2008
Oct01

An interactive calendar on your windows desktop

In 2002, when VisualHint was not born yet, I was proposing some components written in C++/MFC under the name aircom.org. The MFC PropertyGrid appeared there, as well as a DateTimePicker and color components. Today I retrieved a nice little program, called DeskDate that I was selling for a modest 9.95 US$, and reinstalled it on my machine. Take it! It's now free (I'm not responsible if it destroys your computer, bla bla bla). DeskDate displays a permanent calendar on your desktop (you choose the [...]

2008
Sep19

A suffix for the day of the month in the DateTimePicker

The TimeSpanEditor was able to do it but not the DateTimePicker due to the way DateTime.Parse works. I have changed that and the DateTimePicker is now able to show a different suffix depending on the day of the month. Here is an animated screenshot: To work, you need to handle the ValueChanged event, like this: private void dateTimePicker1_ValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { FieldPack fieldPack = (sender as FieldPack); Field field = fieldPack.GetField(3); if (field != fieldPack. [...]

2008
Jul30

DateTimePicker and TimeSpanEditor now support frames per second

These 2 editors in SFPE.Net can now display a new field for frames per second. The maximum number of frames per second can be chosen in the format string. Here is a screenshot to show you an example: As you can see, it takes the "v" character followed by the max frames count. Even a floating number can be used, like 29.97 for NTSC. Note that this comes from a feature request received on July 16. I found it so useful (being a video editing fan myself) that I decided to work on it. The SFPE [...]

2008
Jun23

Screencast of the new TimeSpan editor for .Net

As promised last week, here is a screencast showcasing the features of the new TimeSpan editor, a new creation based on the Smart FieldPackEditor.Net: Update: SFPE 1.2 has been released. It is not demonstrated in this video, but I remind you that this editor can be used in the DataGridView and in Smart PropertyGrid.Net too, and with the exact same features. If you have any question about this editor, just drop me a note here, in the forums or through the helpdesk. You will be able to play with [...]

2008
Jun17

A TimeSpan editor for .Net

It seems there is no TimeSpan editor for .Net. Can you believe it? So when a customer asked me if it was possible to make one with Smart FieldPackEditor.Net, I realized I could fill a gap with a full featured duration editor, based on the flexibility of SFPE. And this is what is coming in version 1.2. Update: a screencast has been published. First here is a nice screenshot taken from the updated supplied sample: You can see the editor in action and a subset of its properties in a PropertyGrid. [...]

2008
Jun02

The PropertyGrid gets Office 2007 and other themes

If you skin your application with famous themes like Office 2007 (blue, black, silver), Office 2003 or Vista, you will be happy to know that SPG.Net now offers these themes too. Here is a (resized) screenshot: This is feasible thanks to the Krypton Toolkit API (which is a free framework available here). Instead of reinventing the wheel, I contacted Phil Wright to learn more about his toolkit and I learnt that his assembly could be used only to skin custom controls. So I have just created a [...]

2008
May18

Screencast: How to visually synchronize two PropertyGrids?

A visitor who wanted to evaluate SPG asked me this question the other day: "I want to build a view to compare two objects visually. I want to display two property grids, one for each object. But these grids must be visually sync'ed. If user expands or collapses one property or category, other grid must do the same. If user scrolls, other must scroll too. It is possible with your component?". The answer is yes with SPG 3.0.1 and I have made a screencast to show you the result: The synchronizer [...]

2008
May06

PropertyGrid and property value icons screencast

As promised, here is a screencast demonstrating the various ways to attach and show an icon with a property value. [...]

2008
Apr23

A screencast for the new features of Smart FieldPackEditor.Net 1.1

Now that SFPE 1.1 has been released, better than a thousand words, here is a short screencast to showcase its new features: Also here is the changelog: Version 1.1: New features: A convenient latitude/longitude editor has been added to wrap LatLongFieldPacks. What makes it exceptional is that it accepts values as float, double, decimal and corresponding nullable types and it can even be given your own latitude/longitude type as long as it is IConvertible to decimal or an attached TypeConverter [...]

2008
Apr15

Screencast: lazy loading and default values in SPG 3.0

Here is a new screencast showcasing these two new features. Now, SPG has nothing to envy to the Microsoft PropertyGrid anymore. [...]