I've tried using the KeyUp and KeyDown events to read keyboard input but as soon as I place other controls on the Winform, the keys are not read. How do I make sure that the keys are read?
You could set KeyPreview = true on your form to catch keyboard events.
EDITED to let you understand:
private void Form1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.KeyCode == Keys.A)
e.SuppressKeyPress = true;
}
Stupid sample that receives keyboard events and drop if A was pressed.
If focus is in a textbox, you'll see that text is written, but not A!!
EDITED AGAIN: I took this code from a VB.NET example.
In your usercontrol, use the text box's "Keypress" event to raise a "usercontrol event".
This code would be in your custom usercontrol:
'Declare the event
Event KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
Private Sub Text1_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
RaiseEvent KeyPress(KeyAscii)
End Sub
See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.keypreview.aspx
set KeyPreview = true and your KeyUp and KeyDown will recognize all keyboard input.
As marco says set KeyPreview to true on your form to catch the key events in the entire form rather than just a control.
Use the KeyPress event ... KeyUp/Down are more for the framework than your code. KeyDown is good if you want to disable a key ... numeric only fields etc. In general KeyPress is the one you're after.
If you want to prevent the keystrokes from propogating to other controls set KeyPressEventArgs.Handled = true.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.keypress(v=VS.90).aspx
Have you wired up the event handler?
MyForm.KeyDown += MyHandler;
You can also do this in the properties pane ... click the event icon ...
If you are looking for your Form itself to read the keyboard input, you already have your answer from other correspondents. I am adding this contribution for the possibility that you might want to add key handling to other controls or user controls on your form. My article Exploring Secrets of .NET Keystroke Handling published on DevX.com (alas, it does require a registration but it is free) gives you a comprehensive discussion on how and why all the various keyhandling hooks and events come into play. Furthermore, the article includes a "Keystroke Sandbox" utility for free download that actually lets you see which controls are receiving which key handling events.
Here is one illustration from the article to whet your appetite:
Related
I've got a winform application. In the application I have a Panel with multiple Buttons.
Now when the Buttons don't have the Focus I can capture the keypressed Events in the form itself. But when the Buttons have the Focus the form (even if the Buttons don't catch the Event explecitely) only they get the keypressed Event and not the form.
Now my question is: Is there any way to centralize the keypressed behaviour (without creating a keypressed Event for each and every button and call a central method with that Event)?
In essence only 1 method needs to be defined with the appropriate Parameters:
Example:
private void Event_Key_Press_Check(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
This method then only Needs to be put in as the Name of the method used in the Event (form designer), or added as the Event.
That way only 1 method is used.
Thus there is no shorter way and the Event Needs to be defined for every single button (instead of 1 central Event that is always triggered).
Set form property KeyPreview to true and set KeyPress handler. Then form will handle this event before buttons.
See KeyPreview MSDN documentation.
I've had the same issue, and it was pretty easy to resolve :)
Check here : KeyPress at form level with controls
Just set the KeyPreview property (of your form) to True. This way your form will handle KeyPress event before any other control, even if one of them has the focus
I noticed something weird , for the textbox there are some events that just appear in the code, but in the design(when I open properties , and click on the events tab) these events are not visible !
for example :
textbox1.LostFocus += textbox1.LostFocus;
or the GotFocus event .
Anybody has an idea regard this ??
thanx in advance
it is because some events not Browsable
if you check the documentation you will see [BrowsableAttribute(false)] for the events like GotFocus
if BrowsableAttribute false then that event not displayed in a Properties window.
Note The GotFocus and LostFocus events are low-level focus events
that are tied to the WM_KILLFOCUS and WM_SETFOCUS Windows messages.
Typically, the GotFocus and LostFocus events are only used when
updating UICues or when writing custom controls. Instead the Enter and
Leave events should be used for all controls except the Form class,
which uses the Activated and Deactivate events.
In which method / function do you register (+= ) that events? Only the events registered in the InitializeComponent (DesignerCode) / constructor code, are considered by the Designer.
Edit: In that case, Damith is right with Browsable(false).
My answer would be valid if you see the event in the Designer, but not the linked event handler method.
I have a TextBox. After leaving the textBox the first character should be a capital Letter.
Three Events work as same. They are Leave,Validating and Validated.
if (txtLocl.Text.Length > 0)
txtLocl.Text = txtLocl.Text.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper() + txtLocl.Text.Substring(1);
Which event of these 3 events should I use?
You can subscribe to the Control.Leave event which will be fired when the control loses focus. Originally, I thought using Control.LostFocus would be the most appropriate event to use but it is not available via the designer meaning you would need to manually subscribe to the event which is a bit ugly and unconventional in my opinion.
private void inputTextBox_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (inputTextBox.Text != string.Empty)
{
string input = inputTextBox.Text;
inputTextBox.Text = input.First().ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).ToUpper() +
string.Join(string.Empty, input.Skip(1));
}
}
You sound like you're interested in Control.Validating. The advantage of using Control.Validating is that you can utilize the event handler's given argument; CancelEventArgs and set the Cancel property to true. What this will do is stop the control from losing focus and forcing the user to enter a valid value. I don't think this is appropriate for your application as you are not really validating anything but formatting the input.
private void inputTextBox_Validating(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
if (inputTextBox.Text == string.Empty)
{
statusLabel.Text = "The given input is not valid.";
e.Cancel = true;
}
}
Bear in mind that when the form closes, all controls subsequently lose focus and the Control.Validating event is fired which could stop the Form closing until all fields pass their relative validation checks. If you find yourself needing to avoid this behavior a quick search will prevail.
