C# Accessing controls from an outside class without "public"
- by Kurt W
I know this has been asked before but I believe my situation is a bit different -- or I don't understand the answers given. I have spent about 4 hours working on this solidly and finally realized, I just don't know what to do.
I have 2 Forms (Form1, Settings) and a class I created called Themes.
I have get/set properties that currently work but are all within Form1 and I would like to move as much code related to themeing as I can OUTSIDE of Form1 and into Themes.cs.
Changing Theme: To change the theme, the user opens up the Settings form and selects a theme from the dropdown menu and presses the 'Set' button -- this all works, but now I want to move it into my own class and I can't get the code to compile.
Here is example code that works before moving -- note that this is only 2 different controls I want to modify but there are about 30 total. I am abridging the code:
Form 1:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void btnSettings_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Settings frm = new Settings(this);
frm.Show();
}
private Color txtRSSURLBGProperty;
private Color txtRSSURLFGProperty;
public Color TxtRSSURLBGProperty
{
get { return txtRSSURLBGProperty; }
set { txtRSSURL.BackColor = value; }
}
public Color TxtRSSURLFGProperty
{
get { return txtRSSURLFGProperty; }
set { txtRSSURL.ForeColor = value; }
}
Settings Form:
public partial class Settings : Form
{
public Settings()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private Form1 rssReaderMain = null;
public Settings(Form requestingForm)
{
rssReaderMain = requestingForm as Form1;
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
// Appearence settings for DEFAULT THEME
if (cbThemeSelect.SelectedIndex == 1)
{
this.rssReaderMain.TxtRSSURLBGProperty = Color.DarkSeaGreen;
this.rssReaderMain.TxtRSSURLFGProperty = Color.White;
[......about 25 more of these....]
}
The theme class is currently empty. Again, the goal is to move as much code into the themes class (specifically the get/set statements if at all possible!) and hopefully just use a method similar to this within the Settings form once the proper drowndown item is selected: SetTheme(Default);
I hope someone can help, and I hope I explained it right! I have been racking my brain and I need to have this done fairly soon! Much thanks in advance as I'm sure everyone says. I have teamviewer or logmein if someone wants to remote in -- that is just as easy.
I can also send my project as a zip if needed.
Thanks so much,
Kurt
Modified code for review:
Form1 form:
public partial class Form1 : ThemeableForm
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
ThemeableForm form:
internal abstract class ThemeableForm : Form
{
private Color rssLabelBGProperty;
private Color rssLabelFGProperty;
public Color RssLabelBGProperty
{
get { return rssLabelBGProperty; }
set { lRSS.BackColor = value; }
}
public Color RssLabelFGProperty
{
get { return rssLabelFGProperty; }
set { lRSS.ForeColor = value; }
}
Settings form:
public Settings(ThemeableForm requestingForm)
{
rssReaderMain = requestingForm as ThemeableForm;
InitializeComponent();
}
private ThemeableForm rssReaderMain = null;
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
// Appearence settings for DEFAULT THEME
if (cbThemeSelect.SelectedIndex == 1)
{
this.rssReaderMain.LRSSBGProperty = Color.DarkSeaGreen;
this.rssReaderMain.LRSSFGProperty = Color.White;
}
Now the all the controls in my get/set (lRSS in the example code above) error out with does not exist in the current context. I also get the warning:
Warning 1The designer could not be shown for this file because none of
the classes within it can be designed. The designer inspected the
following classes in the file:
Form1 --- The base class 'RSSReader_BKRF.ThemeableForm' could not be
loaded. Ensure the assembly has been referenced and that all projects
have been built. 0 0
