Hi Experts,
I want to add to a chart a footer label to give some status information which should look like:


Unfortunatly, I cant change the footer label's width to fit the width of the chart. The code looks as follows:
   /*----- ChartPane Footer -----*/
    //Attn: refresh in ucMain is necessary!!! => _oChartPane._PaneFooter.Refresh();
    m_ContainerPanel = new NDockPanel();
    m_ContainerPanel.Location = new NPointL(new NLength(7, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(96, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage));

    m_ContainerPanel.Size = new NSizeL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(5, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage));
    m_ContainerPanel.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Bottom;
    m_ContainerPanel.PositionChildPanelsInContentBounds = false;


    _PaneFooter = new NLabel("Info: some status information will be given here ...");
    _PaneFooter.DockMode = PanelDockMode.None;  //alternativly: using Panels.AddFooter => doesnt work...
    _PaneFooter.TextStyle.FontStyle = new NFontStyle("Arial", 10, FontStyle.Regular);
    _PaneFooter.ContentAlignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;  // BottomCenter;  //MiddleLeft;

    _PaneFooter.UseAutomaticSize = false;
    _PaneFooter.Location = new NPointL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(85, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage));
    _PaneFooter.Size = new NSizeL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(600, NGraphicsUnit.Pixel));

    _PaneFooter.BoundsMode = BoundsMode.None; //fit doesnt work neither
    _PaneFooter.FitMode = TitleFitMode.Clip;

    _PaneFooter.TextStyle.BackplaneStyle.Visible = true;
    _PaneFooter.TextStyle.BackplaneStyle.FillStyle = new NColorFillStyle(Color.AliceBlue); //new NGradientFillStyle(Color.LightGray, Color.LightGray);

    _PaneFooter.Text = sMainPaneFooter;

    m_ContainerPanel.ChildPanels.Add(_PaneFooter);
    _NevronChart.Panels.Add(m_ContainerPanel);

I tried various settings with and without the ContainerPanel, the method .AddFooter etc - but with no luck so far. The main problem is, that the command  _PaneFooter.Size = ...  doesnt work at all, the result always is a centered label where the borders are  fitted to the length of the text - it always looks like: 


Is there a way to change just the width of the label?

If there isnt a way, it would be sufficient to force the clipping mode:
_PaneFooter.FitMode = TitleFitMode.Clip;
not to clip the text at both sides left and right but just at the right side.
Is there a way to achieve this?
By the way: I cant imagine any real case where it makes sense to clip the text at left and right side - usually the most important part of the label text is at the beginning - so imho it would be much better to clip only the right part of the text.

Thanks for your help!

Best regards,
Joern

Hi Joern,

We would advise to use panel docking (and optionally panel borders) to have a label that completely spans the bottom part of the chart - for example:

NLabel footer = new NLabel();
footer.Text = "Footer";
footer.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Bottom;
nChartControl1.Panels.Add(footer);

NDockPanel contentPanel = new NDockPanel();
contentPanel.Margins = new NMarginsL(10, 10, 10, 10);
contentPanel.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Fill;

NLabel header = new NLabel();
header.Margins = new NMarginsL(0, 0, 0, 10);
header.Text = "Header";
header.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Top;
contentPanel.ChildPanels.Add(header);

NCartesianChart chart = new NCartesianChart();
chart.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Fill;

contentPanel.ChildPanels.Add(chart);

nChartControl1.Panels.Add(contentPanel);

You're right about the clipping - in this case it should automatically set text alignment to left.

Best Regards,
Nevron Support Team

... thanks for the quick response - I did follow your suggestion, but unfortunatly the result is still the same:

I have altered my code like suggested:
   //=======================================
    NLabel footer = new NLabel();
    footer.Text = "Footer";
    footer.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Bottom;
    footer.TextStyle.BackplaneStyle.Visible = true;
    footer.TextStyle.BackplaneStyle.FillStyle = new NColorFillStyle(Color.AliceBlue); //new NGradientFillStyle(Color.LightGray, Color.LightGray);
    nChartControl1.Panels.Add(footer);

    NDockPanel contentPanel = new NDockPanel();
    contentPanel.Margins = new NMarginsL(10, 10, 10, 10);
    contentPanel.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Fill;
    NLabel header = new NLabel();
    header.Margins = new NMarginsL(0, 0, 0, 10);
    header.Text = "Header";
    header.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Top;
    contentPanel.ChildPanels.Add(header);


    //NCartesianChart chart = new NCartesianChart();
    chart.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Fill;
    contentPanel.ChildPanels.Add(chart);
    nChartControl1.Panels.Add(contentPanel);

Did I miss some other important settings to do?

