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I have a picture box on my Windows App Form. I created an Images Folder that has 6 different images in it. The Copy to Output Directory is set to Always for each of those images. Now Im supposed to set the Image location for the picture box to the Images folder but when I put the location of the images folder in there the picture box has a X on it. How do I fix this?
Thanks in advance!!:)
"Im supposed to set the Image location for the picture box to the Images folder" -- no, what you should be doing is setting the image location to a FILE in the Images folder... not the folder itself.
Also are you doing this at runtime, or at design time? If at runtime, what does your code look like?
-tg
Im doing it on design time. But I have 6 different images so how would all of those be one location if its not the folder?Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Well a picturebox can only show one picture...
-tg
Well my assignment is to create a Hangman Game so I need the image to change as it goes, thats why I have 6 different images.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Are you required to have the images in a folder like that? If not, then I would suggest that you add them as resources (Project | Properties, on the Resources tab select Add Resource | Add Existing File).
This will be much easier to work with than drawing the from a folder. Once added as a resource, all the pictures are available as My.Resources.SomeFileNameHere. So, when you needed to switch images, you'd just be setting the image to a new resource.
If you can't use resources, and have to use files, then with that number of files, you might consider simply loading them. I don't believe there is an automated way to cycle through images in a folder, and even if there was it would be pretty brittle (how would it know the order?). So, you can load all the images into an array or list of images when the program starts, or you could load each one as needed. The former would be a bit easier, and likely a bit more efficient, too, but either way will work fine. In both cases, YOU will be the one saying which image is next. It might be the next image in an array, or a new image from a file name, but either way there isn't any automatic solution.
Im not sure the school says do add folder and name it images...but I dont understand how to set the image location so that all of them are used..?? I added them as resources like you said instead but what would the image location be for the picture box now that they are under resources?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
okay now I have another problem..because my instructions also says to set each image to Copy Always under the Copy To Output Directory but I cant do that now that they are considered a resource..so Im going to keep it as a folder like the instructions said instead of making them resource..but that still doesnt solve the image location issue
The PictureBox can only display one image at a time. If you want the display to change then you need to change the ImageLocation to the path of a different file. Each time the user gets a letter wrong, you change the ImageLocation to the path of the next file. If you wanted a Label to display different text then you'd change the Text property of that Label, right? This is no different. If you want to change the image displayed, change the ImageLocation property.Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyM1105
Yeah, it sounds like your instructions are to keep them in a folder, so using them as resources would not be right.
I assume that these images are different images of a partial stick figure, but is that right? I am thinking that you start with one image that has none of the stick figure, then after each wrong guess you switch to a different image. If that isn't the way this is supposed to work, then how is it supposed to work. I don't want to be suggesting one thing when you actually need something completely different.
EDIT: I see I was posting as JMC was posting, but he's under the same impression I am that the picture changes after each wrong guess. Is that right?
{edit: As for the following post, I didn't see the previous three posts at the time I put this together}.
As Shaggy Hiker says, you need to have six places to store the image. In one case, they are already stored in the folder on the disk, so you can just load them as needed, but that is somewhat involved.Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyM1105
The alternative is to preload them somewhere, and doing that at run time can still be a bit involved.
In your case, you're trying to load them at design time in the IDE, which is the easiest, and the way it should be done is just adding them to your resources as Shaggy suggests.
But, if you want an easy, but less optimal solution, you could just accept the one image at a time in a picturebox and use multiple pictureboxes to hold the images. As already stated, this is not the best solution, but is fairly simple for a beginner to understand.
As an example, start a new project and add a picturebox to the form. Set the visible property to False so you won't see the picturebox when you run the program.
Now, copy that picturebox, and paste a copy of it to the form five more times. Now you should have six pictureboxes, all not visible when you run, and named Picturebox1 to Picturebox6.
Create a seventh Picturebox from the tool box and size it to the size you need to display your images. For the example, name it HangDisplay. This is where you'll display your images one by one.
Select the first picturebox (Picturebox1) and select the image propery and click the small button with the "..." on it to bring up the Select resource dialog. Select "Local resource:" and click on the "Import" button. Find the first image you want to use in the file dialog and select Open. On the "Select Resource" dialog select "OK" and you should see the picturebox now holds the image selected. Since you won't see this at run time, you don't have to size the picturebox to see the whole image, its all there.
Repeat the process for each picturebox (2 to 5), loading each with the next image in the sequence.
