Visual Studio .NET

1
Visual Studio .NET

• Introduction to Visual Studio .NET

2
Creating a project

• At the Start screen, select New Project
• Select Visual C Projects on the left
• Select MFC Application on the right
• Enter a Name for the project and click OK
• Select Application Type on the left
• Select Dialog Based
• Click Finish to create the project

3
Creating a Console application

• Select Win32 project from the New Project dialog
• Name the project and click OK
• Select Application Type and choose consol
  application
• Click Finish to create the project
• Dont forget to include ltiostreamgt, using
  namespace std etc
• To create a new .cpp or .h file to use in the
  program, go to File -gt Add New Item to add it to
  the solution

4
.NET Interface
ToolBox
Tabs
Resource/Solution Pane

• The .NET Interface consists of a main window
  pane, with a toolbox on the left, resource
  view/solution explorer on the top right, output
  window on the bottom, and a property pane to the
  bottom right. The interface also has the usual
  menus and toolbars at the top. The top of the
  main pane has tabs which allow you to navigate
  through the files youre using.

Output Window
Main Pane
Properties Pane
5
Resource View

• To enable the resource view, press CTRLShiftE,
  or select it from the view menu at the top
• Once the resource view is enabled, you can view
  it by selecting its tab on the bottom of the top
  right pane
• Upon opening an existing project, you can open
  the main dialog screen by navigating to
  example-gtexample.rc-gtDialog -gtIDD_EXAMPLE_DIALOG,
  where example is the name of your project

6
Tabs

• These tabs are located above the main pane
  which normally contains code.
• Each tab represents a different file that you
  have open within the project.
• To switch between files, merely select a
  different tab. If you desire to close a certain
  file. Select the tab and then the x on the far
  right of the toolbar.
• These buttons allow you to scroll horizontally
  when you have enough files open.

7
Solution Explorer

• To enable the solution explorer, press
  CtrlAltL, or select it from the view menu at
  the top
• The solution explorer allows you to navigate
  through files associated with your project-- .cpp
  files will be under the Source Files folder and
  .h files will be under the Header Files folder
• Upon opening an existing project, you can use the
  solution explorer to open files associated with a
  class youve created for the project

8
Solution Explorer

• To add a file to your solution
• Select File from the menu at the top
• Select Add New Item to create a new file and
  add it to your project
• Select the type of File you wish to add (.cpp or
  .h)
• Name the file and click Open to add the file
• Select Add Existing Item to add a file you
  have already created
• It is best to copy the file you wish to add to
  your solutions folder
• Find the file you wish to add and click Open
• The files you add to your project will appear in
  the appropriate section in the solution explorer
• The files that you add will still need to be
  included as they did in CS53 include
  myNewFile.h remember that you only need to
  include .h files and not .cpp files

9
Properties Pane

• To enable the Properties pane, press F4 or select
  it from the view menu
• The properties pane shows the properties for the
  currently selected control. The property name
  appears on the left and the value appears on the
  right
• Notable Properties
• Caption changes the text displayed on static
  text, buttons, and the dialog box title bar
• ID changes the ID of a button so that event
  handler function names are more meaningful

10
Toolbox

• To enable the Toolbox, press CtrlAltX, or
  select it from the view menu at the top
• The Toolbox contains all of the controls that we
  can add to our dialog box the controls we will
  use in this class are the button, static text,
  edit control, and the listbox
• To add a control to the dialog, click, hold, and
  drag the desired control to the proper location,
  or select the desired control and drag a box in
  the dialog box where you want the control to
  appear

11
Static Text

• The static text control is a control that simply
  displays text on your Dialog
• Static text can simply be used to label other
  controls, so the user understands their purpose
• To Create Static text, drag the Static Text
  tool onto your dialog resource screen. Then,
  change the caption property to the text you want
  displayed.

12
The Button Control

• The Button control is a simple clickable button.
  Its most common use is to perform a function when
  the user clicks the button.
• To add a button to your dialog, find the button
  control in the toolbox and drag it to the dialog
• To change the ID of your button, select the
  button and find the ID property in the properties
  pane
• It is best to leave the IDC_Button portion of the
  ID and simply add the name that you want to the
  end, so for an OK button we name it IDC_Button_OK
• To change the Text that appears on a button,
  change the Caption property

13
Button Control (cont)

• To create a function that executes when the
  button is clicked, just double click the button
  in the dialog box and Visual Studio will create
  and display the OnBnClicked function
• Any code added to this function will execute when
  the button is clicked
• The above code will pop up a message box that
  says Button OK Clicked when the OK button is
  clicked
• To make a button whose OnBnClicked function is
  executed whenever the Enter key is pressed,
  change the Default Button property to True

14
Edit Control

• The Edit control is a simple text box that can be
  manipulated by either the program or the user
• In order to retrieve data entered into the edit
  control, associate a variable with it and use the
  UpdateData(TRUE) function
• In order to change the data displayed in an edit
  control, associate a variable with it and use the
  UpdateData(FALSE) function
• Add a CString variable to an edit control that
  will accept letters and number
• To create an edit control that the can only be
  changed from within the program (inaccessible by
  the user) change the Read Only property of the
  edit control to True

