1. Using GUI Objects and the Visual Studio IDE
Chapter Nine
Using GUI Objects and the Visual Studio IDE

2. Objectives How to create a MessageBox
How to add functionality to MessageBox buttons
How to create a Form
How to create a Form that is a program’s main window

3. Objectives How to place a Button on a window
How to use the Visual Studio IDE to design a Form
Learn about the code created by the IDE
How to add functionality to a Button on a Form
How to use the Visual Studio Help Search function

4. Creating a MessageBox
A MessageBox is a GUI object that can contain text, buttons, and symbols that inform and instruct a user
You must use the static class method Show() to display a message box, because its constructor is not public

5. Creating a MessageBox
Output of MessageBox1 program

6. Creating a MessageBox
There are many overloaded versions of the Show() method

7. Creating a MessageBox
Arguments used with the MessageBox.Show() method

8. Adding Functionality to MessageBox Buttons
DialogResult is an enumeration, or list of values that correspond to a user’s potential MessageBox button selection

9. Adding Functionality to MessageBox Buttons
Output of HamburgerAddition program

10. Creating a Form
Forms provides an interface for collecting, displaying, and delivering information to a user through buttons, list of options, text fields, and other controls
Unlike the MessageBox class, you can create an instance of the Form class

11. Creating a Form
Output of CreateForm1

12. Creating a Form
You can change the appearance, size, color, and window management features of a Form by setting its instance fields or properties
The Form class contains approximately 100 properties that can be used to set various configurations of the Form class
The ShowDialog() method displays a form as a modal dialog box

13. Creating a Form
CreateForm2 class and Output

14. Creating a Form that is a Program’s Main Window
When you create a new main window, you must complete two steps:
You must derive a new custom class from the base class System.Windows.Forms.Form
You must write a Main() method that calls the Application.Run() method, and you must pass an instance of your newly created Form class as an argument

15. Creating a Form that is a Program’s Main Window
Window1 class and the Window1 object

16. Creating a Form that is a Program’s Main Window
When you want to add property settings to a program’s main window, you can do so within the class constructor

17. Creating a Form that is a Program’s Main Window
The Window2 object

18. Placing a Button on a Window
A Button is a GUI object you can click to cause some action
For a Button to be clickable, you need to use the System.Windows.Forms.Control class

19. Placing a Button on a Window
Output of WindowWithButton program

20. Using the Visual Studio IDE to Design a Form
Using a text editor when programming and designing GUIs is a very tedious and error prone task
Just determining an attractive and useful layout in which to position all components on your Form takes many lines of code and a lot of trial and error
The Visual Studio IDE provides a wealth of tools to help make the Form design process easier

21. Understanding the Code Created by the IDE
The automatically generated code is simply a collection of C# statements and method calls similar to the ones created by hand
When you use the Designer in the IDE to design your forms, you save a lot of typing, which reduces the errors you create
Because the IDE generates so much code automatically, it is often more difficult to find and correct errors in programs created using the IDE than in programs you create by hand

22. Understanding the Code Created by the IDE
The code automatically generated by the IDE includes:
using statements and namespace creation
Declarations of forms and other objects
Comments
Methods and method calls

23. Adding Functionality to a Button on a Form
In most cases, it is easier to design a Form using the IDE than it is to write by hand the code a Form requires
Adding functionality to a Button is particularly easy using the IDE

24. Adding Functionality to a Button on a Form
Selecting the source file
MessageBox that appears after clicking Press

25. Adding a Second Button to a Form
Forms often contain multiple Button objects; a Form can contain as many Buttons as you need
Each Button has a unique identifier which allows you to provide unique methods that execute when a user clicks each Button

26. Adding a Second Button to a Form
Two Buttons on a Form

27. Adding a Second Button to a Form
Make a Choice Form after user clicks Sausage Button

28. Using the Visual Studio Help Search Function
The ultimate authority on the classes available in C# is the Visual Studio Search facility

29. Using the Visual Studio Help Search Function
Button Class documentation

30. Chapter Summary
A MessageBox is a GUI object that can contain text, buttons, and symbols that inform and instruct a user. You use the static class method Show() to display a MessageBox.
DialogResult is an enumeration, or list of values that correspond to a user’s potential MessageBox button selections
Forms provide an interface for collecting, displaying, and delivering user information

31. Chapter Summary
You can create a child class from Form that becomes the main window of an application. When you create a new main window, you must derive a new custom class from the base class System.Windows.Forms.Form, you must also write a Main() method that calls the Application.Run() method.
A window is more flexible than a MessageBox because you can place manipulatable Window components where you like on the surface of the window
The Visual Studio IDE provides a wealth of tools to help make the Form design process easier

32. Chapter Summary
Using the Visual Studio IDE, it is easy to create elaborate forms with a few keystrokes
In most cases, it is easier to design a Form using the IDE than it is to write by hand all the code a Form requires
Forms often contain multiple Button objects; a Form can contain as many Buttons as you need