In VB.Net you can show a form without crete an object reference before... vb.net do it to you, but, that "feature" is generating many problems, eg:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Form3.Show()
End Sub
End Class
Public Class Form3
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
End Class
Is there any way to disable this?
No there is no way to disable that. It is called the default instance. If you don't want to use it - don't use it. I recommend creating a new instance.
Dim f3 As New Form3
f3.Show()
I looking for a solution to do the same and ran across this thread.
Seeing that there is no way to get rid of the default instance, and it would allow you to make the "whoops" of calling the form without an object reference, I just resorted to do this:
''' <summary>
''' This overrided of Sub New is only here to force you to create an object reference. Passing true or false will make no difference.
''' </summary>
Public Sub New(MustInstanciate As Boolean)
' This call is required by the designer.
InitializeComponent()
' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call.
End Sub
This forces you to create an object reference because it gets rid of the implicit Sub New, having only one constructor which requires a variable, which requires an object reference.
This trick works for me at least. I just thought I would just add it as a solution in case someone else runs into this thread for the same reason I did.
Related
In my application, a certain form is instanciated, and I have no idea why this happens.
I would therefore like to ask if it's possible to detect the "caller" that loads / instanciates the form.
Is it possible to get it from here?
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
Or is there any other way how I could do this?
Edit:
This is the callstack:
The issue here was due to that you were accessing frmMain's default instance from a background thread.
VB.NET includes default instances of every form so that you don't have to do a Dim ... As New myForm every time you want to open a new form. This behaviour will let you shorten:
Dim mainForm As New frmMain
mainForm.Show()
to:
frmMain.Show()
And although not specifically documented, from previously conducting my own test it appears that the default instance is specific to the current thread only. Thus if you try to access the default form instance in any way from a background thread it will create a new instance for that specific thread, and therefore not be the same as the one you're using on the UI thread.
In the end this brings us to one of the golden rules of WinForms, which LarsTech mentioned: Leave all (G)UI related work on the (G)UI thread!
If you really need to access your first instance of frmMain from a background thread you should make a Shared property that returns that specific instance:
Private Shared _instance As frmMain = Nothing
Public Shared ReadOnly Property MainInstance As frmMain
Get
Return _instance
End Get
End Property
Private Sub frmMain_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
If frmMain._instance Is Nothing Then frmMain._instance = Me 'Setting the main instance if none exists.
End Sub
Then from a background thread you'll be able to do:
frmMain.MainInstance.DoSomething
I have been banging my head against the wall all day trying to figure this one out.
I am finishing up a program to simply delete files in specific temp folders. I have read that it is sometimes good practice to create separate classes for methods and variables. So I have created a separate class for a couple methods to delete files and folders in a specified directory. I am using a Background Worker in my Form1 class and am calling my deleteFiles() method from my WebFixProcesses class in the DoWork event in the Form1 class. I am using a Background Worker so that I can easily report progress back to a progress bar on my main form.
The files get deleted without an issue but I just can't get the label on my main form to reflect the current file being deleted. the label doesn't change in any way.
I know the formula is correct as I can get this working if the method is in the Form1 class. and I simply use:
Invoke(Sub()
lblStatus.Text = File.ToString
lblStatus.Refresh()
End Sub)
here is my method that I am calling from the WebFixProcesses class:
Public Shared Sub deleteFiles(ByVal fileLocation As String)
For Each file As String In Directory.GetFiles(fileLocation)
Try
fileDisplay.Add(file)
For i = 1 To fileDisplay.Count
file = fileDisplay(i)
Form1.BackgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(CInt(i / fileDisplay.Count) * 100)
Next
IO.File.Delete(file)
Form1.labelText(file)
Form1.labelRefresh()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
End Try
Next
End Sub
labelText() and labelRefresh() are methods from my main form which are using delegates to try to pass information to the control:
Public Sub labelText(ByVal file As String)
If lblStatus.InvokeRequired Then
Dim del As New txtBoxDelegate(AddressOf labelText)
Me.Invoke(del, file)
Else
lblStatus.Text = file.ToString()
End If
End Sub
Public Sub labelRefresh()
If lblStatus.InvokeRequired Then
Dim del As New txtBoxRefDelegate(AddressOf labelRefresh)
Me.Invoke(del)
Else
lblStatus.Refresh()
End If
End Sub
If anyone can help me out to inform me what I may be doing wrong it would be immensely appreciated as my head is in a lot of pain from this. And maybe I am going at it all wrong, and just being stubborn keeping my methods in their own class. But any help would be awesome. Thanks guys!
