Overview

The controls included in this Basic4PPC library are for use on the desktop only and require .NET 2.0 or later to be installed. They mainly support improved user interaction with an application. The version of this library can be determined by the DLLVersion property of a ToolStrip.

A ToolStrip is normally placed at the top of a window but can be placed at the sides or bottom if required. It can also be undocked for use as a floating toolbar. ToolStrip is the container for ToolStripButton, ToolStripComboBox, ToolStripSplitButton, ToolStripLabel, ToolStripSeparator, ToolStripDropDownButton, ToolStripProgressBar, and ToolStripTextBox objects. The ToolStripSeparator has been given properties and events that make it usable as a handle with which to move an undocked ToolStrip around the screen. Note that, unlike their normal counterparts, most ToolStripControls support an image property.

A StatusStrip is placed at the bottom of a window. Typically a StatusStrip control consists of ToolStripStatusLabel objects, each of which displays text, an icon, or both. The StatusStrip can also contain ToolStripDropDownButton, ToolStripSplitButton, and ToolStripProgressBar controls. In particular ToolStripProgressBar and ToolStripStatusLabel are intended to be a good match for a StatusStrip.

An IconList control provides storage for icons. This is provided as both NotifyIcon and ErrorProvider require icons and a Basic4PPC ImageList conrol does not support icons. IconList also supports using icons as images on ToolStripControl by converting icons to bitmaps by its' ItemBitmap method.

A DateTimePicker control provides an enhanced means of selecting dates and times, compared to the native Basic4PPC Calendar control.

An ErrorProvider control provides error indications to a user. These indications are associated with a particular control. An single ErrorProvider can provide error indications to more than one control at once.

A NotifyIcon control places an icon in the System Tray that may be used to indicate the state of an application by changing its' icon and also supports a context menu and mouse click events.

CheckBoxEx and RadioButtonEx controls are included for use with FormEx forms provided by the FormExDesktop library. Prior to version 6 of Basic4PPC normal Basic4PPC CheckBox and RadioBtn objects could not raise Click events from a FormEx form without causing a .NET exception to be raised because of the way these two controls were treated inside Basic4PPC. These two new CheckBoxEx and RadioButtonEx controls can safely raise those events. They are not really needed for Basic4PPC version6 and later which fixed this problem but are retained although renamed from their original names of CheckBox and RadioButton to avoid name conflicts.