Develop Reference

ActiveX Control Design Mode Property Change Issue

I'm using a self-authored ActiveX control on an MS Access form. On adding the Active X control, I can set a custom design time property without issue. However, if I go back into design mode to change the value of the design time property, the property change is not retained. Appreciate for guidance on why design time change to custom property is not retained. Is the ActiveX control design missing some required functionality to retain design mode property changes?
To recreate the issue:
Using the ActiveX control in C# as per Microsoft sample found at C# ActiveX Control (CsActiveX)
After compiling the sample, open MS Access, add a reference to the CsActiveX.tlb from the C# project.
Add the CsActiveX control (csActiveX.CSActiveXCtrl) to a form and set it's custom 'FloatProperty' to 5. Save the form.
Open form in 'Form View' and the float property is displayed as expected i.e. 5.
Re-open the form in design mode and change the 'FloatProperty' to 8. Save design changes.
Re-open form in 'Form View' but the float property is displayed as 5 and not 8 as expected. i.e. the change in design mode was lost!
Fyi, if I use the ActiveX control in a c# Win Forms application, the control works as expected. Also, I'm inexperienced in ActiveX control design and am using this sample as a base on which to design my own custom controls for use in VBA.

WPF element hosted in ElementHost not redrawing correctly

I'm writing a program to implement COM component in C#. This component provides a UI component too. In the interest of making it easy to implement future additions to the component, I decided to write the UI in Xaml using WPF and wrapping it in an ElementHost control to provide the handle back to to the COM consumer.
Here's where this gets interesting. The element is being hosted in a win32 tab control. The first time the tab is selected, it loads fine. Switching to another tab and coming back causes it to not draw the component correctly. If I move the mouse through it, it'll draw the TextBox elements, but it'll never redraw the whole UserComponent.
I've tried every possible solution I've seen suggested, from changing the height/width values of the component to putting the HwndTarget in SoftwareOnly rendering mode.
I'm not sure what to try at this point, so suggestions are welcome. I'd really like to do this without using Windows Forms as the future maintainers of this aren't the best programmers and it's a lot easier to tell them to write up a Xaml file with data bindings than manually lay out a form and set the values in the code-behind.

Haven't met such problem yet.
Try to force refresh or focus (methods) to the hosting wrapper or HwndSource when switching to the hosting tab.

WPF find control under mouse without modifying the application

I'm creating a log system ('outside' the application) that logs all the click on the application. I have setup a PreFilterMessage function wich detects a click from the mouse, but I can't find the control/element that was clicked.
I've tried with Mouse.DirectlyOverbut the element is always null.
I've tried also with VisualTreeHelper.HitTest but I don't have a Visualto make the search from.
I don't have access to the inside of the application: only to the Main method (with the Application.Run(new MainForm()); and my Application.AddMessageFilter(new Logger());).
Does anyone have an idea (or a walk around) on how to get the clicked control in the application (in .Net 3.5)?

I've been using an amazing little application called Snoop for some time now that I think does exactly what you're after, it's open source (C#) and may be of use to you if you can find out how it works. (All WPF developers should get this and no I don't work on Snoop lol)
http://snoopwpf.codeplex.com/

Can/how do you host a full VB6 Form in a C# WPF app?

I am currently exploring the option of porting some older VB6 application to WPF with C#. The plan, in phase one, is to port several key forms and not all the application. The theoretical goal is to open the VB6 form in a container of some sort within WPF via an ActiveX dll.
Is this even possible?
I've tried looking at the Interop and can't seem to find a solid example of how get it to work with anything but Win32 controls, not a full form. I have full access to the old VB6 code and can modify it in anyway needed.
The following screenshot of the main WPF app would serve as the wrapper/container:
http://www.evocommand.com/junk_delete_me/main_menu_mockup.png
The current VB6 maintenance screen that would be loaded in the “white space” section on the right side of the previous screen.

