Visual Basic

17-May-04 3:56

XGaMeS wrote:
I am NOT a newbie

You risk alot putting this on the table! Poke tongue | ;-P

You can enumerate through the MDIChildren collection in your parent form:

Dim strName As String
Dim frmChild As Form
Dim x As Integer

For x = 0 To Me.MdiChildren.Length - 1
    frmChild = CType(Me.MdiChildren(x), Form)
    strName = frmChild.Name
Next

RageInTheMachine9532

Re: Mdi Form

XGaMeS17-May-04 4:02

XGaMeS

17-May-04 4:02

Greet! thanks you Blush | :O

And I found another way to do exactly what I was looking for.

<br />
If Not IsNothing(ActiveMdiChild) Then<br />
    Select Case ActiveMdiChild.Name<br />
          Case "name"<br />
          lblnameform.Text = "[text]"<br />
End Select<br />

I am a newbie

ActiveDesktop in VB.NET

Emdek17-May-04 2:23

17-May-04 2:23

Hi,

I'd like to know how to incorporate the ActiveDesktop in my VB.NET project.
Can some point me to a how-to guide or a FAQ on this topic?

T.I.A.

Emdek

Happy coding.... Laugh | :laugh:

>Colt 45: The Perfect Point'n'Click Interface <

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 3:15

17-May-04 3:15

Your going to have to describe what you mean by "incorporate". ActiveDesktop is a variation of the desktop, where you can have it display a working web page or image or whatever. It's like having a web browser for a desktop.

So what do you mean by incorporating this into your app?

RageInTheMachine9532

Emdek17-May-04 3:52

17-May-04 3:52

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. "incorporate" was rather a poor choice of words. "Get access to" is more in the line of desires Wink | ;-)

And maybe ActiveDesktop is the wrong place to look for, but it seem to me the logical place to start.
What I'd like to build is an opaque form, containing an analogue clock. No big Deal...butI want it permanenlty on top /allways visible (full-screen) and really transparant, i.e. without interfering with other programs/user-interaction, etc.
So, am I looking in the correct direction ?

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 3:59

17-May-04 3:59

Not exactly. Having your clock app on top of everything will essentially stop the user from clicking on anything on the desktop, or even right-clicking the desktop. Your purpose is better servered by a Java applet running in an HTML page. That way, the desktop sits on top of your clock and you won't prevent the user from getting to their desktop.

RageInTheMachine9532

Emdek17-May-04 4:30

17-May-04 4:30

Hi Dave,

Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
will essentially stop the user from clicking on anything

that's exactly what I'm trying to solve here. I have to figure out how to pass all user-interaction through my form without distortion. In effect I want my form to act as a layer between the user and the desktop a.k.a Windows. I'd like to be able to 'project' a clock (and/or statusmessages) on screen in a transparent fashion without interfering the user in his/her work. Like the H.U.D.S. you see in fighterplanes ?

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 8:48

17-May-04 8:48

I can't think of a way your going to accomplish this. Just repeating mouse clicks isn't as easy as it sounds. Your form, literally, has to minimize before the mouse clicks are going to go their destination, then your form can come back and repaint.

Also, having your clock on top of the desktop icons will alter the coloring of the icons themselves. Icons under your clock are going to be colored funny and possibly even greyed out. This is a violation of the GUI design guidlines that describe a consistant user experience.

I don't see how your going to pull this off without a near impossible implementation of your clock app. You can map mouse click to the Desktop window and send the desktop the mouse click messages, but I just don't see how your going to get past context menus and icon manipulation since those will require you forwarding all mouse actions to various windows.

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Nome

Emdek17-May-04 9:37

17-May-04 9:37

Hi Dave,

I'm aware I've pulled a 'verry tough cookie' out of the jar, but I'd like to explore this path a little further.. It probably will set your mind at peace that I'm not an overenthousiastic newbie, but a weather-worn veteran with more than 25 years in the trenches Wink | ;-)

So I kinda know where I'm going...
This is in my opinion the a feassable concept:
Draw a borderless full screen form with an transparant background and pipe all WinProc messages received by this form to the next form/object in Z-order. This way it should not interfere with the GUI guidelines ?
The analog clock idea I was writing about was primarely for my own use, but I can forsee the use of a non-intrusive way of displaying data like background-processtatus or CPU temperature or whatever one deems interesting ?

