CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformssystem-tray
Anderson Urbano
Anderson Urbano

Reputation: 1

Windows Forms help Form not displaying correctly using Show() method

I'm trying to create a system tray application using Windows Forms using a custom SystemTrayApplicationContext class (inherited from ApplicationContext) that is started during Program.cs:

SystemTrayApplicationContext appContext = new SystemTrayApplicationContext();
Application.ApplicationExit += appContext.HandleExit;
Application.Run(appContext);

The app works fine with only the system tray elements but now I want to add a help screen once a gamepad button is pressed (using Xinputium library, input reading working fine). I'm currently implementing that programmatically with a simple Form instance with a label inside created during SystemTrayApplicationContext's constructor (constructor also sets up ContextMenuStrip and NotifyIcon for the taskbar app).

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using XInputium;
using XInputium.XInput;

public class SystemTrayApplicationContext : ApplicationContext
{
    private readonly XGamepad xinputDevice = new XGamepad();

    private Form helpForm;

    private NotifyIcon trayIcon;

    private ContextMenuStrip contextMenuStrip;

    private ToolStripMenuItem exitLabel;

    public SystemTrayApplicationContext()
    {
        // Setup help screen
        Label label = new Label();
        label.Text = "test";
        label.Size = new Size(300, 300);
        label.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Left;
        label.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.TopCenter;

        this.helpForm = new Form();
        this.helpForm.Size = label.Size;
        this.helpForm.ShowInTaskbar = false;
        this.helpForm.ShowIcon = false;
        this.helpForm.ControlBox = false;
        this.helpForm.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
        this.helpForm.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
        this.helpForm.Controls.Add(label);

        // SetupContextMenu
        this.exitLabel = new ToolStripMenuItem("Exit");
        this.exitLabel.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Right;
        this.exitLabel.Click += this.HandleExit;

        this.contextMenuStrip = new ContextMenuStrip();
        this.contextMenuStrip.ShowImageMargin = false;
        this.contextMenuStrip.Items.Add(exitLabel);

        this.trayIcon = new NotifyIcon()
        {
            Icon = Properties.Resources.AppIcon,
            Visible = true,
            Text = "My System Tray App",
            ContextMenuStrip = this.contextMenuStrip,
        };

        // Setup Xinput events
        this.xinputDevice.ButtonPressed += this.HandleXinputButtonPressed;
        this.xinputDevice.ButtonReleased += this.HandleXinputButtonReleased;
    }

    public void HandleExit(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        trayIcon.Visible = false;
        Application.Exit();
    }

    private void HandleXinputButtonPressed(object sender, DigitalButtonEventArgs<XInputButton> e)
    {
        if (e.Button.Button == XButtons.A)
        {
            this.helpForm.Show();
            //this.helpForm.ShowDialog();
        }
    }

    private void HandleXinputButtonReleased(object? sender, DigitalButtonEventArgs<XInputButton> e)
    {
        if (e.Button.Button == XButtons.A)
        {
            this.helpForm.Hide();
        }
    }
}

The problem is when showing the help form using Show(), the form appears but not the label. If I use ShowDialog() it will render properly but will freeze the app because it's not modal. I'm unsure what causes the render issue in the first case as I'd like to use Show().

Using Show()

Using ShowDialog()

I currently only have one event for when help key is first pressed and another for when it's released. I'm calling Show for the form when it's pressed and Hide when it's released. The Form variable itself is just a private field created inside SystemTrayApplicationContext.

Tried using ShowDialog. Setting Visible in the inner label, setting properties like AutoSize, ActiveControl and background color in the form but nothing had an effect.

Upvotes: -1

Views: 59

Answers (1)

Anderson Urbano
Anderson Urbano

Reputation: 1

I was able to make it work by creating a custom help form class that inherits from Form and overriding the OnLoad method to make it invisible.

Then, passing it to the base ApplicationContext constructor to populate MainForm. Unsure why this works though.

Upvotes: 0

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