Forms Controls

Introduction

Forms controls are a collection of classes which provide common UI behavior. You will probably be familiar with many controls. The most common controls include:

• Button

• CheckBox

• ComboBox

• Image

• Label

• ListBox

• RadioButton

• ScrollViewer

• Slider

• TextBox

All controls are in the MonoGameGum.Forms.Controls namespace.

Common Control Properties

All controls share a few common properties and characteristics. The following list provides a high-level introduction to forms control similarities. If the list doesn't make sense don't worry, we'll cover each topic in this and following tutorials.

• All can controls can be added to a StackPanel. Technically, any control can be added to any other control, but for this tutorial we'll keep things simple by adding only to a StackPanel.

• All controls have a Visual property which can be used to position, size, and perform advance layout behavior. This Visual property is ultimately a GraphicalUiElement which provides access to all Gum layout properties.

• All controls can receive input from the mouse (usually through the Gum Cursor object). Most controls can also receive focus and input from gamepads.

• All controls support binding by assigning their BindingContext property. Children controls inherit BindingContext from their parents if the BindingContext is not explicitly assigned.

For the rest of this tutorial we'll add a few of the most common controls to our project and show how to work with them. Note that for this tutorial I've removed the Button control from the previous tutorial.

We also assume that your project has a mainStackPanel to hold all controls.

Forms Control vs Visual

As we'll see below, each forms control has a specific purpose. Buttons are clicked, Labels display read-only strings, and TextBoxes can be used to input text. Each control provides properties and events specific to its purpose, standardizing the way each works.

However, each control also wraps a Visual object which gives you full layout control. The Visual property is of type GraphicalUiElement, and it has access to the full Gum layout engine. For example, a button could be made to be as wide as its parents using the following code:

// assuming MyButton is a valid Button:
MyButton.Visual.Width = 0;
MyButton.Visual.WidthUnits = DimensionUnitType.RelativeToContainer;

For more information about all of the properties available to GraphicalUiElement, see the General Properties section of the Gum tool - all properties in the tool are also available in code:

Code Organization

For the sake of brevity, we will add all of our controls to the Root object, and all code will be added to the game's Initialize method after the Root has been created. Of course a full game may require more advanced organization but we'll keep everything in the Game Initialize for simplicity.

Label

Labels are text objects which can display a string. Labels do not have any direct interaction such as responding to clicks. The following code adds a label to the project:

var label = new Label();
mainPanel.AddChild(label);
label.Text = $"I was created at {System.DateTime.Now}";

Label displaying when it was created

The rest of this tutorial assumes that the Label is not removed. It is used to show when events have occurred.

Button

Button controls are usually added when a user needs to perform a command. Buttons can be clicked with the mouse and gamepad, and their click event can be manually invoked for custom support such as pressing Enter on the keyboard.

The following code creates two buttons. One is disabled so it does not respond to click events:

var button = new Button();
mainPanel.AddChild(button);
button.Text = "Click Me";
button.Click += (_, _) => 
    label.Text = $"Button clicked @ {System.DateTime.Now}";

var disabledButton = new Button();
mainPanel.AddChild(disabledButton);
disabledButton.Text = "Disabled Button";
disabledButton.IsEnabled = false;
disabledButton.Click += (_, _) =>
    label.Text = "This never happens";

Buttons only respond to Click if IsEnabled is set to true (default)

Notice that the Label and two Buttons are stacked top-to-bottom. This is the default behavior layout behavior of StackPanels.

As mentioned earlier, layout-related properties can be accessed through a control's Visual property.

These tutorials focus on the Forms controls themselves but for more information you can look at the different properties available in the General Properties pages.

CheckBox

CheckBox controls allow the user to toggle a bool value by clicking on it. Just like Button, the CheckBoxes support clicking with mouse and gamepad and changing the IsChecked property in code.

The following code creates two CheckBoxes:

var checkBox = new CheckBox();
mainPanel.AddChild(checkBox);
checkBox.Text = "Click Me";
checkBox.Checked += (_, _) => label.Text = "CheckBox checked";
checkBox.Unchecked += (_, _) => label.Text = "CheckBox unchecked";

checkBox responds to clicks

ListBox

ListBox provides a way to display a list of items. Each item can be selected.

The following code creates a ListBox which raises an event whenever an item is selected.

var listBox = new ListBox();
listBox.Visual.Width = 150;
listBox.Visual.Height = 300;

for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
    listBox.Items.Add($"Item {i}");
}
listBox.SelectionChanged += (_, _) =>
{
    label.Text = 
        $"Selected item is {listBox.SelectedObject} at index {listBox.SelectedIndex}";
};
mainPanel.AddChild(listBox);

ListBox responding to items being selected

TextBox

TextBox controls allow the user to see and edit string values. TextBoxes support typing with the keyboard, copy/paste, selection, and multiple lines of text.

TextBoxes are automatically focused when clicked, but IsFocused can be explicitly set to give focus.

The following code creates a TextBox which raises an event whenever its text is changed. The text is then copied over to a label.

var textBox = new TextBox();
textBox.Placeholder = "Enter text here...";
textBox.TextChanged += (_, _) => 
    label.Text = $"Text box text is now: {textBox.Text}";
mainPanel.AddChild(textBox);