Hi Joern,

Don't use the backplane style - instead use the background fill and frame properties. For more information check out the following link:
http://helpdotnetvision.nevron.com/UsersGuide_Panels_BorderAndBackground.html

Best Regards,
Nevron Support Team

... thanks a lot - now I am almost there: 
   footer.BackgroundFillStyle = new NColorFillStyle(Color.AliceBlue);
does the trick for the background color,

 But the text is still centered in the middle. I tried:
    footer.ContentAlignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;
This setting doesnt change anything - is there a way to get the text alligned to the left of the footer?

Hi Joern,

Try FitAlignment - ContentAlignment will not have any effect when the panel is docked. It is used to specify relative alignment when you use Location / Size based positioning of the panel.

Best Regards,
Nevron Support Team

.. thanks again - now the footer-label for status infos works as expected. Just in case somebody has a similar problem - here the full code: 
   /*----- ChartPane Footer -----*/  
    //Attn: refresh in ucMain is necessary!!! => _oChartPane._PaneFooter.Refresh();
    int iFontSize = 10;
    m_ContainerPanel = new NDockPanel();
    m_ContainerPanel.Location = new NPointL(new NLength(7, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(96, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage));

    m_ContainerPanel.Size = new NSizeL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(iFontSize + 12, NGraphicsUnit.Pixel));
    m_ContainerPanel.DockMode = PanelDockMode.Bottom;
    m_ContainerPanel.PositionChildPanelsInContentBounds = false;
    _PaneXLabel.Margins = new NMarginsL(0, 0, 0, 0);

    _PaneFooter = new NLabel(""); //_NevronChart.Labels.AddHeader("test footer"); //new NLabel("Test"); 
    _PaneFooter.DockMode = PanelDockMode.None;  //alternativly: using Panels.AddFooter
    _PaneFooter.TextStyle.FontStyle = new NFontStyle("Arial", iFontSize, FontStyle.Regular);
    _PaneFooter.ContentAlignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;  // BottomCenter;  //MiddleLeft;
    _PaneFooter.FitAlignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;

    _PaneFooter.UseAutomaticSize = false;
    _PaneFooter.Size = new NSizeL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(iFontSize + 10, NGraphicsUnit.Pixel));
    _PaneFooter.Location = new NPointL(new NLength(100, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage), new NLength(85, NRelativeUnit.ParentPercentage));
    
    _PaneFooter.BoundsMode = BoundsMode.None; //fit doesnt work neither
    _PaneFooter.FitMode = TitleFitMode.Clip; //Clip Mode rather clumsy: Text is clipped at both sides - so probably the status text will loose its meaning... 

    // apply border to the label
    NEdgeBorderStyle labelBorder = new NEdgeBorderStyle();
    labelBorder.OuterBevelWidth = new NLength(0);
    labelBorder.InnerBevelWidth = new NLength(0);
    labelBorder.MiddleBevelWidth = new NLength(1, NGraphicsUnit.Pixel);
    labelBorder.Shape = BorderShape.Rectangle;
    labelBorder.MiddleBevelFillStyle = new NColorFillStyle(Color.Black);
    _PaneFooter.BorderStyle = labelBorder;

    _PaneFooter.TextStyle.FontStyle.EmSize = new NLength(9, NGraphicsUnit.Point);
    _PaneFooter.BackgroundFillStyle = new NColorFillStyle(Color.AliceBlue);  //not: _PaneFooter.TextStyle.BackplaneStyle => this is only Background Text Color
 
   _PaneFooter.Margins = new NMarginsL(0, 0, 0, 0);

    m_ContainerPanel.ChildPanels.Add(_PaneFooter);
    _NevronChart.Panels.Add(m_ContainerPanel);
    this.PaneFooter = sPaneFooter;
    
Best regards,
Joern