Adding Panes to Paned Containers

A paned container is an instance of the IlvPanedContainer class, a subclass of IlvGadgetContainer, to which panes must be added.

This section covers the following topics:

• Creating a Paned Container

• Modifying the Layout of a Paned Container

• Retrieving Panes

• Encapsulating a Paned Container in a View Pane

Creating a Paned Container

When creating a paned container, you must specify its direction (horizontal or vertical). In a vertical paned container, panes are arranged from top to bottom. In a horizontal pane, they are arranged from left to right.

The following code sample creates a vertical paned container as a top view:

IlvPanedContainer* container = new IlvPanedContainer(display,

"Paned Container",

"Paned Container",

IlvRect(0, 0, 500, 500),

IlvVertical);

You can retrieve the specified orientation and modify it using the member functions getDirection and setDirection.

Once you have created a paned container, you can add panes to it with the member function addPane or remove panes from it with removePane.

Modifying the Layout of a Paned Container

If you modify the current layout of a paned container by adding, removing, showing, or hiding panes, you must call the updatePanes member function to make your changes effective.

container->addPane(pane1);

container->addPane(pane2);

container->addPane(pane3);

container->updatePanes();

Retrieving Panes

You can use the member function getCardinal to know the number of panes that a given paned container handles.

The getPane member functions lets you retrieve a pane using its index or using its name.

You can get the index of a specific pane with the getIndex member function.

Note Paned containers reference the panes they hold using indexes. However, we strongly recommend that you do not reference panes using their indexes, because these can change for internal reasons. Instead, use the member function setName to identify panes.

Encapsulating a Paned Container in a View Pane

Because the class IlvPanedContainer inherits from IlvGadgetContainer, itself a subclass of IlvView, you can encapsulate a paned container inside a view pane.

Encapsulating a paned container in a view pane allows you to build complex nested pane structures, as shown in Horizontal and Vertical Paned Container and Encapsulated Paned Container.

The following code sample encapsulates a horizontal paned container in a view pane.

First we create the main vertical paned container:

IlvPanedContainer* container = new IlvPanedContainer(display,

"Paned Container",

"Paned Container",

IlvRect(0, 0, 500, 500),

IlvVertical);

Then we create a horizontal paned container and encapsulate it in a view pane:

IlvPanedContainer* innerContainer = new IlvPanedContainer(container,

IlvRect(0, 0, 500,200),

IlvHorizontal);

IlvViewPane* viewPane = new IlvViewPane("ViewPane", innerContainer);

Note In our example, we have created innerContainer as a subview of container. Although this practice is not mandatory, we strongly recommend that you proceed that way when creating your own applications. If you do not specify container as the parent of innerContainer, it will be reparented when added to container.

The last step consists of adding the view pane to the main paned container:

container->addPane(viewPane);

Note You can get the view pane that encapsulates a given paned container using the getViewPane member function. If no view pane encapsulates the paned container, this member function returns 0.