CoreSuite.ActionTextBox 1.0.1

ActionTextBox

Standard Windows Forms text input with an integrated configurable action button.

Overview

ActionTextBox extends the standard Windows Forms TextBox and adds a real child action button that can be displayed on either side of the input.

The button follows the same structural approach used by CoreSuite controls such as TimeBox: a dedicated child control is positioned inside the text box while native edit margins reserve the corresponding text area.

It is designed for .NET 8 Windows Forms applications and can be configured in code or through the Visual Studio designer where designer support applies.

Features

• Real integrated action button hosted inside the text box.
• Button position on the left or right side.
• Configurable image, width and image padding.
• Independent visibility and enabled state.
• Tooltip support.
• Hover, pressed and disabled visual states.
• Programmatic action invocation.
• DPI-aware button dimensions.
• Native text margins prevent text from being drawn below the button.
• Uses the standard Windows Forms event and component model.
• Includes English XML documentation for the public API.
• Requires no third-party runtime packages.

Requirements

• Windows Forms
• .NET 8 for Windows (net8.0-windows)

Installation

Install the package from NuGet:

dotnet add package CoreSuite.ActionTextBox

Or use the Visual Studio NuGet Package Manager and search for:

CoreSuite.ActionTextBox

Namespace

Imports CoreSuite.Controls

Quick start

Imports CoreSuite.Controls

Dim SearchBox As New ActionTextBox With {
    .ActionButtonImage = My.Resources.Search,
    .ActionButtonPosition = ActionButtonPosition.Right,
    .ActionButtonToolTipText = "Search"
}
AddHandler SearchBox.ActionButtonClick, Sub() PerformSearch(SearchBox.Text)

Designer usage

After installing or referencing the package, add ActionTextBox from the Toolbox or create it in code. Properties configured in the Windows Forms Designer are serialized into InitializeComponent and remain available at runtime.

API reference

ActionTextBox

Represents a standard Windows Forms text box with an integrated configurable action button.

Public Class ActionTextBox
    Inherits TextBox

Main members

ActionButtonPosition

Defines the side on which the action button is displayed.

Button implementation

The action button is a dedicated child PictureBox, not a region painted directly over the native text box window. The control repositions that child whenever the text box size, border style or DPI changes and uses the native EM_SETMARGINS edit message to keep text out of the button area.

The image is painted only inside the child button, preserving its aspect ratio and respecting ActionButtonPadding.

Standard functionality

Because ActionTextBox inherits from TextBox, standard members such as Text, ReadOnly, Multiline, PasswordChar, CharacterCasing, MaxLength, TextAlign, TextChanged and data binding remain available.

Resource and lifetime considerations

• Images assigned to ActionButtonImage remain owned by the caller and are not disposed by the control.
• The internal button and tooltip are disposed with the control.
• Events use the standard Windows Forms event model and should be handled on the UI thread.

Package information

License

This package is distributed under the MIT License defined by the CoreSuite repository.