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How to add buttons dynamically to my form?
(8 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
I cannot find any methods to add the button to the layout.
I am trying to add the child (button) to the layout, but I can't find any methods to do so.
Source Code:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace WinForms
{
internal static class Program
{
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
private static void Main()
{
Application.SetHighDpiMode(HighDpiMode.SystemAware);
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
Button button = new Button {Height = 100, Width = 100, Text = "Test"};
}
}
}
You open your project in Visual Studio 2019 (not Visual Studio Code, not JetBrains Rider) - free versions for which exist if your context qualifies for the license. If you don't qualify for a free license, you[r workplace] can easily afford a license of some form
You double click Form1 in the solution explorer and then you see something that looks like what the form will look like when you run the program, and you open the controls tool panel and drag a button out of it and drop it onto the form...
But if you want to get into hand-writing the volumes of boring repetitive code to build a UI then you add controls to the Controls collection of other controls, viz:
Form1 f = new Form1();
Button button = new Button {Height = 100, Width = 100, Text = "Test"};
f.Controls.Add(button);
Application.Run(f);
Every Control has a Controls collection to which other Controls can be added (not just things you think of as "things that have child controls, like Panel or GroupBox" - some controls are collections of other controls, like a NumericUpDown is a textbox and a couple of buttons)
For an example of how much code you'll need to write, lay out a reasonable looking UI in the design view and then open the Form1.Designer.cs - you'll see why we do it with the aid of a design tool! :)
Wouldn't it be faster to learn if I didn't use the Designer tool?
IMO, no. That's like saying "wouldn't it be faster to learn if I hand code an SVG in notepad rather than using Inkscape/Gimp to draw the image visually.. or create a PNG by typing the bytes out in a hex editor"
Getting so close to the raw low level means you end up "not being able to see the wood for the trees" and it hinders your learning. For a lengthy discourse on abstractions and why we use them/how they apply to every daily process including learning and operating in life, see the comment trail
You need to add the button to your Form, not to the Main method!
The issue with your code is that it's in the wrong place - actually, it only runs after the form is closed, because Application.Run will run your form in a message loop, allowing UI events to fire.
You can either use the Visual Studio WinForms Designer (if using Visual Studio), or manually add the code after the InitializeComponent() method - so, either right in the constructor, or in any of the Form startup events, such as Load or Shown.
It's likewise very important to add the Button (or any dynamically instantiated control, for that matter) to the Controls collection of the Form - otherwise, your Button won't be displayed:
Button button = new Button {Height = 100, Width = 100, Text = "Test"};
this.Controls.Add(button);
There are certainly use cases for dynamic generation of controls; however, it's very unusual to build out your controls manually before the form even runs - in most cases of dynamic control generation, the form is up and running - the dynamic generation is in response to some user action. I recommend using the designer for general UI layout.
Related
I am using Devexpress winform for my project. There are three forms simply. The first is MainForm that used MdiParent, the second is FormArticles that used listing articles about law into GridControl. And the last is FormArticleView that used viewing selected article into pdfViewer control. I managed to use documentManager and SplashScreenManager while loading Mdi Child forms and articles into one of Mdi Child form FormArticles. Here is my code:
public prjLibrary()
{
InitializeComponent();
var frm = new FormArticles{ MdiParent = this, Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
frm.Show();
}
While transition one form to another, the forms is fractured and after load it is fixed. Here is my screenshot:
And here is fixed view:
How can I fix fractured view while transition of forms?
This is because when the form from the first screenshot is getting focused, the controls have to be rendered in their Paint-event. This seems to take some time but you can see the fractured text is shown in rectangles where I think the underlying controls (radio buttons, text boxes, labels) are placed. So they are not rendered yet and not ready to go while any other call is blocking the thread. I think the problem is that you create a new form in your mainForm's constructor.
Anyway, it is a good practice to perform heavy tasks (which seem to block the painting of your controls) in a background thread having the UI waiting for the response. If this is too hard to do, try to do it after the UI is shown to the user. This could be the OnLoad- or even OnShown-event.
Note that I don't want to encourage you to write any business code into the UI layer but that seems not to be the question here.
