Controldesigner Question

[Hamburger1984]

Maybe this is a question for divil (as he's done a lot Controldevelopment - as far as I know...) but every answer is welcome!

 

I'm working on a Menu-like Contol. I already got most of the designtime support finished. But as I use borderless forms to display the MenuItems I need to know when the user changes to the Codeview or when he minimizes the VisualStudio window - othervise the MenuItems don't get closed and they stay onscreen. Is there a possibility to receive an event when the Designview is hidden or the window is minimized?

 

Thanks!

 

Andreas

[Volte]

If you get the IDesignerHost service of the designer, you can handle its Deactivated event to catch when the designer is deactivated.

 

For example, in the Initialize override of the designer:

Dim dh As IDesignerHost = DirectCast(Me.GetService(GetType(IDesignerHost)), IDesignerHost)

AddHandler dh.Deactivate, AddressOf OnDesignerDeactivate

Then you just need to create your handler routine and you can put any deactivation code in there. Don't forget to unhook the hander in the Finalize override.

[Hamburger1984]

Thanks!

 

...but I already found that... and it doesn't fire when the VisualStudio window is Minimized :( It works when the user switches from the Designview to the Code or another Form etc. but not when VisualStudio is deactivated.....

 

some more suggestions?

 

Andreas

[Volte]

Try making your borderless form owned by the main form. When you create and show it,

MainForm.AddOwnedForm(frm)
'where frm is the instance of your borderless form.

[Hamburger1984]

...but can an OwnedForm be a TopLevel Form?

[Volte]

No such thing exists. All controls/forms can be owned by other control/forms.

[divil]

Can you not just trap the event for when your form loses the focus and hide it?

 

You might be able to do something with IUIService - the IDE implements this and it's there for the purpose of designers displaying popups and such like.