How do you create your own custom component for vb.net 2008? I want it to simply output to a .dll, not a whole winforms app.
So, here is what I have done so far:
Made a class library project
Added a custom control object
Confused myself badly
Googled it, to no avail
How can I control the component? For example, I want my component to not have a visible design view, I want it to stay below like the stopwatch component and the notifyicon component and such, it is not something to be designed. Then, how do I edit the possible properties a user can control, and make them effect the end result? What do I place the code which powers the component on? The class library file, or something else?
Thanks for your help! I have a whole set of components I am going to create, this will get me going much faster than trial and error.
I think you may want to check some walkthrough on how to create components. Such as this one: Walkthrough: Authoring a Component with Visual Basic. Once you are done with that one, there are more walkthroughs on various related topics, such as how to use design-time support, implementing designers and so on.
OK... This is a really abbreviated example. You should start by basing yous off of an existing .net component.
Public Class MyControl
Inherits DataGridView
'...add your properties/functionality...'
End Class
Then compile the DLL, and add it as a reference to whatever project you are working on. Once added, you can add the controls in the DLL into your toolbox.
This has more instructions on how to modify a UserControl (slightly different from the one above, but it explains well. This is a general explanation.
#comments -
Yes, there, are things that will do what you want. Start with a class that inherits Form instead of DataGridView in the example I gave you, and the changes described in the links provided.
"Your properties and functionality" is whatever you want to do that the base control does not do.
Related
I am quite new to visual studio. Developed previously with vba.
Encountering a problem writing a language translation class.
The language dependent values are stored in a localdb table every row having formname , controlname and controlproperty as wel as a column per language.
The Language class Handles the translations at runtime. For forms I use a Sub FormUpdate(frm as Form) called from the form's load event as FormUpdate(Me) it checks the form's language kept in a custom parameter against the current language and updates the .text property of the controls on the form that are exposing some language specific text (Buttons, Labels, Tabcontrol etc..).
However I could not solve how to access and update the form's Tooltip component from the language class. (in vba it was easy as every control was exposing it's Controltiptext property)
In the form's class you would use MyTooltip.Settooltip(CtrlName,Text) but I could not figure out how to do that from another class (the tooltip component is not part of the form's controls - and I could not figure out nor find info how to do it) ??
Could someone advise pls?
I was so focused on finding a similar way to the one I used before that I did not see the easy way to resolve it - not yet enough accustomed to the new environment.
Sure, I am interested in an answer to my question but instead of making it too complicated using external components I'll do it the easy way by overloading the FormUpdate sub adding a sub with an extra parameter as Tooltip.
I'm using vb.net (vs2010). I'm moving some winforms to a dll. I have a form that inherits from the one which has some subs and functions (like a test app).
My original form is: (.designer)
Partial Class Form1(Of T)
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
....
End Class
Form itself contains code and a toolbar.
My test form is: (.designer)
Partial Class TestForm
Inherits Form1(Of Class1)
I get "Cannot create an instance of Form1`1[T] because Type.ContainsGenericParameters is true" when VS try to load the designer. App is usable. I can build and run the project without errors, but I need to add controls and some code to each new form.
I tried many ways:
Visual Studio 2008 Winform designer fails to load Form which inherits from generic class
How can I get Visual Studio 2008 Windows Forms designer to render a Form that implements an abstract base class?
http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/419770/Csharp-reflection-GetValue-from-a-field-in-generic
http://madprops.org/blog/Designing-Generic-Forms/
All examples are for C#, and I don't know if I'm missing something...
Is this a bad design ? I know this is a VS bug but still it seems everyone fixed it by these links.
EDIT:
I'm building a DLL. Form1 is on this DLL and TestForm is in a new project. Those links works if I'm in the same project (a.k.a. the dll).
Thanks!
Is this a bad design ? I know this is a VS bug
Bad design, not a VS bug. What you are trying to do is fundamentally incompatible with the way the Winforms designer works. It has strong WYSIWYG support, the designer creates an instance of the form's base class and allows code in that base class to run at design time. Which is why, for example, you can set the BackgroundImage property and it is immediately visible in the designer. The Form.OnPaintBackground() method paints it. The designer is not involved at all, it just sets the property.
To make that work, it must be able to create the base class object. It can't in your code, it doesn't know what kind of T to use. Not an issue when you design Form1, the T isn't needed yet since it derives from Form and creating an instance of Form is not a problem. Big issue when you design TestForm.
You'd probably argue that it should use Class1 as the T. It doesn't, the odds that it can use Reflection to discover the generic type argument from TestForm are exceedingly low. That requires the type to be compiled first. That's a chicken-and-egg problem at design time, the TestForm class gets compiled after you design it, not before or while you design.
It's not like you completely cannot use your approach. It builds and runs just fine. You just have to live without design time support for TestForm. That's usually a deal breaker, you have to re-consider your design.
