We Keep Coding

c# adding groupbox when create a new tabpages

i just created an application using C# in Visual Studio. I am wondering is it possible to create a new instance of group-box with text-box and label as shown in the picture when user click add a new tab button(+). For example when the user opens a google chrome, whenever the user opens the new tab, it will show the same search box on each page.
As for now I am able to create new tab page when the user clicks the add button but the new tab page will empty.

You need to use "using System.Reflection;"
And is basically this:
TabPage tpOld = tabControl1.SelectedTab;
TabPage tpNew = new TabPage();
foreach (Control c in tpOld.Controls)
{
Control cNew = (Control)Activator.CreateInstance(c.GetType());
PropertyDescriptorCollection pdc = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(c);
foreach (PropertyDescriptor entry in pdc)
{
object val = entry.GetValue(c);
entry.SetValue(cNew, val);
}
tpNew.Controls.Add(cNew);
}
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tpNew);
This code will copy all the controls of the old tabPage and put them into a new tabpage with the exact controls, positions, sizes of the old one.
Credits here: here.

Why do controls delete when copying controls from one panel to the next

I created a template panel to go by when my form loads that holds a record. When adding a new record I have a method that duplicates that template panel and then adds it to my list of panels for each record. Somehow controls are getting deleted from my template panel when I am duplicating it and I have no idea how this is happening. The portion of code doing this is listed below
Panel pn = new Panel()
{
Width = _PNTemp.Width,
Height = _PNTemp.Height,
Left = 0,
Top = 0,
BackColor = _PNTemp.BackColor,
ForeColor = _PNTemp.ForeColor,
AutoScroll = true,
Name = _PNTemp.Name,
Tag = _PrgPanels.Count.ToString()
};
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
foreach (Control c in _PNTemp.Controls)
{
pn.Controls.Add(c);
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
}
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
_PrgPanels.Add(pn);
I put the messagebox.show() in at 3 points to narrow down where it is happening. The first one shows the correct number of controls, the second and third shows a 1/2 the total amount of controls. why is this?

This is because each control can be added to only one parent control. All controls in your template panel are already a child of the template panel. When you try to add these controls to a new panel, the controls will get removed from the template panel.
As per the docs:
A Control can only be assigned to one Control.ControlCollection at a
time. If the Control is already a child of another control it is
removed from that control before it is added to another control.
Which means that you need to create new controls instead of adding those in the template.
An alternative approach is to create a method that returns the template panel. When you need the template panel, just call the method and a new panel will be created:
public static Panel CreateTemplatePanel() {
Panel pn = new Panel();
// set properties, add controls...
return pn;
}

A control can only be on one panel at once. I've added comments inline in your code to help explain whats happening.
Panel pn = new Panel()
{
Width = _PNTemp.Width,
Height = _PNTemp.Height,
Left = 0,
Top = 0,
BackColor = _PNTemp.BackColor,
ForeColor = _PNTemp.ForeColor,
AutoScroll = true,
Name = _PNTemp.Name,
Tag = _PrgPanels.Count.ToString()
};
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
//all the controls are still inside _PNTemp
foreach (Control c in _PNTemp.Controls)
{
pn.Controls.Add(c);
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
//Each time this runs you remove a control from _PNTemp to pn.
}
//All the controls moved from _PnTemp to pn
MessageBox.Show(_PNTemp.Controls.Count.ToString());
_PrgPanels.Add(pn);

Can't Add Tab Page To TabControl Inside The Constructor Of My WinForms Application

I have a C# Form application that has a TabControl in the main form. This TabControl is used to display multilple TabPages that contain a CustomControl. This CustomControl is just a Panel with a few buttons and a PictureBox.
Here is a picture of my app when it starts up. As you can see the tab control (the white area) is empty:
If the user clicks the "Add Image" button they are presented with an OpenFileDialog to select the image then the addImage method is called with the selected file:
private void doAddImage()
{
OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
openFileDialog.Filter = Constants.Global.IMAGE_FILE_FILTER();
if (openFileDialog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{
string imageFileName = openFileDialog.FileName;
addImage(imageFileName);
}
}
private void addImage(string imageFileName)
{
// Create a new bitmap and image preview custom control. Then create a new tab
// page and add the custom control to the tab page.
Bitmap bitMap = new Bitmap(imageFileName);
ImagePreviewCustomControl previewControl = new ImagePreviewCustomControl(bitMap);
previewControl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
TabPage tabPage = new TabPage(Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(imageFileName));
tabPage.Controls.Add(previewControl);
// Insert the new tab page to the right of the currently selected tab page
int selectedTabIndex = imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex;
imagesTabControl.TabPages.Insert(selectedTabIndex + 1, tabPage);
imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex = selectedTabIndex + 1;
}
As you can see, in the addImage method I create the Bitmap, CustomControl, and TabPage and then insert it into the TabControl.
I start my application, click the "Add Image" button, everything works just fine.
Here is a picture with a tab page added:
While I am testing my app I don't want to have to add an image manually using the OpenFileDialog every time so in my constructor I just call addImage with some fixed image file name that I want to test with:
public ImageViewerApp()
{
InitializeComponent();
addImage(#"C:\MyImages\Calculator-3-icon.png");
}
The problem I am having is that when I try to add the image in my constructor it doesn't show up in the TabControl. The application starts up blank (like the first picture).
As stated above when the application is already running and I click the "Add Image" button it gets added just fine.
I found a property in the TabControl class called Created which states:
"Gets a value indicating whether the control has been created"
So to try and figure out what's going on I write the value of Created to the console just before I call addImage in the constructor. (I have a custom console for debugging my Form applications.)
public ImageViewerApp()
{
InitializeComponent();
TestConsole.WriteLine(imagesTabControl.Created);
addImage(#"D:\Development\Work\Other\Stardock\Start8\_downloaded\Calculator-3-icon.png");
}
The value of Created just before the call to addImage in the constructor is:
False
I put another console output inside the addImage method:
private void doAddImage()
{
TestConsole.WriteLine(imagesTabControl.Created);
OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
...
...
}
The value of Created after the app has started and the user presses the "Add Image" button is:
True
Why is it that the TabControl is not Created inside my constructor (even after the InitializeComponent() call) and the once the application is running it is Created?
=UPDATE========================================================================
Based on the suggestion by Hans Passant I have added the following code to my addImage method:
int selectedTabIndex = -1;
if (imagesTabControl.TabCount > 0)
{
selectedTabIndex = imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex;
}
else
{
selectedTabIndex = imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex + 1;
}
imagesTabControl.TabPages.Insert(selectedTabIndex, tabPage);
imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex = selectedTabIndex;
This doesn't work.
===============================================================================
=UPDATE2=======================================================================
int selectedTabIndex = imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex;
if (imagesTabControl.TabCount == 0) selectedTabIndex = -1;
imagesTabControl.TabPages.Insert(selectedTabIndex, tabPage);
imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex = selectedTabIndex;
This causes the following Exception:
{"InvalidArgument=Value of '-1' is not valid for 'index'.\r\nParameter name: index"}
===============================================================================
=UPDATE3=======================================================================
I tried the folllowing code:
int selectedTabIndex = imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex;
if (imagesTabControl.TabCount == 0) selectedTabIndex = -1;
imagesTabControl.TabPages.Insert(selectedTabIndex + 1, tabPage);
imagesTabControl.SelectedIndex = selectedTabIndex + 1;
This one doesn't throw an exception but again no tab page added after calling
addImage in the constructor.
===============================================================================
=UPDATE4=======================================================================
I have kindof given up on adding an image in the constructor. So instead I am using an enum RunMode and a variable RUN_MODE of that type. Then, if RUN_MODE == RunMode.TESTI call a method to add a random image when I click the button. (The OpenFileDialog is not used. I just parse through all the image files in the fixed directory IMAGE_DIRECTORY.
enum RunMode { NORMAL, TEST }
private static string IMAGE_DIRECTORY = #"D:\\Work\Images";
...
...
private void doAddImage()
{
if (RUN_MODE == RunMode.TEST)
{
addRandomImage();
return;
}
OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
openFileDialog.Filter = Constants.Global.IMAGE_FILE_FILTER();
if (openFileDialog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{
string imageFileName = openFileDialog.FileName;
addImage(imageFileName);
}
}
private void addRandomImage()
{
string[] allFiles = Directory.GetFiles(IMAGE_DIRECTORY);
List<string> imageFileNames = new List<string>();
foreach (string file in allFiles)
{
bool isImageFile = Constants.Global.IMAGE_EXTENSIONS.Contains(Path.GetExtension(file));
if (isImageFile)
{
imageFileNames.Add(file);
}
}
int randomIndex = new Random().Next(imageFileNames.Count);
addImage(imageFileNames.ElementAt(randomIndex));
}
This works. Now when I click the "Add Image" button during TEST_MODE I skip the
OpenFileDialog and just add a random image.
I would like to understand the issues with TabControl but at this point I just
need to continue development. My current solution works great.
As I person who like to understand everything I would like to use other people's
suggestions so I will keep monitoring this question for a solution.
===============================================================================

