CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformsinheritance
David Carrigan
David Carrigan

Reputation: 783

Prevent control from inheriting it's parents disabled state

I know it seems like an odd request but I have this layout. With it I'm very much enjoying and taking advantages of the FlowLayoutPanel. I disable it to disable all child controls. But there are cases I have a link in there I want enabled all the time. Is this possible?

flowLayoutPanel1.Enabled = false; // disable panel and all child controls
linkLabel1.Enabled = true; // re-enable somehow the link that was disabled inherently

I'm only asking because there maybe a way to do this, but if it's officially a bad design case then I will rethink my solution.

Previously to get around this I overlayed the control I want to enable/disable independently of the parent control. I would line it up and position the control so it appeared to be with the group. I hated this. It makes design difficult as drag and drop just puts it back into the container and also totally defeats the purpose of using a FlowLayoutPanel.

Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 492

Answers (1)

David Carrigan
David Carrigan

Reputation: 783

Using the suggestion from Anthony. I've managed the following code that solves my dilemma. Using LINQ! (I always forget about using LINQ) I adjusted a bit with the extension methods and ability to just hammer in controls through a parameter array of what I do not want disabled. Very flexible to say the least.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // "reset"
    flowLayoutPanel1.EnableAll();
}

private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // disable but the provide controls
    flowLayoutPanel1.DisableBut(checkBox1);
}

public static class Extensions
{

    public static void EnableAll(this FlowLayoutPanel container)
    {
        foreach (Control control in container.Controls.OfType<Control>())
            control.Enabled = true;
    }

    public static void DisableBut(this FlowLayoutPanel container, params Control[] but)
    {
        foreach (Control control in (container.Controls.OfType<Control>().Where(x => (!but.Contains(x)))))
        {
            control.Enabled = false;
        }
    }

}

With suggested tweaks for performance, extensibility, etc.

public static class Extensions
{

    public static void EnabledBut(this Control container, Boolean enabled, params Control[] but)
    {
        foreach (Control control in (container.Controls.OfType<Control>().Except(but)))
            control.Enabled = enabled;
    }

}

Upvotes: 1

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