Sirdots
asked on
Sharing forms between 2 menuitems and changing name property based on each selection using VB.Net 2003
I have a windows application (VS 2003) with a 2 menu item
Menu1 has the following submenus
form1
form2
form3
Menu2 has the following submenus
form1
form2
form3
Only one copy each of form1, form2 and form3 exist.
I want to be able to use the threee forms between the two submenus
so that when a user clicks on Menu1- form1 he gets this
and when a user clicks on Menu2 - form1 he still gets form1.
The name property should show where the form is been called.
I will be reading sqlconnection strings from the app.config file
and they each vary for Menu1 and Menu2(totally different)
How can I code this so that when the user clicks on Menu1 - form1,
the connectionstring from app.config is retrieved and when
user clicks on Menu2 - form1, another connection string from app.config is used.
Thanks.
Menu1 has the following submenus
form1
form2
form3
Menu2 has the following submenus
form1
form2
form3
Only one copy each of form1, form2 and form3 exist.
I want to be able to use the threee forms between the two submenus
so that when a user clicks on Menu1- form1 he gets this
and when a user clicks on Menu2 - form1 he still gets form1.
The name property should show where the form is been called.
I will be reading sqlconnection strings from the app.config file
and they each vary for Menu1 and Menu2(totally different)
How can I code this so that when the user clicks on Menu1 - form1,
the connectionstring from app.config is retrieved and when
user clicks on Menu2 - form1, another connection string from app.config is used.
Thanks.
ASKER
Thanks Hillwaaa, Maybe I should explain better. I want to be able to determine where (i.e from which menuItem) the forms are been called. This is because
Menu1 - form1 has a different connection string
Menu2 - form2 has a differenct connection string.
I hope this helps.
Thanks.
Menu1 - form1 has a different connection string
Menu2 - form2 has a differenct connection string.
I hope this helps.
Thanks.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Thanks Hilwaaaa. Now what does the ByRef "from" stand for?
Am I going to pass the name of Menu1?
Am I going to pass the name of Menu1?
No worries- the "from" is just a string.
So when you click on Menu1 - form1, you would call the "setCalledFrom" function in form1 passing in this string, which can be whatever you want it to be, but the idea is that it indicates that the form was opened using Menu1. This string then gets set to the "calledFrom" string - which should be a variable declared in form1.
Then when you are building your connection string, you can just use the IF statement to see if "calledFrom" indicates if the form was opened using menu1 or menu2.
Does that help?
So when you click on Menu1 - form1, you would call the "setCalledFrom" function in form1 passing in this string, which can be whatever you want it to be, but the idea is that it indicates that the form was opened using Menu1. This string then gets set to the "calledFrom" string - which should be a variable declared in form1.
Then when you are building your connection string, you can just use the IF statement to see if "calledFrom" indicates if the form was opened using menu1 or menu2.
Does that help?
ASKER
Thanks. Now I am very close. What is happening is that I do not have access to the setCalledFrom("Menu1") if I do a form1.setcalledFrom("Menu1
from my menuclick event. I thought once I hit the dot it should give me the setCalledFrom in the intellisence but it is not doing that.
from my menuclick event. I thought once I hit the dot it should give me the setCalledFrom in the intellisence but it is not doing that.
Did you set the "setCalledFrom" sub as "private"? - this will prevent access from your menuclick. If so, change it to "public" or "friend".
May I suggest a different approach ?
in Form1 create a sub new(ConnectionString as string)
and that should be it !
Like so
public class Form1
inherits system.windows.forms.form
...
...
...
'these are the new lines to add
Private ConnString as string = string.empty
'
Public sub New(ConnectionString as string) 'New In the form code
me.new()
me.ConnString = ConnectionString
me.ConnectionVariable = new Connection(ConnString)
'where ConnectionVariable is the name of the connection variable you have in the form
'new Connection --- should be new SqlConnection or whatever connection type you have in the form
end sub
end class
in your menuItem Click event where you create the form do this
private sub Menu1Form1_click(sender as object, e as eventargs) handles menu1Form1.click
dim frm as new form1("Menu1 Connection String should go here")
frm.show()
end sub
private sub Menu2Form1_click(sender as object, e as eventargs) handles menu2Form1.click
dim frm as new form1("Menu2 Connection String should go here")
frm.show()
end sub
this should do it for you :)
in Form1 create a sub new(ConnectionString as string)
and that should be it !
Like so
public class Form1
inherits system.windows.forms.form
...
...
...
'these are the new lines to add
Private ConnString as string = string.empty
'
Public sub New(ConnectionString as string) 'New In the form code
me.new()
me.ConnString = ConnectionString
me.ConnectionVariable = new Connection(ConnString)
'where ConnectionVariable is the name of the connection variable you have in the form
'new Connection --- should be new SqlConnection or whatever connection type you have in the form
end sub
end class
in your menuItem Click event where you create the form do this
private sub Menu1Form1_click(sender as object, e as eventargs) handles menu1Form1.click
dim frm as new form1("Menu1 Connection String should go here")
frm.show()
end sub
private sub Menu2Form1_click(sender as object, e as eventargs) handles menu2Form1.click
dim frm as new form1("Menu2 Connection String should go here")
frm.show()
end sub
this should do it for you :)
note that you need to reinitialize your database objects after setting the new connection string
in your menu item click event, set the name property of the form:
form1.Name = "Form1 - from menu1"
and from the other:
form1.Name = "Form1 - from menu2
Cheers,
Hillwaaa