[RESOLVED] [2008] Can't change Panel visibility?

[scootabug]

Yo!

I've created a class, clsWizardStep, to hold the data for the 'steps' for my 'application configuration wizard' and one of the properties of this class is simply to hold which Panel will be visible during the defined step.

The steps are stored in a List(Of clsWizardStep). When I try to set the panel visible, the change in boolean value for the property doesn't take effect.

So culling off any code I can't see being necessary, here's what I've got. Sorry to make this so long, at least I've remembered to include some code!

My class...

Public Class clsWizardStep
 
    Private _Title As String
    Private _Description As String
    Private _Panel As Panel
    Private _ButtonText_Prev As String
    Private _ButtonText_Next As String
 
    Public Property Title() As String
        Get
            Return _Title
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _Title = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public Property Description() As String
        Get
            Return _Description
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _Description = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public Property Panel() As Panel
        Get
            Return _Panel
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Panel)
            _Panel = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public Property ButtonText_Prev() As String
        Get
            Return _ButtonText_Prev
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _ButtonText_Prev = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public Property ButtonText_Next() As String
        Get
            Return _ButtonText_Next
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _ButtonText_Next = value
        End Set
    End Property
 
End Class

Function to add an item to the list:

Public Sub WizardSteps_AddStep(ByVal lstList As List(Of clsWizardStep), ByVal strTitle As String, ByVal strDescription As String, ByVal pnlPanel As Panel, ByVal strButtonText_Prev As String, ByVal strButtonText_Next As String)
 
        Dim thisStep As New clsWizardStep
        thisStep.Title = strTitle
        thisStep.Description = strDescription
        thisStep.Panel = pnlPanel
        thisStep.ButtonText_Prev = strButtonText_Prev
        thisStep.ButtonText_Next = strButtonText_Next
 
        lstList.Add(thisStep)
 
    End Sub

And in this function, I try to change the Visible property of the panel:

Private Sub Wizard_Next() Handles btnNext.Click
 
        If intCurrentPosition < (lstWizardSteps.Count - 1) Then
 
            intCurrentPosition += 1
 
            lblHeader.Text = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Title
            lblStepDescription.Text = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Description
            btnPrev.Text = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).ButtonText_Prev
            btnNext.Text = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).ButtonText_Next
 
            Dim thisPanel As Panel
            thisPanel = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Panel
            thisPanel.Visible = True
 
            Debug.WriteLine(thisPanel.Visible)
 
        Else
            'Perform a Save?
            MessageBox.Show("This is where you save your settings...")
            Me.Close()
        End If
 
    End Sub

The list works fine, the items are created. The properties for the class are set. The panels exist.

I've tried a few different methods for setting the property, none have worked.
I.e.

Dim thisPanel As Panel
            thisPanel = DirectCast(lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Panel, Panel)
            thisPanel.Visible = True
 
'or
 
            Dim thisPanel As New Panel
            thisPanel = lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Panel
            thisPanel.Visible = True
 
'or
 
lstWizardSteps(intCurrentPosition).Panel.Visible = True

Since then, I have tried setting Modifiers properties of the panels to "Public" and that also didn't make any difference. I also tried adding a Sub to the class to change the property but assuming I did that correctly, it also didn't work. Arrgghh!

Clearly I'm missing something here, tried for an hour to nut this out to no avail. Any help peoples? Hope so!

Thanks!
Scott

[scootabug]

Well I finally figured it out. There wasn't really anything 'wrong' with what I was doing (but the combination of small errors did screw me over).

In the end, I've resolved this by keeping my functions and public variables inside the frmWizard form. I'm still pretty confused but it'll all make sense to me someday, I'm sure!