Search Overlay Pane

The search overlay pane is a control built into SyntaxEditor that allows find and replace operations to be performed. When active, the pane appears in-line at the upper right corner of the text area.

Built-in Key Bindings

SyntaxEditor Search Key Bindings

These key bindings are search-related and are built into the SyntaxEditor control, often triggering the search overlay pane to open.

Disabling Built-in Search Functionality

To prevent the end user from activating the built-in search features, set the SyntaxEditor.HasSearchOverlayPaneKeyBindings property to false.

This is useful when your app uses a custom search UI.

SearchOverlayPane-Only Key Bindings

These key bindings are active when focus is within the search overlay pane, providing quick access to common features.

The SearchOverlayPane User Interface

The SearchOverlayPane control is designed to mimic the in-line find/replace pane found in the Visual Studio editor.

The SearchOverlayPane control in replace mode

Search Modes

The control offers two search modes: find and replace. Use the expansion arrow on the left side of the control to toggle between them.

The expansion arrow is displayed by default. However, the CanToggleReplace property can be set to false to hide it.

This is useful if you only wish to allow the end user to perform "find" operations and not "replace" operations.

Find All Button Visibility

The Find All button is not displayed by default. The IsFindAllButtonVisible property can be set to true to show it.

This button should only be made visible if the find results will be displayed to the user from within a SyntaxEditor.ViewSearch event handler. A common way to do this is to display the results within a Find Results tool window.

Options Panel

The row containing search options (match case, match whole word, use regular expressions, search up, etc.) can be expanded or collapsed. The IsOptionsPanelExpanded property determines the current expansion state of the panel.

Pane Events

The SyntaxEditor.OverlayPaneOpened event is raised when the search overlay pane is opened. The OverlayPaneEventArgs.Pane property contains the SearchOverlayPane instance that is opening. This is where various options may be set on the pane for initialization purposes.

This code shows how to set several options on the pane:

private void OnSyntaxEditorOverlayPaneOpened(object sender, OverlayPaneEventArgs e) {
	var pane = e.Pane as SearchOverlayPane;
	if (pane != null) {
		pane.CanToggleReplace = false;  // Hide expansion button to toggle to replace mode
		pane.IsReplaceVisible = false;  // Force find mode, even if Ctrl+H is pressed

		pane.IsFindAllButtonVisible = true;  // Show a "find all" button
	}
}

The SyntaxEditor.OverlayPaneClosed event is raised when the pane is closed.

Syncing Options

The SearchOverlayPane.SearchOptions property accepts an IEditorSearchOptions instance that automatically gets assigned the search options instance found in the SyntaxEditor.SearchOptions property.

When the end user alters the "find what" text, for instance, the control auto-updates the attached options. The options can be used with any search operation.

The default IEditorSearchOptions instance set to the SearchOptions property is a static instance from the EditorSearchOptions.Default property. This allows the search options to be shared amongst multiple SyntaxEditor controls out-of-the-box.

Handling Results

The SyntaxEditor.ViewSearch event is raised whenever a search is made using SearchOverlayPane. The event arguments pass along the search options and the result set. That information can then be presented to the user in a Find Results tool window for example.

Search Result Highlights

Search results can be highlighted as the find text and other search options are altered in the search overlay pane. For this functionality to work, please make sure the appropriate display classification type is registered per the requirements listed in the Search Result Highlighting topic.

Programmatically Opening the Pane

This code shows how to programmatically the pane:

// NOTE: Update the find text in view.SyntaxEditor.SearchOptions here as needed

// If the editor is in multi-line mode...
if (view.SyntaxEditor.IsMultiLine) {
	// Ensure the search pane is open (visible) and in "find" mode
	var searchPane = view.OverlayPanes[OverlayPaneKeys.Search] as SearchOverlayPane;
	if (searchPane != null) {
		searchPane.IsReplaceVisible = false;
		searchPane.SearchOptions = view.SyntaxEditor.SearchOptions;
	}
	else
		searchPane = view.OverlayPanes.AddSearch(false) as SearchOverlayPane;

	// Activate the pane (only if you wish to focus the "find what" TextBox)
	if (searchPane != null)
		searchPane.Activate();
}