I'm porting an Access database I wrote over to VB.NET and while I've used Access for 25 years, I've used VB.NET for 2 days so I'm unclear what the capabilities are.
In my Access form, I have a Combo Box which allows the user to select a part record from a table. Using Access I can show multiple columns to the user making a selection - PartID, Description, notes, whatever. However once the part is selected and the combo box is closed, I show only the unique part ID. The other columns help the user choose but make the form look really cluttered.
In my VB.NET form, I set the ValueMember to the PartID. But I only know how to set the DisplayMember to a single field. I created a composite field "PartID | Description | Notes" but then that's what appears even after the selection is made.
Is it possible in VB.NET to show one thing when the box is open and another thing once the selection has been made?
qry = "SELECT PartID, cast(PartID as string) & " | " & [partName] AS PartString
FROM [Part_List]
GROUP BY PartID, cast(PartID as string) & " | " & [partName]
ORDER BY PartID;"
cmd = New SqlCommand(qry, conn)
adapter = New SqlDataAdapter(cmd)
Dim tblPN As New DataTable()
adapter.Fill(tblPN)
ChoosePartNum.DataSource = tblPN
ChoosePartNum.DisplayMember = "PartString"
ChoosePartNum.ValueMember = "PartID"
ChoosePartNum.SelectedIndex = -1
I see what you are trying to do. I was doing that in MS Access too but it was more than 20 years ago.
I agree with Jimi. From a design point of view, trying to reproduce Access-like features in a new environment is not a great idea.
Users are familiar with Winforms controls and have certain expectations in term of UI layout and consistency. If you are building a new UI from scratch you should take the opportunity to redesign it and modernize it. Don't just carry 25-year old habits over. Especially if you are not the only user of that application, because you don't want people to think that your coding methods are stuck in the 20th century...
Is it possible in VB.NET to show one thing when the box is open and
another thing once the selection has been made?
If you really want to achieve this behavior you need to use combo box events. The two events you need would be DropDownClosed and DropDown.
Here is how it can be done:
Private Sub ComboBox1_DropDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.DropDown
With Me.ChoosePartNum
.DisplayMember = "composite field"
End With
End Sub
Private Sub ComboBox1_DropDownClosed(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.DropDownClosed
With Me.ChoosePartNum
.DisplayMember = "PartID"
End With
End Sub
The trick is to change the DisplayMember property whenever the combo box is folded/unfolded by the user. The underlying value remains the same.
I don't know if you require autocomplete from keyboard or have other needs. A treeview or listview sound like obvious alternatives. But you said you want a 'compact' control. Here you go.
Related
There's already a question like this but its in VBA, and I need VB.NET
I'm trying to get the contents of a column then put them in an array or something so I can then put the data into the items of a ComboBox. If anyone can suggest a better way, id love to know. This is the code I am using right now:
sql = "SELECT Firstname FROM Candidates WHERE Position='President'"
cmd = New OleDbCommand(sql, cn)
dr = cmd.ExecuteReader
So, first lets build the connection to the Access DB.
So, from the menu go project -> "my project name" properties
(last option).
This:
So, in above we hit the [...] button (connection builder).
Then this:
and then:
then use browse to select the Access database file.
If this is a "mdb" file, then we use JET, but for accDB, we have to choose/use
ACE.
So, after selecting the access file, then hit advanced:
this:
Now, it should default to ACE, but MAKE SURE you check this!!!
This:
If you don't see "ACE" in that list, then you not be able to use/open a accDB file, but can use JET to open mdb files.
Keep in mind, that if you are using vs2022?
Then the test connection button will ALWAYS fail, but if you run your project/code, it should work.
Note that you ALSO MUST force your project to x86 if you using/have Access x32 bits.
So, that is this option:
If you don't have/see a x86 option, then use the configeration manager, and create a x86 choice. You MUST do this!!
Ok, so now we have our connection built.
So, on a form, lets drop in a button to "load" the combo box, drop in a combo box.
And lets even drop in a button to show how to get/grab/use a value the user selected.
Now, a combo box can (often) have two columns. one column is "hidden", and the other is for display.
So, in our example, we will fill out the combo box with a list of hotels from the database, and we will use both columns.
"id" - that is the database primary key value - it will be hidden, not display.
"HotelName" that is the column from the database to display in the combo box.
So, in the combo box property sheet, set:
ValueMember to ID
DisplayMember to HotelName (or your column to display).
