[RESOLVED] Form validation

[Tinbeard]

Just a quick question, I have an application that has about 15 textboxes and 5 checkboxes contained in 3 groupboxes. What I want to do is only enable the 'Save' button once all the required information has been added (basically I want to prevent partial submissions).

I'm using an ErrorProvider to check the textboxes but this only works when the textbox has focus. I'm thinking of using a timer event to check through the textboxes and enable the 'Save' button once all the conditions are met, is this a good way of doing it ?

[Xmas79]

Can't you use "foreach mycontrol in myform" loop?

[[FPI]Stiffen]

Im not sure exactly wat you mean, but if you want to make sure the textbox isnt empty just use:

If txtTextBox.Text = "" Then
MsgBox("Please enter some text")
End If

[jmcilhinney]

No that is definitely not a good way of doing it. What you can do is set the Enabled property of the Button to False to begin with. You could then have a method that checks each control for a valid value and sets the Enabled property of the Button accordingly. You could then call this method from the Validated event handler of each control. Here's an example where there are three TextBoxes and the valid condition is that they all have at least one non-white space character in them.

Private Sub TextBox1_Validated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.Validated, _
                                                                                                TextBox2.Validated, _
                                                                                                TextBox3.Validated
        Me.SetButtonState()
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub SetButtonState()
        Me.Button1.Enabled = Me.TextBox1.Text.Trim() <> String.Empty AndAlso _
                             Me.TextBox2.Text.Trim() <> String.Empty AndAlso _
                             Me.TextBox3.Text.Trim() <> String.Empty
    End Sub

[jmcilhinney]

Actually, it would probably be a better idea to use the TextChanged event of the TextBoxes and the SelectedIndexChanged event of the ComboBoxes to call the SetButtonState method. That way you don't have to wait unitl focus leaves the last control and the Save Button will be enabled when you're ready to click it, rather than you having to shift focus to enable it.

[Tinbeard]

Thanks for the help and advice