Splitcontainer flowlayoutpanel or autosized panel (VB.NET)

Question

Forms in an application I'm working on with a team have a datagridview as main component (it should take up most of the size), but there are other components. there is a horizontal splitcontainer to split them, but I was wondering how to make the top panel resize to its contents. Unfortunately, the panels in a splitcontainer don't have an AutoSize property...

Here are two images to show what we need:
_{(source: mediafire.com)}

_{(source: mediafire.com)}

As you can see, the top panel of the splitcontainer should adjust to the size of its contents. Is there any way to achieve this?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you meant "horizontal" split container based on your image.

You can try achieving this manually by using the ControlAdded event of the top panel:

Public Class Form1

  Public Sub New()
    InitializeComponent()
  End Sub

  Private Sub Form1_Shown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Shown
    SplitContainer1.SplitterDistance = SmallPanel.Height
  End Sub

  Private Sub SplitContainer1_Panel1_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ControlEventArgs) Handles SplitContainer1.Panel1.ControlAdded
    SplitContainer1.SplitterDistance += e.Control.Height
  End Sub

  Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Dim addPanel As New Panel
    addPanel.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle
    addPanel.Size = New Size(SplitContainer1.Panel1.ClientSize.Width, 100)
    addPanel.Location = New Point(0, SplitContainer1.SplitterDistance)
    addPanel.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Left Or AnchorStyles.Top Or AnchorStyles.Right
    SplitContainer1.Panel1.Controls.Add(addPanel)
  End Sub

End Class

SmallPanel is a panel I placed in Panel1 of the SplitContainer and added a button in their to add more panels.