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.NET C# Using TreeView in WinForms like tab control

I want to use TreeView in my software so when user clicks a node, the content of the Form will be changed. Example in this picture, but also I want to grab user input from all forms.
WinForms TreeView example
https://youtu.be/9BdYzMDxl9M?t=46
TreeView -> Node -> User Click -> Display Form_X in the GroupBox
I tried but I could not find related resources on this topic so I posted this question. Thank you for your help

Don't use forms as child controls. User controls exist specifically for that so use them. You add a user control to a project in the same way as you do a form, simply selecting a different menu option. You then design it and add code to it just as you would a form. Once you build your project, the user control will appear in the Toolbox and you can use it just like you would any other control. You then have a couple of options for how to handle switching controls via the TreeView.
If the number of controls is fairly small, you can add one of each to the GroupBox in the designer, so they all exist all the time. You would probably want to set the Dock property of each to Fill, so they all fill the parent GroupBox. In the Load event handler of the form, you can assign each user control instance to the Tag property of the corresponding TreeNode. When the user selects a node, you get the user control from its Tag property and call BringToFront on it, so the user will see it and it will hide all the other user controls, e.g.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var nodes = treeView1.Nodes;
nodes[0].Tag = userControl1;
nodes[1].Tag = userControl2;
nodes[2].Tag = userControl3;
}
private void treeView1_AfterSelect(object sender, TreeViewEventArgs e)
{
var userControl = treeView1.SelectedNode.Tag as Control;
userControl?.BringToFront();
}
Because all the controls exist all the time, you can load all the data at the start and save all the changes at the end and not have to transfer any data when the selection changes.
If the number of controls is larger, you might want to show just one at a time. That becomes more complex because, when the selection changes, you have to make sure that any changes in the current user control are remembered, remove the existing control and then create and load the new control. Because the process is more complex, there are more options about exactly how to implement it. For that reason, I won't go into specifics here. If you want to go that way, you need to consider those options and how they relate to the specifics of your application and then decide how you want to implement the process. If you do that and encounter an issue along the way, that would be another question.

What have you tried? I am confident there are many ways to achieve what you describe. Since you mentioned a TabControl have you considered using a TabControl without the Tabs and manually switch to the proper tab page whenever the tree view node is clicked.
Something like…
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
tabControl1.Appearance = TabAppearance.FlatButtons;
tabControl1.ItemSize = new Size(0, 1);
tabControl1.SizeMode = TabSizeMode.Fixed;
}
private void treeView1_NodeMouseClick(object sender, TreeNodeMouseClickEventArgs e) {
if (e.Node.Name == "TabPage1") {
tabControl1.SelectTab("TabPage1");
}
else {
tabControl1.SelectTab("TabPage2");
}
}

Put text from TextBox with a Button into a ListView

I have two controls
a FormBox with a Button and a TextBox
a FormView with a ListView
I want to send the text from the textbox from FormBox to the FormView when I click the button.

There are several solutions to this request...
Maybe the simplest one is to pass to FormBox a reference to the existing instance of FormView (e.g. in FormBox constructor)... then you have to set Public as Modifiers in your ListView object (you can do it through form designer in Visual Studio, selecting your ListView object and then editing its properties).
Finally write something like:
myFormView.myListView.Items.Add(new ListViewItem(myTextBox.Text));
in your button click event handler.
This is not the best solution from the stylistic point of view, but maybe it's the simplest.
Accept this answer if it answers your question.

Forms are classes. Easy way is to define constructor for the second form that takes string as input. Now in the first form (where you have the button), instantiate the second form in button click event:
private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Form2 frm=new Form2(textBox1.Text);
//...
}
Now in the second form you get this text value as a string in the constructor. Hold this value in a string variable (for example: listVal) and add this value to the list:
var listViewItem = new ListViewItem(listVal);
listView1.Items.Add(listViewItem);
This is a way you can solve your problem. Please provide your own code work while asking any question.

how to execute code when the tab index changes?

I currently have a tabcontrol on my windows form in visual studio, i would like it so that when the user clicks on a different tab that i can execute some code (for example populate a listbox).
when i double click on the tab it only brings up an onclick event for the body of the tabcontrol.
i was thinking that i may have to create a thread in the form load that will constantly check whether the tab index changes and if it does then execute some code. but surely there must be an easier way?

You can use TabControl.Selecting or TabControl.SelectedIndexChanged event
private void tabControl1_Selecting(object sender, TabControlCancelEventArgs e)
{
//Your code goes here.
}

You should look at TabControl events
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ie/library/system.windows.forms.tabcontrol.selecting.aspx

Dynamic Naming of C# Form Elements

My app needs to be able to dynamically create new form elements and work with them. Right now I have a panel with buttons and labels in it. I need to be able to make a duplicate of this and show it in my app and then work with it.
For example, I have panel1. Inside are label1, button1, and button2.
Label 1 just counts up by seconds.
When you click button1, label1 starts counting up. When you click button2, the timer stops.
My problem is that I need to be able to duplicate panel1 many times and still have the new buttons correspond to the correct labels.
On button_click
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Button theSender = (Button)sender;
Panel parentPanel = (Panel)theSender.Parent;
}
From here, I can't target any of the child control . I'm used to targeting and handles in jQuery, so I don't even know the correct C# terminology for how to explain myself.

If understand your problem correctly, I recommend you to make a Usercontrol with a Panel and fill it with your Label, Button and whatever. Write the events for your buttons in the usercontrol. Then introduce this usercontrol in your form and it should work. You can introduce any number of usercontrols in your form and each button will behave/work for the label in that usercontrol only.
As you mentioned you are new in winforms and you are not sure what I am saying, let me know and I will help if I get enough time.
Hope it helps.

Children of a control can be accessed using Control.Contrtols collection, e.g. to access button on a form:
Button btn = this.Controls["button1"];
But that is only true if button1 is placed directly on your form and button1.Name property is set to "button1" (designer does that automattically, if you are creating your controls dynamically, you have to take care of naming your controls yourself.)
You can also enumerate child controls of any control, e.g. child controls of panel1:
foreach(Control c in panel1.Controls)
{
// do something, e.g.
if(c is Label){//do sth...}
if(c.Name.Equals("label1") && c is Label)
{
Label l = c as Label;
}
}
and as #rapsalands said, UserControl may be an answer for you.

I would create a user control (UserControl) for this.
Check this article for more explanation about the difference between Control and UserControl.
Controls and UserControls are easy to duplicate and the full functionality is there.

You can create new UI Controls in code as you would any other object: Button b = new Button();
Then you can add them to the form using form.Controls.Add(b). You'll need to position and size the controls as well (there are properties available for doing this) and hook up your event handlers using b.Clicked += form.button_click;.
To see an example of this, you can try having a look at the designer.cs file that is generated in Visual Studio (don't make changes to it, just have a look). It will look quite complex at first but might go some way to helping demystify Windows Forms, and you will be able to find all of the properties you need to set in there.
Whenever you update something in the designer, Visual Studio generates new code and puts it in the designer.cs file. The entire form is set up in the InitializeComponent() method, which is called from the constructor of your form. You should be able to copy some of that code and with a couple of modifications use it for creating your own dynamic UI elements.
As rapsalands says, it sounds like a user control would be useful in this situation, as it will help encapsulate the functionality you're after. However that may take a bit of time to get your head round and you may find it simpler for now to do everything in your form without creating a new control.

So you are a beginner and need some time to understand Usercontrol as I mentioned in my previous answer. Use a for loop in the Constructor or Load event of your form to dynamically generate controls.
Panel panel;
Label label;
Button button1;
Button button2;
for(int i = 0; i > count; i++)
{
panel = new Panel();
button1 = new Button();
button2 = new Button();
label = new Label();
panel.Controls.Add(button1);
panel.Controls.Add(button2);
panel.Controls.Add(label);
Controls.Add(panel);
button1.Click += Event1;
button2.Click += Event2;
}
private void Event1()
{
label.Text = "Button 1 Clicked."
}
private void Event2()
{
label.Text = "Button 2 Clicked."
}
This way certainly you can create as many controls you want and will also serve your purpose. Use some variables to locate the panel controls appropriately. Set any properties you wish to add in the for loop for the controls.
This is just an alternative for my previous answer. I still recommend the previous answer given by me. This code is dummy and not tested.
Hope it helps.

Adding controls to tab page runtime

I am using C# and winForms, I have a few tabcontrols, which contains a few tab pages,
I would like to add all tab pages my user control, it would be best, If I could add it after user click on tab page. It works for me only, when I add this controls in constructor - what makes delay at application start - about 3 seconds, what is very much.
I would like to add this controls at run time, like
tabPage1.onClickEvent()
{
tabPage1.Controls.Add(myUserControl);
}
but it didnt works, I also tryied to use Invalidate, or Refresh method but it not works.
So is there any possibility to add this userControls in other method than constructor?
Maybe its problem, that I have TabControl inside TabControl and I have to add this controls throught parent TabControl?
Thanks!

Try double clicking the tag page in the designer, or you can add the event handler manually like this:
tabPage1.Click += new EventHandler(tagPage1_Click);
I don't know whether tabPage1 is dynamic, but if it's not, you should add the above event handler to your designer.cs file.
Here is the event handler in the code:
protected void tabPage1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tagPage1.Controls.Add(new TextBox());
}