User Control woes

[ALX]

In several of my forms I have a user control that is a panel containing 6 textboxes. In the "Validating" event handler for the textboxes, I want to return control, briefly, to the parent form to update some charts, etc. In the user control, I get a reference to the parent form by using

 Dim Frm As Form = Me.FindForm

So far, I've only been able to use

 Frm.Invalidate

to briefly return control to the parent form. I'd like to avoid that since it causes a complete repainting of the parent form (flickering with each entry in the textboxes), and I really only need to update a few items on the parent form.
I have tried "Activecontrol = Frm" (which plays havoc with the rest of my textbox code);
"Frm.Activate" (which does nothing);
"Frm.Focus" (which might be working ??? until the OS switches focus to the next textbox);
...Can anyone steer me in the right direction... Thanx !

 

[JohnH]

Add an event to the usercontrol and let the parent form manage itself and its child objects, for example:

Public Event UpdatesReady

When the criteria is met in usercontrol code do:

RaiseEvent UpdatesReady

Subscribe to this event in the parent form and in the event handler add what you think should be done inside parent form when this event happen, like:

Sub usercontrol1_UpdatesReady() Handles usercontrol1.UpdatesReady
  'update some charts, etc.
End Sub

 

[ALX]

That looks simple & elegant.
Thank You !

 

[ALX]

Is there a simple way to have the <ENTER> key get processed as if it were the tab key in these textboxes, so the user can press either key to shift the focus for the textboxes? I have come up with some ridiculously convoluted and verbose methods that don't work very well.

[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Protected [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Overrides [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Function[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ProcessKeyPreview([/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]ByRef[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] m [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]As[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] System.Windows.Forms.Message) [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]As [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Boolean
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
 
    [SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]If[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] m.WParam.ToInt32 = 13 [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Then
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]       Dim[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]As[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] Control
[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]       For [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Each[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]In [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Me[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2].NumPanel.Controls
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]           If[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl.GetType.Name = [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]GetType[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2](TextBox).Name [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Then
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]               If[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl.Focused = [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]True [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Then
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2]                   ctrl = [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Me[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2].NumPanel.GetNextControl(ctrl, [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]True[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2])
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]                   If[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl.TabIndex > 6 [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Then[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2] ctrl = NumBox1
                    NumBox_Focus(ctrl.TabIndex) [/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#008000]'This sub just shifts focus to the textbox (# tabindex)
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]               End [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]If
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]               Return [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]True
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]           End[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]If
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]       Next
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]   Else
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]       Return [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]False
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]   End [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]If[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]End [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0000ff]Function[/COLOR][/SIZE]

Using this code, the focus shifts three textboxes per <ENTER> key stroke. It seems that this function gets called three consecutive times by the OS. There has got to be a better way !

 

[ALX]

OK... by observing the different values in "m.msg" I found that the value in the "m.msg" field changes with each consecutive call to this overridding function. I can make this code work by changing the second line of code to filter out all but one of those values...

If m.WParam.ToInt32 = 13 And m.Msg.ToString = 258 Then

The problem is that I don't know what I'm doing here and can't find any documentation about it. Will this method work on all .NET systems? More importantly; What's the recomended way to do this?