Windows Forms: resources, custom controls

Version B

Glittering text label

• Run-time:
  
• Design-time:
  
• Custom control displaying a text:
  • the displayed text is centered on the control
  • the control contains a list of colors as its property, in the "Appearance" section
  • the text glitters, i.e. changes its color periodically according to the colors from the list; the changes are smooth, i.e. the text is also displayed in the intermediate colors (see the screenshot)
  • font features and the text are also the properties of the control
• Custom control for editing the colors:
  • the control shows a constant number of colors
  • the control contains a list of colors as its property, in the "Appearance" section
  • clicking on the control runs the color dialog and enables the user to change one of the colors (the one that has been clicked)
  • after the color has changed, custom ColorChanged event occurs
• Application design and behavior
  • main window with both controls lying on it
  • in the run-time only: changing the colors on the second control causes the change of the colors which appear periodically on the first control (implement proper handling of the ColorChanged custom event)
• Implementation details:
  • Custom Controls (inherited from System.Windows.Forms.Control)
  • the controls are available on the toolbox
  • both custom controls should look the same in the run-time and design-time mode
  • periodical changes of the colors on the glittering text control should take place in both desing view and run-time view
  • change of any custom property should refresh the control (during editing in Visual Studio);
  • use double buffering to avoid flickering
  • all the properties and events of the controls should have a description in the designer
• Hints:
  • classes, methods, properties:
    • BrowsableAttribute
    • CategoryAttribute
    • DescriptionAttribute
    • Component.DesignMode
    • System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Drawing.Color>
    • Graphics.DrawString, StringFormat
    • ColorDialog
• Approximate points:
  • Glittering text control 4.0
  • Colors control 4.0
  • Application functionality (communication between the controls) 2.0