Now that you have seen how to create a Windows application from the command
line, let's create a Windows application using the VS.NET wizard.
Creating a Skeleton of the Application
Select New->Project->Visual Basic Projects->Windows Application from your VS .NET
IDE (Figure 9.3).
Figure 9.3: Creating a Windows Application Project
Press the OK button. The IDE takes you to the Design view of a form as in Figure
9.4.
Figure 9.4: Design View of a Windows Application.
If the Solution Explorer is not visible, it can be opened from the View menu.
The Solution Explorer (see Figure 9.5) provides a list of all available files in
your project. The Form1.vb file contains the code for the form and its controls.
Figure 9.5: Available Classes in a Windows Application Project
To view the code added by the wizard, right-click on Form1.vb and select the
View Code menu option as illustrated in Figure 9.6.
Figure 9.6: View Code Option
The code added by the wizard is discussed in the "Reviewing the Code" section.
Adding Controls
The next step is to add controls to the form. To open the toolbox, choose the
View->ToolBox menu item as shown in Figure 9.7.
Figure 9.7: Toolbox Option
Figure 9.8: The Toolbox
The toolbox looks like that in Figure 9.8. To add controls to the form, drag a
control from the toolbox onto the form and position it anywhere you want. Drag
two Button controls and a TextBox, a Label, and a CheckBox control to the form
and adjust them so that the form is similar to that shown in Figure 9.9.
Figure 9.9: Controls on the form in design view
Set the properties of these controls by right-clicking the control and selecting
the Properties menu option. The Properties window, shown in Figure 9.10, permits
a developer to set design-time properties from within VS.NET. The property list
varies, as would be expected, depending on the control type. The design-time
values can be considered a control's default values, as they can be changed
anytime during the program's execution. A property's value may be changed in two
locations. If a value on the property page is altered, that change is reflected
in the InitializeComponent method's code, and vice versa a property's value
modified in the code is mirrored on the property page by VS.NET.
Figure 9.10: Properties Window
Set button1's Text property to Set Color and button2's property to Set Font.
Reviewing the Code
Now let's review the code that the Form Designer has written. You can view the
code by rightclicking Form1.vb and choosing View Code. The code generated by the
wizard appears in Listing 9.3. An instance of the form is created in the Main
method as a parameter in the call to Application.Run().
Listing 9.3: Code Added by the Wizard for the Windows Application
Imports
System.Drawing
Imports
System.Collections
Imports
System.ComponentModel
Imports
System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.Data
Namespace
Listing9_3App
Public Class
Form1
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
Private button1
As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Private button2
As System.Windows.Forms.Button
Private textBox1
As System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
Private label1
As System.Windows.Forms.Label
Private checkBox1
As System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox
Private components
As System.ComponentModel.Container =
Nothing
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal
disposing As Boolean)
If disposing
Then
If components
IsNot Nothing Then
components.Dispose()
End If
End
If
MyBase.Dispose(disposing)
End Sub
#Region "Windows Form Designer generated code"
Private Sub
InitializeComponent()
Me.button1 =
New System.Windows.Forms.Button()
Me.button2 =
New System.Windows.Forms.Button()
Me.textBox1 =
New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox()
Me.label1 =
New System.Windows.Forms.Label()
Me.checkBox1 =
New System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox()
Me.SuspendLayout()
' button1
Me.button1.Location =
New System.Drawing.Point(24, 24)
Me.button1.Name =
"button1"
Me.button1.Size =
New System.Drawing.Size(112, 40)
Me.button1.TabIndex = 0
Me.button1.Text =
"Set Color"
' button2
Me.button2.Location =
New System.Drawing.Point(160, 24)
Me.button2.Name =
"button2"
Me.button2.Size =
New System.Drawing.Size(120, 40)
Me.button2.TabIndex = 1
Me.button2.Text =
"Set Font"
' textBox1
Me.textBox1.Location =
New System.Drawing.Point(32, 104)
Me.textBox1.Name =
"textBox1"
Me.textBox1.Size =
New System.Drawing.Size(104, 20)
Me.textBox1.TabIndex = 2
Me.textBox1.Text =
"textBox1"
' label1
Me.label1.Location =
New System.Drawing.Point(176, 104)
Me.label1.Name =
"label1"
Me.label1.Size =
New System.Drawing.Size(120, 24)
Me.label1.TabIndex = 3
Me.label1.Text =
"label1"
' checkBox1
Me.checkBox1.Location =
New System.Drawing.Point(120, 168)
Me.checkBox1.Name =
"checkBox1"
Me.checkBox1.Size =
New System.Drawing.Size(176, 40)
Me.checkBox1.TabIndex = 4
Me.checkBox1.Text =
"checkBox1"
' Form1
Me.AutoScaleBaseSize =
New System.Drawing.Size(5, 13)
Me.ClientSize =
New System.Drawing.Size(376, 273)
Me.Controls.AddRange(New
System.Windows.Forms.Control() {Me.checkBox1,
Me.label1, Me.textBox1,
Me.button2,
Me.button1})
Me.Name =
"Form1"
Me.Text =
"Form1"
Me.ResumeLayout(False)
End Sub
#End Region
<STAThread()>
_
Shared Sub
Main()
Application.Run(New Form1())
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace
The wizard creates a default namespace, Listing9_3App, that bears the same name
as the project. It also adds references to various namespaces required by
Windows Forms. Note that the Form1 class is derived from
System.Windows.Forms.Form. The Dispose method performs any required cleanup of
the resources and is called by the runtime when the application closes. The
InitializeComponent method creates the Form and all its child controls. In
Listing 9.3, the wizard sets the essential control properties and adds the
controls to the form via the Controls.AddRange method.