So, the code for loading the combo box will look like this:
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim strSQL As String =
"SELECT ID, HotelName FROM tblHotelsA ORDER BY HotelName"
cboHotels.DataSource = MyRst(strSQL)
End Sub
Function MyRst(strSQL As String) As DataTable
Dim rstData As New DataTable
Using conn As New OleDbConnection(My.Settings.AccessDB)
Using cmdSQL As New OleDbCommand(strSQL, conn)
conn.Open()
rstData.Load(cmdSQL.ExecuteReader)
End Using
End Using
Return rstData
End Function
And our button code to test get/grab/see the selected value is this:
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Label2.Text = "Hotel Select = " & cboHotels.Text &
" value = " & cboHotels.SelectedValue
End Sub
Note how we are able to get the 2 values fro the combo box (the database primary key "value") and also the text (hotel name).
So, final result is this:
I don't normally post on forums because I try to find information for myself, and ask as an absolute last resort. I've tried scouring the net for answers, but I'm only receiving about half of the answer I'm looking for.
I'm currently building an application that deals with state law. There's one combo box and one text box. One for the offense title, and one for the numerical code for that particular code section. So say if I select "Kidnapping", it prepopulates the text box below it with "11-5-77", for example.
The method I've been using for, oh, about the last hour now, is:
If AWOffenseTitle.Text = "Kidnapping" Then
AWCN.Text = "11-5-77"
ElseIf AWOffenseTitle.Text = "False Imprisonment" Then
AWCN.Text = "11-5-78"
With AWOffenseTitle being the combo box name, and AWCN being the text box name. While this has proved to work perfectly well so far, I'm sure you can imagine with hundreds of offense titles, this is going to take a ridiculously long time. Well, I finally found a spreadsheet with offense titles and their respective title codes. What I'm looking to do is create two text files within a folder in the local directory "Offenses". One with a vertical list of offenses, and one with a vertical list of offense code numbers that populate the same lines in each. What I'm looking to do is populate the combo box with the contents of text file one (which I can do already), but then selecting an offense title will read the second text file and display it's proper title code. That's what has me at a loss. I'm relatively well-versed with vb.NET, but I'm not an expert by any means.
I'm hoping someone here will be able to provide a code example and explain it to me line-by-line so I can gain a better understanding. I want to get more proficient with VB although it's not so popular anymore. I've been using VB since 6.0, but not on a regular basis. More on a sporadic project kind of basis.
I really appreciate any assistance anyone might be able to provide, and if you need more information, I'd be glad to answer any questions. I tried to be as thorough as I could.
Thank you in advance!
First, you need to retrieve your data. I demonstrated using an Sql Server database containing a table named Offenses with columns named OffenseTitle and OffenseCode. You will have to change this code to match your situation.
Private Function GetOffenseData() As DataTable
Dim dt As New DataTable
Using cn As New SqlConnection("Your connection string"),
cmd As New SqlCommand("Select OffenseTitle, OffenseCode From Offenses;")
cn.Open()
dt.Load(cmd.ExecuteReader)
End Using
Return dt
End Function
As the Form loads, set the properties of the ComboBox. DisplayMember matches the name of the title column and ValueMember is the name of the code column.
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim dt = GetOffenseData()
ComboBox1.DisplayMember = "OffenseTitle"
ComboBox1.ValueMember = "OffenseCode"
ComboBox1.DataSource = dt
End Sub
Then when the selected item in the combo changes, just set the .Text property of TextBox to the SelectedValue in the combo and your code appears.
Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectionChangeCommitted(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectionChangeCommitted
TextBox1.Text = ComboBox1.SelectedValue.ToString
End Sub
There are other ways to do this if your data source is other than a database. Please advise if you need additional help.
In addition to HardCode's comment and Mary's detailed answer, I can only add an answer that's somewhere in between them.
It might be the case, that the information is not taken from a database, but from another source, like a text/data file or a web service. So it might be useful to create an abstraction for the data source you actually use.
First, I create a class or struct that will hold the data for each combo box item.
Class Offense
Public ReadOnly Property Title As String
Public ReadOnly Property Code As String
Public Sub New(title As String, code As String)
Me.Title = title
Me.Code = code
End Sub
End Class
Next, you need a method that retrieves a list of offenses that you can bind to your combo box. It's entirely up to you how you fill/fetch the offenses list. I have simply hard coded your two values here.
Private Function GetOffenseData() As List(Of Offense)
Dim offenses As New List(Of Offense)
offenses.Add(New Offense("Kidnapping", "11-5-77"))
offenses.Add(New Offense("False Imprisonment", "11-5-78"))
Return offenses
End Function
At a certain moment (probably in your form's Load event handler), you need to initialize your combo box. Just like Mary did, I use data binding.