What Hans wrote on the question comment is true: Form1 is a type, not an instance, but to make things easier to newbye programmes (coming from VB6), M$ did a "mix", allowing you to use the form name as the instance of the form in the main thread.
This however works only if you are on that thread.
If you reference Form1 from another thread, a new instance of Form1 is created.
To solve the issue, add this code to the form:
Private Shared _instance As Form1
Public ReadOnly Property Instance As Form1
Get
Return _instance
End Get
End Property
We will use this property to store the current instance of the form. To do so, add this line to the Load event:
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
_instance = Me
'other code here
End Sub
Now, from every class, in any thread, if you use
Form1.Instance
...you get the actual form. Now you can Invoke, even from the same form:
Me.instance.Invoke(Sub()
Me.lblStatus.Text = "Hello World"
End Sub)
i have my form class, and a second module with some special functions,
when i click a button on my form i run a public function from the second module(which run later other public functions from the second module) in a separated thread, i set SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA), and i tried using deletage sub and CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = False, but the problem stays the same, my thread functions (which are on the second module) can't access my form controls, but when i move the functions to the form class everything work again, what do you suggest to solve this issue?
Public Class Form1
Dim T0 As Thread
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = False
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
T0 = New Thread(AddressOf sub1)
T0.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA)
T0.start()
End Sub
End Class
Module Module1
Public Sub Sub1()
msgbox(form1.textbox1.text) 'even if the textbox contains content it returns ""
Function2()
End Sub
Public Function Function1()
'SomeInstructions
msgbox(form1.textbox1.text) 'same problem here
End Function
End module
PS: it dosn't give any error or stop the code while debugging, and i tried to put the sub1 on the form class and the other functions in the module, but then, only he sub1 can access the controls, i tried delegate but i don't know if i have done it right, can anyone make any suggestions please
There are two issues at play here.
One of them is due to the way default forms work in VB.NET. See, in C# you need a concrete instance of type Form1 in order to access its non-static members, whereas in VB.NET Form1 looks like an instance of the form allowing you to write things like Form1.TextBox1.Text. This works fine while you're accessing members of Form1 from the UI thread, but when you try to get it from a background thread, a new instance of Form1 is created, and Form1.TextBox1 seen by that thread actually points to a completely different instance of TextBox.
Another way saying this is that default form instances in VB.NET are thread static.
A way to get around this is to keep a concrete reference to Form1 so that you can pass it around.
When you go
Dim myForm As New Form1
... or
Dim myForm As Form1 = Me
... the 'myForm' variable pointing to that specific Form1 instance can then be passed between threads like any other reference and will not change its meaning.
This, however, brings us to issue #2:
You should not be accessing a UI control (which means any type derived from Control, and that includes Form , from a thread other than the thread that it was created on.
If you absolutely have to, you have to marshal the calls accessing the Control to the thread that it was created on, for example by using Invoke/BeginInvoke (there are other ways too).
Here's a modification of your code to achieve what you want, plus a more complex example which demonstrates multiple thread "switches": gathering interesting state on the UI thread, performing work with it on the background thread, then displaying results on the UI thread.
Imports System.Threading
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' We don't need this anymore.
' We'll do things right and access
' the UI on the UI thread only.
' CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = False
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
' Note that we're passing a reference
' to THIS instance of Form1 to Sub1 and Sub2.
Dim form As Form1 = Me
' Let's spin up some threads.
Dim T0 As New Thread(Sub() Module1.Sub1(form))
T0.Start()
Dim T1 As New Thread(Sub() Module1.Sub2(form))
T1.Start()
End Sub
End Class
Module Module1
' Note that this sub now accepts
' a reference to an instance of Form1.
Public Sub Sub1(form As Form1)
' This is what we want to do:
Dim action As New Action(Sub() MsgBox(form.TextBox1.Text))
' See if we're on the right thread.
If form.InvokeRequired Then
' Invoke on the thread which created this Form1 instance.
form.Invoke(action)
Else
' Invoke on the current thread.
action.Invoke()
End If
End Sub
' This is a more complex example.
Public Sub Sub2(form As Form1)
' This function will get the text from TextBox1 when invoked.
' It still needs to be invoked on the UI thread though.
Dim getText As New Func(Of String)(Function() form.TextBox1.Text)
Dim text As String
If form.InvokeRequired Then
text = CStr(form.Invoke(getText))
Else
text = getText() ' Shorthand syntax.
End If
' Now that we have the text, let's do some
' intensive work with it while we're on
' the background thread.
For i = 0 To 5
text &= i
Thread.Sleep(100)
Next
' Now we want to show the message box - again, on the UI thread.
Dim showMessageBox As New Action(Sub() MsgBox(text))
If form.InvokeRequired Then
form.Invoke(showMessageBox)
Else
showMessageBox()
End If
End Sub
End Module
Running into an odd issue with tasks and delegates. Code in question is running under dotNET 4.5.1, VS2013. On the form's code I have a sub that updates a grid, it checks to see if an invoke is required, and if it is it calls a delegate. When a task runs that's called in the same module, it works as expected, no problems. Threaded or not, the grid updates properly.
However, if the same thing is called from another module, the delegate never gets called and the visual component doesn't get updated. Just a watered down bit of pseudocode to clarify..
In the form's module:
Private Delegate Sub DoWhateverDelegate(ByVal _____)
Public Sub DoWhatever(ByVal _____)
If MyComponent.InvokeReqired
Dim Delegated As New DoWhateverDelegate(AddressOf DoWhatever)
Debug.Print("The delegate fired")
Invoke(Delegated, _____)
Else
' .. carry on as usual ..
End If
End Sub
Elsewhere....
Task.Run(Sub()
' .. various things I'd rather not block the UI thread with ..
DoWhatever()
End Sub)
Works fine. I can do Task.Run__ that calls DoWhatever and it's all happy and good. However if I create a task in another module and call DoWhatever, it doesn't fire the delegate and that visual component doesn't update. The code is identical, in the same module it works, in another module it does not.
I'm probably missing something blatantly obvious.. anyone care to point out my mistake? Thanks.
Edit -- just to clarify, that other module is just code, there's only one form in the entire solution. It's created at program startup automatically, there is no other form creation going on.
Should be a thread-specific issue. Check this:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
foo.DoSomething()
End Sub
End Class
The class with the delegate:
Public Class foo
Public Shared Sub DoSomething()
Task.Run(Sub() UpdateText())
End Sub
Public Delegate Sub UpdateTextDelegate()
Public Shared Sub UpdateText()
Dim f = Form1
'Dim f As Form1 = Application.OpenForms("Form1")
If f.InvokeRequired Then
Dim d As UpdateTextDelegate = AddressOf UpdateText
f.Invoke(d)
Else
f.TextBox1.Text = "Hi"
End If
End Sub
End Class
Run the code and the textbox will not be updated. Use the second f=.... (that one that take a reference from OpenForms) and it will be updated.
If you just try to access the default instance and you are outside the UI-thread, a new instance of the form will be created. That means, the content IS updated, but because that form is not shown, you will not see it.
