CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformsvisual-studio-2012designer
Dimitar Tsonev
Dimitar Tsonev

Reputation: 3882

VS2012 designer cannot open form after inheriting from another form

I have a base form BaseForm which I use for saving settings. This form have no controls in it and it's opened in the designer as an empty form. However, when I inherit this form, the designer refuses to open the newly created form in the designer (there's no button View in Designer). What may be the problem ? Thanks

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1444

Answers (2)

Dimitar Tsonev
Dimitar Tsonev

Reputation: 3882

The problem is with the .csproj file.

Every form has a signature in the file like this

<Compile Include="Opers\MyForm.cs">
  <SubType>Form</SubType>
</Compile>

The SubType element says that this is actually a form and in my file this was deleted for some reason.

Upvotes: 3

Jobo
Jobo

Reputation: 1084

I would highly recommend to avoid inheriting forms whenever possible. For saving settings, this is surely avoidable: make yourself an FormSettingsSaver class or something like that and pass it the form as argument when loading/closing, etc. Inheriting forms can make a lot of headaches and MS isn´t really putting any work in WindowsForms and/or the Designer.

edit: if you want to stick with inheriting forms, check the link from rene in the comment. Most designer problems can be avoided with checking for DesignMode. You could also try to comment out statements until you find the culprit. All code in the constructor and (i think) OnLoad is executed when the form is displayed in the Designer, so there would be a good place to start.

Upvotes: 2

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