There are many other events also available.
As said by MSDN, When you change the focus by using the keyboard (TAB, SHIFT+TAB, and so on), by calling the Select or SelectNextControl methods, or by setting the ContainerControl.ActiveControl property to the current form, focus events occur in the following order:
1) Enter
2) GotFocus
3) Leave
4) Validating
5) Validated
6) LostFocus
When you change the focus by using the mouse or by calling the Focus method, focus events occur in the following order:
1) Enter
2) GotFocus
3) LostFocus
4) Leave
5) Validating
6) Validated
If the CausesValidation property is set to false, the Validating and Validated events are suppressed.
textBox1_Leave is appropriate for you.
Check the events and description about textboxes over here>>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.textbox_events.aspx
Hope its helpful.
You might want to subscribe to LostKeyboardFocus event (in WPF) or Leave event (in WF).
I'd suggest using the Leave because I assume you aren't validating the value, but formatting it. Validating and Validated should contain code for validation and the aftermath of validation respectively, IMO.
How can I capture the Keydown event of a form that is not active?
I found references to ProcessKeyDown but I couldn't find any help on that.
Please set KeyPreview of the form to true. First select form and press f4 key, it will open property window and their is KeyPreview and set it to true.
Right cilck on the form and cilck properties, then there will be flash button , it is for events for that object. Find thier Keypress event. just doulbe click on the column corresponding to that event. It will create event for keypress.
For the documentation and help, check this link.
Keypress events are only sent to Controls that have input focus. You can use the Control.HasFocus property to determine whether your Control has focus or not. Use the Control.Focus() method to give your control focus.
You can set a low level keyboard hook using SetWindowsHookEx() to listen for key press events.
If what you want to do is trigger some code in your program upon keys being pressed in the operating system regarding of whether the form is active or not then you can use the method described in this article:
Processing Global Mouse and Keyboard Hooks in C#
Here is a simple example of a program using that library to simulate a virtual mouse by pressing the numeric keys on the numpad.
'1'-'4' and '6'-'9' are directional keys, '5' is left click, '0' is double click.
Program.cs
Form1.cs
Observe that i didn't call the Application.Run(); with a new Form1() parameter so that the application would run but will not be visible on screen. To end the program you have to press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, go to Processes page and end the process manually.
I've been working for a while on my Windows Forms project, and I decided to experiment with keyboard shortcuts. After a bit of reading, I figured I had to just write an event handler and bind it to the form's KeyDown event:
private void Form1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Control && e.Alt && e.KeyCode == Keys.O)
{
MessageBox.Show("Ctrl+Alt+O: magic!");
}
}
I did that the good ol' way of opening the Properties panel of the Visual Studio designer, then double-clicking on the KeyDown event of my form to generate the Form1_KeyDown event handler. But on testing my application, the form doesn't respond at all to the Ctrl+Alt+O keyboard shortcut. The Visual Studio designer did generate the code to bind the event handler to the form though:
private void InitializeComponent()
{
// ...
this.KeyDown += new System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventHandler(this.Form1_KeyDown);
// ...
}
So I tried adding a Console.WriteLine() call to the handler to check that it was being called at all, but no luck on that either.
Also, I tried to set a breakpoint on the event binding call (shown just above) and found that the program reaches that breakpoint just fine. But any breakpoints I set within the method definition itself are never reached.
To make sure I was doing the first few steps correctly, I tried repeating them with:
A new form in the same solution.
Same issue: the form doesn't respond when I press my Ctrl+Alt+O keyboard shortcut and the debugger isn't even stepping into the event handler. Tried this again and it works.
A brand new WinForms solution.
It works perfectly: the message dialog appears (the Console.WriteLine() call also works).
So I'm quite lost here. What's preventing all the forms in this one project from receiving KeyDown events?
Does your form have KeyPreview property set to true?
Form.KeyPreview Property
Gets or sets a value indicating whether the form will receive key
events before the event is passed to the control that has focus.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.keypreview.aspx
The most common piece of advice for this problem on StackOverflow and the MSDN1, 2 (including the accepted answer here) is quick and easy:
KeyDown events are triggered on a Form as long as its KeyPreview property is set to true
That's adequate for most purposes, but it's risky for two reasons:
KeyDown handlers do not see all keys. Specifically, "you can't see the kind of keystrokes that are used for navigation. Like the cursor keys and Tab, Escape and Enter for a dialog."
There are a few different ways to intercept key events, and they all happen in sequence. KeyDown is handled last. Hence, KeyPreview isn't much of a preview, and the event could be silenced at a few stops on the way.
(Credit to #HansPassant for those points.)
Instead, override ProcessCmdKey in your Form:
protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData) {
if (keyData == Keys.Up)
{
// Handle key at form level.
// Do not send event to focused control by returning true.
return true;
}
return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
}
That way, all keys are visible to the method, and the method is first in line to see the event.
Note that you still have control over whether or not focused controls see the KeyDown event. Just return true to block the subsequent KeyDown event, rather than setting KeyPressEventArgs.Handled to true as you would in a KeyDown event handler. Here is an article with more details.
Try setting the KeyPreview property on your form to true. This worked for me for registering key presses.