How can a parent form tell if it has a child form?

[=?Utf-8?B?QWxsYW4gTWljaGFlbHM=?=]

Hello all,

We have a main form. We have the message loop programmed to listen for 'key
strokes' from a bar code scanner.
But when the message loop 'hears' the keystrokes, we need to know if the
main form has a child window (specifically a modal child window).

Any ideas how we ask a form if it has any child windows? We've looked into
TopMost and TopLevel, but neither of those are what we are looking for.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI

[Jesse Houwing]

* Allan Michaels wrote, On 21-5-2007 21:05:

Hello all,

We have a main form. We have the message loop programmed to listen for 'key
strokes' from a bar code scanner.
But when the message loop 'hears' the keystrokes, we need to know if the
main form has a child window (specifically a modal child window).

Any ideas how we ask a form if it has any child windows? We've looked into
TopMost and TopLevel, but neither of those are what we are looking for.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

The best way to do this is to set a flag when a modal window is opened
and reset it when it closes from within the main form itself.

So something like:

bool showingModal = true;
using (ModalWindow mw = new ModalWindow())
{
mw.Closed += this.ResetModel;
ModalWindow.ShowDialog(this))
// get stuff if needed
}

Jesse

[=?Utf-8?B?QWxsYW4gTWljaGFlbHM=?=]

Thanks for the idea. However, due to the nature of the program that won't
work.
The main form has 10 tab pages, each one could bring up many different
windows. That doesn't include all the menu items that bring up windows.

Any other ideas? Thanks again for your reply.

--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI
"Jesse Houwing" wrote:

* Allan Michaels wrote, On 21-5-2007 21:05:

Hello all,

We have a main form. We have the message loop programmed to listen for 'key
strokes' from a bar code scanner.
But when the message loop 'hears' the keystrokes, we need to know if the
main form has a child window (specifically a modal child window).

Any ideas how we ask a form if it has any child windows? We've looked into
TopMost and TopLevel, but neither of those are what we are looking for.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

The best way to do this is to set a flag when a modal window is opened
and reset it when it closes from within the main form itself.

So something like:

bool showingModal = true;
using (ModalWindow mw = new ModalWindow())
{
mw.Closed += this.ResetModel;
ModalWindow.ShowDialog(this))
// get stuff if needed
}

Jesse

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Allan,

I suggest that you set up an owner relationship between the main form and
other 'child' forms. You could get all the owned forms through the
OwnedForms collection of the main form.

The following is a sample.
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Form2 frm2 = new Form2();
frm2.Show(this);
Form3 frm3 = new Form3();
frm3.ShowDialog(this);
}

public void GetOwnedForms()
{
for (int i = 0; i < this.OwnedForms.Length; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(this.OwnedForms[i].Name);
}
}
}

Hope this helps.
If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[=?Utf-8?B?QWxsYW4gTWljaGFlbHM=?=]

Thank you for your help Linda. Your post answers my questions.

--
Allan Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI