newbie first steps

Being new to VB in general I need some advice.

I am writing an application which should:

convert a file containing data separated by ";"

display this in a listview

allow me to select an row item and (in most cases) play the file it represents

Also I should be able to import XML and do the same as above..

I have the ";" separated data in a hashtable
I have the XML files displayed using a datagrid..

I have spent some time reading a number of books, but they all fall short on explaining how to set this up for me.. The best I found sofar is Mastering Visual Basic.NET, but I find the info to be lacking..

Also I need to learn to do simple stuff like having a window pop up when I select a certain item in a context menu.. I understand where this code has to go, but I just do not seem to be able to find a resource on these 'simple things'..

You might have guessed this should turn into an MP3 player, but I want to have the 'recordcase' working first..

So.. I would very much like to know where to look for a good book on these issues.. I found there's a lot of rubbish books out there that do me no good so I need some help here..

for that I thank you in advance..

Most books you will find won't cover more advanced areas, therefore it is usually left to the programmer/developer to use other resources (such as forums).

Break down exactly what you want it to do step by step and we can help you with it.

OK.. problem 1:

broke up the original data (from the ";" separated file) and now I have a hashtable which contents I would like to show in a listview. As I understand it each row would consist of one item and a number of subitems.

As I know the keys in the hashtable I can get the right value from the hashtable and put them in the right sequence of subitems.

The problem is that I would like to show the Columheaders eventhough I have no items in the listview yet. my attempts sofar only show the headers if I start filling the listview. Or am I going the wrong way and should I create a schema and use a datagrid? But then the question is how do I get the data from the hashtable onto the datagrid? The only leads I found are using a database or XML and I have neither (yet) I guess I could create a XML file, but that's a de-tour of sorts..

The second problem is that it appears to me I cannot move colums around on a datagrid, I need a listview for that. That is where my reasoning I need a listview comes from..

Then I have an XML file which I need to display in the same way.. I can read the XML and put it on a datagrid without a problem, but then I seems to be unable to move colums around so ..

I'll leave it at that for now as its getting complicated quickly :)
Feel free to let me know if you think I am jumping in at the deep end and should learn to swim first.. :bigyello:

Oh and one other (small) issue at hand..

I want to open a dialog to set which colums to hide/show from a context menu in the 'main' listview.. I have the event for the menuitem, but fo rthe life of me I cannot figure how to do that.. I created another form so I guess I would 'just' call the new vb code with that second form but how? (flipping pages did not help me here either.. ;) )


It's probably right in front of me.. but I can't see it

Seems I hit a hard one here :p

Quote:

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Originally posted by paulheu
Oh and one other (small) issue at hand..

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I should really learn how to read manuals.. duh.. :blush:

Quote:

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OK.. problem 1:

The problem is that I would like to show the Columheaders eventhough I have no items in the listview yet.

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I guess I'll answer my own questions.. selecting 'Details' as listbox mode might help here (Duh again.. :bigyello: )

Quote:

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The second problem is that it appears to me I cannot move colums around on a datagrid, I need a listview for that. That is where my reasoning I need a listview comes from..

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I guess I do need to use a listbox instead of a datagrid..

What I would like to know is whether there is a way to get data from a XML into a listbox without having to decyfer the XML myself.. I guess I can use the dataset for that but I need some pointers here..

Funny how you learn a lot once you set your mind to it.. ;)

Maybe this will help

tnx, I'll have a look at that code..