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Disabled controls color choices

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MdotButler

MdotButler

Programmer
Jan 18, 2006
104
US
I have various controls that I disable when in inquiry mode by setting their associated readonly property or the enabled property. As we know when a control is disabled the font colors dim to a silver.

1 - Is there a way to control the disabled colors.

2 - I remember looking into this long ago and someone suggested adding a readonly property to a listbox for instance and capture all keypress events.

I am guessing the answer to number 1 in NO unless there is a trick I have not stumbled onto. As for question 2, Is this domething any of you have tried. If so could you please share some code. When it comes to class libraries and such I am pretty much lost.

TIA
Mark
 
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Have you actually tried this? I define a simple dropdown list in the form as follows:
Code: 
<asp:DropDownList CssClass="edfvdat" ID="cboE_SEX" runat="server">
    <asp:ListItem Value="F">Female</asp:ListItem>
    <asp:ListItem Value="M">Male</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
In the codebehind I alter the class and the enabled property based on "Inquiry" or "Edit" modes as such:
Code: 
cboE_SEX.CssClass = IIf(tp = "I", "edfvinq", "edfvdat")
cboE_SEX.Enabled = IIf(tp = "I", False, True)
The following are the two CSS classes:
Code: 
.edfvdat { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }
.edfvinq { color: black; background-color: #fff4d8; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }
Even though I specify the font color the disabled state takes control. Is the difference that I am altering the CSSClass of the ASP control and not the generated HTML code?
 
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Here is an example. It works on my system (VS2005, XP-Pro, IE7).

Code: 
.edfvdat
{
	font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-weight: normal;
	text-align: left;
	vertical-align: top;
	background-color: yellow;
}
.edfvinq
{
	color: black;
	background-color: aqua;
	font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-weight: normal;
	text-align: left;
	vertical-align: top;
}

Code: 
<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">[/URL]

<html xmlns="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"[/URL] >
<head runat="server">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="StyleSheet.css" />
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" CssClass="edfvdat">
            <asp:ListItem>test1</asp:ListItem>
            <asp:ListItem>test2</asp:ListItem>
        </asp:DropDownList>
        <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Change Class" />
        <asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" Text="Enable/Disable" />
    
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Code: 
    Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        If DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvdat" Then
            DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvinq"
        Else
            DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvdat"
        End If
    End Sub
    Protected Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
        DropDownList1.Enabled = Not DropDownList1.Enabled
    End Sub

Senior Software Developer
 
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As we know when a control is disabled the font colors dim to a silver.
Click to expand...
That's not true - how a disabled control is displayed is dependent on the browser and operating system that the user is using. You can try to control the display with CSS but ultimately this can be overridden by the browser and/or OS and what may appear to work on one system doesn't mean that it will appear the same on another.


------------------------------------------------------------

Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]
[URL unfurl="true"]http://mdssolutions.co.uk[/url] - Delivering professional ASP.NET solutions
 
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SiriusBlackOp - Your example illustrates the problem nicely. Regardless which class is in effect, when you disable the control, the font color goes to silver or dimmed. This behavior is not consistent across all controls. What the users want is for the control to be readable when disabled. To see the difference I have added an asp:textbox control to illustrate the difference.
Code: 
<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">[/URL]

<html xmlns="[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"[/URL] >
<head runat="server">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="StyleSheet.css" />
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" CssClass="edfvdat">
        <asp:ListItem>test1</asp:ListItem>
        <asp:ListItem>test2</asp:ListItem>
        </asp:DropDownList>
        <br />
        <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" Text="Press Button"></asp:TextBox>
        <br />
        <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Toggle Setting" />
     </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>
And here is the codebehind...
Code: 
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        If DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvdat" Then
            DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvinq"
            TextBox1.CssClass = "edfvinq"
            DropDownList1.Enabled = False
            TextBox1.ReadOnly = True
            TextBox1.Text = "Inquiry Mode"
        Else
            DropDownList1.CssClass = "edfvdat"
            TextBox1.CssClass = "edfvdat"
            DropDownList1.Enabled = True
            TextBox1.ReadOnly = False
            TextBox1.Text = "Edit Mode"
        End If
    End Sub
End Class
Hopefully this illustrates the issue more clearly. The following controls do not have a readonly property and have to be disabled to prevent modification.

This is the list (maybe not complete):
"DropDownList", "ListBox", "CheckBox", "CheckBoxList", "RadioButton", "RadioButtonList"
 
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Yep... everything is going to move to a lighter shade as it should. Some controls have a ReadOnly property that may help you. There is no way that I know of to override the lightening of a control when disabled, so you would have to use alternative measures such as Javascript to capture and/or revert attempted changes. It's not much fun in my book and it could prove problematic.

Another option would be to just serve up the value of the control as simple text and hide the control. Only show the control for editing.


Senior Software Developer
 
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