margin

margin specifies the spacing outside the form element's border.

Includes 4 sub-properties – Left, Top, Right, Bottom – which can be set individually, together, or in different combinations.

Margins are transparent and do not have any background color.

Form XML code:

Theme property filter XML code:

Possible values:

any integer

Default value:

0 for all dimensions

Inheritance diagram:

Associated containers, widgets and theme elements:

BorderPanel CoordPanel GridPanel GroupBox ScrollViewer StackPanel Tab Table TreeTable

BlobViewer Button Browser Calendar Canvas CheckBox ComboBox FunctionField Label ListBox MenuGroup

MenuCommand ProgressBar RadioGroup PlaceHolder Spinner TextArea TextField ToolbarButton TimeEditField WebComponent

Associated ui methods:

setMargin() ↓

getMargin() ↓

Influence and behavior:

Both margin and padding specify the spacing of form elements.

Difference between them is this:

• margin specifies the spacing outside the border of a form element that is the spacing between the form element's border and its surrounding, and
• padding specifies the spacing inside the border of a form element that is the spacing between the form element' border and its content.

Try the example program, margin_vs_padding, to compare the runtime appearance of a form element with margin or padding:

 

margin is a complex property and includes 4 sub-properties:

• Left sets the spacing to the left of the element border
• Top sets the spacing on the top of the element border
• Right sets the spacing to the right of the element border
• Bottom sets the spacing below the element border

For example, this value

<Label ... margin="10,10,10,10"/>

means that the label's margin is the same in all directions and is equal to 10 px (as with labels on the right):

The labels on the left have the default margin values, margin = "0, 0, 0, 0".

 

In Lycia Form Designer, margin can be set

• in the input field of the Properties pane, and
• in the XML code (recommended only for experienced users).

In Lycia Theme Designer, margin can be set

• by direct typing, by moving the slider, or via the up and down arrows in the Styles view:

  

• in the XML code (recommended only for experienced users)

If you set margin in Lycia Theme Designer without any filters, it is applied to all the elements in the form:

At runtime, you can set margin by means of the corresponding ui method – setMargin().

As margin is a complex property, setMargin() requires several preparation steps:

1. Define the objects of ui.<Widget> and ui.Thickness types:

   DEFINE by ui.Button

   DEFINE marg ui.Thickness

2. Bind your ui.<Widget> variable with the corresponding widget in your form:

   LET bt = ui.Button.ForName("bt1")

3. Set values for Left, Right, Top, and Bottom (all of them) for your ui.Thickness variable via the LET statement:

   LET marg.Left = 10

   LET marg.Right = 10

   LET marg.Top = 10

   LET marg.Bottom = 10

4. Specify the margin of your widget by passing your ui.Thickness variable as the parameter for the setMargin() method:

   CALL bt.SetMargin(marg)

Try the example program, margin_ui, to learn how it works at runtime.

 

The corresponding getter – getMargin() – is used to retrieve margins of form elements:

DISPLAY widget_var.getMargin()