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How can I use pre-existing form LoadFromXml in WeifenLuo?

I inherited a WinForms application where we are using Dock management with WeifenLuo. I'm trying to use the SaveAsXml and LoadFromXml.
Which works fine if I am ok with a new form every time - a particular form needs to stay available right now and I was hoping to be able to just use the code to hide it on close.
The sample app just recreates the controls every time so I'm at a loss.
If I recreate the control it shows fine. However, trying to make it use the already created control never works.
Load XML - attempt doesn't work:
m_deserializeDockContent = new DeserializeDockContent(GetContentFromPersistString);
_dockPanel = null;
InitDockPanel(); //Initialize DockPanel to full screen
_dockPanel.LoadFromXml(filepath, m_deserializeDockContent);
private IDockContent GetContentFromPersistString(string persistString)
{
if (persistString == typeof(ExistingForm).ToString())
return existingForm;
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
At this point I tried the dispose around _dockPanel and handling the dockPanel of the ExistingForm, but nothing seems to change the outcome. Reading online I discovered maybe blocking the close may help, but still doesn't work.
Example of handling the Form close event:
public ExistingForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
HideOnClose = true;
this.FormClosing += ExistingForm_FormClosing;
}
private void ExistingForm_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
e.Cancel = true;
this.Hide();
}
Updating LoadXml code to include existingForm.DockHandler.Close();, existingForm.DockHandler.Dispose();, or _dockPanel.Dispose();
Which doesn't work at all and I get an error because the form is disposed of.
The only thing that seems to work is recreating the form
if (persistString == typeof(ExistingForm).ToString())
return new ExistingForm();
Just wondering if I'm missing some handling of the DockHandler (no pun intended).

Displaying a form locks up mono

I've got a mono app written in c# and executed on a Mac using "mono myapp.exe"
The app itself is a "Windows Application" when viewed from the project properties, but it doesn't always show a window. In program.cs, there is a static Main:
static void Main(string[] args) {
UserClient client = new UserClient();
client.Start(args);
}
public class UserClient {
public void Start(string[] args) {
// Talk to server, listen for instructions, etc.
....
// Launch the "Stay Alive" thread
// Just a thread that Sleeps/Loops watching for an exit command; mainly used to keep the process alive
}
}
Inside the UserClient's Start method, there is a piece of code that continuously monitors a server which gives it instructions to do things. One of the things it does is optionally displays a message using a windows form.
When the server instructs the process to display a message, it instantiates a form, displays it using frm.ShowDialog() and then after 30 seconds, a timer on the form runs Close() and the frm then gets disposed. However, when this happens, on my Mac I see an application title bar saying "mono" and a new icon on my dock bar for the mono app. After about 2 minutes the mono process in Activity Monitor shows "Not Responding." This eventually will prevent the user from logging out, shutting down, etc. (because Mac OS can't kill mono gracefully).
ON THE OTHER HAND... if the server never tells the process to display that form, everything runs fine and dandy: a dock icon never shows up (which is good!), mono title bar never shows up and the mono process continues to run happily, not preventing the system from shutting down or rebooting.
Anyone experienced this or have ideas on what's causing it? My guess is that it's a new GUI thread being created by the form which isn't ever being shutdown and is somehow causing a lockup, though I'm unsure of how to handle it.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Update:
Here's some code to easily reproduce and see this happening. I realize that this seems kind of "non-standard." Having said that, the below works perfectly in a Windows environment and provides the desired result of not showing an icon in the task area except when showing a message. Currently, using Application.Run and simply doing frm.ShowDialog() produce exactly the same result.
In the end what we need is to be able to display the form, then destroy the form and any associated icon from the dock. I suspect the GUI is starting a thread which isn't ever being disposed, which is why the dock icon remains. Is there a way to make sure the GUI thread is taken care of?
static class Program {
static void Main() {
StartupClass s = new StartupClass();
s.start();
}
}
public class StartupClass {
Thread stayAliveThread;
public void start() {
// Stay alive thread
stayAliveThread = new Thread(stayAliveLoop);
stayAliveThread.Start();
// This shows a form and would normally be used to display temporary and brief messages to the user. Close the message and you'll see the undesired functionality.
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
Application.Exit();
Application.ExitThread();
}
/// <summary>
/// Keep the app alive.
/// </summary>
private void stayAliveLoop() {
while (true) {
Thread.Sleep(10000);
// In the real project this method monitors the server and performs other tasks, only sometimes displaying a message.
}
}
}

I feel I'm missing several things. Most notably
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args) { //....
Also see this answer: Windows Forms and ShowDialog problem

I can't see anything like initializing message loop for windowed application. I.e. in windows forms case something like Application.Run(). If you do not have it, no wonder application freezes. In any case, posting more code could be helpful, as stated in comment.

