We Keep Coding

How to properly declare class variables (CUIT Controls)

I am setting up Coded UI Tests for WPF application and I want to use code approach instead of record-and-generate-code approach. I'd like to use page objects trough code and I need to declare control (buttons, tabs, etc.) variables in page objects that would be used by multiple functions.
I tried declaring the variable in a class and adding properties in constructor (pendingButton1)
and creating function which returns the control and assigning to a variable in a class (pendingButton2) but neither worked.
It works when I declare the variable (or create the variable by function) within the function that I want to use the variable in (pendingButton3 and 4).
public partial class Press : Header
{
WpfToggleButton pendingButton1 = new WpfToggleButton(_wpfWindow);
WpfToggleButton pendingButton2 = Controls.Press.getPendingButton(_wpfWindow);
public Press(WpfWindow wpfWindow):base(wpfWindow)
{
this.pendingButton1.SearchProperties[WpfControl.PropertyNames.AutomationId] = "Tab1Button";
}
public void clickPendingButton() {
WpfToggleButton pendingButton3 = new WpfToggleButton(_wpfWindow);
pendingButton3.SearchProperties[WpfControl.PropertyNames.AutomationId] = "Tab1Button";
WpfToggleButton pendingButton4 = Controls.Press.getPendingButton(_wpfWindow);
Mouse.Click(pendingButton1); //UITestControlNotFoundException
Mouse.Click(pendingButton2); //UITestControlNotFoundException
Mouse.Click(pendingButton3); //This works
Mouse.Click(pendingButton4); //This works
}
}
I'd like to make it work when I declare the pendingButton outside clickPendingButton() function since it is used in multiple other functions.

The helper function Controls.getWpfButton() return just properties of the button, not "real" button. It has to be used in a constructor, then it can be used anywhere within the class. I wouldn't say its best practice but it works for me.
Press.cs
public partial class Press : SharedElements
{
private WpfButton pendingButton;
public Press(WpfWindow wpfWindow):base(wpfWindow)
{
pendingTab = Controls.getWpfButton(_wpfWindow, "Tab1Button");
}
public void clickPendingButton() {
Mouse.Click(pendingButton);
}
}
Controls.cs
internal static WpfButton getWpfButton(WpfWindow wpfWindow, string AutomationId)
{
WpfButton button = new WpfButton(wpfWindow);
button.SearchProperties[WpfControl.PropertyNames.AutomationId] = AutomationId;
return button;
}

What you want appears to be exactly the sort f code that the Coded UI record and generate tool generates. It creates many pieces of code that have a structure of the following style:
public WpfToggleButton PendingButton
{
get
{
if ((this.mPendingButton == null))
{
this.mPendingButton = new WpfToggleButton( ... as needed ...);
this.mPendingButton.SearchProperties[ ... as needed ...] = ... as needed ...;
}
return this.mPendingButton;
}
}
private WpfToggleButton mPendingButton;
This code declares the button as the class property PendingButton with a private supporting field that has an initial and default value of null. The first time that property is needed the get code executes the required search and saves the found control in the private field. That value is then returned in each subsequent usage of the property. Note that assigning null to the supporting field can be done to cause a new search, as demonstrated in this Q&A.

