In my application I have to show lot of forms when particular button/panels are clicked. so instead of writing
Frm = New formname
Frm.MdiParent = MDIParent
Frm.Show()
i want to have public function through which i can pass the form name.
for that i have written a function
Public Sub showForm(ByVal formname As Form)
Frm = New formname
Frm.MdiParent = MDIParent1
Frm.Show()
End Sub
Call showForm(myformname)
but problem with this is, it says formname is not defined
EDIT:
I updated my answer to reflect your comment that a form should only be opened once.
I want to have public function through which i can pass the form name.
for that i have written a function
Public Sub showForm(ByVal formname As Form)
You don´t pass the name of a form to your function but an object of type Form instead.
Here is one possible solution with a generic version of showForm:
Public Class FormManager
Private _formByName As New Dictionary(Of String, Form)
Public Sub showForm(Of T As {Form, New})(name As String, parent As Form)
Dim frm As Form = Nothing
If Not _formByName.TryGetValue(name, frm) OrElse _formByName(name).IsDisposed Then
frm = New T()
_formByName(name) = frm
End If
frm.MdiParent = parent
frm.Show()
End Sub
End Class
The FormManager holds a dictionary cache for all opened forms with Key=form name. This is to make sure that a form is only opened once. The check form.IsDisposed makes sure that you can close the form and reopen it.
Usage from the parent form:
Public Class Form1
Private fm = New FormManager()
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
fm.showForm(Of MyForm)("MyForm", Me)
End Sub
End Class
The first parameter is to identify the form name. The real magic is in the Type T which we made sure it is 1) of type or subtype Form and 2) it has a parameterless constructor (MyForm is just a placeholder for this example put in the type of your real form you want to show).
The parent parameter will bring you additional flexibility if it is not always MDIParent1. Remove it if you don´t neet the extra flexibility.
For sure you can also drop the FormManager class and put the showForm to another place.
Related
I create a number of sub-forms, each of the same class, from my parent form.
Each of the subforms defines an event that should cause the parent form to create a new subform of a different class. - However only the latest created sub form is having it's events handled.
Thinking that it is because I have reused the reference to the sub-form, I store each of the subforms in a linked list of type subform.
SubForm Code.
Public Class UserEditor
Property ID As Integer
Public Event EditGroup(ByRef group As GroupPrincipal, ByVal newWindow As Boolean, ByVal Source As Integer)
Public Sub New(ByVal U As UserPrincipal, ByVal theId As Integer)
InitializeComponent()
ID = theId
UserEditor1.DisplayUserPrincipal(U)
End Sub
Private Sub UserEditor1_GroupEdit(ByRef groupItem As GroupListItem) Handles UserEditor1.GroupEdit
RaiseEvent EditGroup(groupItem.Grp, False, ID)
End Sub
Code on parentform
Public Class ASADManager
Dim WithEvents UserEditorInstance As UserEditor
Dim WithEvents UserEditorList As New List(Of UserEditor)
This code triggered on selection of leafobject in a displayed list.
If TypeOf leafObject Is UserPrincipal Then
UserEditorInstance = New UserEditor(currentLeaf.Principal, UserEditorList.Count) With {
.Text = currentLeaf.SamAccountName
}
UserEditorInstance.Show()
UserEditorInstance.Activate()
UserEditorList.Add(UserEditorInstance)
End If
Private Sub EditGroup(ByRef grp As GroupPrincipal, newWindow As Boolean, Source As Integer) Handles UserEditorInstance.EditGroup
If Not newWindow Then
Dim GEdit As New GroupEditorForm(grp) With {
.Text = grp.Name
}
GEdit.Show()
End If
End Sub
Everything works fine in the latest opened UserEditorInstance, it captures and re-throws the event, and that is cause by the parent, which opens the GroupEditor form.
However, if I select a 2nd LeafObject (to open another UserEditor window) it's events are trapped, and not the previous.
How do I trap both?
Hope this explanation makes it clear what I am doing (and doing wrong)
Basically, I am rewriting some code working for years. Over the time I have many (60+) references to forms - there's a menuitem with OnClick event for each form, where a form reference was created:
Private Sub SomeForm_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MenuItemForSomeForm.Click
NewTab("Some Form", New SomeForm, 0)
End Sub
...where first parameter is a name to put in a tabPage.Text where the form is opened, second is a new instance of the (particular) form SomeForm and 0 is a default record to display (0 means no default record).