I am trying to create a UserControl in VB.net, under VS2010. I have the code for the UserControl and I would like to add it to a form. My problem is that, according to every book and forum I have seen, after I build the UserControl, it should show up in the Toolbox. It doesn't. I even downloaded code from a book, the code executes perfectly, but their TrafficLight control doesn't go in the Toolbox (even though the book says it should - and that the only way to set its properties and to add it to the form is through the Control properties). I have tried to add the control to the form manually, by declaring it
Dim myObj As New SomeClass.SomeControl
and in the Designer.vb, identical with the buttons on the form:
Friend WithEvents myObj As SomeClass.SomeControl
With both, I get an error saying
'myObj' is already declared as 'Friend WithEvents myObj As SomeControl' in this class.
And either way, I get an error when I try to look at the design:
Could not find type 'SomeClass.SomeControl'. Please make sure that the assembly that contains this type is referenced. If this type is part of your development project, make sure the project has been successfully built using settings for your current platform or AnyCPU.
The control by itself builds and shows up in design view (not in the Toolbox though, even though it Imports System.ComponentModel and Inherits System.Windows.Forms.UserControl and... what else ? I tried to build it in a separate project, to see if I creating a separate dll will make a difference, though I really want it in the same project.
Please help ! (BTW I have reinstalled VS2010 and it did no good)
Thank you.
Look in Tools / Options / Windows Forms Designer and set "AutoToolboxPopulate" to True (but note that this can take a noticeable amount of time if you haver many (i.e. dozens) of user controls.
I do apologize if this post is a duplicate, but I haven't found anything similar when I searched.
I'm fairly new to VB.NET and I'm currently playing around with user controls, figuring out good programming practices. As far as I understand, to create and use a UserControl, I need to create a project with the UserControl in it, then build the project and use that DLL (add it to Toolbox or otherwise).
My question is this: Is there a way a have a project (a Form with a bunch of things on it) that contains a UserControl written in a *.vb file inside that same Project? If you do that, the DLL (in my case) never gets produced, possibly because the UserControl is never used and building it is simply omitted. Is it perhaps a bad practice to do that altogether? It simply makes sense to me to keep a UserControl as a part of the Project that uniquely uses it. Is there a reason not to do that?
Thanks in advance! = )
SOLUTION:
Visual Studio does not automatically include your own controls to the toolbox by default! In order to change that, go to Tools>Options>Windows Form Designer>General and set AutoToolboxPopulate to True. When you build your project next time, your new Control will appear in your Toolbox.
It's a perfectly valid design decision to include a UserControl in a WinForm or WPF project that uses it. If you do this then VS will not create a DLL for the UserControl; instead the UserControl will be built into the assembly your project is producing.
If you did want to reuse a UserControl in multiple projects then you would want to create separate project that generates a DLL that can be reused.
OKay, I'm from a PHP background, but I've just been tasked with developing some custom Web Parts in SharePoint. I've figured out how to create and deploy a basic "Hello world" web part in VB. Okay so far.
What I'm stuck on is a really basic, stupid point - how the hell do I lay out things in a VB web part?
For an example, here's a label and a textbox:
protected overrides sub createchildcontrols()
mybase.createchildcontrols
dim mylabel as new label
dim mytextbox as new textbox
mylabel.text ="My label text"
mytextbox.text ="My textbox"
me.controls.add(mylabel)
me.controls.add(mytextbox)
How would I, for example, get mylabel and my textbox to appear on different lines, rather than running one after the other as they do now? In PHP I'd just wrap them in some top break them onto differnt lines, but how do I do it here?
There are a number of ways to go about it. The easiest, if you really just want the controls to appear on different lines would be to add an ASP.net LiteralControl with a BR tag between them.
Aside from that, you can always use the ASP.net formatting controls, like Table to break your controls into sections for output.
Additionaly, everything that derives from WebControl has an Attribues and CssClass property for setting formatting based on style-sheets you can use.
The last method, and the most customizable, but hardest to maintain and change, would be to override the webpart's Render method and generate your HTML completely by hand in the WebPart.
Alternately, you could scrap this altogether, and employ the SmartPart to develop ASP.net user controls for use inside of SharePoint, giving you the options to use the Visual Studio designer tools to layout your controls on the form.
You should override the Render() method. By default this method just renders all the child controls you have added in the CreateChildControls() method, but overriding it lets you write additional HTML elements around the controls.
I usually code in C#, but I think the following example should work in VB:
Protected Overrides Sub Render(ByVal writer As System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter)
writer.Write("<h1>Custom webpart rendering</h1>")
me.mylabel.RenderControl(writer)
writer.Write("<br />")
me.myTextbox.RenderControl(writer)
End Sub
Give it a try...
I've been developing web parts for an ASP.NET site using the standard web user control model, which gives you access to the VS designer and means your UI can be standard HTML. ASP.NET then wraps the UserControl into a GenericWebPart at runtime to host it in a WebParts site.
I know that Sharepoint doesn't support this model out of the box but I've just found this which might help you...
http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2006/12/02/announcing-the-return-of-the-smartpart.aspx
Smart Part (or a variation of it) is the easiest way to go. Why mess with rendering direct html when you can develop a user control more easily?
Plus if you are not an expert in VB, having Visual Studio Designer will help with creating user controls
i blogged about this very topic. Easily build a rich UI for a web part without using SmartPart
Thanks for all the responses. I've gone with EvilGoatBobs solution as the most immediately easy to implement.
This is my first time on StackOverflow and your helpful answers have made it a really good introduction to the site! :)