Comboboxes and forms in functions

PowerShell Help
1

Hello,

I’m trying to build a module of functions relating to building forms. This might already have been done but its a good way to learn and I’ve hit a snag. The code below should generate a form with a text box and two comboboxes. This works fine except for the fact that the combo box generated by the function fails to return any data compare to the other one which seems to work fine!

Can anyone see where I’ve gone wrong? I’m assuming that its something in the Combobox function.

$Name = ""
$Office = ""
$Office2 = ""

# This Function Generates a ComboBox
function Add-TPN2ComboBox ($x=120, $y=10, $width=100, $height=20, $values, $text, $Outputvariable) {
    $ComboBox = new-object System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
    $ComboBox.Location = new-object System.Drawing.Size($x,$y)
    $ComboBox.Size = new-object System.Drawing.Size($width,$height)
    $ComboBox.Text = $text
    ForEach ($value in $values) {
	    $ComboBox.Items.Add($value)
    }
    $Form.Controls.Add($ComboBox)
}

# This Function Generates a label
function Add-TPN2Label ($text="label text", $x=10, $y=10, $width=100, $height=20) {
	$objLabel = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
	$objLabel.Text = "$text"
	$objLabel.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size($x,$y) 
	$objLabel.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size($width,$height) 
	$Form.Controls.Add($objLabel) 
}

function Add-TPNButton($text="OK", $x=240, $y=10, $width=75, $height=20, $action){
    $objButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
    $objButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size($x,$y)
    $objButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size($width,$height)
    $objButton.Text = "$text"
    $objButton.Add_Click($Action)
    $Form.Controls.Add($objButton)
    }

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")

$Form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$Form.width = 450
$Form.height = 500
$Form.StartPosition = "CenterScreen"
$Form.Topmost = $True

    $y = 10 #The initial margin from the top, 10 px is the default value if not specified.
    $Values = @("Bristol", "Manchester", "Burton", "London", "Bangkok")

    Add-TPN2Label -text "Firstname" -y $y
    $FirstName = Add-TPNTextbox -y $y -text "John"
    $y = $y + 30

   
    #Add an Office drop-down box to the form.
    Add-TPN2Label -text "Office:" -y $y  #Add a label to the Office dropdown.
    $ComboBoxOffice = new-object System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
    $ComboBoxOffice.Location = new-object System.Drawing.Size(120,$y)
    $ComboBoxOffice.Size = new-object System.Drawing.Size(130,30)
    ForEach ($Value in $Values) {
    	$ComboBoxOffice.Items.Add($Value)
    }
    $Form.Controls.Add($ComboBoxOffice)
    $y = $y + 30
    

    Add-TPN2Label -text "Office2" -y $y
    $ComboBoxOffice2 = Add-TPN2Combobox -y $y -values $Values -width 130
    $y = $y + 30

    Add-TPNButton -Action {$this.Parent.Close()} -y $y -text "OK"

$Form.Add_Shown({$Form.Activate()})
[void] $Form.ShowDialog()

write-host "Name: " $Firstname.Text
write-host "Office: " $ComboBoxOffice.SelectedItem
write-host "Office2: " $ComboBoxOffice2.SelectedItem
2

I think you are always creating combo box in to the same object so it does not make a new one for you. I suppose you should give the combo box name as parameter in the function and use that in the new-object System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox

3

Hi,

I don’t think you’ve given us the full script, as on my machine an error is generated referring to Add-TPNTextbox which isn’t included in the script.

If I remove the reference to Add-TPNTextbox then the form is created with 2 comboboxes, both having the same content. You are capturing the output of Add-TPN2ComboBox as if it should be a combobox object, but it’s just the result of the ComboBox.Items.Add() method, a series of numbers.

If you insert this immediately below line 14:

Return $ComboBox

then you should get the result you’re after, as Add-TPN2ComboBox then returns a combo box object.

Hope this helps,

Stuart

4

Thanks Stuart!

That was just the trick. I had looked at that for way to long.