When you start the code, you can add these pictureboxes to an array so that you can access them by number to retrieve the image and assign it to the HangDisplay picturebox.
If you set it up properly, you can test it with this code. You just need to add a button to step through each image to see it work.
Code:Public Class Form1
Private HangImgs() As PictureBox
Private HangState As Integer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
HangImgs = {PictureBox1, PictureBox2, PictureBox3, PictureBox4, PictureBox5, PictureBox6}
HangDisplay.Image = HangImgs(HangState).Image
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
HangState += 1
If HangState > 5 Then
HangState = 0 'game over, start a new game or perhaps game over when HangState = 5, display final state and offer a new game
End If
HangDisplay.Image = HangImgs(HangState).Image
End Sub
End Class
{Note that I didn't see posts #7, #8 and #9 before writing this:}
Of course, it is actually easier to do this better using resources, so lets see that in action.
In this case we don't need to add the six pictureboxes so that is simpler already.
Open up the Resource tab as Shaggy suggested
If you select "Images, then "Add Existing File..." under "Add Resource", you get a directory listing.
Browse to your folder, then holding the ctrl key and clicking each file you want, or click on the first file, then hold the Shift key when you click on the last file to select all the files you want to add.
Click the "Open" key and all the files selected will be added to the Resource in one fell swoop.
Now you can modify the previous example to add the resource images to an array of images, and the code will work similar to the previous example.
{Note in my case, I just added six of the smallest size images that I had in a directory, so the resource identifier names are derived from the files I loaded. Yours would be different, and probably more meaningful}
Using Resources to hold the images is actually quite a bit easier than the multiple pictureboxes example, and much less resource intensive.
Code:Public Class Form1
'Private HangImgs() As PictureBox
Private HangImgs() As Image
Private HangState As Integer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' HangImgs = {PictureBox1, PictureBox2, PictureBox3, PictureBox4, PictureBox5, PictureBox6}
HangImgs = {My.Resources.CircleCompare,
My.Resources.LabelAligned,
My.Resources.mSummation,
My.Resources.RedBar,
My.Resources.testcursor,
My.Resources.uestTLu}
HangDisplay.Image = HangImgs(HangState)
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
HangState += 1
If HangState > 5 Then
HangState = 0 'game over, start a new game or perhaps game over when HangState = 5, display final state and offer a new game
End If
HangDisplay.Image = HangImgs(HangState)
End Sub
End Class
I certainly agree that there are better ways to do this but, if the assignment tells you that you are supposed to use the ImageLocation property then that's probably what you should do. Some instructors will appreciate your taking initiative while others will not appreciate your not following instructions. In that case, I'd tend to suggest naming the images based on the number of wrong guesses that they represent. You can then store the number of wrong guess in an Integer variable and use that to create the file path, e.g.
vb.net Code:
Just expanding a little on what has already been said.
The images folder (directory) that you created is part of your application. To access the images you will first need to know the path to the images folder, this will be made up of the application startup path and the location of your folder in the IDE solution explorer, in my case the path was
FolderPath is now the string that contains the path to my images folder. You can see that I named each image with a number as jmcilhinney suggested. Next I tested the results using a form with one button and one picturebox, the x variable is incremented with each click of the button and resets to a value of one when x reaches four, cycling throught each of the images in turn.Code:Private FolderPath As String = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "images")
Attachment 156529Code:Private FolderPath As String = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "images")
Private x As Integer
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
x += 1
If x = 4 Then
x = 1
End If
PictureBox1.ImageLocation = IO.Path.Combine(FolderPath, x.ToString & ".jpg")
End Sub
Yes thats right.. I have written it out in my code but no matter what I put in the image location it keeps showing a red X.. Here is my Game Form code...Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Code:Public Class GameForm
' Define variables
Dim dsQuestions As String 'Object variable
Dim numWord As Integer ' To hold index of word
Dim word As String ' Hold actual word
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer ' Hold number of wrong guesses
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer ' Hold number of right guesses
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = False ' Indicate if game has started or not
Private Sub GameForm_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' Disable txtGuess textbox.
txtGuess.Enabled =
' Set numWord variable.
Dim numWord As Integer = 0
' Call the Load Data method.