So here's my Question, I'm new to C#(teaching my self at that) Here's the thing, I'm working on a basic sim game, nothing to complex but I've got the design and basic functions done.
However In order to implement it, I'm currently using multiple Forms(Visual Studio 2013)
I have my "main" form which has the "action" buttons to it
So when i want to go to a user Profile page I have
Btn_profileview Click(object sender, EventArgs e){
Form profile = new Form();
profile.Show();
}
The User would then implement the changes(for instance change name) which is written to a text file, for use in other areas of the program.
However It opens a new windows, I've tried modal and nonmodal windows and while the benefit of Modal so they have to actual close the window solves the issue, i'd rather have it just overwrite the preexisting Form, and then on close go back to the "main" screen without actually using multiple windows.
Now I was told UserControl and/or Panel would solve the issue, but it would cause a complete redesign moving from the multiple forms to the multiple panel screens and figuring out how to get those to work(Visible and Invisible), i'm assuming it wouldn't be extremely difficult something along the lines of Panel"name".show(); and panel"name".close();
But would it be possible to actually add a line of code to the pre-existing code(so as not to cause a complete reesign) or are Panels and UserControl the only real way to implement within 1 continuous windows?
paqogomez is right: There are many ways to do it.
Here is one that combines a lot of the pros:
You create an invisible Tab on your window with as many pages as you need. Place a Panel on each tab and create all your controls on of them. This does not mean that you have to do it all over - you can move and drop the controls you already have without much hassle. Of course you need to turn off docking and maybe anchors, but other than that this is a simple process.
If you have controls on the 2nd form with the same name, these names should be changed to something unique though. I hope all Controls have proper names already, but especially Labels get neglected, at least here.. (With a little luck you can even use cut and paste to get Controls from another form to panel2!)
The big pro of this trick is that you can do all work in the designer of the same form. The Tab control serves only as a container where you keep your panels without adding to the UI and without giving the user control of what is shown.
Next you create one Panel variable in your main form:
Panel currentPanel;
On Load you assign the first 'real' Panel to it like this:
currentPanel = panel1;
this.Controls.Add(currentPanel);
Later, each time you want to switch, you re-assign the panels you need like this:
this.Controls.Remove(currentPanel);
currentPanel = panel2; // or whichever panel you want to show..
this.Controls.Add(currentPanel );
If your real panels are docked to fill the tabpage, as they should, the currentPanel will fill the form. You still have access to each panel and to each control by their names at any time but you see no overhead of tabs and your form never changes, except for the full content.
Warning! This is noob question probably! Sorry in advance.
I'm learning C# (using MS Studio 2013) and I'm having hard time creating some kind of decent navigation in simple desktop program.
Basically what I want is this: MenuStrip with options like "calculate something", "Calculate somethingelse"... and other (that I can easily add later - like dynamic menu on a webpage). If you click first option inside the Form connected with the StripMenu you will get some controls that allows you to do something(like inputs on a webpage). If you click the second all these options will disappear and you will get a fresh set of controls where you can do somethingelse (simply another webpage to play with).
What is the best way to do it (I find it amazing hard to find out :) ). Only way I figured out (more from experience in js then tutorials) is to use show/hide like in javascript/html.
ExamplePanel.Visible = false;
ExampleOtherPanel.Visible = true;
But this doesn't seem right - I think it would be impossible to manage in bigger program (not only in code, but visual designer too - you can only fit that much Panels inside Form).
Any advice? Or at least a link to material where I can find out?
EDIT:
Finaly I gave up and used multiple Forms as sugested in answer.
private void MenuStripExample_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SomeForm SomeForm = new SomeForm();
this.Hide(); //Hide the main form before showing the secondary
SomeForm.ShowDialog(); //Show secondary form, code execution stop until SomeForm is closed
//this.Show(); //You may uncomment this if you want to have the previous Form to get back after you close new one
}
You normaly don't hide and show panels with different layouts. This is not a good design.
If you have complete different navigations/control sets, then create a new Form which is responsible for the control set.
If you don't want to use new Forms take a look at the TabControl.
