[2008] Open and Close(all but first) with modal or zorder forms

I'm trying to get multiple forms to open/close in a certain way. I want them to either be modal, stay on top with zorder, or something similar...so, the user will have to: a) give input, b) can ask for help in that form with another button, or LogOut. It needs to be able to close all other forms back to the first (form1) with a LogOut button at other point. So, right off I was playing with modal and couldn't get Form2 to close. I'm not sure if this is the better way to approach it though or the details of how. If anyone has any better ways, I'd be glad to hear, thanks. (VS 2008)

Code:

---

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim form2Active As New Form2
        form2Active.ShowDialog()
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Form2
    Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
        Dim form3Active As New Form3
        form3Active.ShowDialog()
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Form3
    Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
        Form2.Close()
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

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Form3 should not call Me.Close. It should set its own DialogResult property. The value you set will be returned by ShowDialog, so you can return a different value depending on whether Form2 should close itself too.

Alternatively, Form3 could expose a public property that indicates whether Form2 should close or not. After ShowDialog returns, Form2 can test that property of Form3 and then decide whether to close based on the value.

Your code in form3 is flawed. Since in form2 you declared form3 as a dialog form, form2 will no longer respond until form3 is closed. Therefore in form 3 when you use Form2.Close(), you're going to error out or simply have no effect. Do you want the forms to collapse like dominoes? Then simply change your code for form2 and form3 to this:

Code:

---

Public Class Form2
    Private Sub Button2_Click( _
        ByVal sender As System.Object, _
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
    ) Handles Button2.Click
        Dim form3Active As New Form3
        form3Active.ShowDialog()
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Form3
    Private Sub Button3_Click( _
        ByVal sender As System.Object, _
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
    ) Handles Button3.Click
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

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Of course, this is a very rough piece of code, which will always close form2 as soon as form3 is closed. If you want more flexibility to choose whether to close form2 when form3 is closed, then you can use the DialogResult property like this:

Code:

---

Public Class Form2
    Private Sub Button2_Click( _
        ByVal sender As System.Object, _
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
    ) Handles Button2.Click
        Using form3Active As New Form3
            If form3Active.ShowDialog() = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then _
                Me.Close()
        End Using
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Form3
    Private Sub Button3_Click( _
        ByVal sender As System.Object, _
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs _
    ) Handles Button3.Click
        Me.DialogResult = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK
    End Sub
End Class

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Thank you jmcilhinney and MaximilianMayrhofer. This was a simplicaton of what I'm having the forms do, but I'm going to try returning a boolean flag for logout from each form. I can evaluate that and if bolLogOutFlag is true, skip over opening new modal forms and skip entering incomplete data into database, returning to the login form. I'll post again once I get it working or run into trouble.