15
Edit Control (cont)

• For an edit control that will only accept an
  integer
• Change the Number property of the edit control to
  True to prevent the user from entering anything
  other than 0-9.
• Add an int variable to the edit control with the
  category of value. To limit the numbers a user
  can enter into an edit control, set a Min and Max
  value.
• The above will display an error popup when
  UpdateData(TRUE) is called, and UpdateData(TRUE)
  will return FALSE.
• To limit the amount of text that an edit box will
  accept, change the Auto HScroll property to
  false, so that the edit control will not scroll
  to accept more input

16
Listbox Control

• The Clistbox control is a control that displays
  text line by line, allows users to select lines,
  and will allow the user to scroll through lines
  when the listbox contains too many lines to be
  displayed at once.
• To add a Listbox, simply click List Box in the
  toolbox on the left and drag to the desired
  loaction on the dialog
• Certain properties of the Clistbox are
  automatically set such as the sort property. So
  if you want the information to display in the
  order it was added to the listbox, you should
  change the sort property to false.
• To manipulate the data in a list box, see
  Controls with variables and Using the CListbox
  Object

17
Event Handlers

• Event Handlers allow you to create a function
  that is called when certain actions are performed
  on controls such as mouse clicks
• In Visual Studio, there is no main loop that is
  executed from top to bottom. Instead, Visual
  Studio uses event handlers to call functions that
  perform the necessary operations a program will
  execute until a button is clicked that tells the
  program to exit
• To add an event handler, right click a control
  and select Add Event Handler

18
Event Handlers (cont.)

• Select the event you want to handle for a mouse
  click, select BN_CLICKED
• For this class, it is unnecessary to change the
  other options
• Click Add and Edit
• Visual Studio will create necessary Function
  declarations and take you to the Function
  definition the name of the function will
  reflect the controls ID property
• Any code in the function will be executed when
  the event (ie mouse click) occurs

19
Controls with Variables

• In order to get information from controls or
  display information using controls, we associate
  variables with them
• To add a variable to a control, right-click the
  control and select Add Variable
• Selecting Value creates a variable whose value
  is link to the control
• Selecting Control creates a object whose
  functions give access to the control from the
  code
• For an edit control, change the category to
  Value and the Variable type to CString
• For a listbox, the category should be Control
  and variable type CListBox
• Name the variable and click finish to associate
  it with the control

20
UpdateData(FALSE)

• To update a control so that it reflects the value
  in its associated variable, we call the function
  UpdateData(FALSE). Ex
• We have an edit control with the CString myEdit
  associated with it. The pictures show the state
  of the control after the lines of code to their
  left have executed.
• myEditfoo
• UpdateData(FALSE)
• myEditbar
• UpdateData(FALSE)
• myEdit
• UpdateData(FALSE)

21
UpdateData(TRUE)

• To update the variable associated with a control
  so that the variable reflects the data in the
  control, we call UpdateData(TRUE) For instance
  we have an edit box with the CString variable
  myEdit associated with it
• Control Code myEdit
• myEditfoo
• UpdateData(TRUE)
• UpdateData(TRUE)
• myEditbar
• UpdateData(TRUE)

22
Using CStrings

• CStrings are similar to the String object in
  CS53, but CStrings are specific to Visual C.
  In many cases it is more convenient to use a
  CString than a character array.
• CStrings do not need to be initialized with a
  null terminator like a character array does
• CStrings do not need to be assigned a length and
  have no maximum length other than physical
  limitations of the machine
• To convert from a CString to a character array,
  you can use strcpy() or strncpy()
• CString c1foo char a10
• strncpy(a,c,10) //foo
• The CString and operator can used with other
  CStrings, a double quote enclosed string, or a
  null terminated string
• CString c1,c2 char a20
• strcpy(a, 456)
• c1a //456 Note there is no special method
  needed to convert character array to CString
• c2123 //123
• c2c1 //123456

23
Using CStrings (cont)

• You can access a specific character in a CString
  using brackets the same way you would with a
  character array
• c2153 //153
• c212 //123
• To avoid errors, do not add different string
  types together to create a CString
• //This does not work because the operation
  (123a) is performed first, this is not legal
• c2123ac1
• //Instead, do the following
• c2123
• c2a
• c2c1
• To find the length of a CString, we can use the
  GetLength() function. Ex c1.GetLength() This
  makes it easy to iterate through all of the
  characters of a CString
• for(int i0 iltc1.GetLength() i)
• //perform operation using each character in the
  string c1i

