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Are you capturing the key presses in your dialog proc?
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This may seem like a daft question, but as I'm not a professional C# programmer I think I can get away with it 
I have a windows form application with a number of controls on it (menu items, push buttons) along with internal methods etc. It’s not big, but like anything over time if I'm using it, mods will be added and it'll get bigger and fatter.
What is the best way to keep this all neat and tidy, along with making it easy to navigate your way through the code?
I mean, I know about ‘region’ elements, which I do make use of, but I still think that sometimes it can get a bit crowded and hard to find the things you’re looking for easily.
Do you pro’s make use of the ‘partial’ keyword, and split things off into separate files to aid readability? Say, leave all the event methods in the forms main class file, and then split off certain things into other files?
What would you guys do if you were writing a large WinForms app for a client?
I appreciate that this is quite a vague question, so vague answers are fine 
TIA
[EDIT]
I should make clear that I don't have all my code in just one file!
That may not easily apparent from my initial post
[/EDIT]
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" ~ Albert Einstein
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ~ Paul Neal "Red" Adair
Now reading: 'The Third Reich', by Michael Burleigh
modified on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 8:35 AM
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Hi,
here is what I do:
1. I don't like region stuff, never use it;
2. sometimes I use partial classes;
3. sometimes I use inheritance, i.e. I create a base class with some of the functionality, derive another class adding (not replacing!) some functionality, derive from that one, and so on, even if all I need is one (or a few) instances of the most derived class.
The advantage of (3) over (2) is you get better locality as part of the code and data is available only to part of the entire construct, as opposed to the many-files-with-a-single-partial-class where it soon starts looking like everything is global.
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Hey thanks Luc, it's nice to know how others do it.
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" ~ Albert Einstein
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ~ Paul Neal "Red" Adair
Now reading: 'The Third Reich', by Michael Burleigh
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you're welcome.
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Say, Luc, I have a related question, since you've been helpful on project I've been working on. When you are dealing with classes that represent real world objects that need to be handled in similar ways, do you define them in a separate file, or just inline where you need them?
For example, the project I'm working on is intended to manage about 6 types of devices used in electrical substations. I'm only working on one type right now, because the techniques that work there will work for the others. I've defined the one type in the main program form, but I'm thinking it will be more convenient later to create a library file containing all of the devices and 'using' it whenever I need to later as the program develops.
I really prefer to keep everything in one file (from past history with procedural programming) because it's easier to follow the program flow. But I can already see that this approach will be a nightmare with a Windows program if it grows beyond a few thousand lines. And it will...
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Hi Roger,
I don't have any strict rules for this; I don't start a new file for every new class (or type) I create; however I try and keep most files at less than 500 lines of code, using either separate classes, or partial classes, or inheritance as outlined before.
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Thanks, Luc! 
I moved the Recloser class to its own file and namespace, then modified the rest of the project to 'use' my new namespace. That file will grow, adding new equipment types as I expand the app, and defining them on the fly, wherever I happen to need them is going to get really ugly. This is much better, though it was a scary moment there when I commented out my original class definition on the main page and clicked Build Solution. It worked very well, much to my surprise.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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It's good that you're thinking about this now while your code base is small
I find that Windows Forms code is pretty easy to keep tidy. If you feel like a given class is getting untidy, it's probably time to decompose it into simpler components. That said, don't over-decompose to start with as this creates unnecessary levels of indirection. Defer refactoring until it makes sense (e.g. if you want to re-use common functionality in multiple places).
The best tip I can give is to be rigorous about namespace organization and use meaningful type names so that someone else (or you 6 months from now) can know where to start looking.
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I think you've gone along the same lines as Luc (above) so that's another vote for decomposing.
I'll have a look though the code and see where I can best split it up.
Many thanks
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" ~ Albert Einstein
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ~ Paul Neal "Red" Adair
Now reading: 'The Third Reich', by Michael Burleigh
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These might help (or drive you mad as they do me!)
StyleCop and FXCop - they are both free AFAIK
Bob
Ashfield Consultants Ltd
Proud to be a 2009 Code Project MVP
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Oh man, FXCop... that brings back (painful) memories....
I used it about 6 years ago on a team with lots of junior developers (and senior developers who thought they were above adhering to conventions). It was effective, but comes with a lot of overhead.