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
AWOffenseTitle.DropDownStyle = ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList
AWCN.ReadOnly = True
AWOffenseTitle.DisplayMember = NameOf(Offense.Title)
AWOffenseTitle.ValueMember = NameOf(Offense.Code)
AWOffenseTitle.DataSource = GetOffenseData()
End Sub
Note that I use the NameOf operator to get the desired property names of the Offense class. If you ever decide to rename the properties of your Offense class, you will be able to easily detect where they are used, since the compiler will complain if your code still uses the wrong property names somewhere.
Finally, the app needs to react to combo box value changes, so that the text box will show the corresponding offense code. Mary used an event handler for the SelectionChangeCommitted event, but I use a handler for the SelectedIndexChanged event instead:
Private Sub AWOffenseTitle_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles AWOffenseTitle.SelectedIndexChanged
AWCN.Text = AWOffenseTitle.SelectedValue
End Sub
(Up to now, I was not aware of the SelectionChangeCommitted event of the ComboBox control. I will need to look into this event to see if it is actually a better choice for this scenario, but I found that the SelectedIndexChanged event does the job just fine, so for now I sticked with that event, since I am more familiar with it.)
im trying to add a very large amount of items to list box and what i need it for is i'm using to add selected items to itextsharp table report im using filters in the table just to display either the sales person who handled the customer or the date at which the incident occurred (or Issue was reported with the product) my filter system is as follows i have 4 categories which is 4 listboxes customer name, customer code(named listBox1 i have not got around to changing it yet) species name, and the error type my filter is placed under the searchBtn_Click event my filter and item adding code is as follows:
Private Sub searchBtn_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles searchBtn.Click
For Each obj As contactObject In custList
For Each item As speciesObject In speciesList
'loadLists()
If Trim(fromDate.Value) < Trim(obj.eventDate) Then
If Trim(toDate.Value) > Trim(obj.eventDate) Then
If Trim(fromDate.Value) < Trim(item.compDate) Then
If Trim(toDate.Value) > Trim(item.compDate) Then
End If
If Not customerListBox.Items.Contains(obj.customerName) Then
customerListBox.Items.Add(obj.customerName)
End If
If Not ListBox1.Items.Contains(obj.customer) Then
ListBox1.Items.Add(obj.customer)
End If
If Not speciesListBox.Items.Contains(item.name) Then
If ListBox1.Items.Contains(item.customerCode) Then
speciesListBox.Items.Add(Trim(item.name).ToUpper)
End If
End If
If Not errorListBox.Items.Contains(obj.issue + " - " + obj.issueDescription) Then
errorListBox.Items.Add(Trim(obj.issue + " - " + obj.issueDescription).ToUpper)
End If
End If
End If
End If
Next
Next
countErrors()
End Sub
then i have the query which is set up to get the customer info from the database system
Dim SqlText As String = "SELECT DISTINCT QEE.[EventID] ,QEE.[EventDate] ,QEE.[Employee] ,QEE.[Communication] ,QEE.[OtherCommunication] ,QEE.[Issue] ,QEE.[IssueDescription] ,QEE.[IssueComments] ,QEE.[Resolution] ,QEE.[ResolutionComments] ,QEE.[SalesOrderNumber] ,QEE.[CustomerPO] ,QEE.[SOStatus] ,QEE.[Customer] ,QEE.[CustomerName] ,QEE.[SalesPersonName] ,QEE.[IsResolved] ,QEE.[IssueValue] ,QEE.[DateAndTimeAdded] ,DATEDIFF(day, SOR.ReqShipDate, QEE.[EventDate]) AS Elapsed, SOR.ReqShipDate FROM [QualityTracking].[dbo].[tblQualityEventEntry] QEE INNER JOIN SysproCompanyC.dbo.SorMaster SOR ON QEE.SalesOrderNumber = SOR.SalesOrder COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS ORDER BY EventDate ASC, CustomerName ASC, SalesOrderNumber ASC;"
I could not fit all code on here
if you could also just general things to help as well i am new to vb.net but for other information things i have tried :
*listbox.startUpdate/endUpdate
*changing querys
*changing the sorted property (Right now its set for false)
*the issue happens when i choose select all and then hit search the database is holding almost 2Mil items and i need to be able to get it to move once i get it work stop freezing i will be able to increase the speed i just cant figure out totally where the issue is i know the query could be better probably (if you have any suggestions please feel free i'm learning)
*but i also see alot of people having this issue with listbox as being kinda a broken down way of listing items
*i have tried researching it and people have said use something else i cant do that for listbox is committed
Assuming Windows Forms.