Your feedback on this is highly apreciated!

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 9:56

openfile dialog box in VB.Net

17-May-04 9:56

Sounds good, ... can apply to a bunch idea's like you've got. I was thinking more of an ActiveX solution, running in an HTML page. But with stuff like CPU temp and fan speed, an ActiveX control would get the data from a dedicated app running as a service, then rendering on the page. This kind of thinking is a bit deprecated in the .NET world and forthcomming Longhorn.

Ummmm...I have heard of apps that'll play a DVD movie on the desktop, behind all the icons and everything. Your desktop is still usable too! You might want to try checking into the technique's used there to paint the background image. I don't know that names of any packages, but you might want to check SourceForge.

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Nome

rubdub17-May-04 2:07

rubdub

17-May-04 2:07

okay i recently made a VB program to allow a user to select a file and open it.. but the thing is..the openfile dialog box opens, it lets user chose a file to open..then wen u click open, nuthin opens! no error message comes but nothing gets opened...do i hav to maybe provide a data grid on the form to open the file? why cant it just open the file in its default environment? say u want to open a .txt file..why wont it open the .txt file in notepad? or do i NEED to provide a data grid on the form? does anyone know how it works? do i need to bind the file to a datagrid?!...Any comments are welcome!!! Smile | :)

rubdub

Re: openfile dialog box in VB.Net

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 3:11

Re: openfile dialog box in VB.Net

17-May-04 3:11

The OpenFiledDialog only tracks which file the user PICKED to open. It will not open the file for you. You have to supply the code to open the file in the way you want. Datagrid's won't help you at all...

RageInTheMachine9532

VBGuruWantabe17-May-04 10:03

VBGuruWantabe

17-May-04 10:03

Look at the "FileName" property of the "OpenFile" dialog. It will be set to the file path of the choosen file. The "Cancel" button will return a null string in "FileName".

If "to err is human", programmers must be superhuman...

FAX

chintan197916-May-04 23:37

chintan1979

16-May-04 23:37

Can I send a fax from VB application ??

Chintan

Re: FAX

rubdub17-May-04 2:09

rubdub

17-May-04 2:09

i guess ANYTHING is possible with VB.Net Wink | ;)

if u find out how to do this then i'd like to know too Wink | ;)

rubdub

Re: FAX

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 3:05

17-May-04 3:05

Sure. If you have a FAX printer driver installed, just print to that like any other printer.

RageInTheMachine9532

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 0:44

17-May-04 0:44

Sorry! You have to write the code. We will help with the code you come up with, but we will not just give you the code to do it for you. That would be cheating on your part since you are responsible for the code you turn in. Plus, it's the only way your going to learn anything! Smile | :)

RageInTheMachine9532

Dave Kreskowiak17-May-04 3:08

17-May-04 3:08

All the OpenFileDialog does is prompt the user to PICK the file he/she wan'ts to open. It won't open it for you, but it will return the full path and filename of the file that was picked. It's up to you to supply the code to open the file which ever way you need to.

...and a datagrid is not going to help you in this project...

Assignments are not given out without first covering all the material that your going to need to complete it. What's wrong with going back over everything that was covered since the last project?

RageInTheMachine9532

beowulfagate19-May-04 0:17

beowulfagate

19-May-04 0:17

Assuming that you have some knowledge with programming in Vb.Net, start by downloading the Primary InterOp Assemblies for Office from Microsoft. Included is an example how to program against the object model. Good luck learning the mammoth object model! Smile | :)

Dave Kreskowiak19-May-04 2:27

19-May-04 2:27

Hi there!

Are you telling me this, or the original poster? You might want to try posting this in Reply to the original poster so he gets the email message that someone responded to him.

Thanks!

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome