Develop Reference

Add and read Multiple textboxes

What is the best way to create and read multiple textboxes in a windows form? In my application, I have a windows form where customer can enter multiple addresses, email addresses
Right now I have a form like this,
TextBoxAddress1 TextBoxEmail1
TextBoxAddress2 TextBoxEmail2
.....
.....
.....
TextBoxAddressN TextBoxEmailN
For this I dragged and dropped multiple controls on a form and named each one of them.
If I use this method I had to write lengthy code to see if first row (TextBoxAddress1 TextBoxEmail1) is filled for validation and even for reading I had to write many lines of code.
Is there a better to way achieve this?

You can use the following code to add a TextBox dynamically to your form:
private int m_CurrTexboxYPos = 10;
private List<TextBox> m_TextBoxList = new List<TextBox>();
private void CreateCheckBox()
{
m_CurrTexboxYPos += 25;
TextBox textbox = new TextBox();
textbox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, m_CurrTexboxYPos);
textbox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(100,20);
Controls.Add(textbox);
m_TextBoxList.Add(textbox);
}

I would have a listbox/listview with your emails and Add/Edit/Delete buttons which show a popup form - the logic for validating emails, etc. would then be in the one place and your list can grow without you ever needing to add controls to the form.
You could dynamically create textboxes - but you end up writing code to make sure they layout nicely on the form, etc. - having some type of list is easier IMO and also lends itself to binding (e.g. to an email object)

Dynamically adding controls is pretty simple, provided you can use DockStyle and an exclusive container for them (e.g. a Panel). If you can't use DockStyle, then you need to write logic to determine Location and Size (which isn't fun).
On a simple form, I have two buttons and a panel, Button1 adds a new TextBox to Panel1, Button2 iterates through the controls in Panel1 and then checks that they are the correct type or throws an exception. This is where you you would put validation or reading logic. Panel1 needs to have AutoScroll = true; otherwise you will run controls off of the viewable screen.
This concept can be switched for anything that inherits from UserControl (all .Net native controls or your own custom controls).
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox NewEmailBox = new TextBox();
NewEmailBox.Name = "NewEmailBox" + this.panel1.Controls.Count;
NewEmailBox.Dock = DockStyle.Top;
this.panel1.Controls.Add(NewEmailBox);
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (Control item in this.panel1.Controls)
{
if (item is TextBox)
{
//Do your reading/validating here.
}
else
{
throw new InvalidCastException(string.Format("{0} was in Panel1 and is of type {1} not TextBox!", item.Name, item.GetType()));
}
}
}

Write a user control for each of the groupings you need. at least one One for address, one for email etc. then all of your validation, calls to your database access is contained in a single location
That is just good design. this way if you have multiple tabs for things like Home Information, Work Information, Emergency Contact Information, you can just place them on the form. This is pretty common for a user profile.
Then a listview for each grouping on a user profile page or whatever, that has edit/delete/add then popup a dialog with the appropriate user control in it.

Most simply, ListBox adove TextBox with Button.
Also you can use DataGridView, BuiltIn functionality for Add\Edit\Delete.
Here using DataGridView (ShowHeader set to false, EditMode to On Enter, with one Column with AutoSizeMode in Fill property)

The less of repeatable code you have, the better programmer you are.
Whenever you see a pattern (something what is repeatable), you could and you should try to optimize it. Unless it's something too small to worry.
In your case, determine first what is the basic of repeatable thing. Do you always have to enter address and email address? Then combine them into a control, which can carry out validation. Do you have to use this control often (or repeat N times)? Then maybe it make sense to switch to a list instead (ListBox, ListView or DataGridView).
Are you too lazy to bother configuring things? Then just optimize something what is obviously going to repeat: put validation into common method and call it from each TextBox event. Or make own TextBox with method build-in. Or do validation at once in the Ok button event by using loop.. or not by using loop.
To find best method you have to first decide best for who. Because customer want something shiny,easy to use, animated, with cats and boobs.. ok, without cats and boobs. The point is: how much work are you willing to put to have it best for the customer.
If I would have to enter table data (or data which form table), I'd go with DataGridView so it would looks like this.. or better:

Setting description of an item in Visual Studio -and- changing what "this" refers to

I'm working in Visual Studio 2010 and I'm dealing with C#; I've made a statusStrip that I intend to use as my tool-tip viewer, its .text attribute changing depending on the control the mouse has entered. I've got two textBoxes and I'm trying to make it such that entering the control fires a function called tooltipEnter, and leaving it fires a function called tooltipLeave. Here's my code for those two functions:
private void tooltipEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
toolStripStatusLabel1.Text = this.AccessibleDescription;
}
private void tooltipLeave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
toolStripStatusLabel1.Text = "Look here for tool-tips regarding the form!";
}
The problem with this is that, first, I'm not sure AccessibleDescription is the right attribute to saddle the description to, and I'm not sure of the most elegant way to do the toolStripStatusLabel1.Text assignment in the first place. Second, this in the program's frame of reference refers to the form on which these controls lay, not the controls themselves; How do I refer uniformly to "the control that just got entered" in a way that allows me to have just the one function for all entries, without having to make different ones for each control?

