Behaviors

• Oct 29, 2020
• 3 minutes to read

A Behavior is an appearance and\or functionality preset for controls. For instance, you can use the Clock Behavior to turn a LabelControl or a digital gauge into a clock.

You can submit Support Center tickets to request new Behaviors.

• Attach a Behavior to a Control
• Available Behaviors

Attach a Behavior to a Control

Open Visual Studio’s Toolbox and drag-and-drop the Behavior Manager component onto the form. Click the component’s smart tag and select “Edit Behaviors” to invoke the Collection Editor dialog.

This dialog allows you to create new Behaviors, and use their Target properties to assign them to controls.

You can use the “Add Behaviors…” link in a control’s smart tag menu to add the Behavior Manager component and open its Collection Editor dialog.

To attach Behaviors in code, call the Behavior Manager’s Attach method and use lambda expressions to set the Behavior’s options.

C#

using DevExpress.Utils.Behaviors.Common;

behaviorManager1.Attach<OpenFolderBehavior>(buttonEdit1, behavior => {
    behavior.Properties.IconSize = FileIconSize.Small;
    behavior.Properties.InvalidPathImage = DevExpress.Images.ImageResourceCache.Default.GetImage("images/actions/close_16x16.png");
    behavior.Properties.ShowIcon = true;
});

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.Utils.Behaviors.Common

behaviorManager1.Attach(Of OpenFolderBehavior)(buttonEdit1, Sub(behavior)
    behavior.Properties.IconSize = FileIconSize.Small
    behavior.Properties.InvalidPathImage = DevExpress.Images.ImageResourceCache.Default.GetImage("images/actions/close_16x16.png")
    behavior.Properties.ShowIcon = True
End Sub)

Available Behaviors

The table below lists all the DevExpress Behaviors and the controls that support them.

Behavior Name	Description	Target Controls
FileIconBehavior	This Behavior adds a file/folder icon to a control if this control displays a path to an existing file or folder.	TextEdit ButtonEdit LabelControl
FilePathBehavior	Operates similarly to the FileIconBehavior, and additionally provides auto-complete hints.	TextEdit ButtonEdit
OpenFileBehavior OpenFolderBehavior	These Behaviors add ellipsis buttons to the ButtonEdit editor. Users can click these buttons to invoke file/folder browser dialogs. The editor displays an icon and a caption of the selected file/folder.	ButtonEdit
PersistenceBehavior	If you close and re-open a form with this Behavior attached, the form restores its last known position and size.	XtraForm Ribbon Form Tabbed Form controls that implement the ISupportXtraSerializer interface
SnapWindowBehavior	Allows standard and DevExpress forms to snap to other windows and screen edges.	XtraForm Ribbon Form Tabbed Form standard forms and their descendants
StubGlyphBehavior	Provides automatically generated icons for the target control or its child elements.	GridColumn ImageComboBoxEdit LayoutControlGroup LayoutControlItem XtraTabPage TreeListColumn ImageListBoxControl
ClockBehavior	Turns a control into a clock that displays the system’s date and time.	LabelControl BarStaticItem DigitalGauge
KeyboardIndicatorBehavior	Indicates whether system keys (Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock) are pressed.	LabelControl BarStaticItem
BannerBehavior	This Behavior allows a Picture Edit to automatically cycle through a collection of images.	PictureEdit
DragAndDropBehavior	Allows users to drag-and-drop items between controls.	ListBoxControl GridControl (GridView) TreeList
Magnifier Behavior	Allows users to invoke the Magnifier tool and pick colors on their screen.	All ColorEdit descendants
Pager Navigation Behavior	Allows you use a RadioGroup or WindowsUIButtonPanel to browse the target control’s child items (tiles, slide images, etc.).	TileControl TileBar NavigationFrame ImageSlider
Breadcrumb Behavior	Allows you to implement a breadcrumb navigation through a TreeList‘s hierarchy using a BreadCrumbEdit control.	TreeList, BreadCrumbEdit