Child windows in a seperate dll file.

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Child windows in a seperate dll file.

by Induane :: Rate this Message:

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Greetings, I'm new to programming and thus to C#. In fact I'm only a few weeks into my learning process. I've written an app for work and now am rewriting it so that its not so hideous and ugly. At the moment its at like 8000 lines and all in one class with just a ton of methods.

Anyways I've started rewriting it and decided to split the eventhandlers into their own dll file so that it would be easier to maintain and cleaner. This worked to a degree but I'd like to create dialogs that come up and unfortunately I cannot seem to make that happen as it cannot compile due to being unable to locate the parent window. I have the program split up into three files now:

First is a simple file for the exe:

using System;
using drawInterface;
// We'll be using these later I think.
// using Gtk;
// using GtkSharp;

namespace ApplicationWrapper
{

class applicationWrapper
{

static void Main()
{

sowInterface drawSow = new sowInterface();
drawSow.MainInterface();

}

}

}

Simple enough even for someone as slow as me. Now onto the code to draw the interface (almost nothing yet but its a rewrite ;) don't make fun!

using System;
using Gtk;
using GtkSharp;
using eventHandlers;

namespace drawInterface
{

public class sowInterface
{

public void MainInterface ()

{

Application.Init ();

Window window = new Window ("Statement of Work Generator");

/* Set a handler for delete_event that immediately
* exits GTK. */
window.DeleteEvent += OnDelete;

// sets windows size by default. We'll see if we need this later on.
// window.SetDefaultSize (200,200);

/* Set the border width of the window and show the window itself.*/
window.BorderWidth= 5;

/* Create a big ass table and place it inside the main window.*/
Table table = new Table (26, 4, false);
table.SetColSpacing(0, 16);
table.SetColSpacing(1, 16);
table.SetColSpacing(2, 16);
table.SetColSpacing(3, 16);
table.SetRowSpacing(19, 15);
///table.SetRowSpacing(22, 15);
///table.SetRowSpacing(23, 15);
window.Add(table);

/// Create Label for Customer Name
Label customer_name = new Label("Customer Name: ");
table.Attach(customer_name, 0, 1, 0, 1);
customer_name.Show();

/// Create Label for Company Name
Label company_name = new Label("Company Name: ");
table.Attach(company_name, 0, 1, 1, 2);
company_name.Show();

/// Create Label for fuel surcharge percentage
Label fuel_surcharge_label = new Label("Fuel Surcharge (%): ");
table.Attach(fuel_surcharge_label, 0, 1, 2, 3);
fuel_surcharge_label.Show();

/// Create Label for discount percentage
Label discount_percent_label = new Label("Discount (%): ");
table.Attach(discount_percent_label, 0, 1, 3, 4);
discount_percent_label.Show();

/// Create Label for discount reason
Label discount_reason_label = new Label("Reason for Discount: ");
table.Attach(discount_reason_label, 0, 1, 4, 5);
discount_reason_label.Show();

/// Create Label for service options.
Label service_options_label = new Label("Full Service? ");
table.Attach(service_options_label, 0, 1, 5, 6);
service_options_label.Show();

window.ShowAll();
Application.Run();

}

OnDelete2 OnDelete = new OnDelete2();

/*

// Handles exiting when you click the X button - temp disabled as trying to split into dll
static void OnDelete (object obj, DeleteEventArgs e)
{
Application.Quit();
}

*/

}

}

and now the file I'm using for the event handler:

using System;
using Gtk;
using GtkSharp;

namespace eventHandlers
{

public class event_handlers
{

public static void OnDelete2 (object obj, DeleteEventArgs e)
{
/*
MessageDialog md = new MessageDialog (window,
DialogFlags.DestroyWithParent,
MessageType.Question,
ButtonsType.YesNo, "Are you sure you want to quit?");

ResponseType result = (ResponseType)md.Run ();

if (result == ResponseType.Yes)
{
Application.Quit();
}
else
{
md.Destroy();
}
}
*/
Application.Quit();

}

}

As you can see I've commented out the confirmation dialog box. I had though instancing it in my main drawinterface would make it work but it doesn't. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also eventually part of the code will eventually have certain events calling methods that change the values and labels of other widgets so I need to figure out how to do that across libraries as well.

Many thanks and kind regards. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

Brant Watson

P.S. I've also attached an archive that includes my old (horrible) source code as well as the beginnings that are listed above and the makefile to compile the new version. Eventually I'd like to add a preferences dialog as well and make that its own library so that it can be worked on independently. So I'll need to be passing things back and fourth like a madman.
StatementofWork.tar.gz

Re: Child windows in a seperate dll file.

by Michael Hutchinson :: Rate this Message:

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On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 1:42 PM, Induane <oldspiceap@...> wrote:
>
> Greetings, I'm new to programming and thus to C#. In fact I'm only a few
> weeks into my learning process. I've written an app for work and now am
> rewriting it so that its not so hideous and ugly. At the moment its at like
> 8000 lines and all in one class with just a ton of methods.

Wow. that's pretty big. I generally find it's unusual for a file to
pass 1000 lines, and very rare to pass 2000.

I think your problem is that you are not structuring your code in an
object-oriented way. When your are designing your code, structure it
as objects with behaviors, properties etc inherent to those objects.
If there is common functionality that you need to share between
similar objects, put it in a base class, etc.

> Anyways I've started rewriting it and decided to split the eventhandlers
> into their own dll file so that it would be easier to maintain and cleaner.

Why are you splitting event handlers into a separate dll file? What
kind of handlers are you splitting out? Event handlers are generally
pretty specific to the situation, so this doesn't make much sense to
me.

