Question

I have a Windows form that’s generated using code (including buttons and what not). On it, amongst other things, there is a text box and a button. Clicking the button opens a new Windows form which resembles an Outlook contact list. It’s basically a data grid view with a few options for filtering. The idea is that the user selects a row in this home-made contact book and hits a button. After hitting that button, the (second) form should close and the email address the user selects should be displayed in the text box on the first form.

I cannot use static forms for this purpose, so is there any way to let the first form know the user has selected something on the second firm? Can you do this with events, or is there another way? Mind that I hardly know anything about delegates and forms yet.

Please advise.

---

Edit 1 = SOLVED

I can return the email address from the second form to the first form now, but that brings me to another question. I am generating controls and in that process I’m also generating the MouseClick eventhandler, in which the previous procedure for selecting a contact is put.

But how do I, after returning the email address in the MouseClick eventhandler, insert that information into a generated text box? Code to illustrate:

        btn.MouseClick += new MouseEventHandler(btn_MouseClick);

That line is put somewhere in the GenerateControls() method.

    void btnContacts_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        using (frmContactList f = new frmContactList())
        {
            if (f.ShowDialog(fPrompt) == DialogResult.Cancel)
            {                    
                var address = f.ContactItem;
                MessageBox.Show(address.Email1Address.ToString());
            }                
        }
    }

That appears separately in the class. So how do I put the email address into a text box I previously generated?

Answer 1

Forms in .Net are normal classes that inherit from a Form class.

You should add a property to the second (popup) form that gets the selected email address.

You should show the popup by calling ShowDialog.
This is a blocking call that will show the second form as a modal dialog.
The call only finishes after the second form closes, so the next line of code will run after the user closes the popup.

You can then check the property in the second form to find out what the user selected.

For example: (In the first form)

using(ContactSelector popup = new ContactSelector(...)) {
    if (popup.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.Cancel)
        return;
    var selectedAddress = popup.SelectedAddress;
    //Do something
}