The overall appearance of FlexPivot controls can also be customized by applying themes through C1ThemeController. Developers can choose from a collection of predefined built-in themes to customize the control's overall appearance.

To apply built-in themes, perform the following steps.

1. Create a new Windows Forms Application project in Visual Studio.
2. Drag-and-drop the FlexPivotPage control onto the form from the Toolbox.
3. Add C1.Win.C1Themes.4 reference to your project to access built-in themes through C1ThemeController.
4. Click once on the smart tag icon ( ). The FlexPivotPageTasks smart panel appears as illustrated in the image below.

   

5. Select Undock in Parent Container option to undock the FlexPivotPage control in the parent container i.e. Form.
6. Navigate to the toolbox and add a standard label control to the form.
7. Set some of the properties of the label control from the Properties Window as follows:
   • AutoSize = True
   • TabIndex = 0
   • Text = "Apply Theme"
8. Add a standard Combobox control from the Toolbox and set some its properties as follows:
   • Name = "cbTheme"
   • FormattingEnabled = True
   • DropDownStyle = DropDownList
   • TabIndex = 1
   • Text = "Apply Theme"

   The Design View appears similar to the following image:

9. Switch to the code view add the following Import statement.
   • Visual Basic
   • C#

   • Visual Basic

   Imports C1.Win.C1Themes
   Imports System.Data.OleDb
   

   • C#

   using C1.Win.C1Themes;
   using System.Data.OleDb;
   

10. Add the following code to set up a connection string with the C1NWind.mdb database file.
    • Visual Basic
    • C#

    • Visual Basic

    Private Shared Function GetConnectionString() As String
        Dim path As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal) + "\ComponentOne Samples\Common"
        Dim conn As String = "provider=microsoft.jet.oledb.4.0;data source={0}\c1nwind.mdb;"
        Return String.Format(conn, path)
    End Function
    

    • C#

    // get standard nwind mdb connection string
    static string GetConnectionString()
    {
        string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal) + @"\ComponentOne Samples\Common";
        string conn = @"provider=microsoft.jet.oledb.4.0;data source={0}\c1nwind.mdb;";
        return string.Format(conn, path);
    }
    

11. Add the following code in the Form's constructor to fetch data from the C1NWind.mdb database file and create a view.
    • Visual Basic
    • C#

    • Visual Basic

    ' get data
    Dim da = New OleDbDataAdapter("Select * from Invoices", GetConnectionString())
    Dim dt = New DataTable("NorthWind Sales Data")
    da.Fill(dt)
    
    ' assign data to FlexPivotPage control
    FlexPivotPage1.DataSource = dt
    
    Dim fp = FlexPivotPage1.FlexPivotEngine
    fp.ValueFields.MaxItems = 3
    fp.BeginUpdate()
    fp.RowFields.Add("Country")
    fp.ColumnFields.Add("Product")
    fp.ValueFields.Add("Sales")
    fp.EndUpdate()
    

    • C#

    // get data
    var da = new OleDbDataAdapter("Select * from Invoices", GetConnectionString());
    var dt = new DataTable("NorthWind Sales Data");
    da.Fill(dt);
    
    // assign data to FlexPivotPage control
    FlexPivotPage1.DataSource = dt;
    
    var fp = FlexPivotPage1.FlexPivotEngine;
    fp.ValueFields.MaxItems = 3;
    fp.BeginUpdate();
    fp.RowFields.Add("Country");
    fp.ColumnFields.Add("Product");
    fp.ValueFields.Add("Sales");
    fp.EndUpdate();
    

12. Add the following code in the Form's constructor to subscribe SelectedIndexChanged event for Combobox control, and implement logic for applying themes to the Form on selecting built-in themes from the dropdown list.
    • Visual Basic
    • C#

    • Visual Basic

    For Each theme As String In C1ThemeController.GetThemes()
        cbTheme.Items.Add(theme)
    Next
    AddHandler cbTheme.SelectedIndexChanged, AddressOf cbTheme_SelectedIndexChanged
    

    • C#

    cbTheme.SelectedIndexChanged += cbTheme_SelectedIndexChanged;
    foreach (string theme in C1ThemeController.GetThemes())
        cbTheme.Items.Add(theme);
    

13. Add the following code to the event handler created for cbTheme.SelectedIndexChanged event.
    • Visual Basic
    • C#

    • Visual Basic

    Private Sub cbTheme_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
        Dim theme As C1Theme = C1ThemeController.GetThemeByName(cbTheme.Text, False)
        If theme IsNot Nothing Then
            C1ThemeController.ApplyThemeToObject(FlexPivotPage1, theme)
        End If
    End Sub
    

    • C#

    private void cbTheme_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        C1Theme theme = C1ThemeController.GetThemeByName(cbTheme.Text, false);
        if (theme != null)
            C1ThemeController.ApplyThemeToObject(FlexPivotPage1, theme);
    }
    

14. Press F5 to run the application and select a predefined theme.