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

I had some trouble with the given solutions and ended up with this:

    public partial class UserControlDraggable : UserControl
{
    public UserControlDraggable()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        MouseLeftButtonDown += new MouseButtonEventHandler(Control_MouseLeftButtonDown);
        MouseLeftButtonUp += new MouseButtonEventHandler(Control_MouseLeftButtonUp);
        MouseMove += new MouseEventHandler(Control_MouseMove);
    }

    private void Control_MouseLeftButtonDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        _isDragging = true;
        _mouseLocationWithinMe = e.GetPosition(this);

        CaptureMouse();
    }

    private void Control_MouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        _isDragging = false;
        this.ReleaseMouseCapture();
    }

    private void Control_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        if (_isDragging)
        {
            var mouseWithinParent = e.GetPosition(Parent as UIElement);

            Canvas.SetLeft(this, mouseWithinParent.X - _mouseLocationWithinMe.X);
            Canvas.SetTop(this, mouseWithinParent.Y - _mouseLocationWithinMe.Y);
        }
    }

    protected bool _isDragging;
    Point _mouseLocationWithinMe;
}

It is basically Corey's example but leverages hints from Hawlett. It works ONLY when the parent container is a Canvas. Also, it deserves to be dolled up with some limits to keep the user from dragging the control to places it really should not be.