Loading Multiple Forms

I Have a Small form (frmAddItemNumber) with a text box (txtAdditemNumber) and a command button(cmdAddItemNumber)

This is what I need the form to do.
1) Connect to the database (Complete)
2) Store the value entered into textbox to database. (Complete)
3) Load a blank form so the user can draw on it. Must be a different form for each value entered in the textbox. (Not Complete)

Any Ideas on how to do #3. Someone told me that I could use a hashtable but I could not get it to work.

Dim NewForm As New Form1
Dim MyHashTable As New Hashtable
MyHashTable.Add(1, NewForm)
Dim CurrentForm As frmAddItemNumber = MyHashTable(1)
CurrentForm.Show()

Your CurrentForm is a different type than the Form you put in the Hash Table. One is type Form1, the other is type frmAdditemNumber. The following code works fine:

Dim MyForm As New Form1
Dim ht As New Hashtable
Dim CurrentForm As Form1

ht.Add(1, MyForm)

CurrentForm = ht(1)

CurrentForm.Show()

And you can even leave out the CurrentForm and do:

Dim MyForm As New Form1
Dim ht As New Hashtable


ht.Add(1, MyForm)

ht(1).Show()

It works!! I am new at VB.Net. What is the best source of information to learn vb.net. Books, internet sites? If so, what books or sites are the best.

Thanks for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only thing wrong with the way my program runs right now is that I need to bring up new forms every time the add button is clicked on. Right now we have it set up to bring up form1. Is thier a way to create new forms each time?

You could change the type to just Form, but if I am remembering correctly you had some draw functions as part of your Form1. Why not create a new blank form that just has the draw functions you need and make that the type that you new and add to the Hashtable?

Well i am using my draw form instead of form1. so when the additemnumber button is seleted the draw form loads up. So now when I draw on the form I need to be able to save it to the database so I can retrieve it later. Is this posible?

Look into object Serialization.

What does this line of code mean

ht.Add(1, MyForm)

You are adding an object called MyForm to the hashtable collection keyed to 1.

I have a book that talks about serializable but ties it with xml. Saving it to a file. Do you know where I kind find info on using vb.net with an sql database?

I can't say that I've played around with it too much. I would guess though that you could serialize your forms into a MemoryStream, and then use a BinaryReader to read data from that stream and write it to, for example, an image field in a SQL Server database. I've never tried to do it though, so that is just a thought of a possible approach. Maybe somebody here has done it and knows better.