Setting panel-objects properties

Question

I'm making a Windows Form Application called FMP. I've got a class called Form1, a class called Panels. Then I use inheritance to make different Panels with different properties.

The reason for doing this is because the teacher doesn't want us to initialize all the panels in the Form-class.

But I'm not sure how to do this. Found some things here @Stackoverflow, but they couldn't help me either.

The Size, The Location and the color are for all the Panels the same. (By clicking on a button, an other panel will appear ;) ) But the Name, Controls on the panel, and BackgroundImages are different. The controls are the most important aspect here.

The question is:

The Width and the Height should be equal to the Widht and the Height from the Form. What is best in programming C#? To set the Width and the Height from Panels in the Form1 (but i made them protected) or declarate the form in the Panels class and use Form1.Width?

The code I'm having right know:

The Form1

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        buttonsProperties();
        panelsProperties();
    }
    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        panelsChanged(1);
    }

    private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        panelsChanged(2);
    }
    private void panelsChanged(int panelNr)
    {
        if (panelNr == 1)
        {
            panel1.Visible = true;
            panel1.Enabled = true;
            panel2.Visible = false;
            panel2.Enabled = false;
        }
        else if (panelNr == 2)
        {
            panel1.Visible = false;
            panel1.Enabled = false;
            panel2.Visible = true;
            panel2.Enabled = true;
        }
}

The Panels

class Panels
{
    Form1 f = new Form1();
    //Color Property
    protected Color color { get; set; }
    //Size
    protected Int32 Width { get; set; }
    protected Int32 Height{ get; set; }
    //Location
    protected Point Location { get; set; }
    public Panels()
    {
        initMembers();
    }

    private void initMembers()
    {
        this.Width = f.Width;
        this.Height = f.Height;
        this.Location = new Point(0, 0);
    }
}
public class Panel1 : Panels
{
    //Nothing yet.
}

Answer 1

Using the name Panels as a base class for each panel is confusing:

• The name should not be in a plural form, as each instance of the class clearly resembles one "panel" (a panel has a Width, multiple panels do not have (one) width)
• Since you're crating a WinForms application, the name looks too much like the System.Windows.Forms.Panel class

If I were you I'd let your base class derive from System.Windows.Forms.Panel:

abstract class MyPanelBase : Panel
{
    public MyPanelBase()
    {
        Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
    }
}

class MyPanel1 : MyPanelBase
{
}

This way you automatically get the behavior (and properties) of the Panel and it allows you to add it to a parent control (in your case, the form).

If all functionality you want is already supported by Panel you could even skip the MyPanelBase bit and let MyPanel1 derive directly from Panel.