LoadData()
End Sub
Private Sub QuitToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles QuitToolStripMenuItem.Click
' Close the form
Me.Close()
End Sub
Private Sub NewToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles NewToolStripMenuItem.Click
Dim dsQuestions As New QuestionDataSet
Dim numWord As Integer = 1
numWord += 1
Dim word As String
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer = 10
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer = 5
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = True
' Initialize controls
lblUnitDescription.Text = "Choose a game"
txtGuess.Text = lblGuessALetter.Text
' Clear text of all labels.
lblUnitDescription.Text = String.Empty
txtGuess.Clear()
lblLetter0.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter1.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter2.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter3.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter4.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter5.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter6.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter7.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter8.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter9.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter10.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter11.Text = String.Empty
' Enable txtGuess.
txtGuess.Enabled = True
' Set the focus to txtGuess.
txtGuess.Focus()
' Gets word column row
Try
word = CStr(dsQuestions.Words(numWord)(1))
' Gets unit description
lblUnitDescription.Text = CStr(dsQuestions.Words(numWord).UnitsRow(1))
Catch
' Set label control for character.
lblLetter0.Text = "_"
lblLetter1.Text = "_"
lblLetter2.Text = "_"
lblLetter3.Text = "_"
lblLetter4.Text = "_"
lblLetter5.Text = "_"
lblLetter6.Text = "_"
lblLetter7.Text = "_"
lblLetter8.Text = "_"
lblLetter9.Text = "_"
lblLetter10.Text = "_"
lblLetter11.Text = "_"
Dim ch As Char = CChar(CStr(0))
Dim ch1 As Char = "_"
Dim ch2 As Char = "_"
Dim ch3 As Char = "_"
Dim ch4 As Char = "_"
Dim ch5 As Char = "_"
Dim ch6 As Char = "_"
Dim ch7 As Char = "_"
Dim ch8 As Char = "_"
Dim ch9 As Char = "_"
Dim ch10 As Char = "_"
Dim ch11 As Char = "_"
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub txtGuess_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles txtGuess.TextChanged
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = True
Dim word As String = ""
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer = 5
Dim ch As Char
If gameStarted = True Then
If word.Contains(txtGuess.Text) Then
SetRightLetterLabels(word, ch)
numRightGuesses += 1
End If
ElseIf word.Contains(txtGuess.Text) = False Then
pboxHangman.ImageLocation = "Images \ Hangman- & numWrongGuesses & .png"
numWrongGuesses += 1
End If
CheckProgress()
End Sub
Private Sub CheckProgress()
' Calculates the total number of tries.
Dim numTries As Integer
numTries = numRightGuesses + numWrongGuesses
' Displays messages
If numRightGuesses = 5 Then
MessageBox.Show("You in 5 tries!" & ControlChars.CrLf &
"Do you want to play another game?", "You won!",
MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
ElseIf numWrongGuesses = 10 Then
MessageBox.Show("You in 10 tries. The word was ''." & ControlChars.CrLf &
"Do you want to play another game?", "You lost",
MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
End If
End Sub
Private Sub WonGame()
End Sub
Private Sub LostGame()
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer
If numWrongGuesses > 6 Then
numWrongGuesses = True
End If
End
lblLetter0.Text = "_"
lblLetter1.Text = "_"
lblLetter2.Text = "_"
lblLetter3.Text = "_"
lblLetter4.Text = "_"
lblLetter5.Text = "_"
lblLetter6.Text = "_"
lblLetter7.Text = "_"
lblLetter8.Text = "_"
lblLetter9.Text = "_"
lblLetter10.Text = "_"
lblLetter11.Text = "_"
End Sub
Private Sub LoadData()
Dim dsQuestions As New QuestionDataSet
Dim taUnits As New QuestionDataSetTableAdapters.UnitsTableAdapter
Dim taWords As New QuestionDataSetTableAdapters.WordsTableAdapter
taUnits.Fill(dsQuestions.Units)
taWords.Fill(dsQuestions.Words)
End Sub
Private Function FindLabel(ByVal i As Integer) As Control
' Finds the right label in the word panel
Dim label = panelWord.Controls.Find("lblLetter", False)(0)
Return label
End Function
Private Sub SetRightLetterLabels(ByVal word As String, ByVal ch As Char)
For i As Integer = 0 To word.Length - 1
' Check for each letter and set the appropriate letter
If word.Chars(i) = ch Then
FindLabel(i).Text = ch
End If
Next
End Sub
End Class
Anything inside of quotes is treated literally. So, given the following code:Code:pboxHangman.ImageLocation = "Images \ Hangman- & numWrongGuesses & .png"
Would pop up messages in the following order:Code:Dim strMyMessage As String = "Hello!"
