StrataFrame Forum » StrataFrame Application Framework - V1 » WinForms (How do I?) » MdiWindowListItem

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Russell Scott Brown — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:51:54 GMT

Thanks. I would be interested in this too.

MdiWindowListItem

Ivan George Borges — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:51:54 GMT

Hiya.

I am shamelessly trying to copy "someone's" idea of a MainForm.:P

My intention is to get rid of the MenuStrip and use the ThemedToolStrip instead. So far, so good. But now I got to the "Window" item, which will show the opened MDI windows list.

Now I would need to have a "Window" ToolStripDropDownButton to behave in the same way as the MenuStrip MdiWindowListItem. Would that be too difficult to implement?

Cheers.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Ivan George Borges — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:13:59 GMT

Hiya.

Nope, this is not a StrataFrame control. This is deeply and specificaly built into PracticeStudio. Iwill see if I can get some hints on how to accomplish this and pass them to you.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

lastcanary — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:23:33 GMT

Hi,

I would like to use a tabbed form interface similar to the practice studio. Is this a control contained in Strataframe? Could you please help me to create a similar one?

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:09:09 GMT

That will work fine :)

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Keith Gordijn — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:15:40 GMT

Hooray, I've had some success! Maybe I should get up at 2am more often. :D

So, now my question is, is this the best way of doing this?

[codesnippet] private void tlmSecurity_ItemClicked(object sender, ThemedLinkMenuClickEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Item.Key.Equals("SecurityEditor", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
MainForm loForm;
loForm = (MainForm)this.ParentForm;

loForm.LaunchDialog(typeof(SecurityDialog));
}
}[/codesnippet]

Cheers,
Keith

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Keith Gordijn — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:12:47 GMT

[quote][b]Trent L. Taylor (06/14/2007)[/b][hr]I think that the best thing to do would be to expose the MDI client...or....if your main form just has the MDIContainer property set you can reference it directly. When the form is launched it will have a reference to the parent form in the ParentForm property which you can type and reference. You may need to make your LauncForm method public or Friend so it can be accessed though.

[codesnippet]DirectCast(Me.ParentForm, MainForm).LaunchForm(GetType(MyChildForm))[/codesnippet]

If you are using an MDIClient control and manually adding it to the form, then you can just expose it through a public property and basically do the same thing:

[codesnippet]DirectCast(Me.ParentForm, MainForm).MDIClientProperty.LaunchForm(GetType(MyChildForm))[/codesnippet][/quote]

Hi Trent,

My project follows the ideas outlined in this topic by following the StrataFlix example and I would also like to use the LaunchDialog method of the mainform from a "Setup and Configuration" form (strangely also very similar to the PracticeStudio.NET screen shot earlier in this topic) to open a maintenance form as a child form in the main mdi form.

Unfortunately my still limited knowledge of C# wont let me alter the above VB code to a C# version so any help on doing this would be great.

Cheers,
Keith

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Paul Chase — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:36:14 GMT

Just to add another option to this thread you can also handle the Mdi Client Control Added and Removed on your Main MDI Form.

[codesnippet]

#Region " MDI Client Handled Events"

Protected Sub MDIClient_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs)

'--> Cast To My Base Class so we get custom properties

Dim loChild As Payroll.Base.WindowsForms.DevExMaintFormBase = CType(e.Control, System.Windows.Forms.Form)

' do anything you need to do -add handlers update custom lists etc

End Sub

Protected Sub MDIClient_ControlRemoved(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs)

'--> Cast To Base Class so we get custom properties

Dim loChild As Payroll.Base.WindowsForms.DevExMaintFormBase = CType(e.Control, System.Windows.Forms.Form)

' do anything you need to do - remove handlers update custom lists etc

End Sub

#End Region

[/codesnippet]

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Edhy Rijo — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:36:24 GMT

Hi Teddy,

Thanks for sharing this approach, it definitely provide ideas on how to get similar results in different ways which is very good, specially when learning .NET.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Teddy Jensen — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:36:02 GMT

In case anyone wants a ToolStripDropDownButton instead of a windowslist in a sidepanel or on a menu you can use this approach.

