Using a 3rd party control - vb.net

Please excuse the noobness that is probably about to follow...
I'm making an vb.net 2010 app which needs to have a calendar system in which the user can add appointments and events etc.
I've downloaded the source for a control which looks promising (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/10840/Another-Month-Calendar) but I have no idea how to add this in to my project. I've googled for help on adding the control but have had no luck.
If I right click on my toolbox, go 'choose items...' and try and add it there, it tells me it couldnt be opened.
Any help is appreciated!

Well you've downloaded the source code.
Place the source code in a specific location on your pc and then compile it 9If your planning to use this control in your own project then compile it in release mode. Assuming that there are no compile errors close visual studio and then open up the project of your own that you want to use this control in.
Right click on the general tab in the toolbox and click choose items. Using the bowse button in the choose items dialog navigate to the folder in which you placed the source code for the control you want to use.
Now locate the 'Bin' folder and in that locate the 'release' folder. Inside that you will see a dll (named presumably something like MothCalendar.dll. Select that dll and then click add and OK (Button sequence will vary according to vs version). The control should then appear in your toolbox under the general tab and you should then be able to drag it onto your forms for use in your project.

Related

Generate manifest for regfree COM from a VB project

I am trying to generate a manifest for a set of COM objects that are being used in our code as registration-free COM.
For that purpose I created a VB project in VS 2010 and added the COM objects DLLs as dependencies. The problem is I do not see them listed as dependencies in the generated manifest. Am I missing something simple like a project setting to generate the proper manifest listing the dependencies?
You left out too many details and the VB.NET IDE hides too much to do this right. It is not automatic.
Starting point is to force it to show more. Locate the "Show All Files" toolbar button in the Solution Explorer window (use the tooltip to find it back). Click it and you now get the "References" node added to the project.
Open it and locate the COM component that you added to the project. Select it and look at the Properties window. Set the "Isolated" property to True. Rebuild the project. Be sure to look in the Output window for any warnings. And to look at the .manifest file on disk instead of the one the IDE shows you if you added a manifest to your project yourself.

Save Aptana Studio 3 project explorer state on close

I'm sure there is a simple option for this but I have as yet been unable to find it. Every time I close and reopen Aptana Studio 3 it collapses all the folders in the project explorer and I have to reopen them all, is there a way to get it to leave them open and save the project explorer's state when I close the program?
Thanks.
I cannot find any way to keep the state of the Project Explorer. However, using the App Explorer, the state of your open folder will be preserved. You can also try the "Navigator" which looks just like the Project Explorer, but appears to keep state. I will add the proviso to that: It kept state when I restarted aptana, but it also developed a GUI glitch where it appears to be scrolled to the right so I only see the right half of all of my file names and I cannot fix it, so this may not be a good option if you get the same glitch.
There is also a method which does not do quite what you ask, but may be a good fix for you anyway. If you click "Link with Editor" picture (two yellow arrows) in the Project Editor, it will automatically expand your project hierarchy to match whichever open file you have active. Since your files stay open when you close Aptana, this would keep the Project Explorer expanded to whatever you are looking at even on restart. See this question
You can also set up working sets for various parts of your code that are buried in the hierarchy and use the Project Explorer to show those working sets instead of you projects. This does not save state, but it does give you easy access to common parts of your code that may be deeply buried.
Hope one of these helps you.

