Question

I’m using MainWindow and Settings. MainWindow is the startup window from which I can open Settings. I’m trying to share some properties between both windows. Right now, I have the public properties declared in Settings:

public partial class Settings : Form
{
    private string property1

    public Settings()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        this.changeSettings();
    }

    public string property1
    {
        get { return property1; }
        set { property1 = value; }
    }

    public void changeSettings()
    {
        textbox.Text = property1;
    }
}

I can create an instance of Settings in MainWindow and change the properties from there:

public partial class Mainwindow : Form
{
    private Settings settings;

    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        settings = new Settings();
        this.changeSettings();
    }

    private void changeSettings()
    {
         settings.property1 = "value";
         textbox.Text = settings.property1;
    }

    private void openSettings_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        settings.ShowDialog();            
    }
}

Say, I want to change the contents of the textboxes in both forms. For MainWindow this works, i.e. I can store the value in the property and access it again. However, I open up Settings and try to change its textbox, the property is empty!
What could explain this?

Answer 1

The flaw is in Settings.property1, it doesn’t update the text box that displays its value. A simple solution is:

public string property1
{
    get { return textBox1.Text; }
    set { textBox1.Text = value; }
}

You’ll also need to update your MainWindow’s text box after displaying the dialog:

private void openSettings_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    settings.property1 = textbox.Text;
    if (settings.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) {
       textbox.Text = settings.property1;
    }
}