Now, I created a dynamic menu and stored the form names in a database (due to better access control over the access rights, etc). Now, because the menu is generated at runtime, I can't have the OnClick event with separate instance definition of the form and have to create it at runtime, after the MenuItems are created. The side-effect idea was to cut the code short by using only 1 OnClick event or such with MenuItem.Tag paremeter as FormName. Something like:
Private Sub clickeventhandler(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim tsmi As ToolStripMenuItem = CType(sender, ToolStripMenuItem)
Dim newForm As New >>>FormFrom(tsmi.Tag.ToString)<<< ' only explanation, this won't work
MainW.OpenModuleInTab(new newForm, tsmi.Tag.ToString, 0)
However I am failing to find a way to create form (instances) from this string reference. Reference through collection (i.e. List(of) or Dictionary) would be fine too, I believe.
The structure is obviously:
Object → Form → Form1 (class) → MyForm1 (instance)
I know I can create an object like this:
' Note that you are getting a NEW instance of MyClassA
Dim MyInstance As Object = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetType(NameOfMyClass))
I can re-type it to a Form type:
Dim NewForm as Form = CType(MyInstance,Form)
... to acccess some of the form properties like Width, TopLevel, etc., but that's about it. I can't do:
Dim NewForm1 as Form1 = CType(NewForm,Form1)
...because obviously, Form1 comes as a string "Form1".
I don't know how to create a Form1 reference from a "Form1" text (then it would be easy to create an instance) or how to create an instance directly (MyForm1).
SOLUTION
As sugested, I used reflection to get the form. The only way working for me I found was this:
Dim T As Type = System.Type.GetType(FormName, False)
If T Is Nothing Then 'if not found prepend default namespace
Dim Fullname As String = Application.ProductName & "." & FormName
T = System.Type.GetType(Fullname, True, True)
End If
Dim f2 As New Form ' here I am creating a form and working with it
f2 = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(T), Form)
f2.TopLevel = False
f2.Name = FormName.Replace(" ", "") & Now.ToString("yyyyMMddmmhh")
f2.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None
f2.Dock = DockStyle.Fill
I am using VB.net CallByName to set public variable and same function to run a sub method (every form contains RecordID variable and LoadRecords sub):
CallByName(f2, "RecordID", CallType.Set, 111)
CallByName(f2, "LoadRecords", CallType.Method, Nothing)
For testing purposes, I put following into the testing form:
Public RecordID As Int32
Public Sub LoadRecords()
MsgBox("Load records!!!!" & vbCrLf & "RecordID = " & RecordID)
End Sub
Activator.CreateInstance(TypeFromName("Form1"))
TypeFromName Function:
Dim list As Lazy(Of Type()) = New Lazy(Of Type())(Function() Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes())
Function TypeFromName(name As String) As Type
Return list.Value.Where(Function(t) t.Name = name).FirstOrDefault()
End Function
So, let's go with the idea that I have an assembly called "WindowsApp2" and in that assembly I've defined Form1 and Form2. I've also created this module in the same assembly:
Public Module Module1
Public Function GetDoStuffWiths() As Dictionary(Of Type, System.Delegate)
Dim DoStuffWiths As New Dictionary(Of Type, System.Delegate)()
DoStuffWiths.Add(GetType(WindowsApp2.Form1), CType(Sub(f) WindowsApp2.Module1.DoStuffWithForm1(f), Action(Of WindowsApp2.Form1)))
DoStuffWiths.Add(GetType(WindowsApp2.Form2), CType(Sub(f) WindowsApp2.Module1.DoStuffWithForm2(f), Action(Of WindowsApp2.Form2)))
Return DoStuffWiths
End Function
Public Sub DoStuffWithForm1(form1 As Form1)
form1.Text = "This is Form 1"
End Sub
Public Sub DoStuffWithForm2(form2 As Form2)
form2.Text = "This is Form 2"
End Sub
End Module
Now, in another assembly "ConsoleApp1" I write this:
Sub Main()
Dim DoStuffWiths As Dictionary(Of Type, System.Delegate) = WindowsApp2.Module1.GetDoStuffWiths()
Dim formAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.Load("WindowsApp2")
Dim typeOfForm = formAssembly.GetType("WindowsApp2.Form1")
Dim form As Form = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(typeOfForm), Form)
DoStuffWiths(typeOfForm).DynamicInvoke(form)
Application.Run(form)
End Sub
When I run my console app I get a form popping up with the message "This is Form 1".
If I change the line formAssembly.GetType("WindowsApp2.Form1") to formAssembly.GetType("WindowsApp2.Form2") then I get the message "Wow this is cool".
That's how you can work with strongly typed objects that you dynamically instantiate.
Dim AssemblyProduct As String = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName.Name
Dim FormName As String = "Form1"
Dim NewForm As Object = Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.CreateInstance(AssemblyProduct & "." & FormName)
If TypeOf (NewForm) Is Form1 Then
Dim NewForm1 As Form1 = CType(NewForm, Form1)
NewForm1.BackColor = Color.AliceBlue
NewForm1.Show()
End If
I'm making a program that generates SQL Server code to use it in my VB.NET program.