Adding DLL reference to VB.NET project

Just to start off, this question does seem very similar to another post Add the DLL (lame_enc.dll) reference to my project, but I haven't been able to successfully apply that answer. I am pretty new to VB.NET so it is very possible I'm simply missing something obvious.
I am trying to link a DLL to a VB.NET 2010 project to allow my VB app to play *.ogg files. I followed some other advice here on the forums and downloaded FMOD's FMOD Ex Programmers API. I am trying to now reference that functionality. These appear to be the files I need to somehow reference.
C:\Program Files (x86)\FMOD SoundSystem\FMOD Programmers API Windows\api\fmodex64.dll.
C:\Program Files (x86)\FMOD SoundSystem\FMOD Programmers API Windows\api\libfmodex64_vc.lib.
I haven't discovered how to add a *.lib reference (or the equivalent), but selecting the DLL as a reference gives the following error.
A reference to 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FMOD SoundSystem\FMOD
Programmers API Windows\api\fmodex64.dll' could not be added. Please
make sure that the file is accessible, and that it is a valid assembly
or COM component.
I'm not sure what I could be missing. Any ideas? Thanks!
In Solution Explorer, double-click the My Project node for the project.
In the Project Designer, click the References tab.
Click the Add button to open the Add Reference dialog box.
In the Add Reference dialog box, select the tab indicating the type of component you want to reference.
Select the components you want to reference, then click OK.
Another approach I was trying is working for me. I found a site with a working example of a LibZPlay VB.NET sample ( http://planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=7789&lngWId=10 ). It runs under VS 2008 and I was able to adapt my project to use LibZPlay (open source library http://libzplay.sourceforge.net/WELCOME.html ) under VS 2008.
That is sufficient for me for now. Thanks for your advice. It was likely some configuration issue or misunderstanding on my end.
Using VB.net 2015 I (could not add or even find a System32 dll) as a reference using Solution Explorer, Tab References. Going to the MAIN Menu, Projects/Add References...
Used Browse and All the System32 dll were visible. Then I was able to load the needed dll.

View Designer Code in Visual Studio 2010

What is a standard way to open the Designer (automatically generated) code for a VB file?
As a workaround, I can get to it by searching the entire solution for some keyword that is usually only found in those files: Global, Partial, etc.
Open the Solution Explorer. Along the toolbar at the top there is a tool Show All Files (it is the 2nd from the left on my version of visual studio). Click on that tool. All of your Form files will now have an arrow beside them. click on that arrow to expand. Look for the code file named FormName.designer.vb. Double-click on it to open.
You have to click the "show all files"-Button. Then you can also see the Designer.vb-files.
Note: For C# and VS 2008, but the same applies to VB in VS 2010.
http://peterkellner.net/2007/12/31/visualstudioshowallfiles/
http://blog.brianhartsock.com/2009/09/14/visual-studio-tip-show-all-file/
Keyboard shortcut for Show All Files
Show All Files is a useful little button in the Visual Studio solution explorer to give us a full view of the directory structure our project files are sitting in. When it is off, we only see the files that are explicitly included in the project, but when it is on, we see everything. This makes it very easy to explicitly opt a file into the project without doing an add -> existing item -> find existing item in directory structure and add to project.
The default when creating a new Visual Basic application in Visual Studio is to not show all files, and unfortunatly there is no setting you can adjust to change that.
Open the code file, and in the top-right corner of the code window is a drop-down containing all methods. Open this and select "InitializeComponent".
A screenshot from a newer version. Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 will look like this.

Different style on buttons in messagebox in different projects

I have a problem with the style of the button in a messagebox.
If I call the following line of code in a current project the button get one type of visual apperance/style. And If I create a new VB.NET Windows Application project it gets a standard Windows apperance/style.
Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Yaay", "Yaay!", Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK)
See the difference between the buttons below.
I suspect they inherit the visual apperance from it's parent or maybe from some project settings. But I have not been able to find out from where.
Both projects are created in VB.NET 2.0, and both have same System.Windows.Forms - dll as reference (c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Windows.Forms.dll).
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/2a956b0675.jpg
Screenshot can be found here.
Thanx in advance for your help!
I cannot see the image from where I am so I'm not sure if this will help you.
Open the Project Properties for each solution and look at the Application tab.
Is the "Enable Applicaton Framework" item ticked? And if so, is the "Enable XP Visual Styles" item also ticked?
That may the difference in the two solutions.