Form Display Order

Question

Hi. I have a problem that is making me crazy. I am trying to display a series of 3 Windows forms. I have a main form which displays a bitmap background and a menu. Once I select a particular menu item I wish to display Form1. No problem so far. I would like to hide Form1 temporarily and display a custom confirmation box that uses the main form as a background. The problem is that if any other application window is open like the debugger or explorer the confirmation box is shown on that application rather than on my main form. I have tried moving where I call Form1.Visible to show the form before I call the new one and .SendToBack and .BringToFront to no avail. Does anyone know a that I can manipulate the z-order? Thank you in advance!!!!! Code example: CBCMsgBox oCBCMsgBox = new CBCMsgBox(ConfirmationAre You Sure You Want To Continue? YesDialogResult.Yes No DialogResult.No); // this.Visible = false tried here as well as this.Parent.Visible and .SendToBack and .BringToFront DialogResult dr = oCBCMsgBox.ShowDialog(); //this.Visible = false; // tried here as well if (DialogResult.Yes == dr) { // Show Form2 }

sgbosley · Answer

Update: I used the this.Owner.Activate (which is my main form) and it works without showing any other application or the desktop.

sgbosley · Answer

Robin I tried the release mode and it does the same thing. What is happening is that the z-order is temporarily getting changed. The background(main form) has the Form1 on top but it first flashes to any application that is opened(exlorer outlook etc). How can I set the z-order so that the main form is always on top and still show the desired message box? I tried TopMost and the message box will not show. Only the main form. Thanks again!!

robin 0 · Answer

It could be because of many reasons... But I'm pretty sure that if you'll run your app directly (not from under debugger environment) it will not blinks. Try to make release version of your app and run it. If it will be blinking - you can try it this way: // only if your message box is your own class derived from MessageBox Form1 code: MessageBox.Show(...); this.Show(); MesageBox code: //in Activated event or someting like this this.Owner.Hide(); base.Activated(...);

sgbosley · Answer

Thanks Robin!!!! I had tried using .Parent and .Owner earlier and kept on getting a null back. But after one more attempt after reading your last post it appears to be finally working. The only thing that still bothers me is why the display still blips momentarily to the debugger screen before showing the correct background screen and message box. Any ideas?

robin 0 · Answer

As usuall - you must have reference to FormMain in your Form1 object... something like this: FormMain code: //...opening Form1: Form1 form1 = new Form1(); form1.Owner = this; //... showing form1 etc. Form1 code: //..creating MessageBox MessageBox.Show(this.Owner Message text Caption); And for your original task... it should work this way: Form1 code: //MessageBox call this.Hide(); MessageBox.Show(this.Owner Message text Caption); this.Show(); Hope it helps

sgbosley · Answer

Thanks for your response. If FormMain is my background form and I am currently showing Form1 on top of it how do I set the message box's parent property to FormMain? I'm not sure how to get the reference to it. My attempts so far has been unsuccessful.

robin 0 · Answer

In usuall messageboxes there is a parent form argument. So if your MessageBox is derived from MessageBox class - I think you can use it. When showing your MessageBox - parent it to correct Form and it'll be shown on your form and not on any other... I hope :)

kovan · Answer

try TopMost property to true