In the end, I couldn't resolve this. I created a process that launched another app which displayed the message form. Not really a true answer, but the solution I had to go with.

C# - Title Bar "X" does not close the program AND form switching

I have a Visual C# project using windowsforms that does not exit when the X is clicked on any form OTHER than the first form. I think this may have something to do with my form switching?
Currently, I have a Template.CS which is exactly what it sounds like. All of my usage forms extend this by:
public partial class Welcome : ADL.template
Then, I switch between forms by invoking this method:
public static void formSwitch(Form in_form, Form out_form)
{
in_form.Hide();
out_form.Show();
}
Called by:
Program.formSwitch(this, new frmUserInput());
What i think is happening here is, the X is closing the Form NOT the application because the starting form is Hidden, not closed. Is there a better way for me to switch between forms?
Thanks!

Well before answering your question, I should point out that Hide doesn't actually close your form, it only (as the name implies) hides it. So as time goes on, you'll keep piling on forms until you either run out of GDI objects or out of memory, either way you'll crash.
You are kind of correct about the reason why your application isn't closing though: even though you close the current form, all your other forms are still loaded so your application won't end.
To fix this, the best way would be to actually close your forms when you don't need them anymore. You won't even have to add any code to close your application then.
Now if you don't want to do that for whatever reason, you can always just call Application.Exit. I strongly discourage you to pursue this "solution" though.
Edit: as for a possible solution, you could change Program.cs to something like:
static class Program
{
static Form NextForm=new frmLogin(); // or whatever your first form is
static public void SetNext(Form next) { NextForm=next; }
static void Main()
{
while(NextForm!=null)
{
Form _next=NextForm;
NextForm=null; // so it closes at the end
Application.Run(NextForm);
}
}
}
And then your formSwitch would become:
public static void formSwitch(Form in_form, Form out_form)
{
Program.SetNext(out_form);
in_form.Close();
}
It looks weird because your workflow is weird for a Windows program. This is more the workflow of a 1970 FORTRAN program running in DOS.

The default Windows Forms application behaviour is: the application is closed when the MAIN window is closed.
The main window is the first one you've created. When you called Hide() on this window, it is rendered invisible (but still exists). So, closing the second window doesn't close the application.

You can edit the code in the ~/Program.cs file as the following:
static class Program
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Form f = new Form();
f.Show();
Application.Run();
}
}
This way, the application wont close until you call Application.Exit() exclusivly.

How to run form and console at the same time with c#?

Hey I am fairly new to the c# programming language and have enjoyed my experience so far. I normally develop applications in java but a need for the win32 library has lead me to c# so far the languages seem relatively similar. however a problem I am having at the moment is a simple piece of code that can be best explained in this example
I am trying to print a piece of string to console then display the windows form then print another piece of string to console. however the result i get is first string is printed then the form is displayed, i then have to close the form before the last string is printed. the question i would like to ask is is there anyway to get this working so the second print to console is displayed immediately after the form is displayed. im guessing it has something to do with threading but I am not entirely sure how to implement this

The solution is quite simple:
Just create a Windows Forms Application (when creating the project - which you probably did) and then go to Properties (in context menu "Project", it's the last item) and set "Output type" to "Console Application". The forms will work as before and furthermore the application will now open the console too. You can then freely write to or read from the console.

static class Program
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("first string");
var form = new Form1();
form.Show();
Console.WriteLine("the second string");
Application.Run();
}
}

It sounds like you want to be able to output messages to the console while the form is being displayed, correct? The basic issue is that as long as the form is visible, there must be a message loop running, handling events for the form. The message loop is inside Application.Run, so once you call it, it won't return until the form is closed (as you discovered).
So if you want to write to the console while the form is visible, you have a couple of options. One, as you mentioned, is to use multiple threads. Let your main thread run the message loop, and start up a second thread to write to the console. But that's not necessary--you can also write to the console from within an event handler, directly or indirectly. There's nothing wrong with doing a Console.WriteLine from within a button click handler. Or you can have your button handler call a method in your Program class, and do the writing there.
As for which solution is better, it would help to know more about what you're trying to accomplish. I assume that you don't just want to write stuff to the console--what else is it that you want to do while the form is being displayed?

