Creating Generic Definition For Singleton Objects/Forms - vb.net

Question

I'm tying to create a generic solution for instantiating my forms using singleton behavior in vb.net. But it's not working anyway and always protecting me to compile:
Public Class SingletonGenerator(Of TForm)
Private _inst As Object
Public ReadOnly Property Instance As SingletonInstance(Of TForm)
Get
If _inst Is Nothing Then
_inst = New TForm()
End If
Return _inst
End Get
End Property
End Class
But this error restricts me to continue:
Error 9 'New' cannot be used on a type parameter that does not have a 'New' constraint.
And I'm not sure if I replace my code with New Form() it works as expected (because it create objects of parent form() class and may loose some initialization in child class.)
Can somebody please explain why this happen or how can I have singleton instances of objects in an OOP way which not require to copy/paste those common lines of code which are used in singleton on every new defined class?

Answer 1

You have to convince the compiler that the TForm type in fact has a parameterless constructor so that New TForm() can never fail. That requires a constraint.
Not the only thing you need to do, a Form object becomes unusable when it is closed. And you'll have to create another one to re-display it. Failure to do so causes an ObjectDisposedException at runtime. In other words, you should be interested in the Disposed event. That requires a further constraint, the TForm type parameter always needs to derive from Form. Required to convince the compiler that it is okay to use the event. Adding it up:
Public Class SingletonGenerator(Of TForm As {Form, New})
Private _inst As TForm
Public ReadOnly Property Instance As TForm
Get
If _inst Is Nothing Then
_inst = New TForm()
AddHandler _inst.Disposed, Sub() _inst = Nothing
End If
Return _inst
End Get
End Property
End Class
Do be a bit careful with this, you are painting yourself into a corner. You can only ever use this code to create form objects whose constructor takes no argument. In practice you may find they often need one.

Answer 2

Check this code:
Module Startup
Public Sub Main()
Dim f As Form = FormsManager.Instance.GetForm(Of Form1)()
f.ShowDialog()
Dim f1 As Form = FormsManager.Instance.GetForm(Of Form1)()
f1.ShowDialog()
End Sub
End Module
Public Class FormsManager
Private Shared _formsManager As FormsManager
Private _forms As List(Of Form)
Public Shared ReadOnly Property Instance As FormsManager
Get
If (_formsManager Is Nothing) Then
_formsManager = New FormsManager
End If
Return _formsManager
End Get
End Property
Private Sub New()
If _forms Is Nothing Then _forms = New List(Of Form)
End Sub
Public Function GetForm(Of T As {Form, New})() As Form
Dim f As Form = _forms.Where(Function(o) o.GetType = GetType(T)).SingleOrDefault
If f Is Nothing Then
f = New T
_forms.Add(f)
End If
Return f
End Function
End Class

Answer 3

This is what I finally produced (a generic singlton forms generator):
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices
<HideModuleName()> _
Public Module SingletoneForms
<Extension> _
Public Function GetInstance(Of TForm As {Form, New})(ByRef obj As TForm) As TForm
Return SingletonForm(Of TForm).Instance
End Function
Public Class SingletonForm(Of TForm As {Form, New})
Private Shared WithEvents _inst As TForm
Public Shared Property Instance As TForm
Get
If _inst Is Nothing Then
SetInstance(New TForm())
End If
Return _inst
End Get
Set(value As TForm)
SetInstance(value)
End Set
End Property
Private Shared Sub SetInstance(ByVal newInst As TForm)
If _inst IsNot Nothing Then
RemoveHandler _inst.FormClosing, AddressOf FormClosing
End If
_inst = newInst
AddHandler _inst.FormClosing, AddressOf FormClosing
End Sub
Private Shared Sub FormClosing(sender As Object, e As FormClosingEventArgs)
If e.CloseReason = CloseReason.UserClosing Then
e.Cancel = True
_inst.Hide()
Else
_inst = Nothing
End If
End Sub
End Class
End Module
and call it simply this way:
frmMain.GetInstance().Show()
Form1.GetInstance().Show()
Form1.GetInstance().Hide()
Form2.GetInstance().ShowDialog()