[RESOLVED] Dynamically set control property enum

[ooKmonkey]

Hi, not sure if I'm going to explain this right but here goes

I have a control, and one of the properties of the control is an enum (Basically lists available images)

Now I'm trying to dynamically create the control on a form using info stored in a database. I was going to store the value for this image as a string but I cannot figure pout how to set this property using that string.

Any ideas or how to do this better?

Thanks for your help

[dolot]

How are you storing the images themselves? Are they part of the control's or project's resources, files on disk, in the database?

[techgnome]

Dont' store it as a string... store it as the number that it is...

-tg

[Shaggy Hiker]

It sounds like enum is the wrong word, or the wrong usage. If there are a set of available images, and the property can be set to one of those images, then it sounds more like a Dictionary(of String,Image) to me, where the string is the key that references a specific image. You could extend that with an enum by making it a Dictionary(of Integer, Image) and set up an Enum with the values having the integer values of specific dictionary keys, but that's probably not an ideal solution because it would make your set of images static. As far as I know, there is no way to dynamically add members to an Enum, so you'd be restricted to the set of values you put in the Enum at design time.

Which approach ends up being better probably depends on how you intend to use this. If the purpose of the enum is to set the image at design time, then you will have a fixed set of images anyways, so an enum makes sense. If you want to be able to select images dynamically at runtime, and might want to have different sets of images available, then just using a dictionary would seem like a better option. You can always get the set of keys from the dictionary if you want to display them to the user such that they can select one, and you can make a property that takes a string and sets the image using that string as the key for the dictionary.

[kareninstructor]

If by chance you are storing images as project resources take a look at the following article.

[ooKmonkey]

Hi

Just to clarify a little. The control is a bought in control that has these images predefined for the property.

I'm trying to add this control dynamically to a form and set the relevant properties based on the info from a database. To set the image its

Control.image = controlimage.imagename

I did try just setting it to a relevant integer but that didn't seem to work as it only accepted the above format. (I need to recheck that though)

I was hoping to pull the available options for this property into a list and then match up against the string in the dB but it looks.like that might not be possible.

Your probably right that its not an enum but I can't think of another way of explaining it.

[dolot]

Sounds like you might need just a good ol' fashioned function with a Select Case statement to translate the integer to the appropriate value.

Private Function GetImage(ByVal ImageIndex as Integer) as Object

     Select Case 1
          Return ControlImage.ImageName1
     Select Case 2
          ... etc ...

end Function

[ooKmonkey]

Yeh I was hoping there was a better way but its looking like that might be the answer.

I'm going to check with the vender to see if they have a way to expose them.

[Shaggy Hiker]

There is a better way, if ControlImage is the name of an enum. An enum pretty much is an integer, but you can't just use an integer in place of an enum. You can convert it, though:

Control.Image = Ctype(yourNumberHere, ControlImage)

That should work as long as the number you supply is actually one of the values for the enum, which it sounds like it will be, since you get the integer from the enum in the first place.

[ooKmonkey]

Nice one Shaggy

I have now sorted this.

I really wanted to avoid creating a giant select case statement so I have created the following sub

ImageList = New List(Of ImageItem)
        For i As Integer = 1 To 500
            Try
                Dim TImage As ControlImage = CType(i, controlImage)
                If TImage .ToString <> CStr(TImage ) Then
                    Dim img As New ControlImageitem
                    img .Name = TImage.ToString
                    img .Index = TImage 
                    ImageList .Add(img)
                End If
            Catch ex As Exception

            End Try
        Next

this basically cycles through all available images and populates a list with its index and name

which I can then use to lookup against later

Thanks for all the help