How to fill a Combobox from foreach in a different class

I am trying to fill a comboBox and a secondary form from a separate class file and I think I have the basics wrong.
The following is shortened to show the bones of what I have and what I think I may be doing wrong. I am not sure if I should be using List<> to populate the comboBox or an Array and suspect in either case my method declaraction is wrong and I cannot find a reference to the comboBox to populate from within the foreach loop.
OK the program.cs for my settings Form. This is not the main form but is the one I am looking to populate when a user select the comboBox.
Program.cs
class Settings
{
public partial class Settings : Form
{
// a bunch of String declarations used throughout
public Settings()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
}
}
The method within a class in a separate file is
Functions.cs
class functions
//This is a separate class to the Settings Form but same namespace.
{
//some global variables here
public string getDomain(string webURL)
{
//more variable declarations
//webURL is a value from the Settings Form
//code to send query to website, get the response and filter the response.
//This is the response filter
foreach (XmlNode node in xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//DAV:domains/DAV:domain", nsmgr))
{
strNode = node.InnerText;
responseString += strNode + " ";
list.Add(strNode);
//I would like to simply Add.Items(strNode) to the Settings.Form.cbxDomains but not as simple as this.
}
//this returns all the correct information as a space separated string.
return responseString;
}
}
From Update UI from a different thread in a different class
I thinks there are 2 things I should do.
1. change the form initialisation from InitilizeComponents() to
settingsWindow = new MyForm();
Application.Run(form);
Then simply call Settings.settingsWindow.cbxDomain.Add>items(responseString);
But do I also need to change the actual method to something like
public void List<String> getDomain(string webURL)
I am so confused. Most examples show it the other way of updating the class from the combo not the other way and some say create it as an array.
I actually think it could even be trimmed down further into one or 2 lines instead of the foreach, but that is way beyond my skillset at this time.

Here is how you could populate your combobox from another form.
I will use example since I do not know you code structure but you will get the point.
public class User //Custom generic class
{
public int _Id { get; set; }
public string _Name { get; set; }
}
public class Functions
{
public static List<User> PopulateComboboxWithUsers()
{
List<User> list = new List<User>();
foreach(var something in somethingBig) //You can change this if you re reading form XML with it's variables or something else
{
list.Add(new User { _Id = something.Id, _Name = something.Name };
}
return list;
}
}
public class Settings
{
public Settings()
{
InitializeComponents();
comboBox1.DataSource = Functions.PopulateComboboxWithUser();
comboBox1.DisplayMember = "_Name";
comboBox1.ValueMember = "_Id";
}
}
Other approach is to do the same function expect you will pass comboBox to it and you will do assigning inside it but I think this is more flexible.

Getting the value of a control in a class C#

I'm working on setting up a login form for an existing application. I'm currently having issues with getting the value of one of the text boxes in a class.
For example Form9 has a textbox called txtchannel. I'm wanting to get the value of what's in txtchannel in the class.
// Revision
I was finally able to get it to take the command using the following
// Class
private void DoConnect()
{
try
{
jtvClient.Connect();
jtvClient.JoinChannel("#" + this.mainForm.txtChan.Text);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
op.Post(x => OnExceptionThrown((Exception)x), ex); // TODO: double check that exceptions
} // actually show up at this level
}
private Login mainForm = null;
public JtvClient(Login derp)
{
mainForm = derp as Login;
}
////
This is allowing me to at the very least call the what is in Login(Now Formally Form9). However it gives an error "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.". I'm at a complete loss.

I think the Text property of the TextBox class is what you are looking for. See MSDN for the full documentation on TextBox.Text.

The best way to get the value in another class (if you mean another class), is to expose a property called Channel in Form9. The would look like this:
public string Channel
{
get
{
return txtChannel.Text;
}
}

C# WinForms ErrorProvider Control

Does anyone know if there is a way to get a list of controls that have the ErrorProvider icon active. ie. any controls that failed validation. I'm trying to avoid looping all controls in the form.
I'd like to display some sort of message indicating how many errors there are on the form. As my form contains tabs I'm trying to make it apparent to the user that errors may exist on inactive tabs and they need to check all tabs.
Thanks
Barry

This falls in the category of "how can you not know". It is your code that is calling ErrorProvider.SetError(), you should have no trouble keeping track of how many errors are still active. Here's a little helper class, use its SetError() method to update the ErrorProvider. Its Count property returns the number of active errors:
private class ErrorTracker {
private HashSet<Control> mErrors = new HashSet<Control>();
private ErrorProvider mProvider;
public ErrorTracker(ErrorProvider provider) {
mProvider = provider;
}
public void SetError(Control ctl, string text) {
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text)) mErrors.Remove(ctl);
else if (!mErrors.Contains(ctl)) mErrors.Add(ctl);
mProvider.SetError(ctl, text);
}
public int Count { get { return mErrors.Count; } }
}