You program might not be responding because of too many records to add, and each time you add an item into the ListBox.Items collection, the UI is refreshed.
You may either SuspendLayout while adding the lines into your Listbox, and ResumeLayout afterwards.
Private Sub searchBtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
customerListBox.SuspendLayout();
// Place your code to populate the ListBox control here...
customerListBox.ResumeLayout();
End sub
This shall avoid a lot of refreshes from occuring while adding the items one by one and allow the application to lighten the add of items, then you resume the layout so that it refreshes the controls to display adequate information to the screen.
OR
You may use the ListBox.Items.AddRange() method along with List.ToArray().
Private Sub searchBtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim custList As List(Of ConstactObject) = loadYourCustomers();
customerListBox.Items.AddRange(custList.ToArray());
Dim speciesList As List(Of SpeciesObject) = loadYourSpecies();
speciesListBox.Items.AddRange(speciesList.ToArray());
End sub
OR ELSE
I recommend using a DataGridView and setting its DataSource property to your list of objects.
So, in order to have the correct data, you'll have to:
Drop two DataGridView on your Form
Rename both DataGridView to a meaningful name (e.g. custListDataGridView, speciesListDataGridview)
Drop two BindingSource on your Form
Rename both BindingSource to a meaningful name (e.g. custListBindingSource, speciesListBindingSource)
In the designer, set the DataGridView.DataSource property to your respective BindingSource (e.g. custListDataGridview.DataSource = custListBindingsource, speciesListDataGridView.DataSource = speciesListBindingSource)
In the backing code, that is, in your searchBtn.Click event, you may set both your binding sources DataSource property
Private Sub searchBtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim custList As IList(Of ContactObject) = loadYourContactObjects();
custListBindingSource.DataSource = custList;
Dim speciesList As IList(Of SpeciesObject) = loadYourSpeciesObject();
speciesListBindingSource.DataSource = speciesList;
End Sub
And your information data should be listed automatically without you having to manually add each record.
To provide some context, I have a combobox that the user interacts with to select an insurance company. Unfortunately they don't require just the name; sometimes insurance companies have the same name, and the only way to distinguish between them is to use their address (eg a Medicare office in North Carolina vs. a Medicare office in South Carolina). What I've currently done is use the combobox's DrawItem event to draw a tooltip next to the ComboBox when the dropdown list is displayed. The list itself displays the insurance company names, but the tooltip will display the address of the currently selected company. The combobox is set to DropDownList, so it's impossible for them to pick anything but what's in the list.
Well, now I'm being told to change this. The users are no longer content to have to click the combobox or hit the arrow keys. They want comboboxes that they can type in and have an autosuggest list appear as they type. That's all well and good but this is where I'm running into a wall. My cute little scheme of using a tooltip can't work in that situation because the autosuggest list is a completely separate control. DrawItem doesn't touch it, and I can't find a way to custom draw the autosuggest list. The other problem is that autosuggest doesn't do duplicate entries, so even though I have two different insurance companies only one will appear in the list simply because they share the same name.
The only other idea I've had so far is to somehow scroll the dropdown list to the appropriate item upon the user pressing a key. But I can't figure out how to set the highlighted item in the dropdown list without setting selectedindex. If I use selectedindex, it goes ahead and replaces the text.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to proceed? Am I on the right track, or do am I trying too hard and need to do something else entirely?
You could use a text field where the user types in their text, and narrow the selection in the dropbox down based on that. To get around the same-name-but-different-company problem, you could list the address of the company after the name in a parenthesis. If the user types in a name that is invalid, put up an error/warning icon next to the text field.
To update the selection at runtime, you can add an event listener to the text field and query the current text to decide whether it is a valid prefix, or not.
We do something similar at the company I'm at. To accomplish it, we utilize a web service through AJAX.
Essentially, you modify a standard textbox with an AJAX AutoCompleteExtender (ACE). This ace references a webservice (which I'll illustrate) that goes and gets the info the customer types in on the fly. It's pretty cool once it's up and running.
Here's an example:
.ascx
<asp:TextBox ID="txtInsuranceCompany" runat="server" TabIndex="520"
AutoComplete="Off"AutoCompleteType="Disabled" CssClass="asbSearch" Width="350px"></asp:TextBox>
<ajax:AutoCompleteExtender ID="aceInsuranceCompany" runat="server" CompletionSetCount="20"
MinimumPrefixLength="0" OnClientShown="resetPosition" ServiceMethod="LookupData"
ServicePath="~/WebLookUpService.asmx" TargetControlID="txtInsuranceCompany" UseContextKey="true">
</ajax:AutoCompleteExtender>
Something subtle is that you have to be sure you set the context key for your autocomplete extender, as well as create some functionality within your webservice to load your values (again, I'll illustrate).
