Frame Appearance Template

The entire appearance of a NForm component is controlled by a NFrameAppearance instance. Being either locally specified or globally by the NUIManager this object specifies both metrics and appearance of the non-client area of a NForm. A form may specify whether to use the global template or not if the locally set one is null (its default value). And you may always tell the form that the system look-and-feel is preferred.

There are many cases when an application needs either have larger borders or higher caption. This is completely achievable with our forms as they override each non-client aspect.

The following code demonstrates how to specify custom settings for a template and assign it to a NForm:

C#	Copy Code
//create a new NFrameAppearance object //by default if no segmented images are specified the Simple rendering is applied. NFrameAppearance appearance = new NFrameAppearance(); //customize metrics appearance.LeftBorder = 8; appearance.RightBorder = 8; appearance.BottomBorder = 8; appearance.CaptionHeight = 32; //offset the caption buttons appearance.ButtonsOffset = new Size(4, 8); //create new NForm object and assign it this template NForm form = new NForm(); form.FrameAppearance = appearance; form.ShowDialog();

C#

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//create a new NFrameAppearance object
//by default if no segmented images are specified the Simple rendering is applied.
NFrameAppearance appearance = new NFrameAppearance();
//customize metrics
appearance.LeftBorder = 8;
appearance.RightBorder = 8;
appearance.BottomBorder = 8;
appearance.CaptionHeight = 32;

//offset the caption buttons
appearance.ButtonsOffset = new Size(4, 8);

//create new NForm object and assign it this template
NForm form = new NForm();
form.FrameAppearance = appearance;
form.ShowDialog();

Visual Basic	Copy Code
'create a new NFrameAppearance object 'by default if no segmented images are specified the Simple rendering is applied. Dim appearance As NFrameAppearance = New NFrameAppearance() 'customize metrics appearance.LeftBorder = 8 appearance.RightBorder = 8 appearance.BottomBorder = 8 appearance.CaptionHeight = 32 'offset the caption buttons appearance.ButtonsOffset = New Size(4, 8) 'create new NForm object and assign it this template Dim form As NForm = New NForm() form.FrameAppearance = appearance form.ShowDialog()

Visual Basic

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'create a new NFrameAppearance object
'by default if no segmented images are specified the Simple rendering is applied.
Dim appearance As NFrameAppearance = New NFrameAppearance()
'customize metrics
appearance.LeftBorder = 8
appearance.RightBorder = 8
appearance.BottomBorder = 8
appearance.CaptionHeight = 32

'offset the caption buttons
appearance.ButtonsOffset = New Size(4, 8)

'create new NForm object and assign it this template
Dim form As NForm = New NForm()
form.FrameAppearance = appearance
form.ShowDialog()

The result of the above code:

The template allows for a complete customization of the caption including both image and text. Settings like TextAlign, ImageAlign, ImageTextRelation, etc. are provided so that you can define the caption appearance that suits your forms most.

The following example demonstrates how to manipulate the image and text of a NForm's caption via the NFrameAppearance template:

C#	Copy Code
NFrameAppearance appearance = new NFrameAppearance(); //customize settings related with image and text positioning appearance.ImageTextRelation = ImageTextRelation.TextBeforeImage; appearance.ImageAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight; appearance.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight; NForm form = new NForm(); form.FrameAppearance = appearance; form.ShowDialog();

C#

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NFrameAppearance appearance = new NFrameAppearance();
//customize settings related with image and text positioning
appearance.ImageTextRelation = ImageTextRelation.TextBeforeImage;
appearance.ImageAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight;
appearance.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight;

NForm form = new NForm();
form.FrameAppearance = appearance;
form.ShowDialog();

Visual Basic	Copy Code
Dim appearance As NFrameAppearance = New NFrameAppearance() 'customize settings related with image and text positioning appearance.ImageTextRelation = ImageTextRelation.TextBeforeImage appearance.ImageAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight appearance.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight Dim form AsNForm = New NForm() form.FrameAppearance = appearance form.ShowDialog()

Visual Basic

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Dim appearance As NFrameAppearance = New NFrameAppearance()
'customize settings related with image and text positioning
appearance.ImageTextRelation = ImageTextRelation.TextBeforeImage
appearance.ImageAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight
appearance.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleRight

Dim form AsNForm = New NForm()
form.FrameAppearance = appearance
form.ShowDialog()

The result of the above code:

The NFrameAppearance template object allows you to completely customize how a form will look via a set of segmented images defining how the caption, borders and system buttons like "Close", "Maximize/Restore", "Minimize" and "Help" are rendered. For more information about the segmented image semantic see Segmented Image.