NOTE I do NOT advise to solve your problem, by using OpenForms. I'd advise to correctly instantiate forms!
Add a new module/class to your code:
Module Startup
Public MyForm1 As Form1
Public Sub main()
MyForm1 = New Form1
Application.Run(MyForm1)
End Sub
End Module
Go to project properties -> application. Disable application framework and choose Sub Main as your start object. In the app, access your form via MyForm1 - or whatever you want to name it. Problem should be gone then.
When press F5 to compile a project, there are no errors or warnings but the form won't show up. What's up?
Every time that you try to run your code, it starts by creating an instance of frmMain, your default form and the one that is shown at application startup.
When this form is created, it automatically instantiates an instance of Form3 because you instantiate a variable of that type called modifyForm at the top of this form's code file:
Dim modifyForm As New Form3 'modify student
The problem is that, when the runtime goes to instantiate an object of type Form3, it gets called right back to where it was because of this statement at the top of the Form3 code file:
Dim frmMain As New frmMain
Rinse, lather, and repeat. Your code turns into an infinite loop, trying to instantiate an instance of frmMain, which tries to instantiate an instance of Form3, which tries to instantiate an instance of frmMain, ad nauseum. Eventually, this will overflow your available memory and cause a StackOverflowException.
It's important to note that all of this happens before the default instance of frmMain is even shown, because these variables are declared outside of any methods in your code. Because the computer never can escape this infinite loop, it never gets a chance to move on and actually display your form.
And the moment you've all been reading so patiently for:
Fix it by removing the declaration of frmMain at the top of the Form3 code file. I don't know what that's there for, anyway.
EDIT: Hopefully, I can clear up a little confusion regarding passing values between forms. Upon further study of your code, my instincts tell me that the best solution for you is to overload the constructor for Form3 to accept the calling form (the existing instance of frmMain) as an argument. This will allow you to access all of the public members of frmMain from within your Form3 class.
Here's a rough sketch of how you might do this in your code:
Public Class frmMain
''#The private data field that stores the shared data
Private _mySharedData As String = "This is the data I want to share across forms."
''#A public property to expose your shared data
''#that can be accessed by your Form3 object
Public Property MySharedData As String
Get
Return _mySharedData
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
_mySharedData = value
End Set
End Property
Private Sub frmMain_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
''#Do all of your other stuff here...
''#Create a new instance of Form3, specifying this form as its caller
Dim otherForm As New Form3(Me)
''#Show the new instance of Form3
otherForm.Show()
End Sub
End Class
Public Class Form3
''#The private field that holds the reference to the main form
''#that you want to be able to access data from
Private myMainForm As frmMain
Public Sub New(ByVal callingForm As frmMain)
InitializeComponent()
''#Save the reference to the calling form so you can use it later
myMainForm = callingForm
End Sub
Private Sub Form3_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
''#Access anything that you need from the main form
MessageBox.Show(myMainForm.MySharedData)
End Sub
End Class
As you can see, frmMain exposes a public property (backed by a correspondingly-named private variable) called MySharedData. This can be absolutely anything you want, and you can have as many of these as you want.
Also notice that how the constructor (the New method) for Form3 accepts an instance of frmMain as an argument. Whenever you create a new Form3 object from frmMain, you just specify Me, which indicates that you want to pass the current instance of frmMain. In the constructor method, Form3 stores that reference to its calling form away, and you can use this reference any time you like in Form3's code to access the public properties exposed by frmMain.
In VS2010 menu, go to Build -> Configuration Manager, does your project have the checkbox in the "Build" column enabled?
If it's project upgraded from an older Visual Studio version it may be that it is not targeting .NET Framework 4.0. In that case you should change it as explained here.
To analyze the problem press F8 (or F10, depends on your default keyboard settings) to step into the code instead of running the app. This should take you to the main method where the main form would be initialized.