JonP's answer gave me the idea to just wait for the window handle to be created before inserting the tab, so I tried some events occuring between Form construction and Tab Control display.
I found it to work with both the Load or Shown events:
Right-click on the Form (the root, not child controls) in the Designer view > Properties > Events (flash icon) > Behavior > enter a method name for the Load or Shown event and confirm. To generate a Load event callback you can also double-click on the Form itself. This should generate something like this:
this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Load);
// or
this.Shown += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Shown);
Setup the tabs in the callback:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Add image (this will call imagesTabControl.TabPages.Insert(selectedTabIndex + 1, tabPage))
// This must be done on Load event because Insert requires
// the window handle, which is not ready in the constructor
addImage(#"path_to_image.png");
}

I have had this problem too and have found a workaround; I think it must be a bug with Insert():
Don't use Insert(), it usually does nothing, use Add() instead; this reliably adds a TabPage to the end of the collection.
After adding it swap it with the tab position where you actually want it.
imagesTabControl.TabPages.Add(tabPage);
// Now swap the two tabs:
imagesTabControl.TabPages[imagesTabControl.TabCount - 1] = imagesTabControl.TabPages[selectedTabIndex + 1];
imagesTabControl.TabPage[selectedTabIndex + 1] = tabPage;
Your mileage may vary of course :-)
Stop Press! An even better fix is to read the class's Handle member before calling Insert():
var handle = imagesTabControl.Handle;
Insert() works perfectly after you do that. Obvious isn't it???? The help page for Handle has this possible relevant Remark showing that the object actually does something when you read Handle:
The value of the Handle property is a Windows HWND. If the handle has not yet been created, referencing this property will force the handle to be created.

You could remove the TabControl from the designer and then instead just manually create the TabControl programmatically and add it to the Form immediately after InitializeComponent(). Then after you create the TabControl, call addImage(). Something like:
InitializeComponent();
TabControl tc = new TabControl();
tc.Location = new Point(10, 10);
tc.Size = new Size(100, 100);
tc.Visible = true;
tc.Anchor = (AnchorStyles.Bottom | AnchorStyles.Right | AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Top);
this.Controls.Add(tc)
addImage("c:\pathToImage\image.bmp");