Dim intMyNumber As Integer = 1
MessageBox.Show("strMyMessage")
MessageBox.Show(strMyMessage)
MessageBox.Show("intMyNumber.ToString")
MessageBox.Show(intMyNumber.ToString)
From this, you can see that including a variable name inside of quotes does not result in the value stored in that variable to be used.Code:strMyMessage
Hello!
intMyNumber.ToString
1
To demonstrate this, take the path you are trying to use to load an image from, and pop it into a MessageBox statement:
You should see that what is displayed is probably not the intended path to one of your image files.Code:MessageBox.Show("Images \ Hangman- & numWrongGuesses & .png")
okay... This is the location to the Images Folder C:\Users\ENJ1105\source\repos\HangmanApp\HangmanApp\Resources\ImagesQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Here are my instructions...
A PictureBox control that will display the hangman images. You’ll set the ImageLocation property to load the hangman images.
Check to see if the word (word) contains the guess (txtGuess).
If it does, then call the SetRightLetterLabels method (provided below) and increment the numRightGuesses variable.
If it doesn’t, set the image in the pboxHangman and increment the numWrongGuesses variable.
Your code should resemble the following:
pboxHangman.ImageLocation = “images\Hangman-” &
numWrongGuesses & “.png”
numWrongGuesses += 1
Does your code resemble that? If not, then that's probably a good place to start.Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyM1105
But your code doesn't...Quote:
Your code should resemble the following:
pboxHangman.ImageLocation = “images\Hangman-” & numWrongGuesses & “.png”
numWrongGuesses += 1
your code looks like this:
You're missing some quotes there.... that's what Option was trying to tell you... you've got some code inside the quotes that shouldn't be.Code:pboxHangman.ImageLocation = "Images \ Hangman- & numWrongGuesses & .png"
numWrongGuesses += 1
-tg
Oh I didnt even notice that!! I changed that part..but Im still having trouble with setting the Image location on the Design part of it...Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Heres my updated Game Form Code:
location to the Images Folder C:\Users\ENJ1105\source\repos\HangmanApp\HangmanApp\Resources\ImagesCode:Public Class GameForm
' Define variables
Dim dsQuestions As String 'Object variable
Dim numWord As Integer ' To hold index of word
Dim word As String ' Hold actual word
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer ' Hold number of wrong guesses
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer ' Hold number of right guesses
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = False ' Indicate if game has started or not
Private Sub GameForm_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' Disable txtGuess textbox.
txtGuess.Enabled =
' Set numWord variable.
Dim numWord As Integer = 0
' Call the Load Data method.
LoadData()
End Sub
Private Sub QuitToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles QuitToolStripMenuItem.Click
' Close the form
Me.Close()
End Sub
Private Sub NewToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles NewToolStripMenuItem.Click
Dim dsQuestions As New QuestionDataSet
Dim numWord As Integer = 1
numWord += 1
Dim word As String
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer = 10
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer = 5
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = True
' Initialize controls
lblUnitDescription.Text = "Choose a game"
txtGuess.Text = lblGuessALetter.Text
' Clear text of all labels.
lblUnitDescription.Text = String.Empty
txtGuess.Clear()
lblLetter0.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter1.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter2.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter3.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter4.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter5.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter6.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter7.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter8.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter9.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter10.Text = String.Empty
lblLetter11.Text = String.Empty
' Enable txtGuess.
txtGuess.Enabled = True
' Set the focus to txtGuess.
txtGuess.Focus()
' Gets word column row
Try
word = CStr(dsQuestions.Words(numWord)(1))
' Gets unit description
lblUnitDescription.Text = CStr(dsQuestions.Words(numWord).UnitsRow(1))
Catch
' Set label control for character.