My suggestion would be to start with a Console application. You can always open a WinForm from a console application...which would give you exactly what you're looking for. (you might want to think about multi-threading as well.

Hey everyone thanks for your answers I made some progress with what im trying to achieve but im not sure how correct or thread safe it is here is the code i got to run
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace Project1
{
class Class2
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("hello");
Class2 t = new Class2();
t.test();
Console.WriteLine("second string");
}
public void test()
{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(StartNewStaThrea));
t.Start();
}
private void StartNewStaThrea()
{
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
}
}
pls let me know what you think of this solution

I know this is a super-old question, but I'm going to answer in hopes of karma. One interesting work-around that works well for this comes up if you're using Visual Studio (which is a fairly safe assumption). If you start a forms project in C# in Visual Studio, then make your appropriate forms, but then change the project type to a console application (by right clicking the project-->properties-->Console Application), it will still spawn your forms, but will also keep a Console open, now all you need to do is put one Console.Write statement before your form is created, and the other after, and maybe add a flush statement!

are you using form.showDialog() or form.show()?
form.showDialog() will block until the form is closed, while form.show() will not.

I would either start with a console app, and run the application from the static main function. This is from memory - I haven't had to mess with Winforms for years:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.Run(new YourMainForm());
}
or
I would redirect Console.Out and shove that stream into a some sort of control like a text box or list box. This is a lot of code but doable... I have written this before for on-site debugging but don't have the code handy.

Why don't you just create a new windows form with multiline textbox and dock it to the form, set BackColor as Black ForeColor as White and create a public method to send text to that textBox.
If your aim is a one Form application this works pretty much brilliantly.

Return to an already open application when a user tries to open a new instance

This has been a problem that I haven't been able to figure out for sometime. Preventing the second instance is trivial and has many methods, however, bringing back the already running process isn't. I would like to:
Minimized: Undo the minimize and bring the running instance to the front.
Behind other windows: Bring the application to the front.
The language I am using this in is VB.NET and C#.

I found this code to be useful. It does the detection and optional activation of an existing application:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/cssingprocess.aspx

If you're using .NET, this seems easier and more straightforward using build-in .NET functionality:
The Weekly Source Code 31- Single Instance WinForms and Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll

These link may be of help:
http://www.ai.uga.edu/mc/SingleInstance.html
It has code to detect another instance running, not sure what you can do with it once you've got the instance though.

In
Form_Load this code worked.
If App.PrevInstance = True Then
MsgBox "Already running...."
Unload Me
Exit Sub
End If

Here is a simple and easily understandable method for preventing duplicate concurrent execution (written in c#).
public static void StopProgramOnSecondRun()
{
string
//Get the full filename and path
FullEXEPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location,
//Isolate just the filename with no extension
FilenameWithNoExtension = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(FullEXEPath);
//Retrieve a list of processes that have the same name as this one wich is FilenameWithNoExtension
Process[] processes = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName(FilenameWithNoExtension);
//There should always be at least one process returned. If the number is greater than one. Than this is the clone and we must kill it.
if (processes.Length > 1)
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();
}

I used the FileSystemWatcher on the form to solve this. This solution checks for the process, does not start a new instance, and shows the form of the already running process.
Add a FileSystemWatcher to the form that checks for the creation of a file and then shows the form with the created event.
In Program.cs:
if (Process.GetProcessesByName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName).Length > 1)
{
File.Create("AlreadyRunning.log").Dispose();
return;
}
For the form's FileSystemWatcher created event:
if (File.Exists("AlreadyRunning.log"))
{
Show();
WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
File.Delete("AlreadyRunning.log");
}