Question

I have 2 event handlers attached to buttons on the same form. I want to disable the form and show a waitCursor while the method is running, then enable the form and put the cursor back to default.

Here’s the strange part: with almost the same code, one of these events work, and the other doesn’t! What could be wrong here?

This one works.

private void btnExceptionReport_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {              
        lblStatus.Text = "Printing exception report.";

    ActiveForm.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
    //Form.ActiveForm.Enabled = false;

    if (DatabaseOps.printItemReport("Exceptions", cboEmployee.Text))
    {
        lblStatus.Text = "Exception report printed.";
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Error printing exception report.");
        lblStatus.Text = "Error printing Exception report.";
    }

    //Form.ActiveForm.Enabled = true;
    ActiveForm.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
}

While this one throws an error when I try to change the cursor back to default, stating that ActiveForm is null.

private void btnWIPReport_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{       
    lblStatus.Text = "Printing WIP Materials report.";

    ActiveForm.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
    //Form1.ActiveForm.Enabled = false;

    if (DatabaseOps.printItemReport("WIP", cboEmployee.Text))
    {
        lblStatus.Text = "WIP Materials report printed.";
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Error printing WIP Materials report.");
        lblStatus.Text = "Error printing WIP Materials report.";
    }

    //Form1.ActiveForm.Enabled = true;
    ActiveForm.Cursor = Cursors.Default;   //This line gives error saying ActiveForm is null
}

Answer 1

You don’t need to call ActiveForm. Simply using this should work:

Cursor = Cursors.Default;