On the toolstrip i have a button called tsbVinduer so my code on the main form is

Private Sub tsbVinduer_DropDownOpening(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles tsbVinduer.DropDownOpening

tsbVinduer.DropDownItems.Clear()

For Each f As Form In Me.MdiChildren

Dim item As ToolStripMenuItem = New ToolStripMenuItem(f.Text)

item.Tag = f

AddHandler item.Click, AddressOf item_Click

tsbVinduer.DropDownItems.Add(item)

End Sub

Private Sub item_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

Dim item As ToolStripItem = TryCast(sender, ToolStripItem)

If item IsNot Nothing Then

Dim f As Form = TryCast(item.Tag, Form)

If f IsNot Nothing Then

f.Activate()

End If

End Sub

It gives me this result:

/Teddy

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:24:30 GMT

You would be passing it into some method. If you look further up the food-chain on this thread, you will see that they have a collection that stores off the open forms. So when the form is loaded, you would add this guid to the collection with probably a title or something else so that it could be identified in the list (if you are using the panel on the left approach).

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Edhy Rijo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:00:32 GMT

[quote][b]Trent L. Taylor (04/15/2008)[/b][hr]
[codesnippet]For each f as Form In Me.MdiChildren
    If DirectCast(f, MyBaseForm).FormId = MyLookupId Then
        '-- You found the form
    End If
Next[/codesnippet]

If you take this approach you will be much safer across multiple platforms and won't be reliant upon the window handle.[/quote]

Trent, I hate to ask, but using the GUID logic, where is the MyLookupID value coming from?

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:24:26 GMT

Since we no longer use this logic I hadn't noticed that Vista changes the handle several times through the life of the form. So to get around this, if you still intend to use window handle, then you will need to override the OnHandleChanged method to trap that event so that you can update your collection logic.

[codesnippet]Overrides Protected Sub OnHandleChanged(...)
'-- Add your logic to update the collections
End Sub[/codesnippet]

However, I would recommend against using the window handle at this point and add a Guid property to your BaseForm that uniquely identifies the form:

[codesnippet]Public Class MyBaseForm
Inherits MicroFour.StrataFrame.UI.Windows.Forms.StandardForm

Private _FormId As String = System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString()

   Public Readonly Property FormId As String
        Get
             Return _FormId
        End Get
   End Property
End Class[/codesnippet]

Then you can enumerate the Forms collection of the MDI to find your form and then activate it (this code would be referencing the MDI form):

[codesnippet]For each f as Form In Me.MdiChildren
    If DirectCast(f, MyBaseForm).FormId = MyLookupId Then
        '-- You found the form
    End If
Next[/codesnippet]

If you take this approach you will be much safer across multiple platforms and won't be reliant upon the window handle.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:12:14 GMT

Oh....nevermind, you are using that older logic on the window handles being stored off in the collection...gotcha. I will see if I can reproduce.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:10:16 GMT

OK...different than what? You have mentioned that you are getting back a different handle...but what are you comparing the handle to?

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Edhy Rijo — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:50:12 GMT

Just to confirm,

I'm also getting back a different handle to than which the child window was assigned on creation.

And also I've tried changing to formclosing but the handle still changes.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:35:12 GMT

The form handle won't change after it has been assigned. If you are running in an MDI environment, then you can handle the OnParentChanged event and save off the handle at that point (I recommend against this). You should ALWAYS be able to reference the Me.Handle of the form and it will return the handle to which it is presently assigned, which is the only one that you should ever deal with. This is standard WinForms logic...once a handle is assigned it should never be changed unless the parent changes...that may be the ONLY time that it would change.

Now it is another thing entirely if the handle has already been released. In that case you just need to handle an event further up the chain to perform your closing logic.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Mike Tomlin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:08:44 GMT

I'm trying the VB version of this technique and I too am getting back a different handle to that which the child window was assigned on creation. I've tried changing to formclosing but the handle still changes. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Mike

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Trent L. Taylor — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:09:52 GMT

Handle the FormClosing event instead of the FormClosed event...that way you will still have a handle.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Chan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:26:08 GMT

Hi,
May I know what control/container are you using to drop window and user panel on? I tried to use flowlayout but its docking cause themetoolstrip unable to dock to top with full screen width.

Please advice.

