ZDO Corporation

CardLayout is very popular in Java AWT based GUI programming. However, C# Windows Forms, does not provide a replacement like System.Windows.Forms.CardLayout. CardPanel is a simple CardLayout implementation for C#.

You can also use the CardPanel in VisualStudio Design Mode. Simply add your other controls into the CardPanel, then change the Current property using the Property Editor, to the Name of the control that you would like to show.

Here is a quick example:

// Fill the area with CardPanel
CardPanel cardPanel = new CardPanel();
cardPanel.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
Controls.Add(cardPanel);

// Create our controls
Button button1 = new Button();
button1.Text = "button1";

Button button2 = new Button();
button2.Text = "button2";

// We need to name our control in order to be able to
// use them with our CardPanel
button1.Name = "button1";
button2.Name = "button2";

// Add them to our CardPanel
cardPanel.Controls.Add(button1);
cardPanel.Controls.Add(button2);

// Now switch to button2
cardPanel.Current = "button2";

// Now switch to button1
cardPanel.Current = "button1";

Here is our CardPanel.cs code:

//
// Copyright (c) 2007 by A. Onur Cinar
// Provided under LGPL license.
// http://www.zdo.com
//
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Zdo.UI
{
    class CardPanel : Panel
    {
        #region Fields
        string current;
        #endregion

        #region Properties
        public string Current
        {
            get { return current; }
            set 
            {
                if (current.Equals(value))
                    return;

                if (!Controls.ContainsKey(value))
                    return;

                if (!current.Equals(String.Empty))
                    Controls[current].Visible = false;

                Controls[value].Visible = true;
                current = value;
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Constructor
        public CardPanel ()
        {
            current = String.Empty;
        }
        #endregion

        #region Handlers
        protected override void OnControlAdded (ControlEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Control.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
            Current = e.Control.Name;

            base.OnControlAdded(e);
        }

        protected override void OnControlRemoved (ControlEventArgs e)
        {
            if (current.Equals(e.Control.Name))
                current = String.Empty;

            base.OnControlRemoved(e);
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

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