more of a convenience, and this was a show-stopper (well, nearly), I decided to have a go at this one first.

Please update to the latest and let me know if it's what you wanted.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Hi Alan,

Once again you come up trumps and with a promptness which corporates would do well to even attempt to emulate!

The hex code keying was the most important ( for me at any rate ) of the three I mentioned and I can certainly see why the named colour list picker was something you wanted to exclude.

Again, in my case, and since your label controls offer so much flexibility, I DO have a set of named colours that I use frequently with them and of course I do not remember their equivalent hex codes by heart, but at least thats easy enough with a lookup on the web. It maybe that others use this scenario too.

With that in mind and certainly notwithstanding your most welcome update, may I make a suggestion for the longer term? I have no idea how difficult this might be but would it be possible to have an entry for keying in the named colour also ( not using a list, but chacking against one, obviously )?

Just a thought. I know you do this 'for free' (amazing) and your time must be limited so i very much appreciate you take feedback in such an excellent spirit!

Thanks again!

Ian

Hi again Ian,

Thanks for the kind words!

I had thought about making it so that you can type in a named colour, and had half a mind that the current code should work, but for some reason it doesn't. This is something I would like to add, as I can see that it's a useful idea.

Leave it with me. No promises, but I'll try :)

Hello again,

I've just released version 1.29, which now allows you to enter colour names as well as hex values.

Please try it out and see if it does what you want.

Hi.
After I updatet to latest version this happens:
When choosing Stylable static label the VS2012 stops working and restart.

Any suggestion?

regards
Sven

Hello Sven,

Thanks for reporting this. In a recent release, I had changed the colour editor to use a proper picker, instead of the dropdown list that was there before. I hadn't realised that I had forgotten to set a default background colour on the two stylable labels, which wasn't a problem before, but was causing an exception with the new colour picker.

Please download the latest version and check that it works without problem.

Many apologies for the problem.

Hi,
Thanks. Will do that
Sven

I can see the Pixata Controls referenced in the Client project. The extensions are installed. This is Visual Studio 2010. Do you have any idea what this could be and how to fix it?
 
Error	119	The View property of the ContentItem 'RowTemplate' in the Screen 'FamilyListDetail' cannot be resolved:  Could not resolve Id 'PixataCustomControls:LabelledGroup' to any item.  No matched model item can be found.	

Ok, I seem to have disabled the extensions somehow. I enabled them and the Error is gone. Sorry for the premature post.

I just updated the pixata extension and I am getting the following error on all of the controls in VS 2012

Error	3	The Property property of the ControlPropertySource in the Screen 'Home' cannot be resolved:  Could not resolve Id 'PixataCustomControls:StylableLabel/Properties[ShadowColour]' to any item.  No matched model item can be found.	

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I never got a notification of your question.

Looking at the control's definition, it seems that when I implemented it, I missed out the definitions of some of the properties! I can't believe that no-one else has spotted this until now :)

Anyway, I just uploaded a new release (1.26) which should fix this. Please get the latest and check it works correctly.

Thanks for reporting it.