Inheritable UI styles. Is it possible in Windows Forms?

Question

I have a Project with like 10 WinForms or so. Right now, the Form and its Controls are having a default style/Look. I want to build a class that can set/change the UI of each form.

I believe an Interface class should be developed and then should be Inherited to any form desired. I hope i am right on this. How would I do this?

A bit vague a question... can you add some examples? And have you ever considered using WPF instead? Or break up the forms into multiple and reuseable custom user controls? — Florian Schmidinger, Mar 18 '15 at 13:58
@FlorianSchmidinger : No, i cannot go with WPF. I should work with WinForms itself. I don't know what examples you need? I would like to know more about breaking the forms into multiple forms and making reusable custom controls. Thanks — 911Rapid, Mar 18 '15 at 14:40
If you got a certain layout that repeats itsself ... i.e. labels and textboxes for entering an address, you could make a user control encapsulating these functions. Then you are able to use this control over and over again... another example would be data-navigation... its also possible to put this user control into extra librarys so that you also can use them for other projects... There are also derived User Controls and derived Forms that can manage layout in a polymorphic manner. — Florian Schmidinger, Mar 18 '15 at 15:00
a good resource are youtube videos and/or videos from microsofts virtual academy. it would be too much to explain all these possibilities in text =) — Florian Schmidinger, Mar 18 '15 at 15:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

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You can achieve this by creating a base class that derives from Form. You can set the styles inside that base class, and those will be derived by all classes deriving that base class. You can set Font, or BackColor for example.

I want to suggest to take a look at WPF, which has a much better model for this. WPF has the ability to decouple layout and the technical working of a Window. You can set styles that are applied automatically to all controls of a certain type.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

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answered Mar 18 '15 at 13:57

Patrick Hofman

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and you can make base classes derived from all types of controls, and then use them as and when required – Shashank Shekhar Mar 18 '15 at 14:10
@Shekhar: indeed. The same rules apply to Controls as Forms. Thanks. – Patrick Hofman Mar 18 '15 at 14:11
@PatrickHofman : I don't want to go with WPF. I need to use WinForms itself. Thanks – 911Rapid Mar 18 '15 at 14:35
@911Rapid: Then the first part applies. – Patrick Hofman Mar 18 '15 at 14:37
@PatrickHofman: So, implementing an interface class right?? – 911Rapid Mar 18 '15 at 14:42
@911Rapid There is no such thing as an interface class. It is either an interface, or a class. – Patrick Hofman Mar 18 '15 at 14:43
@PatrickHofman ; I'm Sorry Patrick. I am newbie to C#. I may be wrong using the terminologies and still learning the Concepts. But, what i meant is...we need to create an interface and use inheritance – 911Rapid Mar 18 '15 at 14:49
You need to create a *class*. – Patrick Hofman Mar 18 '15 at 14:52

Inheritable UI styles. Is it possible in Windows Forms?

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