How do I simulate a click event in VB Windows Forms - vb.net

I just want to connect two arbitrary controls, so that if one is clicked, the other should act as though it's clicked - is this even remotely possible? it seems like it SHOULD be so easy, but the internet seems dry, unless I just don't know how to ask the question properly... I see a way to "click" a button control, but what if the target is not a button? - I don't know the name of any function that might be triggered by this control's click event, so I can't call it directly. I would guess there is some way of using Windows APIs, but I can't find anything that's nice, simple VB
Example
I click a Label control on the form. I want to handle that click event, run one line of code, then simulate a click event on an associated RadioButton control
Is this possible? How?

If you must, call (System.Windows.Forms.Controls.)Control.InvokeOnClick
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.invokeonclick%28v=vs.71%29.aspx
or even RadioButton.PerformClick
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.radiobutton.performclick.aspx

A better way would be to create a common Subroutine that would be called on click of either controls. This way clicking on controls will execute their own code which can differ, and some common code as well.

This is how you accomplish executing the same code regardless of which control event was fired.
Private Sub ClickMe()
'code to execute
End Sub
Private Sub label1_Click(...) ...
ClickMe()
End Sub
Private Sub rb_checked(...) ...
ClickMe()
End Sub

Related

Using VBA to allow a checkbox to hide/show content in Microsoft Word

I've gone through a number of tutorials and instructional videos trying to achieve my intended result of simply allowing a checkbox in my form to hide content when selected, or re-show it when being de-selected, but nothing seems to be working.
Currently, I've created a bookmark for the content I want hidden, and try to call his this in VBA with the following statement - which a number of resources indicated as the solution:
Private Sub CheckBox1_Click()
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bookmark").Range.Font.Hidden = CheckBox1.Value
End Sub
But despite doing this, selecting the checkbox has no affect on the content.
Is there something additional I'm missing (I'm using Microsoft Word 2013).
Your code worked fine when I tested it, but I ran into a few issues since I've never messed with userforms/checkboxs in Word VBA and I suspect you may have the same.
For instance, the first thing I did was create Insert --> Module. This is incorrect. What you want to do is Insert --> Userform then drag a checkbox over from the ToolBox
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-check-boxes-word-54673.html
Then double click the checkbox to bring up the "module" it would run, notice there is no module in the side pane! Edit the module, then go back to the userform and press F5. You should be presented with a checkbox that will hide/unhide your text.
Here is my module:
Public Sub CheckBox1_Click()
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("bookmark").Range.Font.Hidden = CheckBox1.Value
End Sub
Here is an image:
Note: I didn't test how to insert the checkbox into the word doc, I'll leave you some of the learning!
Update:
This sub will make the CheckBox appear when run, but I'm not sure the logic you would use to call it, perhaps an event like opening of document?
Sub Loadform()
Load UserForm1
UserForm1.Show
End Sub
This could be called via a keyboard shortcut or event, but this will cause a "pop-up window". If you want an inform checkbox you may need to look into using this Legacy Form/Checkbox. I was following the URL from above but I think it's dated.
Update:
You could also add this easily to a toolbar, but that isn't likely what you want. I found the best way is to use a "field code" see --> https://word.tips.net/T001571_Assigning_a_Macro_to_a_Button_in_Your_Text.html
I was able to get this to work by pressing CTRL + F9 then typing { MacroButton Loadform ClickMe} then clicking this text. This may be the best bet as using an image seems not to be a great idea.. (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/using-graphic-with-macrobutton/a9c1ef3b-cf1f-48ba-92a8-c44bffcdc131) & (http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/parts/macrobutton_fields.htm#Different_behavior)
Gif Example:

Event for all elements in form

I am new to VB and Visual Studio and my question is maybe stupid.
I would like to make a click event for each element inside a form to do the same thing (e.g me.close()).
Is there a way to include all the elements of the form in a single event call or should I have to make a click event for every element that has the same code inside?
If your event is too big then you can write a public/private sub() and then call it from elsewhere. But if your code is only like a small event e.g. me.close() then writing at two or three places doesn't make the program too long, but if you have controls in hundreds then you can write an event like
E.g. for each control in panel/canvas etc (specify collection) and call
Me.close