Thank you

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Chan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:45:38 GMT

Hi,
I tried the code snippet and convert it to C# as below. I face problem that, the value of loForm.handle is changed in HandleFormClosed event handler. Any ideas? Thank you

[codesnippet] private void LaunchForm(System.Type FormType)
{
//-- Establish Locals
Form loForm;
//-- Create the form
loForm = (Form)Activator.CreateInstance(FormType);
//-- Set the MDI parent
loForm.MdiParent = this;
int lnHandle = (int)loForm.Handle;
loForm.FormClosed += this.HandleFormClosed;
_Forms.Add(lnHandle, loForm);
imgWindows.Images.Add(loForm.Text, loForm.Icon);
lvWindows.Items.Add(lnHandle.ToString(), loForm.Text, imgWindows.Images.Count - 1);
//-- Show the form
loForm.Show();
}

private void HandleFormClosed(object sender, FormClosedEventArgs e)
{
System.Windows.Forms.Form loForm;
loForm = (Form)sender;
int lnHandle = (int)loForm.Handle;
if (_Forms.ContainsKey(lnHandle))
{
loForm = _Forms[lnHandle];
loForm.FormClosed -= HandleFormClosed;
imgWindows.Images.RemoveByKey(loForm.Text);
lvWindows.Items.RemoveByKey(lnHandle.ToString());
_Forms.Remove(lnHandle);
}
}[/codesnippet]

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Edhy Rijo — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:55:26 GMT

[quote][b]Ben Chase (03/31/2008)[/b][hr]You'll need to store more than just "frmFormName" in the tag of the form, however, because the Type.GetType() static method requires the full name of the class.

Type.GetType("MyNamespace.frmMyFormName")

[/quote]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the explanation. Using [codesnippet]Type.GetType("MyNamespace.frmMyFormName")[/codesnippet] does give me the results I was looking for.

If I were to use the ReolveForm solution, I would then have to make an entry in the Case statement for every form I add to the project and all I am trying to do is to have all forms identified in a Item.Tag so I don't have to manually remember to keep adding it to the Case statement. Thanks again!!!

RE: MdiWindowListItem

StrataFrame Team — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:47:27 GMT

You can use System.Type.GetType(typeNameAsString) to convert a string to a System.Type. You'll need to store more than just "frmFormName" in the tag of the form, however, because the Type.GetType() static method requires the full name of the class.

Type.GetType("MyNamespace.frmMyFormName")

That will be what you'll have to give it.

Also, it might be the case that that method will not be able to resolve the name because your form type exists in another assembly. If that's the case, then you'll need to give it the fully qualified assembly name. It's basically the full name with a comma and the assembly name right after it like this:

"MyNamespace.frmMyFormName, MyAssembly, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null"

That's the difference between the Type.GetType() static method and the GetType() keyword (the keyword turns blue when you type it). If you use the keyword, it will always resolve because the reference is resolved and at compile-time. So, you might want to create a method that will resolve the names for you and uses the keyword to get the type. Like this:

Public Shared Function ResolveFormType(ByVal formName As String) As Type
    Select Case formName
        Case "frmForm1"
            Return GetType(frmForm1)

        Case "frmForm2"
            Return GetType(frmForm2)

        Case "frmForm3"
            Return GetType(frmForm3)

    End Case
End Function

If you use this method, then the string can be any arbitrary value, as long as it's unique and you can assign it a type to return from the method.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Edhy Rijo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:19:41 GMT

H all,

I am using the LoadForm method posted here to load the forms, but I would like to automate this method by passing the form name stored in a Tag property of a menu item or a DevExpress RibbonControl Item.

The item will have the name of the form as string like this "frmProducers" but the LoadForm method is expecting a System.Type parameter instead of string, how can I either convert the Item.Tag string containing the form name as a System.Type expected by the LoadForm method posted here?

[quote][codesnippet]

Private Sub LoadForm(ByVal FormType As System.Type)

'-- Establish Locals

Dim loForm As System.Windows.Forms.Form

'-- Create the form

loForm = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(FormType), System.Windows.Forms.Form)

'-- Associate the new form with the MDI form

loForm.MdiParent = Me

'-- Add a handler to the form close

AddHandler loForm.FormClosed, AddressOf HandleFormClosed

'-- This is a good place to update your open form collection

_Forms.Add(loForm.Handle.ToInt32(), loForm)

'-- Update the list or menu

'-- Show the Form

loForm.Show()

End Sub

[/codesnippet][/quote]

The whole idea is to either type the form name in the Item.Tag property or read it from a database to load all the Items and update the Item.Tag which will make a generic single call to the LoadForm.

Thanks.

RE: MdiWindowListItem

Ivan George Borges — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:16:25 GMT

Hi Teddy.

I'm glad Trent could help you, he got all this from me... oh, wait, I think the orther of the words are not set properly...

:unsure: