What's the best method for setting the minimum size of a UserControl dynamically?

[conormcg94]

What's the best method for constraining views/windows to prevent elements from overlapping / overflowing?

My example consists of a simple toolbar with a dynamic TextBox cell. It expands with the view and should be constrained to a minimum width.

Grid Layout

        Title="AvaloniaApplication1"
        SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight">

    <Border BorderThickness="3" Margin="10"
            CornerRadius="5"
            Background="LightGray">

        <Grid Height="32" Margin="10">
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="auto" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="auto" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="*" MinWidth="200" />
                <ColumnDefinition Width="auto" />
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

            <Button Content="Button 1"
                    Grid.Column="0" />

            <Button Content="Button 2"
                    Grid.Column="1" />

            <TextBox Watermark="My input text"
                     VerticalAlignment="Center"
                     Grid.Column="2" />

            <Button Content="Button 3"
                    Grid.Column="3" />

        </Grid>
    </Border>

In this case, Grid.Measure returns a larger DesiredSize than the window and the view overflows. I'm aware this is intended Grid behaviour.

DockPanel Layout

I've tried using DockPanel but the elements end up overlapping.

        <DockPanel Height="32" Margin="10">			
            <Button Content="Button 1"
                    DockPanel.Dock="Left" />

            <Button Content="Button 2"
                    DockPanel.Dock="Left" />

            <Button Content="Button 3"
                    DockPanel.Dock="Right" />

            <TextBox Watermark="My input text"
                     VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
        </DockPanel>

In the past I've hardcoded the MinWidth property. This is tedious as I have to calculate the minimum width for each cell. I want the ability to dynamically style my views without having to worry about them breaking.

[StefanKoell]

I guess you want to get the min width of the window automatically based on the control's width/minwidth props, right?

Haven't tested it in any way but maybe you can put it in a scrollviewer with an attached property and monitor the control's moment the scrollbar would appear (overflow) and then set the min width of the window? If this works, you could problably write a custom panel control monitoring content overflow which is hooked up to the top level to prevent it from being smaller.

Actipro has a panel like this which they use for their toolbar to show overflowed items in a popup. Maybe you can do something similar but prevent the toplevel to get smaller instead.