KryptonSplitContainer

Use the KryptonSplitContainer to control the sizing of two panels. A movable bar sits between the two panels and allows the user to change the relative spacing. You can create complex user interfaces by nesting controls within each of the two panels. The panels are derived from the KryptonPanel control.

Appearance

The ContainerBackStyle property is used to define the top level styling required for the background of the container that excludes the splitter area. Use the SeparatorStyle property to alter the styling of the splitter area. Under normal circumstances the ContainerBackStyle will not have any visual affect because the two panels are positioned over the affected area. Only if the panels are modified to have a transparent background will this styling property become useful.

You can access the two panel instances directly by using the Panel1 and Panel2 properties. At design time you can drag and drop controls directly onto the panels in order to setup the required appearance.

Use the Orientation property to alter the splitter from working in a vertical to horizontal manner. See figure 1 for an example of the difference as seen at design time.

Figure 1 – Vertical and Horizontal orientation

Layout

FixedPanel can be used to indicate that one of the panels should remain a constant size and only the other panel should be resized when the split container is resized. Otherwise the default is to resize both panels to maintain the same relative sizes. IsSplitterFixed is False by default and so allows the user to drag the splitter in order to alter the relative sizes of the panels. Set this to True in order to prevent the user from making any change.

To enforce a minimum size use the Panel1MinSize and Panel2MinSize properties. This is useful in preventing the user from resizing a panel down to zero or very small sizes that would be inappropriate in your application. To hide one of the panels from display use Panel1Collapsed or Panel2Collapsed as required. When a panel is collapsed the other panel will automatically take up the entire split container area and the splitter removed from view.

SplitterDistance is the number of pixels from the left or top of the split container that the splitter should be positioned. When the Orientation is vertical the distance is from the left and when horizontal the distance is measured from the top. SplitterWidth is the pixel thickness of the splitter area. SplitterIncrement is pixel multiple used for moving the splitter position. So an increment of 10 pixels would mean the user can only move the splitter in 10 pixel increments from the current position.

Events

When the splitter position is being moved the SplitterMoving event is generated and allows the change to be cancelled. Once the move has been completed the SplitterMoved event is fired.

Four States

The split container can be in one of four possible states, Disabled, Normal, Tracking and Pressed. If the control has been disabled because the Enabled property is defined as False then the button will be in the Disabled state.

When enabled the split container will be in the Normal state until the user moves the mouse over the splitter area at which point it enters the Tracking state. If the user presses the left mouse button whilst over the splitter then it enters the Pressed state.

In order to customize the appearance of the control in each of the four states you can use the properties StateDisabled, StateNormal, StateTracking and StatePressed. Each of these properties allows you to modify the background of the split container and then background and border of the splitter area.

Common State

To speed up the customization process an extra StateCommon property has been provided. The settings from this are used if no override has been defined for the state specific entry. Note that the specific state values always take precedence and so if you define the background color in StateNormal and StateCommon then the StateNormal value will be used whenever the control is in the Normal state. Only if the StateNormal value is not overridden will it look in StateCommon.

Imagine the following scenario; you would like to define the background of the splitter area to be always red. Without the StateCommon property you would need to update the same setting in each of StateDisabled, StateNormal, StateTracking and StatePressed properties. Instead you can define the setting in just StateCommon and know they will be used whichever of the four appearance states the button happens to be using.