Edit for those who say to use tab control
I would love to use a tab control; yet i have no idea how to go about linking the tab control up from the main form. I would assume that I would have to do something like this:
Create Form with a blank TabControl on it, no pages created.
Create a CustomuserControl (Add -> user Control), with my controls on it.
When a new chat comes in, create a tab control Item, Tab Control Page, add the Custom Control to the Tab Control Page. Add the tab control handle to the hash table, so that when new messages come in, they can be referenced in the proper control.
But, i am so not sure how to do this. For example, I know that I can create custom events inside of the User Control, so that, for example, if each control has a 'bold' button, i can each page that has that control on it, to actually USE the button.
Yet i also need to register message callbacks, so that I can use a MessageGrabber to send data to it, and tha'ts not assigned inside of the UserControl, that's assigned programatically when a new window comes in; but since I have no controls to reference, i can't assign.
KISS Philosophy
Wouldn't it be easier to just create the form, like i do now, and then just dock that form within a window or something? So that, in essence, it's still creating the form, but it's also a separate window?
Original Question
Okay, so i'm stumped (which isn't that big of a surprise when it comes to complex C# logic lol)! What i'm trying to do is the following:
Goal: Setup tabbed chatting for new chat application.
Completed: Open new window whenever a chat message is received, or a user requests a new chat from the roster. This is working perfectly, and opens only a window when the user doesn't already have the chat open. Nice and happy there.
Problem: I dont want windows. Well, i do want A window, but, i do not want tons of separate windows. For example, our Customer Service team may have about 10 active IM windows going at one time, i do not want them to have to have 10 windows tiled there lol. I'd rather they have a single Private IM window, and all 10 tabs docked within the window.
Logic: This is my logic here, which may be flawed, i do apologize:
OnMessage: Open new chat window if one doesn't already exist; if one exists, open it as a tab within the current chat window.
SendMessage: ^^ ditto ^^
Code Examples:
if (!Util.ChatForms.ContainsKey(msg.From.Bare))
{
RosterNode rn = rosterControl1.GetRosterItem(msg.From);
string nick = msg.From.Bare;
if (rn != null)
nick = rn.Text;
frmChat f = new frmChat(msg.From, xmpp, nick);
f.Show();
f.IncomingMessage(msg);
return;
}
Note on above: The Util. function just keeps tracks of what windows are opened inside of a hashtable, that way, when messages come in, they route to the proper window. That is added with the:
Util.ChatForms.Add(m_Jid.Bare.ToLower(), this);
Command in the frmChat() form.
Library in Use: agsxmpp from: http://www.ag-software.de/agsxmpp-sdk/download/
Problem:
How can i convert this code to open inside of tabs, instead of windows? Can someone please give me some ideas, and help with that. I just can't seem to wrap my head around that concept.
Use TabControl
Related
I have a populated ListView dialog. If a user clicks on an option in the ListView, a new dialog is shown above the ListView.
My problems is that when I click off of the new top-most dialog (onto the ListView behind it), the new dialog's borders flash/blink several times. The icon on the taskbar also flashes. I wish to disable the flashing, but cannot find a property to change.
To show my dialog, I use the following code:
if (detail == null)
detail = new Details(opt, val, user, desc, m_l);
else
detail = null;
detail.ShowDialog();
This is intended behavior, it's because the new dialog is modal. It's drawing attention to the fact that something needs to be done.
If you need to make a non-modal form, instead of using ShowDialog(), simply use Show().
Sounds like to me you are creating modal windows each time. And you cannot resume the previous dialogs until you dismiss your new top-most window.
Take a look at this wikipedia article for information about modal dialogs.
I would advise you look at how you are creating/showing your windows.
In WPF you show windows via Show() or ShowDialog(), however, I do not know which type of ListView you are using
EDIT:
Per your comment, you want modal dialogs. The only ways I can think of even trying to remove the flashing is going into WINAPI. This doesn't seem like a job for .NET.
I want to suggest a few things:
Take a look at options for showing each window. See this MSDN page
Take a look at the options for styling each window. See this MSDN page
Reconsider your design. I know this may take a lot of work, but having so many layers of windows is kind of unappealing to most users. Ultimately, I believe this option will make your application the best.
Thank you all for your answers and guidance. I have found the best way to handle my problem.
I was using an event ItemActivated. This event was called when an a highlighted item on the ListView was clicked. This became a problem when the user would double click on an already selected item. This would cause the new dialog to show, but also flash several times.
By using the DoubleClick event instead, a single click on a selected object does nothing. A double click on either a selected or non-selected item opens the dialog without the flashes. The flashes still appear if you try to click off of the dialog box, but are not as much of an issue.
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.
Quick question: I have a very busy form going on that I have developed for information about say book records.
I want to design an 'add new book form' that is essentially a pop up to input the info. What is the best way to do this? Use a Usercontrol that is called on a button click or menu click? an entire new form?
Have seen this type of functionality, but never designed it in a pop up have just had user input info on the actual form - and it can get very busy.
Thanks for any help. Cheers!
I'd follow a common UI idiom. Which is, from a menu choose "new". This would popup a modal dialog to accept information about the new book form. I'd use the "Popup" control for this dialog. Within this Popup control, I'd embed the actual input dialog which is implemented as a user control.
The popup control is part of the .Net framework. If you can't see the control in the VS2008 designer, then you can still use it by typing the Popup element directly in the text view of the .xaml file.
I am writing a small class for driving integration testing of a win form application. The test driver class has access to the main Form and looks up the control that needs to be used by name, and uses it to drive the test. To find the control I am traversing the Control.Controls tree. However, I get stuck when I want to get to controls in a dialog window (a custom form shown as a dialog). How can I get hold of it?
You can get a reference to the currently active form by using the static Form.ActiveForm property.
Edit: If no Form has the focus, Form.ActiveForm will return null.
One way to get around this is to use the Application.OpenForms collection and retrieve the last item, witch will be the active Form when it is displayed using ShowDialog:
// using Linq:
var lastOpenedForm = Application.OpenForms.Cast<Form>().Last()
// or (without Linq):
var lastOpenedForm = Application.OpenForms[Application.OpenForms.Count - 1]
I'm not sure if you can access controls on a pre-built dialog box; they seem all packaged together. You may have more luck building a dialog box of your own that does what you want it to do. Then you can access the .Controls inside of it.
Correct me if i'm wrong, though, it sounds as if you are possibly attempting to access the controls on the dialog form when it's not quite possible to.
What I mean is, ShowDialog will "hold up" the thread that the form was created on and will not return control to the application (or, your test class) until ShowDialog has finished processing, in which case your user code would continue on its path.
Try accessing or manipulating the controls from a separate thread (in this case, refactor the test driver class to spawn a separate thread for each new form that must be displayed and tested).