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MDI Applications

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  4 years ago

  by nicole

  nicole

  RSA, United States

  Joined 5 years ago

  I am using VB.net and would like to display a different application on the VB form as a child form. Is this possible?

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  4 years ago

  by webjose

  Jose Pablo Ramirez Vargas

  Costa Rica, United States

  Joined 7 years ago

  In VB 6.0 is rather simple:  Just set the parent window.  The following code embeds the Windows calculator inside a regular VB form.
  

  Code:

  Option Explicit
  

  
  Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
  Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWndChild As Long, ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long
  

  
  Private hCalc As Long
  Private hParent As Long
  

  
  Private Sub Form_Load()
     hCalc = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Calculator")
     If hCalc Then
         hParent = SetParent(hCalc, Me.hWnd)
     End If
  End Sub
  

  
  Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
     If hCalc Then
         SetParent hCalc, hParent
     End If
  End Sub

  
  To test this, start a standard project, then copy the above code into the form's module, open the calculator, and finally run the project.

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  4 years ago

  by nicole

  nicole

  RSA, United States

  Joined 5 years ago
  Thank you for the help, but I am still lost. I copied your code into my form, but this does not seem to work. The form pops up without the calculator. I set the 'Me.IsMdiContainer = True' and copied your code as follows:
  
  Option Explicit On
  Public Class Form1
     Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
  
     Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
     Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWndChild As Long, ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long
  
     Private hCalc As Long
     Private hParent As Long
  
     Private Sub Form_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
         hCalc = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Calculator")
         If hCalc Then
             hParent = SetParent(hCalc, Me.Handle.ToInt32)
         End If
     End Sub
  
     Private Sub Form_Unload(ByVal Cancel As Integer)
         If hCalc Then
             SetParent(hCalc, hParent)
         End If
     End Sub
  End Class
  
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  4 years ago

  by webjose

  Jose Pablo Ramirez Vargas

  Costa Rica, United States

  Joined 7 years ago

  Quote:

  To test this, start a standard project, then copy the above code into the form's module, open the calculator, and finally run the project.

  
  It seems to me that you forgot to open the calculator prior to running the example.

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  4 years ago

  by nicole

  nicole

  RSA, United States

  Joined 5 years ago

  I did run the calculator prior to running the application, but it still does not seem to work.

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  4 years ago

  by webjose

  Jose Pablo Ramirez Vargas

  Costa Rica, United States

  Joined 7 years ago
  I see your code and makes sense to me, but since I haven't programmed ever in .NET, I cannot be sure it is OK.  I assure you the code I presented worked OK for me under Windows XP.
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  4 years ago

  by alexreg

  Alex

  London, United Kingdom

  Joined 8 years ago
  ok, VB.NET is practically a whole new language in my opinion. that code seems very nice for VB6, but it definitely won't work for .NET. let me try to take a look for a VB.NET way...
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  4 years ago

  by nicole

  nicole

  RSA, United States

  Joined 5 years ago

  After some sweat I found out how it is done in .net:
  

  
  Private hCalc As IntPtr
     Private hParent As IntPtr
     Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, _
         ByVal lpWindowName As String) As IntPtr
     Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWndChild As IntPtr, _
         ByVal hWndNewParent As IntPtr) As IntPtr
  

  
     Private Sub frmMain_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _
         ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
         hCalc = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Calculator")
         If hCalc.ToInt32 <> 0 Then
             hParent = SetParent(hCalc, Me.Handle)
         End If
     End Sub
  

  
     Private Sub frmMain_Closed(ByVal sender As Object, _
         ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closed
         If hCalc.ToInt32 <> 0 Then
             SetParent(hCalc, hParent)
         End If
     End Sub

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• • Reply

  4 years ago

  by Rollershade

  Colin Harman MACITP

  West Sussex, England, Australia

  Joined 7 years ago

  ok in .NET you can load other forms from other apps into an mdi parent by using the assembly.LoadFrom method, a good article is here
  

  
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnadvnet/html/vbnet10082002.asp
  

  
  its pretty neat to think you can buiild new forms later on after initial development.

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