Today I had the same problem. My solution is to extend the ErrorProvider control.
See the code below:
public class MyErrorProvider : ErrorProvider
{
public List<Control> GetControls()
{
return this.GetControls(this.ContainerControl);
}
public List<Control> GetControls(Control ParentControl)
{
List<Control> ret = new List<Control>();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.GetError(ParentControl)))
ret.Add(ParentControl);
foreach (Control c in ParentControl.Controls)
{
List<Control> child = GetControls(c);
if (child.Count > 0)
ret.AddRange(child);
}
return ret;
}
}
You can use the above derived class in your form, and then (say that myErrorProvider is the class instance in your form) you can get all the controls with errors in your form, by calling:
List<Control> errorControls = myErrorProvider.GetControls();

This is a moderately tricky solution you are talking about.
There is no way to achieve this automatically, as far as I know.
You have to maintain a flag for every control and manually set it every time an error-provider is blinked.
May be a Dictionary<TKey, TValue> can be used to keep track of it.

You have to use SetError to set the error on the control in the first place, right? Perhaps you should store that information in another collection at the same time if you want to have it handy. For example, you could add each control with an error to a hashset.

Just make the errorprovider as a Global variable rather than local variable
public partial class MainForm
{
ErrorProvider errorProvider1 = new ErrorProvider();
void Validate_Working()
{
errorProvider1.SetError(textbox1, "textbox is empty");
errorProvider1.Clear();
}
}
from
public partial class MainForm
{
Void Validate_NotWorking()
{
ErrorProvider errorProvider1 = new ErrorProvider();
errorProvider1.SetError(textbox1, "textbox is empty");
errorProvider1.Clear();
}
}
This should fix your problem, because probably you might have been removing your errors from another method such as btnCancel_click.
This worked for me :)

How to access properties of a usercontrol in C#

I've made a C# usercontrol with one textbox and one richtextbox.
How can I access the properties of the richtextbox from outside the usercontrol.
For example.. if i put it in a form, how can i use the Text propertie of the richtextbox???
thanks

Cleanest way is to expose the desired properties as properties of your usercontrol, e.g:
class MyUserControl
{
// expose the Text of the richtext control (read-only)
public string TextOfRichTextBox
{
get { return richTextBox.Text; }
}
// expose the Checked Property of a checkbox (read/write)
public bool CheckBoxProperty
{
get { return checkBox.Checked; }
set { checkBox.Checked = value; }
}
//...
}
In this way you can control which properties you want to expose and whether they should be read/write or read-only. (of course you should use better names for the properties, depending on their meaning).
Another advantage of this approach is that it hides the internal implementation of your user control. Should you ever want to exchange your richtext control with a different one, you won't break the callers/users of your control.

Change the access modifier ("Modifiers") of the RichTextBox in the property grid to Public.

Add a property to the usercontrol like this
public string TextBoxText
{
get
{
return textBox1.Text;
}
set
{
textBox1.Text = value;
}
}

I recently had some issues doing this with a custom class:
A user control had a public property which was of a custom class type. The designer by default tries to assign some value to it, so in the designer code, the line userControlThing.CustomClassProperty = null was being automatically added.
The intent was to be able to provide the user control with a custom class at any point while running the program (to change values visible to the user). Because the set {} portion did not check for null values, various errors were cropping up.
The solution was to change the property to a private one, and use two public methods to set and get the value. The designer will try to auto-assign properties, but leaves methods alone.

You need to make a public property for the richtextbox, or expose some other property that does the job of setting the richtextbox text like:
private RichTextBox rtb;
public string RichTextBoxText
{
get
{
return rtb.Text;
}
set
{
rtb.Text = value;
}
}