You can have more than one .cs file compile into a single dll or exe

> This worked to a degree but I'd like to create dialogs that come up and
> unfortunately I cannot seem to make that happen as it cannot compile due to
> being unable to locate the parent window.

Note that the signature of an EventHandler (object sender, EventArgs
args) passes you the object that emitted the event as the first
argument.

> I have the program split up into
> three files now:
>
> First is a simple file for the exe:
>
> using System;
> using drawInterface;
> // We'll be using these later I think.
> // using Gtk;
> // using GtkSharp;
>
> namespace ApplicationWrapper
> {
>
> class applicationWrapper
> {
>
> static void Main()
> {
>
> sowInterface drawSow = new sowInterface();
> drawSow.MainInterface();
>
> }
>
> }
>
> }
>
>
>
> Simple enough even for someone as slow as me. Now onto the code to draw the
> interface (almost nothing yet but its a rewrite ;) don't make fun!
>
> using System;
> using Gtk;
> using GtkSharp;
> using eventHandlers;
>
> namespace drawInterface
> {
>
>
> public class sowInterface
> {
>
> public void MainInterface ()
>
> {
>
> Application.Init ();
>
> Window window = new Window ("Statement of Work Generator");
>
> /* Set a handler for delete_event that immediately
> * exits GTK. */
> window.DeleteEvent += OnDelete;
>
> // sets windows size by default. We'll see if we need this later on.
> // window.SetDefaultSize (200,200);
>
> /* Set the border width of the window and show the window itself.*/
> window.BorderWidth= 5;
>
>
> /* Create a big ass table and place it inside the main window.*/
> Table table = new Table (26, 4, false);
> table.SetColSpacing(0, 16);

... snip

>
> window.ShowAll();
> Application.Run();
>
> }
>
> OnDelete2 OnDelete = new OnDelete2();
>
> /*
>
> // Handles exiting when you click the X button - temp disabled as trying
> to split into dll
> static void OnDelete (object obj, DeleteEventArgs e)
> {
> Application.Quit();
> }
>
> */
>
>
> }
>
>
>
> }

For a start, you could have this class subclass Gtk.Window.

public class MainInterface : Gtk.Window
{
public MainInterface () : base ("My window title")
{
//construct the GUI
//hook up the event handlers
}

//define the event handlers
}

then your main class

public class MyApplication
{
public static void Main ()
{
Application.Init ()
MainWindow win = new MainWindow ();
Application.Run ()
}
}

>
>
>
>
>
> and now the file I'm using for the event handler:
>
>
> using System;
> using Gtk;
> using GtkSharp;
>
> namespace eventHandlers
> {
>
> public class event_handlers
> {
>
> public static void OnDelete2 (object obj, DeleteEventArgs e)
> {
> /*
> MessageDialog md = new MessageDialog (window,
> DialogFlags.DestroyWithParent,
> MessageType.Question,
> ButtonsType.YesNo, "Are you sure you want to quit?");
>
> ResponseType result = (ResponseType)md.Run ();
>
> if (result == ResponseType.Yes)
> {
> Application.Quit();
> }
> else
> {
> md.Destroy();
> }
> }
> */
> Application.Quit();
>
> }
>
> }

And again, you can encapsulate this into a class:

public class QuitDialog : MessageDialog
{
public QuitDialog (Window parent)
: base (window,
DialogFlags.DestroyWithParent,
MessageType.Question,
ButtonsType.YesNo,
"Are you sure you want to quit?")
{
}

public void RunDialog ()
{
ShowAll ();
ResponseType result = (ResponseType)Run ();
if (result == ResponseType.Yes) {
Application.Quit();
}
Hide ();
}

public override Dispose ()
{
Destroy ();
base.Dispose ();
}
}

Note that this is a nice re-usable chunk of code that will go quite
nicely in its own file. You can compile it into your main exe or into
a separate dll if you want to share it between apps.

You can use this with

using (QuitDialog qd = new QuitDialog ((Window) sender)) {
qd.RunDialog ();
}

>
>
> As you can see I've commented out the confirmation dialog box. I had though
> instancing it in my main drawinterface would make it work but it doesn't.
> Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Look up the difference betwen static and instance members. A static
member in the event_handlers class has no way to access members of an
instance of the main app class without a pointer to that instance.

> Also eventually part of the code will eventually have certain events calling
> methods that change the values and labels of other widgets so I need to
> figure out how to do that across libraries as well.

If your widgets are public properties of the main window, you can
access them via a pointer to an instance of that window, e.g.
MainWindow main = (MainWindow)sender;
main.SomeLabel.Text = "Hello";

However, I strongly advise against breaking up a class into pieces
without fixing the inderlying structure. You should structure your
code into objects with the behaviours specific to those objects baked
into them.

> Many thanks and kind regards. Hopefully someone can point me in the right
> direction.

I suggest taking a look at MonoDevelop and its GTK# designer. It
designs widgets and windows based on these principles.

In particular http://www.monodevelop.com/Creating_custom_widgets_with_MonoDevelop

>
> Brant Watson
>
> P.S. I've also attached an archive that includes my old (horrible) source
> code as well as the beginnings that are listed above and the makefile to
> compile the new version. Eventually I'd like to add a preferences dialog as
> well and make that its own library so that it can be worked on
> independently. So I'll need to be passing things back and fourth like a
> madman.
> http://www.nabble.com/file/p16966107/StatementofWork.tar.gz
> StatementofWork.tar.gz
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Child-windows-in-a-seperate-dll-file.-tp16966107p16966107.html
> Sent from the Mono - Gtk# mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gtk-sharp-list maillist - Gtk-sharp-list@...
> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/gtk-sharp-list
>

--
Michael Hutchinson
http://mjhutchinson.com
_______________________________________________
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