Question

I’m trying to recolor all components in a form by using a recursive method. However, it always recolors the form and then stops. How can I make it go past this step? Here is the code I’ve been experimenting with:

Public Sub fixUIIn(ByRef comp As System.ComponentModel.Component, ByVal style As SByte)
    Debug.WriteLine(comp)
    If TypeOf comp Is System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl Then
        Dim c As System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl
        c = comp
        c.BackColor = getColor(style, PART_BACK)
        c.ForeColor = getColor(style, PART_TEXT)
        If ((comp.Container IsNot Nothing) AndAlso (comp.Container.Components IsNot Nothing)) Then
            For i As Integer = 0 To comp.Container.Components.Count() Step 1
                fixUIIn(comp.Container.Components.Item(i), style)
            Next
        End If
        comp = c
    End If
    If TypeOf comp Is System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase Then
        Dim c As System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase
        c = comp
        c.FlatStyle = Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat
        c.BackColor = getColor(style, PART_BOX)
        c.ForeColor = getColor(style, PART_TEXT)

        comp = c
    End If
    If ((comp.Container IsNot Nothing) AndAlso (comp.Container.Components IsNot Nothing)) Then
        For i As Integer = 0 To comp.Container.Components.Count() Step 1
            fixUIIn(comp.Container.Components.Item(i), style)
        Next
    End If
End Sub

Answer 1

You’re only renaming button controls and container controls, is there a reason for that? The question states “all” which is why I’m asking..

I also absolutely hate the old VB6 style code being used. Why would you pass color as an sByte instead of just a Color? Foreach is also a much simpler construct to use than a for loop with indexes.

I would write this as follows:

Public Sub FixUIColors(control As Control, foreColor As Drawing.Color, backColor As Drawing.Color)
    control.BackColor = foreColor
    control.ForeColor = backColor
    If TypeOf control Is ButtonBase Then
        DirectCast(control, ButtonBase).FlatStyle = FlatStyle.Flat
    End If

    ' iterate through child controls
    For Each item In control.Controls
        FixUIColors(item, foreColor, backColor)
    Next
End Sub

If you want to restrict to only certain types, you could do something like:

    Select Case control.GetType
        Case GetType(ContainerControl)
        Case GetType(ButtonBase)
            control.BackColor = foreColor
            control.ForeColor = backColor
    End Select

I’m confused to your use of style as SByte and PART_BOX PART_TEXT etc, so I probably don’t have that doing exactly what you want. I think that is the wrong thing to be passing, you should simply pass System.Drawing.Color (and the reason is so someone like me can read and understand this code easily). If you need to store a bunch of colors in a single object to make it easier to pass around, then you can make a class to store that stuff. Unpacking a byte into a bunch of colors is a different task that should be handled by a different function.