Windows Forms 2.0 Programming, 2nd Edition

“Some books are different-the content can't be Googled from the Internet, the authors have real-life experiences to share, the code can be used in real-world projects. This is one of those books.”

–Neal Myrddin, Independent Developer

 

“Chris and Michael nail the soul of Windows Forms 2.0. This book provides an insightful view into the design of Windows Forms and the integration of new 2.0 features. It is just as applicable for the first-time Windows Forms programmer as the seasoned line of business developer. The ‘What’s New in 2.0’ appendix is worth the price of admission alone.”

–Mike Harsh, Windows Forms Program Manager, Microsoft, Inc.

 

“This book takes an amazingly broad and deep technology, and breaks it into manageable pieces that are easily consumed. You cannot survive building a complex WinForms application without this book.”

–Ryan Dorrell, Chief Technology Officer, AgileThought

 

“Windows Forms 2.0 Programming offers something for every .NET developer. Experienced developers will appreciate the in-depth coverage of new 2.0 features, including the most comprehensive coverage of ClickOnce deployment, multithreading, and the new designer integration found anywhere. Developers new to Winforms programming will appreciate the coverage of the fundamentals all Winforms developers need to know. Whether you’re an experienced WinForms developer or just beginning, you need this book.” 

–Fritz Onion, cofounder of Pluralsight, author of Essential ASP.NET, and ASP.NET MVP

 

“I don’t want just a description of the WinForms widgets. I can get that online or from other books. What I want is a roadmap for pitfalls to avoid, and innovative solutions for common problems. That is where this book shines. All of us who found the first edition of this book to be an indispensible part of our reference library will appreciate this updated edition that describes WinForms 2.0.”

–Johan Ericsson, Software Engineer, Agilent Technologies

 

“The books Chris Sells writes are always insightful and this newest addition is no different. This book in particular is for those who want to understand not just the flashy surface of Windows Forms 2.0, but also how it fits into the .NET environment. Readers will have this book at their desks, not stuck on their shelves, for quite a long time.”

–Yoshimatsu Fumiaki, Software Engineer based in Tokyo Japan

 

“Chris and Mike have done an excellent job presenting the information you need to be successful with Windows Forms.”

–Jessica Fosler, Dev Tech Lead, Microsoft

 

“This book is the ‘must have’ teaching and reference book for WinForms 2.0.”

–Jim Rittenhouse, Senior Software Engineer, Siemens

 

Windows Forms 2.0 Programming is the successor to the highly praised Windows Forms Programming in C#. This edition has been significantly updated to amalgamate the sheer mass of new and improved support that is encompassed by Windows Forms 2.0, the .NET Framework 2.0, and Visual Studio 2005. This is the one book developers need in order to learn how to build and deploy leading-edge Windows Forms 2.0 applications.

 

Readers will gain a deep understanding from Sells and Weinhardt’s practical, well-balanced approach to the subject and clear code samples.

 

  •  Windows Forms 2.0 fundamentals, including forms, dialogs, data validation, help, controls, components, and rendering

  •  Static and dynamic layout, snap lines, HTML-style flow and table layout, automatic resizing, and automatic cross-DPI scaling

  •  Office 2003-style tool strip control coverage, including dynamic layout and custom rendering

  •  Design-time integration with the Visual Studio 2005 Properties Window and Smart Tags

  •  Resource management, strongly typed resources, and internationalization considerations

  •  Strongly typed application and user settings

  •  SDI, MDI, Single Instancing, Multiple-Instance SDI, Single-Instance MDI, database-centric, and document-centric applications

  •  Databinding data-source management, drag-and-drop databinding, the BindingSource, the BindingNavigator, and applied databinding

  •  Events, delegates, multithreaded UIs, long-running operations, simplified multithreading with the BackgroundWorker, and asynchronous web service calls

  •  ClickOnce application development publishing, shell integration, and partial trust security

  •  Best practices for developers transitioning from Windows Forms 1.0 and MFC

 

Online Sample Chapter

Application Architecture in Windows Forms 2.0

Sample Chapter(s)

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Preface

Windows 1.0 programmers had a straightforward life. They had almost no choices about how to do things; either there was an application programming interface (API), or there wasn’t, and most of the time there wasn’t. This meant that developers had to build almost everything by hand. At the time, this wasn’t a problem. All Windows programmers had the same limitations, so everyone’s apps more or less operated with the same limited set of functionality.

A modern Windows developer, on the other hand, is inundated with choices. The invention of the web alone gives us static Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), server-based user interface (UI) interaction via ASP.NET, and client-side UI interaction via ActiveX controls or AJAX (to name a few).1 On the client side, we have native frameworks like Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), Active Template Library (ATL), and the next-generation managed framework known as the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF is part of WinFX, the follow-on to the .NET Framework). How does a developer choose? Where does Windows Forms 2.0, the topic of this book, fit into this pantheon?

Foreword

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Table of Contents

                        About the Authors  xxv

                        Foreword  xxvii

                        Preface  xxxi

Chapter 1     Hello, Windows Forms  1

Chapter 2     Forms  41

Chapter 3     Dialogs  99

Chapter 4     Layout  137

Chapter 5     Drawing Basics  179

Chapter 6     Drawing Text  231

Chapter 7     Advanced Drawing  265

Chapter 8     Printing  291

Chapter 9     Components  327

Chapter 10   Controls  353

Chapter 11   Design-Time Integration: The Properties Window  399

Chapter 12   Design-Time Integration: Designers and Smart Tags  453

Chapter 13   Resources  505

Chapter 14   Applications  549

Chapter 15   Settings  579

Chapter 16   Data Binding Basics  629

Chapter 17   Applied Data Binding  681

Chapter 18   Multithreaded User Interfaces  737

Chapter 19   ClickOnce Deployment  775

Appendix A    What’s New in Windows Forms 2.0  829

Appendix C    Delegates and Events  867

Appendix D    Component and Control Survey  881

Appendix E    Drag and Drop  901

Appendix F    Document Management  927

                        Bibliography  957

                        Index  961