lblLetter0.Text = "_"
lblLetter1.Text = "_"
lblLetter2.Text = "_"
lblLetter3.Text = "_"
lblLetter4.Text = "_"
lblLetter5.Text = "_"
lblLetter6.Text = "_"
lblLetter7.Text = "_"
lblLetter8.Text = "_"
lblLetter9.Text = "_"
lblLetter10.Text = "_"
lblLetter11.Text = "_"
Dim ch As Char = CChar(CStr(0))
Dim ch1 As Char = "_"
Dim ch2 As Char = "_"
Dim ch3 As Char = "_"
Dim ch4 As Char = "_"
Dim ch5 As Char = "_"
Dim ch6 As Char = "_"
Dim ch7 As Char = "_"
Dim ch8 As Char = "_"
Dim ch9 As Char = "_"
Dim ch10 As Char = "_"
Dim ch11 As Char = "_"
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub txtGuess_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles txtGuess.TextChanged
Dim gameStarted As Boolean = True
Dim word As String = ""
Dim numRightGuesses As Integer = 5
Dim ch As Char
If gameStarted = True Then
If word.Contains(txtGuess.Text) Then
SetRightLetterLabels(word, ch)
numRightGuesses += 1
End If
ElseIf word.Contains(txtGuess.Text) = False Then
pboxHangman.ImageLocation = “images\Hangman-” & numWrongGuesses & “.png”
numWrongGuesses += 1
End If
CheckProgress()
End Sub
Private Sub CheckProgress()
' Calculates the total number of tries.
Dim numTries As Integer
numTries = numRightGuesses + numWrongGuesses
' Displays messages
If numRightGuesses = 5 Then
MessageBox.Show("You in 5 tries!" & ControlChars.CrLf &
"Do you want to play another game?", "You won!",
MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
ElseIf numWrongGuesses = 10 Then
MessageBox.Show("You in 10 tries. The word was ''." & ControlChars.CrLf &
"Do you want to play another game?", "You lost",
MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
End If
End Sub
Private Sub WonGame()
End Sub
Private Sub LostGame()
Dim numWrongGuesses As Integer
If numWrongGuesses > 6 Then
numWrongGuesses = True
End If
End
lblLetter0.Text = "_"
lblLetter1.Text = "_"
lblLetter2.Text = "_"
lblLetter3.Text = "_"
lblLetter4.Text = "_"
lblLetter5.Text = "_"
lblLetter6.Text = "_"
lblLetter7.Text = "_"
lblLetter8.Text = "_"
lblLetter9.Text = "_"
lblLetter10.Text = "_"
lblLetter11.Text = "_"
End Sub
Private Sub LoadData()
Dim dsQuestions As New QuestionDataSet
Dim taUnits As New QuestionDataSetTableAdapters.UnitsTableAdapter
Dim taWords As New QuestionDataSetTableAdapters.WordsTableAdapter
taUnits.Fill(dsQuestions.Units)
taWords.Fill(dsQuestions.Words)
End Sub
Private Function FindLabel(ByVal i As Integer) As Control
' Finds the right label in the word panel
Dim label = panelWord.Controls.Find("lblLetter", False)(0)
Return label
End Function
Private Sub SetRightLetterLabels(ByVal word As String, ByVal ch As Char)
For i As Integer = 0 To word.Length - 1
' Check for each letter and set the appropriate letter
If word.Chars(i) = ch Then
FindLabel(i).Text = ch
End If
Next
End Sub
End Class
Can you clarify what you mean in the snippet I quoted above?Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyM1105
Yes I can..so my instructions say to create an images folder that has the 6 different Hangman images..which I didQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
The location to the folder is C:\Users\ENJ1105\source\repos\HangmanApp\HangmanApp\Resources\Images
And the instructions say ... Add a PictureBox control that will display the hangman images. You’ll set the ImageLocation property to load the hangman images.
So I created the picturebox control already but no matter what I put as the Image location it keeps giving me a red X in the Picturebox..?? (In design)
Don't get hung up on what the PictureBox looks like in Design mode, what matters is what it looks like when you run the program.
I'm guessing that the intended idea is that when the form is loaded, you set the ImageLocation property of the PictureBox to load whatever the "first" image is supposed to be. Maybe there's one called "Hangman-0.png", I don't know. But you have the images, so you should know which image is supposed to be the one that shows up when the game begins.
So in your GameForm_Load Sub, just add a line like:
Code:pboxHangman.ImageLocation = "Images\WhateverTheFilenameOfTheInitialImageIs.png"
Your exactly right the first file is called "Hangman-0.png" ..Okay so even if I just put one location itll still play out the others? I set the Image Location Property to C:\Users\ENJ1105\source\repos\HangmanApp\HangmanApp\Resources\Images\Hangman-0.pngQuote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
and the picture comes up fine. I was just concerned about the others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmilyM1105
Getting the other images to display at the right time is the entire point of the below line of code that you were asking about earlier:
So that's already done.Code:pboxHangman.ImageLocation = "images\Hangman-" & numWrongGuesses & ".png"
oh okay I read it back over again I understand how its working now. Thank you for your help!! Im having a couple of errors on the code as well, I will start a new thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1