Programming method

When I am programming in VB.net, I usually use a normal methodology (I think).
When I have a form, and some buttons placed on it, and some functions under this buttons, I implement the functionality of this buttons in the moment the button is pressed, for example:
I press a button, inside the button I use nested If..else structure to do something in order of a given condition. When the condition is true, I obtain a specific result.
I have heard (and I am not able to find information) about another methodology, where this if..else structure is not done each time you press the button, but the structure only executes one time, and not need to pass throught the if..else structure more times. Is like the program knows the solution without doing this structure all the times the button is pressed. Only needs to do it the first one.
I don't know if someone understand my question, but if someone knows about what I am talking and could give me some useful information, I would be very grateful!
i don't even know if this methodology exists, but I heard about it and I would like to investigate..
I am investigating about the performance of the programs I am creating..
You can add a member-level variable to detect if the button click handler code has been executed.
Public Class Form1
Private isInitialized As Boolean
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
'Do some stuff if this is the first time the button was clicked.
If Not isInitialized Then
'do some stuff...
isInitialized = True
End If
'Do some other stuff each time the button is pressed.
'do some stuff...
End Sub
End Class
Thanks for your answers!
Finally I understood how the methodology I've heard works.
It is quite simple, but my question was not well made, so now I know that my answer is too vague.
I didn't know, because of my few experience programming controls, that I can made my own control which I can use in my forms. With this, I can paint this control in the way I want. I am going to put an example that answer the problem I had:
A control that will be a clock, and this clock can be analogic or digital. Before I knew this, I had a button named 'Change Clock' which change the appareance of the clock between analogic and digital. And when I press that button, in the click event of the button, I start to paint the clock, either is analogic or digital.
Now I know that programming controls, I am able to made a control by creating a UserControl in my project, and inside the code of this new control I can use the paint event to paint the clock in order of a property. Something like this:
Private Sub AnalogClock_Paint(sender As Object, e As PaintEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Paint
Select Case m_contenido
Case formatoReloj.analogico
'Paint analogic clock
Case formatoReloj.digital
'Paint digital clock
End Select
End Sub
and when I use this control in my form, I only need to change the property of the clock and not to paint everything each time I want to change it. That means that is already painted in the code of the control and I have not to use code in my form to do it..
I hope you understand now what I wanted..

VB.NET: How can you activate the childform when only the control inside is clicked?

*edit: OK, so this is my real problem, below scenario happens only when the form is MDIChild.. thanks for anyone that could provide me with the code
I have a form with labels, panels, buttons etc. Where I'm having problem is, while form2 is my active window/form and I clicked on a control inside form1, the form1 does not activate itself. What I would like to happen is for form1 to activate even when it's not the form I clicked, only the control inside it (any control)..
I'm thinking that if I clicked a control on the form, there's an event fired on the form. If I could only know of that certain event, that would help - maybe (coz I could just add Me.activate on that event if it exists). I've tried searching for series of events when a control (ex. label) is clicked but to no avail. I hope that someone could help me with this one.
Thanks in advance.
*edit
i will just try to make my question more understandable..
How can I activate the form when only the control is clicked (say, label or textbox)? My forms does not activate or focused when I click inside it except the form itself..
I can do this on one control..
Private Sub Label1_Click - Handles Label1.Click
Me.Activate()
End Sub
But what if I have 20 controls (labels, buttons, textbox, combobox, etc)? See? =)
EDIT: this answer does not apply to MDI applications.
I think what you really want to know is which one of your forms is currently the foreground window (if any). The first thing you need to understand is that a form instance lives inside a window, but the window's behavior is controlled somewhere higher up. Similar to how a form instance is identified by a variable pointing to the instance, a window can be identified by what's known as a window handle.
Knowing this, the proper way to find out whether a form is the "active" form is to:
find out the window handles of the windows containing our instances of Form1 and Form2
find out the window handle of the foreground window (which can be any window)
compare the value found in step 2 to all of the values found in step 1
Perhaps you'd then like to fire an event if the foreground window changes, but I'll leave the actual implementation up to you. There are probably several ways to perform step 1 and 2, but I can't give any solutions off the top of my head. Hopefuly I've put you back on the right track.
EDIT
Alternatively, you can use the form's Containsfocus property. If its value is True, you can safely assume that your form is the foreground window. I didn't find out about this property until after I wrote my own implementation, which I'll show you anyway:
One module containing only a windows API call
Friend Module NativeMethods
Friend Declare Function GetForegroundWindow Lib "user32.dll" () As IntPtr
End Module
Calling this method will return the window handle of the foreground window (if any).
One module containing the extension method for the Form class
Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices
Public Module FormExtensions
<Extension>
Public Function IsForeground(f As Form) As Boolean
Return (f.Handle = NativeMethods.GetForegroundWindow)
End Function
End Module
Calling this method returns whether the specified form f has the same window handle as the foreground window.
Usage example
You could use a Timer that periodically checks whether a form is the foreground window.
Public Class Form1
Private WithEvents timer As New Timer With {.Enabled = True}
Private Sub timer_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles timer.Tick
If Me.IsForeground() Then
Console.WriteLine("this instance of Form1 is the foreground window")
End If
End Sub
End Class
Like I said before, you can use Me.ContainsFocus instead of my extension method and it will work just fine.
In non-MDI forms, the form is automatically activated when you click any control inside it.

vb.net activated fires multiple times

I want to update a database based on the form that is currently activated. I had originally decided to use the GotFocus event. However I now understand that will not work as the form has controls on it. So I then thought I wouls use the activated event. This works but seems to fire multiple times. I put in the following code:
Private Sub frmNewTicket_Activated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Activated
MsgBox("Form Activated")
End Sub
I select the form and make it activated and the message box appears about 15 times.
Why does it do this? How should I handle this. I only want my code to execute once when the form is activated.
NOTE: There are several forms that the users will be changing between, incuding forms from other applications.
Each time you click OK on the messagebox, the form regains the focus and is activated again.
Put a static Boolean value in your frmNewTicket_Activated like someone has posted here:
Static HasRan As Boolean=False
If Not HasRan Then
HasRan=True
'put code here
End If
It sounds like you are wanting to do something everytime your form gets activated. The Form Activated event will work fine as long as what you are doing doesn't pull focus from the Form which will then trigger another Activation event when the Form gets focus again. Try using something other than a MessageBox for testing like Beep or changing the Form's Color