.vb code-behind
Dim yourhardcodedlist As New List(Of String)
yourhardcodedlist.Add("Progressive")
yourhardcodedlist.Add("State Farm")
yourhardcodedlist.Add("USAA")
WebLookUpService.AddLookupValues(txtInsuranceCompany.ID, yourhardcodedlist.ToArray)
aceInsuranceCompany.ContextKey = public_var0 & ":" & public_var1 & ":" & txtInsuranceCompany.ID
Note that the "public_var0" "and public_var1" aren't mandatory. This is just illustrating how you could pass more information to your web service without actually passing it as a parameter (i.e. a colon-delimitted list, that you're web service function can parse out for use in a SQL statement or something).
Now for the webservice...(.asmx)
<WebService(Namespace:="http://tempuri.org/")> _
<WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo:=WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)> _
<System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService()> _
<Global.Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.DesignerGenerated()> _
Public Class WebLookUpService
Inherits System.Web.Services.WebService
<System.Web.Services.WebMethod(), System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptMethod()> _
Public Function LookupData(ByVal prefixText As String, ByVal count As Integer, ByVal contextKey As String) As String()
'Construct SQL statement to pull from database
'parsing the context key as necessary to construct your SQL statement (if necessary)
'Dim somethingForSql As String = contextKey.Split(":")
Dim suggestions As List(Of String) = New List(Of String)
Try
Using cnADO As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("PublicSafetyServer").ToString)
cnADO.Open()
Dim dt As DataTable = New DataTable
Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter
da.SelectCommand = New SqlCommand("<YourSQLStatement>")
da.Fill(dt)
Dim endRow As Integer = dt.Rows.Count
If endRow > count Then
endRow = count
End If
For i As Integer = 0 To endRow - 1
Dim des As String = dt.Rows(i).Item(field)
Dim val As String = dt.Rows(i).Item(field)
suggestions.Add(AjaxControlToolkit.AutoCompleteExtender.CreateAutoCompleteItem(des, val))
Next
End Using
Catch ex As Exception
'Throw Error
End Try
suggestions.Sort()
If suggestions.Count = 0 Then
suggestions.Add(AjaxControlToolkit.AutoCompleteExtender.CreateAutoCompleteItem(noneFound, ""))
End If
Return suggestions.ToArray()
End Function
What's cool is that you can add values deliberately through 'yourhardcodedlist' that will combine with any values you pull via the web-service. This way, you can add values directly if you can't add values to the database.
So I was reading a bit on AutoComplete of textboxes in VB.NET, but I can't really understand where these are stored? Is it a fully built in feature, or do I have to write some code for it to work? I've found the AutoCompleteMode and AutoCompleteSource properties of textboxes. But I want to append whatever I've written in the textbox to the autocomplete source. Do I connect the source to My.Settings or something? Wouldn't I have to use an array as well? Any help would be appreciated :)
You would have to add new entries to your auto-complete data source manually... which makes sense, when you think about it: How is Windows Forms supposed to know when a new entry should be added to the list of suggestions and when the text entered is only something temporary?
You could add new values e.g. when validation of the input field happens, or when the user presses an OK / Apply button, or whatever fits your need best. But you will have to do this yourself.
The properties you've already discovered are the right ones.
Dim suggestions As New List(Of String)
suggestions.Add("Abba")
suggestions.Add("Nirvana")
suggestions.Add("Rolling Stones")
...
textBox.AutoCompleteSource = suggestions
You can bind AutoCompleteSource to almost anything; this is very similar to data-binding. One thing to keep in mind is that if you're adding new entries to the auto-complete data source, the UI control might not immediately notice if your data source doesn't implement the INotifyCollectionChanged interface.
first create the list to use as the custom source.
Dim MySource As New AutoCompleteStringCollection()
and then set the property of the textbox
With MyTextbox
.AutoCompleteCustomSource = MySource
.AutoCompleteMode = AutoCompleteMode.SuggestAppend
.AutoCompleteSource = AutoCompleteSource.CustomSource
End With
put this code in eventlistener you use for validating the input field, e.g. btnOK.Click
Private Sub btnOK_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnOK.Click
MySource.Add(txtinput.text)
End Sub