How to drag a UserControl inside a Canvas

Question

I have a Canvas in which user can add UserControl subclasses containing a form. User should be able to drag these UserControl around the Canvas.

What\'s the best pr

Answer 1

Corey's answer is mostly correct, but it's missing one crucial element: memory of what the last transform was. Otherwise, when you move an item, release the mouse button, and then click that item again, the transform resets to (0,0) and the control jumps back to its origin.

Here's a slightly modified version that works for me:

public partial class DragItem : UserControl
{
    protected Boolean isDragging;
    private Point mousePosition;
    private Double prevX, prevY;

    public DragItem()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void UserControl_MouseLeftButtonDown(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        isDragging = true;
        var draggableControl = (sender as UserControl);
        mousePosition = e.GetPosition(Parent as UIElement);
        draggableControl.CaptureMouse();
    }

    private void UserControl_MouseLeftButtonUp(Object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        isDragging = false;
        var draggable = (sender as UserControl);
        var transform = (draggable.RenderTransform as TranslateTransform);
        if (transform != null)
        {
            prevX = transform.X;
            prevY = transform.Y;
        }
        draggable.ReleaseMouseCapture();
    }

    private void UserControl_MouseMove(Object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        var draggableControl = (sender as UserControl);
        if (isDragging && draggableControl != null)
        {
            var currentPosition = e.GetPosition(Parent as UIElement);
            var transform = (draggableControl.RenderTransform as TranslateTransform);
            if (transform == null)
            {
                transform = new TranslateTransform();
                draggableControl.RenderTransform = transform;
            }
            transform.X = (currentPosition.X - mousePosition.X);
            transform.Y = (currentPosition.Y - mousePosition.Y);
            if (prevX > 0)
            {
                transform.X += prevX;
                transform.Y += prevY;
            }
        }
    }
}

The key is storing the previous X and Y offsets, and then using them to augment the current movement's offset in order to arrive at the correct aggregate offset.