LayoutEngine Class

Definition

Namespace:

System.Windows.Forms.Layout

Assembly:

System.Windows.Forms.dll

Source:

LayoutEngine.cs

Provides the base class for implementing layout engines.

C#

public abstract class LayoutEngine

Inheritance

Object

LayoutEngine

Examples

The following code example demonstrates the use of the LayoutEngine class to implement custom layout behavior.

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.Layout;

// This class demonstrates a simple custom layout panel.
// It overrides the LayoutEngine property of the Panel
// control to provide a custom layout engine. 
public class DemoFlowPanel : Panel
{
    private DemoFlowLayout layoutEngine;

    public DemoFlowPanel()
    {
    }

    public override LayoutEngine LayoutEngine
    {
        get
        {
            layoutEngine ??= new DemoFlowLayout();

            return layoutEngine;
        }
    }
}

// This class demonstrates a simple custom layout engine.
public class DemoFlowLayout : LayoutEngine
{
    public override bool Layout(
        object container,
        LayoutEventArgs layoutEventArgs)
    {
        Control parent = container as Control;

        // Use DisplayRectangle so that parent.Padding is honored.
        Rectangle parentDisplayRectangle = parent.DisplayRectangle;
        Point nextControlLocation = parentDisplayRectangle.Location;

        foreach (Control c in parent.Controls)
        {
            // Only apply layout to visible controls.
            if (!c.Visible)
            {
                continue;
            }

            // Respect the margin of the control:
            // shift over the left and the top.
            nextControlLocation.Offset(c.Margin.Left, c.Margin.Top);

            // Set the location of the control.
            c.Location = nextControlLocation;

            // Set the autosized controls to their 
            // autosized heights.
            if (c.AutoSize)
            {
                c.Size = c.GetPreferredSize(parentDisplayRectangle.Size);
            }

            // Move X back to the display rectangle origin.
            nextControlLocation.X = parentDisplayRectangle.X;

            // Increment Y by the height of the control 
            // and the bottom margin.
            nextControlLocation.Y += c.Height + c.Margin.Bottom;
        }

        // Optional: Return whether or not the container's 
        // parent should perform layout as a result of this 
        // layout. Some layout engines return the value of 
        // the container's AutoSize property.

        return false;
    }
}

Remarks

Use the LayoutEngine class when you want to create custom layout behavior at run time. Derive your own class from the LayoutEngine class and override the Layout method to define your custom layout behavior.

Constructors

LayoutEngine()

Initializes a new instance of the LayoutEngine class.

Methods

InitLayout(Object, BoundsSpecified)	Initializes the layout engine.
Layout(Object, LayoutEventArgs)	Requests that the layout engine perform a layout operation.

Applies to

See also

• How to: Implement a Custom Layout Engine