On a team of competent developers, I much prefer a document describing the style convention rather than a tool that enforces it. Come to think of it, I prefer teams of competent developers outright
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I didn't say I would use it through choice
Like you say though, for juniors in particular it can stop some bad habits (and introduce some different ones  ), so I thought it may be of interest to the OP
Bob
Ashfield Consultants Ltd
Proud to be a 2009 Code Project MVP
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Same form runs every time i run even if the address provided is changed in the program in c sharp. Plz help
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Well that is one of the most obscure questions I have seen this week.
What is this address you are providing?
What are you providing the address to?
You seem to be confused between data and application. I presume an address is data and the form is coded, if so address does not define a form but the data in the form.
Try stepping through the code and inspecting the value of the variables as you progress, this will tell you what you are getting instead of what you expect to get.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Well that is one of the most obscure questions I have seen this week.
Well it is only Tuesday (here), so there's plenty of time to beat it
Bob
Ashfield Consultants Ltd
Proud to be a 2009 Code Project MVP
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when login credential are succesfull i want to show mdi form and close login screen. in VB.net i have done it simply as below and is working fine:
Me.Dispose()
Me.Close()
AttendanceMDI.ShowDialog()
in c# i did it like
this.Dispose();
this.Close();
AttendanceMDI.ShowDialog();
but it closes the application
plz help....
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Use Show instead of ShowDialog and just hide the login form after the call to Show method.
Do not close or dispose the login form.
50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!
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The login form should NOT be your startup form. The MDIParent form should be the startup and if it finds that the user needs to login, it shows your login dialog.
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Hi. Whenever internet explorer opens a window should popup. I am want to do this using dotnet. Please help me. How to identify internet explorer opens using dotnet code?
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I guess a windows service that will regularly check for iexplorer.exe in the processes running on a system should work. If, it finds the process, start your windows application then.
I also think you can probably make your application as IE add-in. You can find help creating add-in here[^].
50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!
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Hi, I am new at this so please go easy on me...;)
I am working on a treeview control in visual studio 2008 using visual basic. I am trying to populate the treeview with data from 2 sql database tables. I am able to populate the parent nodes but cannot populate the child nodes at this point. [Note: With my data, Parents are "Firms" which are stored in the Firm's table and Childs are "Funds" and are stored in the Funds table. The two tables are related using a FK with FirmID connecting the two tables].
My code to populate the parent node is as follows:
'populate the tree view control
TreeView1.Nodes.Clear()
Dim ParentRow As DataRow
Dim ParentTable As DataTable
ParentTable = FirmFundDataSet.Tables("RAInput_Firms")
For Each ParentRow In ParentTable.Rows
Dim ParentNode As TreeNode
ParentNode = New TreeNode(ParentRow.Item("FirmName"))
TreeView1.Nodes.Add(ParentNode)
Next
The ultimate goal of my project is to use the treeview as a way to navigate other forms in my project.
I have seen some examples on the web that show a solution were you relate the two datatables (e.g. dataset.Relations.Add(etc)) and then use some code like the following to add the child nodes. This does not work for me because I get an error that states that a relationship already exists between my tables (note: I added a relation in vb to tables that are related in sql, so this kind of makes sense. Not sure how to work with an existing dataset relationship though).
''''populate child'''''
Dim childrow As DataRow
Dim childnode As TreeNode
childnode = New TreeNode()
For Each childrow In parentrow.GetChildRows("FirmToFund")
childnode = parentnode.Nodes.Add(childrow(2))
Next childrow
Any help would be appreciated.
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Hi All,
I am using help provider control.
my requirement is when i press F1 i should get the .chm file -- I done
but my .chm file should highlight the "Index" part as the default however, I want to highlight the "content" Tab not the "index" Tab.
For example if i am seeing the customer form and when i hit the F1 it should highlight the Customer page which is in the .chm file
Thank in advance
Ramkumar
("When you build bridges you can keep crossing them. ")
http://ramkumarishere.blogspot.com
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I need to be able to resize my form but i don't want the ControlBox to be visible...
I've tried set ControlBox = False, FormBorderStyle = Sizeable, and Text = (Empty)... But i still could see the small thin border surrounding the form.
I need to make it completely disappear, just like when using FormBorderStyle = None
Is that possible???
Please helpppp
Thanks
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Not without digging down into some ugly Win32 APIs. Why not set the FormBorderStyle to None and write your own resize code?
If my answer has helped you, one of my articles may also be a help. Also remember that your best friend's name is google.
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