Windows Forms Documentation Updates

A couple of years ago, I a whitepaper about how to implement searching and sorting on the generic BindingList for data binding in Windows Forms. About the same time my colleague, Karl, wrote a whitepaper about adding an auto-filter capability to the Windows...

I returned from my end-of-the-year vacation to find the following reader comment in my inbox: > I am trying to create a custom DGV column that will show a watermark for the empty cells , in the same manner like windows live search box ... any advice...

Although my sample for Client Application Services (CAS) uses Windows Forms, you can adapt it to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) with little effort. The configuration steps are the same, and the client source code is the same, although some of the...

Due to customer feedback and requests, I've been working on an article that demonstrates a simple implementation of the filtering portion of the IBindingListView . This implementation works with the DataGridViewAutoFilter code that Karl first published...

I've made a few bug-fixes to my DataGridViewAutoFilter sample, which is described in Building a Drop-Down Filter List for a DataGridView Column Header Cell . It might be a week or two until the article is updated (as of December 5, 2007), but the new...

I have updated my Client Application Services sample (previous posts here and here ) to work with the Visual Studio 2008 RTM release. See UsingClientApplicationServices.zip . Additionally, the final documentation is now available on MSDN. See: ...

Back in May, I posted an early version of my Client Application Services walkthrough, which was used as a lab session at TechEd. Since then, there have been many improvements to both Visual Studio and the walkthrough. For one thing, the Beta 2 version...

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Acropolis and Windows Forms booth at Tech-Ed! Double thanks if you answered a few of my questions about documentation. You can be sure that the Windows .NET Client UE team will be reading your comments. A few of...

The Beta 1 release of Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" includes a new feature called Client Application Services. This feature enables Windows client applications to easily access user-management services hosted by a centralized ASP.NET Web service application...

Periodically someone questions me about a caution that appears in all of the System.Drawing.* namespace overview topics. It reads: "Classes within the System.Drawing namespace are not supported for use within a Windows or ASP.NET service. Attempting...

Now that interest in WPF is really heating up, we've been getting more inquiries about WinForms and WPF interop. Fortunately, we have a lot of coverage in the SDK docs, which shipped in November: Migration and Interoperability How to: Enable...

Recently, a reader asked how to detect filter changes with the code in Building a Drop-Down Filter List for a DataGridView Column Header Cell . That article describes how to derive from DataGridViewColumnHeaderCell , so it seems like a trivial matter...

If you are reading this blog post, it’s likely you saw Karl’s post highlighting some of the recent updates and improvements we’ve made to the existing Windows Forms documentation set. You might be wondering how we decided to make this particular set of...

Since Visual Studio 2005 was released, we've received a fair amount of feedback on the documentation. We have been able to clarify and update many help topics in response to this feedback, so please keep it coming! You can provide feedback from links...

I've recently written a document covering some changes to the CurrencyManager in .NET Framework version 2.0. I'll summarize the document here, as it will not be published for a few months, and this subtle change in behavior could be causing problems in...

Periodically we get questions about how to extract and use an image compiled as an embedded resource in an assembly. It’s easily done using the Bitmap or Icon constructor that takes a type and string parameters. The documentation for these constructors...

I've fixed a couple of doc bugs that customers were rightfully complaining about. It will be awhile before you'll see the updated topics, so here's a summary to give you a head start. How to: Give Your Control a Transparent Background Several...

I've seen a lot of questions posted in forums regarding how to use a BindingSource component to share data between forms and keep bound controls synchronized. We created a couple of topics on how to do this, post-VS2005, so you may not have discovered...

Yes - another white paper! We've been quite the busy beavers here in User Education. Cheryl Simmons has a great two-parter up detailing improvements to the data binding architecture in Windows Forms 2.0. Check it out: Behind the Scenes: Improvements to...

So I'm trying to wrap up this white paper I'm writing on consuming RSS in Windows Forms. I wrote a whole section on how to apply a custom XSLT transform to a feed, and display the resulting HTML in the WebBrowser. ( I gave a less-complete version of a...

Are you spoiled by the AutoFilter feature in Excel? Do you want the same functionality in the DataGridView control? Then my new whitepaper and sample are for you. See: Building a Drop-Down Filter List for a DataGridView Column Header Cell The DataGridViewAutoFilter...

As you may remember , InPlaceHostingManager is a part of the ClickOnce API that enables a .NET application to download and install other ClickOnce applications. It's pretty straightforward to use - but there may be one area that trips you up. I was chatting...

Wim De Cleen has a great two-part walkthrough up on how to use the new Microsoft Feeds API to display a folder-style list of RSS feeds in Windows Forms. The Feeds API is new with Internet Explorer 7, and is the programmatic interface to the new Windows...

My new Windows Forms white paper is now available on MSDN . It covers using ToolStrip as a navigation alternative to TabControl, and creating collapsible flyout menus a la the Visual Studio Toolbox. Compilable code samples are included. Enjoy!

I'm working on a project that will be included in a white paper, and needed to use SQL Server Express 2005 as a database engine. Being the "ClickOnce guy" on the Windows Forms doc team, I immediately wondered: How will I deploy this once it's ready? Fortunately...