24
Using the CListBox Object

• In order to manipulate the data stored by a
  listbox, you must use a CListBox object
  associated with it
• To clear the data stored in a listbox, we call
  the Reset() function, so if we have a CListBox
  variable named myListBox, we use the code
  myListBox.Reset() to clear its data
• To add a line to display in a listbox, we call
  the function AddString(String) where String is a
  String we want to add to the listbox. If the
  listbox has the sort property set to false, the
  new string will appear as the last line in the
  listbox. Example myListBox.AddString(Add this
  string)
• To delete a string from a listbox, we call the
  DeleteString() function. The only parameter
  DeleteString takes is the index of the string to
  delete the indexes start at 0 for the top
  element of the listbox.
• myListBox.Reset()
• myListBox.AddString(a)
• myListBox.AddString(b)
• myListBox.DeleteString(0)

25
Using the CListBox Object

• In some cases, we want to update a listbox to
  reflect a change in a Bag or other data
  structure. To do this, it is best to reset the
  entire content of the listbox and then iterate
  through all contents of the data structure,
  adding them to the listbox one by one. This
  ensures that the data in the listbox will always
  represent exactly the data in the data structure.
• When using the CListBox, the listbox displays the
  results of any function calls automatically it
  is unnecessary to call UpdateData(FALSE) to
  refresh the listbox display

26
Working with the CDialog Class

• When you create an MFC Application, .NET creates
  a program that just runs a CDialog class, so to
  change the functionality of our programs, we just
  edit this class to make it do what we want.
  Programs no longer execute from the top of a main
  loop to the bottom instead, certain functions
  are called when events like mouse clicks occur
• The name of the class that windows creates for us
  is CProgramNameDlg where ProgramName is the name
  you specified when creating the project
• The files for the class are appropriately named
  ProgramNameDlg.h and ProgramName.cpp, and we can
  open these files to edit them using the Solution
  Explorer
• Below is code from the header file of the dialog
  class created for my program example3

27
CDialog Class (Cont.)

• The CDialog class contains private, protected,
  and public variables and functions just like any
  other class. Some functions and variables are
  created automatically when the program is
  created. Others are created when you add event
  handlers and controls.
• The code on the following page is for the dialog
  shown above. This dialog contains a button with
  the ID IDC_BUTTON_MYBUTTON with and OnBnClicked
  event handler added and an edit control with a
  CString named myEdit associated with it
• To compile and run your program, go to
  Debug-gtStart or press F5. If the program
  compiles, he dialog screen should appear and you
  should be able to use the controls.

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CDialog Class (Cont.)
The CDialog class has Public and Protected member
variables and functions
These portions of code were created by Microsoft
upon project creation
This portion of code contains the code add by
Microsoft for the variables and event handlers
added. Note that there is a public member
function named OnBnClickedMyButton which is the
function that will be called when the button with
the ID IDC_BUTTON_MYBUTTON is clicked. It also
contains a CString public member variable named
myEdit which is associated with the edit control
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CDialog Class (Cont.)

• You can add member variables and functions to the
  CDialog class just like any other class. The
  advantage of this is that member variables are
  accessible from all member functions which
  includes OnBnClicked functions. Also, a member
  function will have access to the member variables
  such as the variables associated with controls
  and functions inherited by the Dialog class such
  as the MessageBox function.
• The following shows a portion of the header with
  an array of integers and a function named
  parseEditControl added to the class. The class
  also has a myBag object named m_bag that may
  allow us to keep track of a collection things
  such as multiple text inputs from the user.

30
MessageBox function

• The MessageBox function is a function that
  creates a message box popup
• The first parameter of the function is a string
  that is the text that will be displayed in the
  main part of the message box
• The second parameter is a string for the caption
  which is the text that appears in the Title bar
  of the message box
• The final parameter accepts predefined integer
  constants which determine the buttons and
  functionality of the message box for a message
  box with an ok button we use MB_OK
• The MessageBox function is inherited by the
  Dialog CDialog class, so it is unavailable in any
  classes you create
• MessageBox(This text appears in the body of the
  window, This text appears in the Title Bar,
  MB_OK)

31
Using The MSDN in .Net

• To use the MSDN in .Net, select Help-gt Search,
  and you will get a search screen on the right
  side.
• You may want to filter by Visual C to get more
  relevant results
• Results for your inquiry will appear at the
  bottom.
• Click on a result to view it in the main pane
• The MSDN is a good way to get an answer about how
  a particular object or function works

32
Common Problems

• Insufficient AFS drive space - If you are
  creating your program on your S drive, you are
  limited to 100MB of space. When you Run your
  program it creates a Debug folder which can take
  up as much as 10MB of space. It is a good idea
  to go to Build-gtClean Solution when you are
  finished with a program to clear this Debug
  folder and recover the space
• The following error is a typical sign of low Disk
  Space
• In some cases, you may see an error message that
  doesnt seem to make sense. It is possible that
  the error could be cleared up by selecting Build
  -gtRebuild Solution.
• Another way to avoid errors is to disable
  Precompiled headers. To do this, go to Project
  on the top menu, Properties, navigate to
  Configuration-gtC/C-gtPrecompiled Headers on the
  right, and then select Not using precompiled
  Headers for Create/Use Precompiled Headers.
  This technique is useful when your error message
  says something about precompiled headers