I have this first form that contains the connection like you see in picture below:
The connection works 100%, but in the second form I have two DataGridViews, one for tables and one for fields.
So when I click on any table of DataGridView1 => DataGridView2 show it fields:
When I click on DataGridView1 to get the value of ComboBox from Form1 to use it in Form2 I have the following error:
Failed to connect to server.
Code:
Dim frm As New Form2
prd.ServerConnection = New ServerConnection(frm.ComboServer.Text) ' here the error
prd.DGVField(MetroGridTables, MetroGridField)
I use Form1 to make connection and Form2 to make operation.
The simplest way to pass a value from one form to another is to implement the New method on the form you want to pass the value to:
Form1:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub btnPass_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnPass.Click
Dim form As New Form2(TextBox1.Text)
form.Show()
End Sub
End Class
Form2:
Public Class Form2
Public Sub New(ByVal value As String)
' This call is required by the designer.
InitializeComponent()
Label1.Text = value
End Sub
End Class
Screenshot:
This question is a bit confusing, but this is how I would pass a variable from one form to another.
Create a class /w variable.
Public Class Variables
Public Shared Property imavariable As String
Get
Return m_imavariable
End Get
Set(value As String)
m_imavariable = value
End Set
End Property
Private Shared m_imavariable As String
End Class
Set the variable from form 1... variables.imavariable = string
Read the variable from form2.... string = variables.imavariable
Here's my problem.
I'm making a project in VB.NET that (currently) exists out of 1 class (let's call it User.vb here) and 2 WinForms (frmDisplay & frmMain).
Let's say User.vb is currently looking like this:
Public Class User
Private mName As String
Public Sub New(ByVal name As String)
Me.Name = name
End Sub
Public Property Name As String
Get
Return mName
End Get
Set(value As String)
mName = value
End Set
End Property
End Class
Let's also say the form frmDisplay is just a form with a textfield txtString and a button btnSend.
Public Class frmDisplay
Dim usr As New User()
Private Sub btnSend_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnSend.Click
usr.Name = txtString.Text
frmMain.Show()
Me.Hide()
End Sub
End Class
On the form frmMain I want to reach the value in the property Name that I stored in the class User on the first form.
The basic idea is (I know it doesn't work):
Public Class frmMain
Private Sub frmMain_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
lblStoredString.Text = usr.Name << This is where I'm stuck
End Sub
End Class
I googled my problem and read many posts, but I just can't seem to understand it. Maybe you guys can help me. I am new to VB.NET and WinForm-stuff (about 3 months of exp.), but I have done some programming in the past in C# with webapplications.
Every bit of help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Will there only ever be one User.Name that you are interested in throughout the app?
If yes, then change the class to:
Public Class User
Public Shared Name As String
End Class
Then you can use User.Name from any form (or anywhere in the application) to get/set that value.
Note that you can still wrap the field in a property if you like:
Public Class User
Private Shared _Name As String
Public Shared Property Name As String
Get
Return _Name
End Get
Set(value As String)
If (value.Trim <> "") Then
_Name = value.Trim
End If
End Set
End Property
End Class
My focus is ASP.NET, and I prefer C#, but I'll chime in. There are numerous ways of providing data between the forms. The first one that comes to mind is to use a cache of some kind. The idea is that once the cache is made available to your program, you can add the value to the cache when the button is clicked, and then safely read the value whenever you need it. This can be a static class with a Dictionary, or you can look into using the functionality provided by the System.Web.Caching namespace. http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8977/Using-Cache-in-Your-WinForms-Applications has an example.
Another way would be to use a shared data source. The concept is similar to the caching, but this would allow you to pass more complex relational data between your forms, assuming your real goal is more complicated than you describe. Here is a walkthrough for that: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171925.aspx.
You could be quick and dirty, and write the values to a text file at some location, and then read the values from the second form.
The simplest way is probably to define a custom constructor for the second form, and pass the values you need when you instantiate the second form. This is best suited if the values from the first form can be considered "parameters" to the instance of the second form. Passing a textbox value from one form to another in windows application
Declare the usr variable Friend
Public Class frmDisplay
Friend usr As New User()
It will then be available from the other form
Public Class frmMain
Private Sub frmMain_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
lblStoredString.Text = frmDisplay.usr.Name
End Sub
End Class
It's a quirk of VB.NET that forms are automatically created with a public variable name the same as the class name. That's why you are able to use frmMain without having to create it (e.g. Dim frmMain as New frmMain). You can turn off this behaviour, but it isn't relevant to your problem.
On the other hand, if you want to do it "properly"...
Public Class frmDisplay
Private usr As User
Private Sub btnSend_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnSend.Click
usr = New User(txtString.Text)
Dim f As New frmMain(Me, usr)
f.Show()
Me.Hide()
End Sub
End Class
and frmMain...
Public Class frmMain
Private myParent As Form
Private usr As User
Sub New(parent As Form, _usr As User)
' This call is required by the designer.
InitializeComponent()
' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call.
usr = _usr
myParent = parent
End Sub
Private Sub Form2_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Label1.Text = usr.Name
End Sub
Private Sub frmMain_FormClosed(sender As Object, e As FormClosedEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosed
myParent.Show()
End Sub
End Class
Here we instantiate frmMain and pass the User object to its constructor. We also pass the calling form so we can display it again when frmMain is closed.
Im making a small vb.net windows form application in which I have 4 ComboBoxes. I would like to add the ComboBoxes to a collection and be able to loop through that collection to refer to each one.
There are other ComboBoxes on the form so I cannot just use the collection for the entire form (the form layout cannot be changed, e.g. to add a container, etc).
I was thinking something like the following:
Public Class Form1
Dim IoTypeCombos As New ControlCollection(Me) From {Me.IO1_ComboBox, Me.IO2_ComboBox, Me.IO3_ComboBox, Me.IO4_ComboBox}
Dim IoTypes As New Collection() From {"Out 0", "Out 1", "Input", "Analog"}
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
For Each cb As combobox In Me.IoTypeCombos
FillComboBox(cb, Types)
Next
End Sub
Function FillComboBox(cb As Control, cc As Collection) As Boolean
Dim cbc As ComboBox = CType(cb, ComboBox)
If cc.Count = 0 Then
Return False
End If
For Each cn In cc
cbc.Items.Add(cn)
Next
Return True
End Function
This doesn't raise any exception, BUT it doesn't populate the ComboBoxes either :(
The FillComboBox() works perfectly if I pass a single control to it.
What am I doing wrong? Thanks
This line is illegal:
Public Class Form1
Dim IoTypeCombos As New ControlCollection(Me) From {Me.IO1_ComboBox,
Me.IO2_ComboBox, Me.IO3_ComboBox, Me.IO4_ComboBox }
That code will run before the constructor, before Me or ION_ComboBox exist. In this case, the resulting collection contains nothing since there is nothing to put in it yet.
In other cases, referencing controls before they exist can result in a NullReference being thrown, but due to an odd bug it may not be reported. When that happens, the rest of the code is skipped and the form simply shown.
In either case, the solution is to declare your collection at the form level, but populate it in the form load event once the controls do exist. I would also use a Collection(Of T) instead (an array or List(Of T) will also work, the OP uses/asks about a collection though):
Imports System.Collections.ObjectModel
Public Class Form1
Dim IoTypeCombos As Collection(Of ComboBox) ' form and controls Do No Exist yet
Public Sub New
'...
InitializeComponent()
' NOW they exist
End Sub
Sub Form_Load
IoTypeCombos = New Collection(Of ComboBox)
IoTypeCombos.Add(IO1_ComboBox)
IoTypeCombos.Add(IO2_ComboBox)
...
If you use a List(Of ComboBox), you can populate it different ways:
' in the ctor:
IoTypeCombos = New List(Of ComboBox)({IO1_ComboBox, IO2_ComboBox...})
' using AddRange:
IoTypeCombos.AddRange({IO1_ComboBox, IO2_ComboBox...})
Not sure if you need the where clause, but if you have other comboboxes that do not have names like this and do not want them in the collection then you do need it.
Dim IoTypeComboboxes =
Me.Controls.OfType(Of Combobox)().Where(Function(cb) cb.Name.StartsWith("IO")).ToList()
'on yourFormName
'added :
'45 PictureBox:("PicBarNum1_NotLastOdig" to "PicBarNum45_NotLastOdig")
'added:
'45 PictureBox:("PicBarNum1_UkOdig" to "PicBarNum45_UkOdig")
Public Class yourFormName
Private picbarlistNum1to45_UkOdig As New List(Of PictureBox)
Private picbarlistNum1to45_UkLastNotOdig As New List(Of PictureBox)
Private sub yourFormName_Load
Call AddPicBoxesInList_OdigNoOdig()
End sub
Private Sub AddPicBoxesInList_OdigNoOdig()
picbarlistNum1to45_UkOdig.Clear()
picbarlistNum1to45_UkLastNotOdig.Clear()
picbarlistNum1to45_UkOdig = Me.Controls(0).Controls.OfType(Of PictureBox)()
.Where(Function(pb) pb.Name.StartsWith("PicBarNum") And
pb.Name.EndsWith("_UkOdig")).ToList()
picbarlistNum1to45_UkLastNotOdig = Me.Controls(0).Controls.OfType(Of
PictureBox)().Where(Function(pb) pb.Name.StartsWith("PicBarNum") And
pb.Name.EndsWith("_NotLastOdig")).ToList()
End Sub
End Class