I have a generic message box where we have a few panels in which we add controls at runtime.
Here in my form, I've already pnlBottom on which pnlButtons is there along with some other controls.
Now at run time I'm adding an OK button to pnlButtons which is there on pnlBottom. I'm not setting a TabIndex for any controls in the Designer.vb file.
I'm trying to keep the focus on the OK button using the code below, but it's not working.
For Each control As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf (control) Is Panel Then
Dim pnlBottons As Panel = CType(control, Panel)
If pnlBottons.Name = "pnlBottom" Then
For Each ctrl As Control In control.Controls
Dim pnlButtons As Panel = CType(ctrl, Panel)
If pnlButtons.Name = "pnlButtons" Then
For Each ctrlbtn As Control In ctrl.Controls
If TypeOf (ctrlbtn) Is Button Then
Dim textBox As Button = CType(ctrlbtn, Button)
textBox.Parent.Parent.TabIndex = 0
textBox.Parent.TabIndex = 0
textBox.TabIndex = 0
End If
Next
End If
Next
End If
End If
Next
Here I'm setting the TabIndex for pnlBottom, pnlButtons and OK button as 0.
Please suggest how to focus the OK button.
You can set the focus on a control during Form Load event using either of the following options. (Ref: How to set the focus on a control when the form loads in Visual Basic .NET or in Visual Basic 2005. The original link is broken, so use Wayback Machine.)
1- Control.Select Method
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Mybase.Load
Me.OKButton.Select()
End Sub
Focus is a low-level method intended primarily for custom control
authors. Instead, application programmers should use the Select method
or the ActiveControl property for child controls, or the Activate
method for forms.
2- Form.ActiveControl Property
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Mybase.Load
Me.ActiveControl = Me.OKButton
End Sub
3- Control.Focus Method
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Mybase.Load
Me.Show()
Me.OKButton.Focus()
End Sub
The reason that we call Me.Show() is to set forms visible to true. according to:
You can use the Control.Focus method in the Load event of the form to
set the focus on a control only after the Visible property of the form
is set to True.
In cases you can not use Me.OKButton you can find the control you want like this:
Dim control = Me.Controls.Find("OKButton", True).FirstOrDefault()
If Not control Is Nothing Then
control.Select() 'or other stuff
End If
Related
Situation:
I have a context menu in a VB.NET form with fires an event handler on ItemClicked. The auto-generated subroutine receives sender and e as parameters. As I don't reinvent the wheel multiple times, I linked this context menu to three text boxes. Let's name them Textbox1, Textbox2 and Textbox3.
Problem: How can I figure out in which textbox the menu was opened?
Okay, what did I already try?
sender contains the menu itself,
e.ClickedItem just returns the single menu item that was selected.
sender.Parent is always nothing
sender.OwnerItem is also always Nothing`
Me.Textbox1.Focused is always False, even if its the "parent" control of the menu.
Okay, I found a solution that works fine, and here's the code for all VB.NET coders that have the same problem.
The context menu is linked in TextBox1, so we need to add another event handler that saves the sending control into the menu:
Private Sub TextBox1_MouseUp(sender As Windows.Forms.Control, e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.MouseUp
If e.Button = Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Right Then
ContextMenu.Tag = sender
End If
End Sub
And this is the code of the event handler when clicking a menu item:
Private Sub ContextMenu_ItemClicked(sender As System.Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs) Handles ContextMenu.ItemClicked
ContextMenu.Close()
If ContextMenu.Tag Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print("debug info: forgot to set sender? well ... KABOOM!")
Exit Sub
End If
Dim oParent As Windows.Forms.Control
Try
oParent = ContextMenu.Tag
Catch ex As Exception
Debug.Print("debug info: tag contains data other than sender control. well ... KABOOM!")
Exit Sub
End Try
' Do fancy stuff here.
' Release sender
ContextMenu.Tag = Nothing
End Sub
The ContextMenuStrip has a SourceControl property which contains a reference to the control which opened the menu. The event fires from one of the ToolStripMenuItems in the ContextMenuStrip, so you have to get the "parent" first:
' cast sender to menuitem
Dim mi = CType(sender, ToolStripMenuItem)
' cast mi.Owner to CMS
Dim cms = CType(mi.Owner, ContextMenuStrip)
' the control which opened the menu:
Console.WriteLine(cms.SourceControl.Name)
Under certain conditions the SourceControl can get lost but you can track it yourself with a variable and the parent ContextMenuStrip Opening event:
' tracking var:
Private MenuSourceControl As Control
Private Sub cms_Opening(sender As Object, e As CancelEventArgs) Handles cms.Opening
' set reference in case/before it is lost
MenuSourceControl = CType(sender, ContextMenuStrip).SourceControl
End Sub
Private Sub CutToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender...
