Change the color of a button(s) for a duration of time - vb.net

Question

I have a small VB.net app that has a LOT of buttons. I need to change the back color of the buttons when they are clicked and then set it back to its original color after a duration of 10 seconds. I am struggling with either using a timer or the time process both of which have their own issues.
Any ideas to make this work and work efficiently?
Code:
Private Sub MyButtons_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) _
Handles Button1.Click,
Button2.Click
Dim myButton = DirectCast(sender, Button)
MakeCall()
myButton.BackColor = Color.Green
'TurnOnActiveCallCOLOR.Enabled = True
For i As Integer = 0 To 10000 - 1
Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000)
Next
myButton.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(64, 64, 64)
End Sub

Answer 1

Here is an example of using a Windows Forms Timer to accomplish what you need:
Private MyButton As Button
Private Sub MyButtons_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, Button2.Click
MyButton = DirectCast(sender, Button)
MyButton.BackColor = Color.Green
Timer1.Enabled = True
MakeCall()
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
MyButton.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(64, 64, 64)
Timer1.Enabled = False
End Sub

Answer 2

To handle an arbitrary number of buttons, you could have something like this:
Public Class Form1
Dim buttonTimers As New Dictionary(Of Control, ButtonTimer)
Class ButtonTimer
Property Timeout As Integer = 2000
Property Target As Control
Property ActiveColor As Color = Color.Green
Property DefaultColor As Color = Color.FromArgb(64, 64, 64)
Private tim As Timer
Sub TimTick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
tim.Stop()
Target.BackColor = DefaultColor
End Sub
Sub New()
' empty constructor
End Sub
Sub New(target As Control)
Me.Target = target
Me.Target.BackColor = Me.ActiveColor
tim = New Timer With {.Interval = Timeout}
AddHandler tim.Tick, AddressOf TimTick
tim.Start()
End Sub
Sub Restart()
Target.BackColor = Me.ActiveColor
If tim IsNot Nothing Then
tim.Stop()
tim.Start()
End If
End Sub
Public Sub DisposeOfTimer()
If tim IsNot Nothing Then
tim.Stop()
RemoveHandler tim.Tick, AddressOf TimTick
tim.Dispose()
End If
End Sub
End Class
Private Sub Button_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, Button2.Click
Dim myButton = DirectCast(sender, Button)
'MakeCall()
If buttonTimers.ContainsKey(myButton) Then
buttonTimers(myButton).Restart()
Else
buttonTimers.Add(myButton, New ButtonTimer(myButton))
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As FormClosingEventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing
For Each x In buttonTimers
x.Value.DisposeOfTimer()
Next
End Sub
End Class
If a button is clicked again before the timeout, the time is restarted.
You can add other constructors if you want to have a different timeout/colours for different buttons.
The MyBase.FormClosing code should be included in your form closing handler (if there is one) so that the timers are cleaned up properly.
I expect it would be tidier overall to make your own custom button class which inherits from Button, so you might want to investigate doing that. (How to: Inherit from Existing Windows Forms Controls.)

Answer 3

asynh and await if you don't want use timer. Simple method using task.delay
Private Async Sub ButtonClick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click, Button2.Click, Button3.Click, Button4.Click
DirectCast(sender, Button).BackColor = Color.Red 'after click setcolor to red
Await setColorAfterDelay(sender) 'Add this comand on button click and don't forget add asynh before sub in this method
End Sub
Public Async Function setColorAfterDelay(sender As Object) As Task
Await Task.Delay(1000) ''Milisecound how long you wana dealey
DirectCast(sender, Button).BackColor = Color.White 'and set colorto white
End Function

Answer 4

With the use of lambda expressions (and a lookup table if you want to interact with it further) you can do this pretty easily:
'Lookup table for if you want to be able to interact with the timers even more.
Dim ButtonTimers As New Dictionary(Of Button, Timer)
Private Sub MyButtons_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) _
Handles Button1.Click, Button2.Click
MakeCall()
Dim myButton = DirectCast(sender, Button)
myButton.BackColor = Color.Green
'If a timer already exists for the button, restart it.
Dim existingTimer As Timer = Nothing
If ButtonTimers.TryGetValue(myButton, existingTimer) Then
existingTimer.Stop()
existingTimer.Start()
Return 'Do not execute the rest of the code.
End If
'Create the timer and set its Interval to 10000 ms (10 seconds).
Dim buttonTimer As New Timer() With {.Interval = 10000}
'Add a handler to its Tick event.
AddHandler buttonTimer.Tick, _
Sub(tsender As Object, te As EventArgs)
myButton.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(64, 64, 64)
'Dispose timer and remove from lookup table.
ButtonTimers.Remove(myButton)
buttonTimer.Stop()
buttonTimer.Dispose()
End Sub
ButtonTimers.Add(myButton, buttonTimer)
buttonTimer.Start()
End Sub
If you want to interact with a button's timer (if one exists) you can do:
Dim buttonTimer As Timer = Nothing
If ButtonTimers.TryGetValue(yourButtonHere) Then
'Do something with buttonTimer...
End If

Answer 5

This could probably be done better by dynamically creating timer controls so each button has it's own timer but here is what I came up with.
Oh, an set your timer to 1000 interval and enabled to 'False'.
Public Class Form1
Dim T1 As Integer = 0
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
T1 = T1 + 1
If T1 = 10 Then
For Each button In Controls
button.backcolor = Color.FromArgb(225, 225, 225)
Next
Timer1.Stop()
T1 = 0
End If
Me.Text = T1
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Button1.BackColor = Color.Red
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Button2.BackColor = Color.Orange
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub Button3_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
Button3.BackColor = Color.Yellow
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub Button4_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button4.Click
Button4.BackColor = Color.Green
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub Button5_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button5.Click
Button5.BackColor = Color.Blue
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
End Class