change a property of an item in MdiParent

[adshocker]

hi all,

using a plugin architecture, i created a Form Class that holds the Mdi Form. it has menustrip, toolstrip and statusstrip.

child forms are created as class and are loaded into the Mdi Form at runtime.

using interface, i was able to execute subs and functions of a child in the Mdi Form and vice versa.

now i need to change property values.. to be exact, i need to change the enabled property of the toolstrip buttons depending on which child form is activated using the form_activated event of the child form.

the problem i now have is how to change the property of the toolstrip item in the Mdi Form.. should i be using interface on this as well by creating subs in the interface and have the Mdi Form implement this interface?

or can i use Property classes for this?

thanks

[stanav]

ChildForm.MdiParent gives you the reference to the parent mdi form. You just cast it to the actual type of your mdi parent and then you can access its members. For exmaple, if I have Form1 is the mdi parent and Form2 is an mdi child, in Form2, I can do:

Dim myParent As Form1 = DirectCast(Me.MdiParent, Form1)
myParent.Text = "Hello, how are you doing?"

[winsrp]

you can also raise an event on your child form and catch it on the parent, so you can continue execution without worrying about how much the parent has to change before you continue.

[adshocker]

ChildForm.MdiParent gives you the reference to the parent mdi form. You just cast it to the actual type of your mdi parent and then you can access its members. For exmaple, if I have Form1 is the mdi parent and Form2 is an mdi child, in Form2, I can do:

Dim myParent As Form1 = DirectCast(Me.MdiParent, Form1)
myParent.Text = "Hello, how are you doing?"

hi,

thanks for the reply..

was just wondering that since this is a plugin architecture, i won' be able to do

Dim myParent As Form1 = DirectCast(Me.MdiParent, Form1)

since Form1 (Name of MdiParentForm) will not be accessible at design time.

or is this not the case?

you can also raise an event on your child form and catch it on the parent, so you can continue execution without worrying about how much the parent has to change before you continue.

i will try to dig more about this raise event... first time hearing it

thanks

[adshocker]

hi all,

i've been trying to study raising events but i just don't get it...

i've been reading this sample here..

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9aackb16.aspx

but i don't see how to apply this to my situation.

can someone explain how this is done?

thanks.

[winsrp]

example
mdi parent code

private sub call_child()
  Dim Childform As New FRM_MDICHILD
  AddHandler Childform.NewEvent, AddressOf A_Sub_On_Myself
  Childform.MdiParent = Me
  Childform.Show()
end sub
 
private sub A_Sub_On_Myself(some_value as integer)
  label1.text = some_value
end sub

mdi child code

Public Event NewEvent(ByVal Info As Integer)
 
private sub extensive_operation
  for x as integer = 0 to 1000
    raiseevent NewEvent(x)
  next x
end sub

so when the child calls the raiseevent, it sends the value of X, out to the world, since this event has a handler on the parent, and it will be caught and sent to the sub that was designated to process that event.. which in this example will change the value of a label.

Hope it helps.

[adshocker]

thanks... i might be able to come up with something thru this.