If MenuSourceControl IsNot Nothing Then
' do your stuff
' optionally clear the tracking var
MenuSourceControl = Nothing
End If
End Sub
It should be also easier to get the SourceControl when dealing with sub items
You can also capture the related control in the MouseDown event of the related Control in cases where the same menu is used with different controls:
Private Sub lv2_MouseDown(sender As Object,
e As MouseEventArgs) Handles lv2.MouseDown,
myLV.MouseDown, lv1.MouseDown ...
If e.Button = Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Right Then
MenuSourceControl = DirectCast(sender, Control)
End If
End Sub
When using flash, I was able to get to the focus of an event by accessing the event's "target" attribute.
so if I remember, it was something similar to.
button1.addEventListener(mouse_click, doSomething);
doSomething(e: Event){
e.target.size = 50000;
}
And I'm looking for the equivalent in VB.
If you can give me it's common name across all languages, I'd be doubly grateful. I don't quite know what to search for aside from "event.target VB.net equivalent, and that's not returning anything.
Thanks in advance.
edit: for those new to flash. By focus, I mean the physical object that was clicked on. So the example given would be accessing the clicked button's size.
In VB you can wire up event handlers declaratively using the WithEvents keyword or imperatively using AddHandler.
Private WithEvents myButton
' OR
Public Sub New
Dim newButton = New Button()
AddHandler newButton.Click, AddressOf MyClickHandler
End New
'To consume it you declare a method as follows:
' The Handles clause is used when declaring WithEvents
Private Sub MyClickHandler(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles myButton.Click
' The sender has a handle on the object that raised the event (aka the button)
Dim btn = DirectCast(sender, Button)
btn.Size = New Size(500, 500)
End Sub
Got it!
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.button.onclick.aspx#Y0
Sub GreetingBtn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
'When the button is clicked,
'change the button text, and disable it.
Dim clickedButton As Button = sender
clickedButton.Text = "...button clicked..."
clickedButton.Enabled = False
End Sub
The first parameter (sender by default) references the focused object. You can access it as you would any other normal variable, but it's information won't appear in the auto complete list unless you set it "As" that specific data type.
So I ended up with this
Private Sub nw_btn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Windows.Forms.Button, ByVal e AsSystem.EventArgs) Handles nw_btn.Click
sender.Hide()
End Sub
I have a windows form project with a main form. There is a textbox leave event that opens a new form. In that new forms load event i have a combobox item loop that populates the combobox items. It works perfectly fine if run on the main form but doesnt work on the second form. Why doesn't the comboboxes on the secondary form populate when that form is opened via a textbox_leave event from the main form?
this is the leave event
Private Sub tbChartTitle_Leave(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles tbChartTitle.Leave
If Not tbChartTitle.Text = Nothing Then
frmTitleAttributes.Show()
End If
End Sub
This is the code that populates one of the comboboxes on the second form (it works if run on a combobox on the main form)
Private Sub frmTitleAttributes_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
InitializeComponent()
AddFonts()
End Sub
Private Sub AddFonts()
' Get the installed fonts collection.
Dim allFonts As New Drawing.Text.InstalledFontCollection
' Get an array of the system's font familiies.
Dim fontFamilies() As FontFamily = allFonts.Families
' Display the font families.
For i As Integer = 0 To fontFamilies.Length - 1
cbxTitleFonts.Items.Add(fontFamilies(i).Name)
Next
End Sub
make sure that the Load handler is hit after you show your form (use break point)
also you can try to call it in the Shown event
Private Sub frmTitleAttributes_Shown(sender as Object, e as EventArgs) _
Handles frmTitleAttributes.Shown
AddFonts()
End Sub
I can't seem to get input focus on a textbox when a tab page first comes up (I'm using Windows Forms, VB.NET 3.5).
I have a textbox on a panel on a tab page, and I want the focus to be on the textbox when the tab page comes up. I want the user to be able to start typing immediately in the focused textbox without having to click on the textbox. I have tab stops set in the order I want and the textbox is the first tab stop. The tab stops work except that when the tab page comes up the focus is not on the textbox, i.e. the one that's first in the tab order.