tabcontrol not refreshing

I have a TabControl that starts with three TabPages in it. On the first tab there is a NumericUpDown (spinner) which displays the number of tabs and allows a user to add up to 10 extra tabs. Once they add more than about 5 or 6 it goes beyond the width of the form and the rest of the tabs are accessible by a couple of left/right arrows at the top. When going all the way to the right and then using the spinner to go back down to 0 (removing all the extra tabs and leave the starting three) it removes all tabs from the top of the pane and only by setting the spinner back to 1 does it refresh and display all 4 (3 from the start plus the 1 from the spinner).
I have tried several commbinations of
Application.DoEvents()
this.Refresh()
this.Invalidate()
this.Update()
but nothing seems to work. can anybody suggest a reason why it is not updating/refreshing?
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
TabPage[] tabs;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
tabs = new TabPage[tabControl1.Controls.Count];
tabs[0] = tabPage1;
}
private void numericUpDown1_ValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int numTabs = tabControl1.Controls.Count;
decimal spinnerValue = numericUpDown1.Value;
if (numTabs < spinnerValue) //add a tab
{
TabPage[] newTabs = new TabPage[(int)spinnerValue];
for (int i = 0; i < numTabs; i++)
{
newTabs[i] = tabs[i];
}
TabPage tab = new TabPage("Tab " + numTabs);
newTabs[(int)spinnerValue-1] = tab;
tabControl1.Controls.Add(tab);
tabs = newTabs;
}
else //remove a tab
{
TabPage[] newTabs = new TabPage[(int)spinnerValue];
for (int i = 0; i < spinnerValue; i++)
{
newTabs[i] = tabs[i];
}
tabControl1.Controls.Remove(tabs[(int)spinnerValue]);
tabs = newTabs;
}
}
}

Without seeing any code or knowing what type of project this is winforms, WPF, ASP.NET etc..
it's hard to give a definite answer, I am going to assume that this is WinForms
I'm not sure if you can. The following is a quote from MSDN:
"Controls contained in a TabPage are not created until the tab page is shown, and any data bindings in these controls are not activated until the tab page is shown."
However, instead of having the update code get the values from the controls directly, maybe you could create a class that could hold the Data you use to populate the controls and then when the update code is called it asks the class for the value and the class checks if the control is loaded and otherwise it gets the value from the Data instead.

TabControl tab buttons location

I'm looking for solution for my problem. I want to change location for tabcontrol's TabButtons or add control assigned to tabpage but outside TabControl. TabPages are added dynamically. Example:
Form1___________ _ [] X
_______________________
Some TabPage content
Tab1 | Tab2 | Tab3 | < >
TextBox assigned to Tab's
________________________
So if I change tabs by clicking on Tab1,Tab2,Tab3 TabPage + TextBox content should change depending on Tab. The first idea was to put TabButtons on bottom and add ArrayList what contains TextBox content, catch TabControl change tab event and change TextBox content, but there was an issue with editing and adding that content. In few words: I wan't to put TabButtons between 2 controls(for example between two textboxes).Do you have any ideas?

If I understand what you're asking for... You want when you click on a tab, it controls two different things? Like two different text boxes?
If that is true, you should be able to do it like this.
foreach (thing in your ArrayList)
{
TabPage tabPage = new TabPage("Name of tab"); // Add a new tab page
RichTextBox rtb = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox();//RTF box
TextBox tb = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); //Text box
//Set up size, position and properties
rtb.LoadFile("some/Path/to/a/file");
//set up size, position of properties
tb.Text = "Some text I want to display";
tabPage.Controls.Add(rtb); //Add both boxes to that tab
tabPage.Controls.Add(tb);
tabControl1.TabPages.Add(tabPage); //Add that page to the tab control
}
Only thing you should have to mess around with is the layout. And make sure to have the tabControl added with the designer.

you can create your own textbox class which inherits from textbox class :
class MyOwnTextBox:TextBox
{
public int parent_tab;
}
So you can add your textbox by assigning a parent_tab id to them . so in tab button click event , you can do something like that :
foreach(MyOwnTextBox txt in this.Controls)
{
if(txt.parent_tab==1) txt.visible=false;
}

You could also place the tabs on the left or the right side of your tab control. That is not perfect, but would come closer to your idea than placing them above or below the tab control.
You can add a new tab page dynamically like this
tabControl1.TabPages.Add("My new Tab");

I'm not sure I understand exactly what your trying to do. If you want to change the tab from another object, just use:
TabController.SelectTab(0);
If you want to remove a TabPage and add it to another, use:
TabController.Controls.Remove(TabPage1);
TabController2.Controls.Add(TabPage1);
Edit: From further read, I think you want something like this:
this.TabController.ControlAdded += AddLinksToBottomOfTabs;
public void mainSettingsTabController_ControlAdded(object sender, ControlEventArgs e)
{
//Create label with e.Control.Name as the title and
//add it to wherever you want it added.
}