You may also want to take a look at MDI-Container. You can use a Form as a MDI-Container and display various other Forms as child-elements inside of this container.
I googled this and still cant get it to work. I know how to add a tab using the toolbox. I have also read about how to do it programmatically, but i still dont get it. (MSVC# Express 2010)
I have an easy project set up. Just a windows Form with a TabControl in it, i used the Designer to add a new TabControl and made that TabControl public instead of private.
I wrote this code to
a) access the Windows Form
b) add a tabpage.
The code compiles just fine, but the Tabpage is not displayed during runtime.
static class Program
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Form1 ApplicationMainForm = new Form1();
Application.Run(ApplicationMainForm); //LABEL B
ApplicationMainForm.tabControl1.TabPages.Add("MyPage"); //LABEL A
}
}
How can i get the form to display my Tabpage?
My TabPage is displayed when the Lines A and B change position. Am i missing an update method, oder is the TabPage Add never called until the application closes?
Edit #1: Some minor edits.
Edit #2: Edited in some more examplecode.
Edit #3: Removed some earlier / irelevant points.
Edit #4: Found a hint and edited this information in
Form1.tabControl1.Controls.Add(myNewTabItem);
The tab control is a collection of tab pages, so you add tab pages like you add any control to a collection. Note that the tabs show up in the order you add them.
If you are trying to add a tab to the form at runtime, probably the issue is that you are trying to adjust the form definition instead of the specific instance of that form that you are currently displaying. When a form is opened, it is an instance of the form definition. You have to find that instance in order to modify its properties. Therefore, you would have to have the other part of your program somehow know about that particular instance of your form through something like a reference variable.
I am creating my first Windows Forms application, to be deployed on Windows Mobile and I am having some trouble designing a Tabbed Interface.
I had assumed that I could Create a TabControl, then Add some TabPages and then drag Controls on to each Tab Page in turn. This does not appear to be possible and most of the information I see on the web seems to suggest that the controls should be added dynamically at run-time.
Am I missing something obvious here or is this indeed correct?
If you do have to add the controls at runtime then how do people generally manage the design process. Do they create a Custom UserControl for each tab and then add that at runtime?
Design environment (C# Visual Studio 2005, .net 2.0)
Runtime environment (Windows Mobile 6.1)
Update 1
The actual steps taken within visual studio were as follows :-
Select New Project -> SmartDevice -> Windows Mobile 6 Professional -> Device Application
Added a TabControl to Form1. This automatically adds tabPage1 and tabPage2
Update 2
The solution to this is embarrassingly noobish. The TabControl puts the tabs at the bottom of the page, the first thing I was doing was resizing the tab control to a single line which was then hiding the TabPage control.
Currently i don't use Windows Mobile, but i think it works quite the same.
After adding a TabControl to your form you should take a look into the properties and search for TabPages. Here you can add and delete new TabPages to your Control and design it as you like in the designer.
To your question about using UserControls on each TabPage i would definitely say Yes. It makes easier to separate between each page and what will happen on each one.
Also at a last step i am going to move the needed code out of the Designer.cs into my own function (e.g. var tabControl = CreateTabControl() where all of my properties are set. Then i put all my UserControls into an
private IEnumerable<Type> GetAllTypes()
{
yield return typeof(MyFirstControl);
yield return typeof(MySecondControl);
}
and make an
private void CreateTabPages(TabControl tabControl, IEnumerable<Type> types)
{
foreach(var type in types)
{
var control = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
var tabPage = new TabPage();
tabPage.Controls.Add(control);
tabControl.TabPages.Add(tabPage);
}
}
this will then be called by
CreateTabPages(tabControl, GetAllTypes());
With this approach i can easily add another Tab Page with a single line of code and design it in its own scope.
I just opened vs2008 and created a tabcontrol, then I added controls inside using drag and drop in the designer and I didn't found any problem.
The way I use to do it is to create a usercontrol for each tab, But I add the usercontrol to the tab in the designer. (note that the usercontrol will not appear in the toolbox until you generate your solution).
I didn't know why your method are not working. Did you stop your application before try to add the controls?
Good Luck.