I was able to accomplish the task with the following steps:
Created a new VB6 Active X Control Project. Copied and pasted the entire contents of the VB6 form controls and code behind into the new control. There are several elements that have to be handled in switching to a control:
you lose the ability to display
the caption of the form in the
previous manner. You can work around
it with alternate controls
(label/borderlesstextbox, etc) that
accomplish the same functionality if
needed. This wasn’t a priority since
each screen was being hosted in a
browser like tab system in our new
.Net project.
All mousepointer references have to
be changed from Me.Mousepointer to
Screen.mousepointer
You cannot use Me.Hide and have to
alternate events to hide the .Net
container.
Any and all references to
Me.[anything] have to be removed or
replaced with UserControl.[anything]
if they are applicable.
If you use any functions that
reference a
[yourcontrol].Contianer.Property on a
form they will need to be altered to
loop through the UserControl.Controls
collection instead and “Container” is
invalid for vb6 ActiveX controls
All non-modal forms/dialog boxes
must be removed from the project as
there is now no Hwnd to handle in WPF.
You get an error of 'Non-modal forms
cannot be displayed in this host
application from an ActiveX DLL,
ActiveX Control, or Property page'.
In our case we had a simple splash
screen that would display when certain
long processes/reports displayed to
let the user know what was running.
I was unable to directly add the VB6 control via the interop to a WPF project . As such a new .Net “Windows Form Control Library” project was created. A reference to the VB6 OCX was added to the project. The VB6 Control s were then added to the .Net toolbox by “right click” –> “Add Item” and pointing a com reference to the VB6 control ocx. The .Net control was then used to host/serve the VB6 Control.
To display host a form in the VB6 and get it to fire the necessary initialization functionality the VB6 OCX controls were defaulted in a Visible.False manner so they were initially added to the .Net OCX as invisible controls. When needed the VB6 control is set to visible = True which fires the UserControl_Show() event. All code formerly in Form_Load() was moved to this event. The show event was the easiest method of accessing the Form_Load as needed. MSDN: “The control does not receive Show events if the form is hidden and then shown again, or if the form is minimized and then restored. The control’s window remains on the form during these operations, and its Visible property doesn’t change.”
Wrapping the vb6 controls within a .Net Winform control resolved the issue with Radio/Option buttons being rendered as black as outlined elsewhere in one of my responses to this question without having to convert the frames to Picture boxes as suggested.
In the WPF app as a menu choice is selected xaml code is dynamically created and displayed via a wrapper with a WindowsFormsHost tag. A dynamically created control object from the .Net winform app is then pushed into the WindowsFormsHost tag on the xaml and the control is made visible on the .net project which fires vb6 UserControl_Show and then load and display of the vb6 form.

I think what you will have to do is extract the VB6 form contents into an ActiveX control. You can then expose this in your ActiveX dll and place that in your WPF form. I doubt it's possible to host a VB6 form within any other type of form.

Can you even load that VB6 form in another VB6 form? I suggest you get that working first.

There is no reliable way to set parent of a VB6 form. You can always hack it or use plain ActiveX control (UserControl in VB6) as UI container instead of VB6 forms.

I found a method to do what was needed within WinForms rather than WPF at this point.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb-interop/VB6formsinNET.aspx
I figure if I can get it working 100% there I can port it over to WPF or worse case host the WinForm element in the WPF form if I absolutely have too (U-G-L-Y).
Anyway, I've gotten a bit closer, but am having a very odd issue with certain controls painting too the screen. Radio/Option buttons are rendering as solid black:
http://www.evocommand.com/junk_delete_me/optionbuttons.png
I've tried explicitly changing the controls' background color from buttonface to a fixed color and it still does it. I'm assuming it's a layering issue with the option buttons being within the frame control. I'm at a bit of a loss on how to proceed without massive rework of the VB6 content to change the options buttons to checkboxes. It's a hefty app and there are 600+ option button controls across the application that I don't exactly want to deal with.
EDIT:
I was able to confirm it has something to do with the layering of the option within a Frame control. If pulled out to the base form the issue does not occur:
http://www.evocommand.com/junk_delete_me/optionbuttons2.png

problem with pop up object list with visual-studio-2008

I'm developing ASP.net project with C# using vs visual-studio-2008. when I drag drop asp control from tool box to the design view then I go to the code behind I should see the control in pop up object list. at the begin I had no problem but not when I drag and drop any new control I can not see it and even if I write it manually when give me an error this this name not exist.

A few things:
- Can you compile your code? Compilation errors often cause problems with intelli-sense
- Is your designer properly connected to the code behind?
- Try making a new WebForm to see if you have the same problems there
- Any DLL references that are broken?