In the Enter event handler of the tab page I call the Focus method of the text box, but it returns False and does nothing, no error messages. I know I can access the text box because
at the same point in the code I can set the text of the text box.
If it matters, the layout of the tab page is a little complicated:
frmFoo/TabControl1/TabPageX/Panel1/Panel2/TextBox1
I want to set the focus on TextBox1.
What's the best way to get the focus on the desired textbox?
If setting focus is the best way, why is the textbox.Focus() method failing?
I would assume you are attempting to set focus in the form load event handler? If so, you need to do a Me.Show() to actually create the onscreen controls before focus can be set. Something along the lines of:
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Me.Show()
Application.DoEvents()
TextBox1.Focus()
End Sub
If you don't do the Me.Show(), the form is NOT displayed until the load event is complete.
For the tab control, handle the _SelectedIndexChanged event:
Private Sub TabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles TabControl1.SelectedIndexChanged
If TabControl1.SelectedTab.Name = "TabPage1" Then
TextBox2.Focus()
End If
If TabControl1.SelectedTab.Name = "TabPage2" Then
TextBox4.Focus()
End If
You will still want to set the initial focus in the load event as shown above if the first field selected is to be the textbox on the tab control.
Try either:
Me.ActiveControl = TextBox1
or
TextBox1.Select()
Do the control.Focus() in the OnShown event. You don't need any of the DoEvents logic which didn't work for me anyway.
You Should Use Selected Event of TabControl
Private Sub TabControl1_Selected(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.TabControlEventArgs) Handles TabControl1.Selected
If e.TabPage.Name = "TabPage1" Then
TextBox1.Select()
End If
End Sub
As I have Checked in Both TabControl.Selected and TabPage.Enter Event can set Select TextBox. I think there is some other elements stealing focus. please varify
Any of the solutions I found online don't solve the problem when the control is on a tab page.
However, this works:
(1) set the TabIndex of the control to 0.
(2) In your code that handles the tabpage event, do the following:
SendKeys.Send("{TAB}")
If SendKeys doesn't seem to be a valid statment, make sure you have the following import at the top of your code file:
Imports System.Windows.Forms
I found that the TabControl gets the focus when the Selected event completes. To make this work I used the Paint event of the TabPage to set the focus of the desired object.
Private Sub TabChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Tab1.Paint, Tab2.Paint, Tab3.Paint
Select Case sender.Name
Case "Tab1"
Textbox1.Focus()
Case "Tab2"
T3extbox2.Focus()
Case "Tab3"
Textbox3.Focus()
End Select
End Sub
Try the Activated event of the form like this:
Private Sub Form2_Activated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Activated
'SendKeys.Send("{TAB}") this line works too
TextBox1.Focus()
End Sub
That is guaranteed to work.
I once had the same problem but i solved it using the Me.activate() function.
I'm creating a form with a few buttons and a combobox at runtime.
dim f as new form
(blah blah)
then the buttons acceptDescription and rejectDescription are set up...
then the combobox descriptionCombo is set up...
then...
AddHandler acceptDescription.Click, AddressOf handleAcceptedDescription
AddHandler rejectDescription.Click, AddressOf handleRejectedDescription
then I have these two methods to catch the click events... but can't figure out how to reference the other runtime generated controls. (combobox if accepted, form if rejected)
Private Sub handleAcceptedDescription(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
'stub
'will need to reference the chosen combobox value here
dim acceptedDescription as string = descriptionCombo.selectedValue .tostring
End Sub
Private Sub handleRejectedDescription(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
'I want to close the runtime created form here, but can't reference it
f.close()
'and return user to main form
Me.Focus()
End Sub
If the code for generating the form is in your main form, then declare the Form variable at the class level of the main form class so you can access it from the event handlers. Same goes for your combobox and text field- you need to make sure the variables are declared outside the scope of the handlers so you can reference them within the handlers.
Why can't you reference it? Just save it as a module/form-level variable and you're set.
In order to avoid global definitions, the best answer is
Private Sub handleRejectedDescription(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
'sender is a button in this case.
'get the button
dim b as new button
b = ctype(sender,button)
'now get the button's parent form
dim f as new form
f = ctype(b.parent, form)
'now close the form
f.close()
End Sub