The problem with this is that, first, I'm not sure
AccessibleDescription is the right attribute to saddle the description
to, and I'm not sure of the most elegant way to do the
toolStripStatusLabel1.Text assignment in the first place.
AccessibleDescription is just some string instance referenced in your form, from this code. The text assignment is done in the only way possible. I'm not sure what your question is regarding this.
Second, this in the program's frame of reference refers to the form on
which these controls lay, not the controls themselves; How do I refer
uniformly to "the control that just got entered" in a way that allows
me to have just the one function for all entries, without having to
make different ones for each control?
sender is always the object from which the event was raised in the EventHandler delegate: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.eventhandler.aspx

How can I create dynamic controls in response to a button click?

I want to fill an updatepanel with new dynamic controls in response to a button click.
However, I also want to be able to access the values of these dynamic controls in response to an event in one of the controls.
Specifically, I want the button to bring up two dropdownmenus. One of the menus (or both if need be) is in another update panel. I want the first menu in the update panel to change its data in response to a value getting selected in the other menu.
I think my problem is that when I cause a postback with one dropdownmenu I lose the other dropdownmenu because I created it in the button_click handler.
I know I should create dynamic controls in the Page_Init method (or so ive heard) but I only want the controls to show up if the button is clicked. There are other buttons on the page which need to create a different set of dynamic controls.
Thanks.

There are a lot of ways you can handle this, and which approach to take really depends on your project's requirements and your available resources.
The smoothest way to do it that would generally provide the best user experience would be to use a Javascript technique to hide and show controls as the page required them. JQuery is the library I would recommend for this. On the most basic level, you simply wire the control's activation (such as a button_click event) and hide or show a div containing the dynamic content as necessary, like so:
$("#control").show();
// and
$("#control").hide();
Alternatively, you can do this in C# by using the Visible property on many of the normal web controls for ASP.NET. The usual code-behind approach would look something like this:
private void btnControl_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var dynamicControl1 = FindControl("dynamicControl1");
dynamicControl.Visible = false; // or true, as the case may be
}
This particular approach is mostly attached to code-behinds, though, which I would encourage you to avoid if possible. They are practically impossible to test and will make projects a pain to work in. You can use a similar approach in the MVC3 framework, of course, it will just be a little different how you send and receive the control you are setting to not be visible. The other benefit this has that is kind of nice is that if something is set to not be visible, it tends not to even be displayed in the HTML generated by the templating engine (YMMV depending on the engine, but I know this is true in Razor). So someone viewing the source of your webpage won't be able to see inactive controls, which may or may not be something that appeals to you.
EDIT: I see the problem is less to do with how to display these things, and more with how to create and read them back given on-the-fly input.
I'm sure there's a way to do this with Javascript (which would more than probably be the cleanest and best way to do this), but I'm not good enough with JS to know the answer to that one. The way you would handle this in ASP.NET is make the div you're going to add controls to server-side (by using runat='server', then add what you need there. Again, the trivial code-behind approach would be something like:
private void btnControl_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach(var checkBoxChecked in chkBoxes.Where(x => x.Checked))
{
div.Controls.Add(new WebControl()) // or whatever the heck else it is you need.
}
}
This presumes that you have an IEnumerable<CheckBox> to iterate over, of course. You may also want an IList<WebControl> to keep track of all the junk you're adding. You will also need to make sure the CSS is applied properly to the div for the controls you're adding. And again, code-behinds are pretty awful and I use the example only because it'd be easy to spin up in a project to test for yourself.

Calling Methods from seperate usercontrols in the same form

I really had no idea what to title this question.
Assume I have a windows form application. The GUI is complex enough to require two custom user controls, "LeftSide" and "Rightside" which each are composed from various buttons, labels, and maybe even another custom user control.
My question:
I am in in the scope of the "Rightside" control. How would I call a method from the "Leftside" control?
I am using Visual Studio 2008.

The simplest solution is to make a property on the RightSide control of type LeftSide, then set it to the LeftSide instance in the form designer.
You can then call public methods on the property.
However, this is poor design.
Each usercontrol should be a self-contained block that doesn't need to directly interact with other usercontrols.
You should consider restructuring your form.

Exact equivalent with standard WF controls: how to keep the text of one text box in sync with another:
private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
textBox2.Text = textBox1.Text;
}
Necessary ingredients: an event on your user control that is fired when something interesting happens. And public properties.

Unable to Affect Scintilla Control Programmatically at Runtime

I'm attempting to use the ScintillaNET control in an application I am working on. I drag and drop the control into my form and run form. The control appears on the form. This is good. In addition, if I set any of the properties in the control's properties editor (ConfigurationManager.Language, for example), I am able to type in that language and see syntax highlighting occur.
Where I run into problems is when I attempt to change properties programmatically. For example, I attempt to load text from a file into the form (I'm doing this in the form's Load). The text doesn't display. I also can't seem to show the line numbers or do any other number of tasks (including programmatically change the Language).
Any idea what I may be doing wrong? Even something as simple as the code below doesn't seem to work:
private void scintilla1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
scintilla1.ConfigurationManager.Language = "xml";
}

Simply add scintilla1.ConfigurationManager.Configure();
private void scintilla1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
scintilla1.ConfigurationManager.Language = "xml";
scintilla1.ConfigurationManager.Configure();
}

After spending some time playing around with the different events, it appears that I cannot affect the Scintilla control until after it is already visible. Hence, the "Load" event does not let me make any programmatic changes to the control until I've set it visible.
It's a little strange, and seems sort of pointless to me to have the Load event at all, but I just wanted to let everybody know what is happening in case someone else ran into the same problem.