The SuspendLayout and ResumeLayout methods, in the InitializeComponet method,
should not be tampered with without a good reason. As the names imply, the
methods suspend and resume a layout event, which is triggered whenever a child
control must be repositioned or resized. If the layout events are not suspended
during the initial window construction, the unnecessary number of events
drastically slows the window's creation.
Adding an Event Handler
The last part of this tutorial involves adding an event handler for the Set Font
and Set Color buttons. To create an event handler for a button, double-click the
button. This generates the required code for a "click" event. Using this method
for wiring up an event, the event handler method name will contain same name as
the name of the button object. An alternative method is to use the control's
Properties window and click the lightning bolt button as demonstrated in Figure
9.11.
Figure 9.11: Adding an Event Handler for a Button
In Figure 9.11, the button1_Click method is the event handler for that button.
If the control is deleted after creating an event handler, the handler method
must be manually removed.
Next we create an event handler for button2. Listing 9.4 shows the button1 and
button2 click event handlers' code. The button1_Click method uses the
ColorDialog class to select a color and set the colors for all controls. The
button2_Click method uses the FontDialog class to set the font of all the
controls on the form.
Listing 9.4: Button Click Event Handler for Set Font and Set Color Buttons
Private Sub button1_Click(ByVal
sender As Object,
ByVal e As
System.EventArgs)
Dim colorDlg As New ColorDialog()
colorDlg.ShowDialog()
textBox1.BackColor = colorDlg.Color
label1.BackColor = colorDlg.Color
checkBox1.BackColor = colorDlg.Color
End Sub
Private Sub button2_Click(ByVal
sender As Object,
ByVal e As
System.EventArgs)
Dim fntDlg As New FontDialog()
fntDlg.ShowColor = True
If fntDlg.ShowDialog() <>
DialogResult.Cancel Then
textBox1.Font = fntDlg.Font
textBox1.ForeColor = fntDlg.Color
label1.Font = fntDlg.Font
label1.ForeColor = fntDlg.Color
checkBox1.Font = fntDlg.Font
checkBox1.ForeColor = fntDlg.Color
End If
End Sub
Setting Properties at Runtime
We have just shown how to set a control's properties from the Properties window.
You can also set the properties programmatically. For example, consider a
button's color properties. The background and foreground colors of controls can
be changed by using the BackColor and ForeColor properties. The same method for
altering color applies to all control properties. They can be set both at
designtime and runtime.
button1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue
The Font property of a control allows you to change the font of that control.
The Font class of the System.Drawing namespace is used to create a new font. The
following code demonstrates how to change the font of a button. Again, the same
method for changing fonts applies to all controls.
button2.Font =
New System.Drawing.Font
("Verdana", 10, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Bold)
Building and Running the Project
To run the program press CTRL+F5 or click Start Without Debugging on the Debug
menu as shown in Figure 9.12.
Figure 9.12: Building a Project
Now, run the project and click the Set Color and Set Font buttons. The Set Color
button click sets the color of the controls, and the Set Font button sets the
font of the controls. The Set Color button calls the ColorDialog class and lets
you select a color, as you can see in Figure 9.13.
Figure 9.13: ColorDialog Dialog Box
The Set Font button event click calls the FontDialog class (see Figure 9.14) and
allows the selection of a font as well as its color, style, and size.
Figure 9.14: FontDialog Dialog Box
Figure 9.15 shows the application after the color and font have been set.
Figure 9.15: Windows Application Output After Setting Color and Font
Conclusion
Hope this article would have helped you in understanding Creating a Windows
Application in VS.NET using VB.