Dragable object in VB

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I have a picture of a cow. I want to drag her around the window. I want to see her while I drag her. I do not want to drag a whole rectangle of background color with her.

Is there any way to do this anywhere in Visual Basic in Windows Forms application?

Posted 2-Jul-15 18:05pm

Walt Hamilton

Updated 4-Jul-15 9:06am

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan

v5

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Jul-15 0:22am

What have you tried so far?
As you did not even tag your application tag and/or the UI framework/library you want to use, I doesn't look serious.
I only can say that in nearly all of them the problem is pretty trivial, but the solutions are different.
—SA

Walt Hamilton 4-Jul-15 13:24pm

Sergey,

Sorry, I'm new here, and don't know the secret handshakes yet. I'm just trying to do a simple thing in Visual basic, using VS 2015 and .Net.

I've tried all kinds of suggested ways to make backgrounds transparent, but they are all static (that is, they set the background to the form background), but I need a dynamically transparent background. I've tried them on labels, picture boxes, buttons. I've tried codes that go in the constructor to make transparent backgrounds, I've tried codes to change the parent, to override the drawing and re-drawing, and it seems like of dozens of trivial and non-trivial suggestions.

All I want is to drag the cow and not have a whole rectangle of background following her. I agree with you, it seems like it should be trivial, but if this question has been asked on any forum I can find, I can't even come up with the right keywords to find it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Jul-15 13:32pm

It is not so helpful. You did not even answer my question. Is it System.Windows.Forms?
If you are a beginner, start with simpler projects. At least you need to learn what is there around.
—SA

Walt Hamilton 4-Jul-15 14:54pm

It is a windows forms application, but this system won't let me tag it that way.

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 4-Jul-15 15:07pm

There, I have made changes to your post, added the tag and Windows Forms in the question text.

Anyways, since this is Windows Forms, why are you trying to use Visual Basic? Why not use VB.NET?

Walt Hamilton 4-Jul-15 19:05pm

Thanks. Some of these forums are so difficult to navigate until you learn the magic keywords (like using WindowsForms, instead of Windows Forms.)

To answer your question, I'd use CowMilker.Net, if it would do what I need done. :) Actually, I want to code it in Basic, rather than have to learn another language. Any help would be appreciated.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 5-Jul-15 3:28am

Really? The only actual Basic for Windows (and not only) is VB.NET, still a kind of Basic. Everything else, VB6 and before is dead, and was dead long time ago. Let me tell you, "rather than have to learn another language" makes you not a software engineer. Seriously.
—SA

Walt Hamilton 5-Jul-15 18:52pm

Seriously. I am NOT a software engineer, which may explain why I don't want to have to learn a new language. Forgive me for thinking that the VB in VB.NET stands for Visual Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). I am a poor ignorant teacher that wants to create a Windows Form for my students. What I really want to know is: Is there a way to drag my cow (irregular shaped object) around the screen without dragging a rectangle of color with her? I can drag her, I just don't want her to cover up everything she crosses, and still be in front when she is dropped.

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 5-Jul-15 3:45am

No, these magic words are terms used to name the frameworks. There is nothing fancy in them.

Also note that BASIC (not Basic) is not Visual Basic. They are different language also, somehow VB.NET is just implementation of Visual Basic for .NET framework. You will get a lot of help in VB.NET from different .NET authors, Visual Basic is not a favorite language for .NET platform.

You need to understand these terminologies. Also, read Sergey's comment above, learn too many languages doesn't make you a good software developer, but a confused one.

Walt Hamilton 5-Jul-15 18:58pm

What I meant was that because I didn't know that the correct term is "WindowsForms instead of "Windows Forms", the system wouldn't let me tag my post, and now I am looked down on.
Thank you for the suggestion to try VB.net. It sounds like someone over there may know if there is a way to drag my cow (irregular shaped object) around the screen without dragging a rectangle of color with her? I can drag her, I just don't want her to cover up everything she crosses, and still be in front when she is dropped.
I don't care if Visual Basic is the worst language to use for .NET. It is the one I know best, and if the .NET framework will run it,I don't want to learn another one.

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 5-Jul-15 20:00pm

Yes that is tagging terminology. In real, it is Windows Forms. You are right.

Yes, there would a solution to your problem, already solved. Listen, no one would bake your cake for you. They would provide the ingredients and recipe that you can use for your own need.

I hope you understand.

Ralf Meier 6-Jul-15 1:39am

@Walt:
Which kind of picture-format do you want to display ?
Please note that not all formats provide a transparent background. Perhaps you should try it with *.png ...

Walt Hamilton 6-Jul-15 22:08pm

Ralf,
Thanks for answering my question. I'm not married to any certain format for the picture. Gif, Png, Jpeg all allow for transparencies. The problem is not with the picture; it is that whether I put it in a pictureBox, a Button, or a Label doesn't seem to matter. Even with the background of the container set to transparent, .Net defines transparent as statically adopting the color of where it opens, and never changes. I wonder if it is possible to have a dynamic transparency (one that always shows what is behind it, even while it is moving across the screen in front of other objects.)
Again, thanks for at least answering my question.

Ralf Meier 8-Jul-15 3:16am

Hi Walt,
it is possible to create a "real transparency" like you have written it ("one that always shows what is behind it, even while it is moving across the screen in front of other objects").
Therefore it is necessary to create a customized control which has this ability. Are you familiar enough with VB to do this ? In this case I could guide you ... take a look to my solution ...

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Ralf Meier · Answer 1 · 2015-07-07T22:26:00

This is a customized PictureBox with a "real" transparent Background.

VB

Public Class customPictureBox
    Inherits PictureBox


    Public Sub New()

        Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.Opaque, True)
        Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, False)
        Me.SetStyle(ControlStyles.ResizeRedraw, True)

    End Sub

    Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As System.Windows.Forms.CreateParams
        Get
            Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
            cp.ExStyle = cp.ExStyle Or &H20  ' Turn on WS_EX_TRANSPARENT
            Return cp
        End Get
    End Property

    Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(pe As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs)
        MyBase.OnPaint(pe)

        If MyBase.BackgroundImage IsNot Nothing Then
            pe.Graphics.DrawImage(MyBase.BackgroundImage, 0, 0)
        End If

    End Sub

End Class

Unfortunately, because of overiding the OnPaint-method, all wanted painting work now must be done by yourself - this includes the painting of the image. In my example I draw the image in it's original size - but certainly it is possible to do also scaling (resizing) and so on - but now manually ... :(