Hello everybody,

I'm completely new to this FlowChart component. I'm currently evaluating if it is suitable for our new program.

As the table layout is not flexible enough for what we want to do, I choose to take a ContainerNode and place the shapes in there myself.

The Code I use is:

ContainerNode con = new ContainerNode(dgCableHarness);
con.Bounds = new RectangleF(10, 10, 50, 50);

DiagramNode node;
node = new ShapeNode(dgCableHarness);
node.Bounds = new RectangleF(0, 1f, 2, 2);
con.Add(node);

node = new ShapeNode(dgCableHarness);
node.Bounds = new RectangleF(0, 3f, 2, 2);
con.Add(node);

node = new ShapeNode(dgCableHarness);



node.Bounds = new RectangleF(0, 5f, 2, 2);
con.Add(node);
con.ZBottom();



con.SubordinateGroup.Visible = true;



diagram.Nodes.Add(con); 

I've got a few question on that:

1. How can I define the position of the ShapeNodes inside the Container? Because if I set the X coordinate to 0 they don't appear on the left edge of the diagram, but a little bit in the middle? And is there any possibility to get them aligned in any way?
What I want to have is something that has inputs and outputs (where i = input/o = output). And I want to connect those inputs/outputs to other Containers having inputs and outputs.

+-------+   +-------+
| Item1 |   | Item2 |
|-------|   |-------|
| i1 o1 | +-|-i1 o1 |
| i2 o2 | | | i2 o2 |
| i3 o3-|-+ | i3 o3 |
+-------+   +-------+
 

I tried that with one userdrawn shape and anchor points, but then I can't use all the logic behind Nodes and Links.

2. Why do my ShapeNodes disappear if the Container is not selected? If I select the container I see all nodes, if I deselect the Container the Nodes inside the Container disappear.
(View Behaviour is MindFusion.Diagramming.Behavior.LinkShapes)

The User is not allowed to draw Shapes/Containers himself. All DiagramItems are generated in the Code (will be Drag and Drop from something like a toolbox later). The User can only draw Links between Nodes.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction, because I didn't find an example fitting my needs.

Thanks for your help!!!

Greetings,
FanderlF

OK I managed to get the behaviour I want.

One thing I don't understand is:

What is the difference between DestinationAnchor and DestinationIndex?
In my eyes this should always be the same value (as long as the AnchorPattern is defined, which it is always in my case). How does it come that they aren't always the same?

I need this to check if the DestinationAnchor is currently connected. If so I delete the current connection and link it with the new origin.

I would have loved to use the AllowLinksRepeat Property to do that, but that only works on shapes and I assume a TableNode counts as one shape. That was the cause I was trying to use a ContainerNode or something else that just contains shapes and not anchors. I fear that I have to do a lot of stuff manual with anchors which would be integrated already if I would use Shapes.

Maybe I'll try it again by using Grouped Shape Nodes.

Ah OK... The Anchor Pattern is defined for every Row in the Table Node. That is where the DestinationIndex is coming from. It defines the Index of the Row in the TableNode. And together with DestinationAnchor I can find the AnchorPoint like:
((TableNode)link.Destination).Rows[e.Link.DestinationIndex].AnchorPattern.Points[e.Link.DestinationAnchor]

I do the check like this at the moment (in linkmodified I use the same code):

private void dgCableHarness_LinkCreated(object sender, LinkEventArgs e)
{
  if (e.Link != null)
  {
    if (e.Link.Origin == null)
      return;

    if (e.Link.Destination == null)
      return;

    foreach (DiagramLink link in e.Link.Destination.IncomingLinks)
    {
      if (link != e.Link)
        if (link.DestinationIndex == e.Link.DestinationIndex &&
          link.DestinationAnchor == e.Link.DestinationAnchor)
            dgCableHarness.Links.Remove(link);
    }
  }
} 

The Problem now is that e.Link.Destination.IncomingLinks has now links in its Collection though there are some

If I do this:

private void dgCableHarness_LinkCreated(object sender, LinkEventArgs e)
{
  if (e.Link != null)
  {
    if (e.Link.Origin == null)
      return;

    if (e.Link.Destination == null)
      return;

    foreach (DiagramLink link in e.Link.Destination.GetAllLinks())
    {
      if(link.Destination == e.Link.Destination)
        if (link != e.Link)
          if (link.DestinationIndex == e.Link.DestinationIndex &&
            link.DestinationAnchor == e.Link.DestinationAnchor)
              dgCableHarness.Links.Remove(link);
    }
  }
} 

Everything works as intended, but why doesn't the first one work?

Just additional:
I added the following Loop to the LinkCreated EventHandler to prevent two links from starting from the same anchor:

foreach (DiagramLink link in e.Link.Origin.GetAllLinks())
{
  if (link.Origin == e.Link.Origin)
    if (link != e.Link)
      (link.OriginIndex == e.Link.OriginIndex &&
        link.OriginAnchor == e.Link.OriginAnchor)
          dgCableHarness.Links.Remove(link);
} 

Another question I have is:

If I create a Link all this stuff works fine, but if I move the starting Point of a Link I can place it anywhere on the TableNode and it doesn't snap to the anchors.
If I drop it outside a Node it is reset to the original Position (desired behaviour).
AllowUnanchoredLinks is false and AllowUnconnectedLinks is false, too.

Edit: e.Link.ReassignAnchorPoints(); solved the problem

Just me again

Why does that work:

DiagramLink link = Diagram.Factory.CreateDiagramLink(startIdentifier.TableNode, startIdentifier.Anchor, endIdentifier.TableNode, endIdentifier.Anchor);

link.OriginIndex = startIdentifier.Index;
link.DestinationIndex = endIdentifier.Index;

Diagram.Links.Add(link); 

While that does not:

DiagramLink link = new DiagramLink(Diagram);
link.Origin = startIdentifier.TableNode;
link.OriginIndex = startIdentifier.Index;
link.OriginAnchor = startIdentifier.Anchor;


link.Destination = endIdentifier.TableNode;
link.DestinationIndex = endIdentifier.Index;
link.DestinationAnchor = endIdentifier.Anchor;

Diagram.Links.Add(link); 

In the second example I get a NullReferenceException when trying to set link.DestinationIndex/link.OriginIndex

If I understood everything right the Node identifies the Node the link is connected to. The Index represents the row the link should connect to. And the Anchor is the Index of the AnchorPoint in this row.