Can I use the broken rule mechanism in the form to validate my own controls? Is there a way that I can check a bunch of things as a sort of validation then have it all pop up like you do when there are broken rules...

Well, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish, but you can just add a broken rule to a business object and have it do it for you.  Otherwise you will need to create your own error provider and associate it with a control to display errors like that.

Thats pretty much what I wanted to know. Thanks.

Sorry if this wasn't the answser you were looking for

The error provider itself is part of the StrataFrame form, not the business object, so you can use methods on the form to set the error provider if necessary like this:

'-- Set a control in error
Me.SetErrorProvider(Me.TextBox1, "Error message")

'-- Clear error on control
Me.SetErrorProvider(Me.TextBox1, String.Empty)

'-- Clear the errors on all controls
Me.ClearErrorProvider()

Thanks Ben that is more of what I was looking for... I was merely saying that I liked the mechanism where you added all the broken rules to a collection and then it populated all the error providers and displayed an Info box. I was just curious if there was a way to use that functionality anywhere other than a BO.



Ben's answer helps because now I can use the error provider you guys added to the form without adding my own. It seems trivial but I try my best to be effcient. sometimes it works.

Yes, it does help to be efficient, but sometimes, in some cases, like this one, you have to do things by hand, and adding extraneous broken rules to a business object might cause other issues but if you have a reference to the form, you can do just about anything   You can always add your own error provider as well... it's just a component listed in the "All Windows Forms" toolbox tab.