Part4: QTP and DotNetFactory – Creating Text Box, Check Box and Radio Button Control

This is Part4 of QTP and DotNetFactory series by Saket. Refer Part1, Part2,Part3

We have already discussed how to add button control to the form, which we used to confirm/cancel the action or close the form. In this part we will learn how to add various input controls on the form. An Input control can be a text box – to input text data, radio button or check box – to select a option control etc. or a combination of these controls. In this part of series we will discuss on how to add these controls on the form.

Let us start with adding text box control. We can create a text box control using CreateInstance. We will use ‘System.Windows.Forms.TextBox’ type name and ‘System.Wndows.Forms’ assembly.

Set MyText = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.TextBox", "System.Windows.Forms")
The textbox control is created. As discussed in the previous part we will need to place this control on the form. So we will need the user form first then we can add this control using ‘Control. Add’ method.
Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")
Set MyText = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.TextBox", "System.Windows.Forms")
MyForm.Control.Add MyText

And we can display the form using ‘ShowDialog’. The code will be like

Example 10

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")
Set MyText = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.TextBox", "System.Windows.Forms")
MyForm.Controls.Add MyText

MyForm.ShowDialog

This gives you output as

You can see we have added the text box control on the user form, but we have not defined its location on the form. In the same way as we did for the button we position the text box control on the form using System.Drawing.Point

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

Pos.X = 10
Pos.Y = 20
MyText.Location = Pos

We can use its different properties like height width, Text, Name etc.

The Text Property can be used to set the text control or to retrieve the text from the text box control. We will use the width property to set the size of text box control and

The code will be like

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")
Set MyText = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.TextBox", "System.Windows.Forms")
Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)
Pos.X = 100
Pos.Y = 100
MyText.Location = Pos
MyText.Width = 150
MyForm.Control.Add MyText
MyForm.ShowDialog

Now let us add the button control created in the previous part to the user form with text box control to confirm the action or to close the form.

Set MyButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Button", "System.Windows.Forms")

As mentioned earlier we will use ‘Text’ Property to retrieve the text entered into text box control.

MyText.Text

The complete code will be like

Example 11

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyText = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.TextBox", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Button", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

Pos.X = 90
Pos.Y = 100
MyText.Location = Pos
MyText.Width = 100
Pos.X = 100
Pos.Y = 130
MyButton.Location = Pos
MyButton.Text = "Close"
MyForm.Controls.Add MyText
MyForm.Controls.Add MyButton
MyForm.CancelButton = MyButton
MyForm.ShowDialog

Msgbox MyText.Text

Set MyText = Nothing
Set MyButton = Nothing
Set Pos = Nothing
Set MyForm = Nothing

The output will be

Enter a text in the box and click on Close. This will give the output a message box with text entered

So now you have learnt how to create the custom user form and to place controls on it. We will quickly go through how to add other controls like check box and radio button control.

To add Checkbox control we will use type ‘System.Wndows.Forms.CheckBox’ and the assembly ‘System.Wndows.Forms’ as these controls are part of same assembly.

Set MyCheckbox = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox", "System.Windows.Forms")

Our CheckBox Control is created and need to be placed on the user form. To set the location we will use Point object again. We will use its ‘Text’ property to set the Text for checkbox and the ‘Name’ property to set a Name to the control.

Example 12

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyCheckbox = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 100
End With

With MyCheckBox
.Location = Pos
.Text = "My Check Box"
.Name = “chkCheckBox”
End With

With MyForm
.Controls.Add MyCheckBox
.Text = "My Custom User Form"
.ShowDialog
End With

Set MyCheckBox = Nothing
Set Pos = Nothing
Set MyForm = Nothing

Which gives the output as

No you can see our check box control is created, we will add the button control and place it on the user form.

Set MyButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Button", "System.Windows.Forms")

We can use the ‘Checked’ Method to get the value whether it is checked or not. This method returns a Boolean value – True/False

MyCheckBox.Checked

Combining all together, the code will be like

Example 13

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyCheckbox = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

Set MyButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Button", "System.Windows.Forms")

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 100
End With

With MyCheckBox
.Location = Pos
.Text = "My Check Box"
.Name = "chkCheckBox"
End With

With Pos
.X = 100
.Y = 130
End With

With MyButton
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Close"
End With

With MyForm
.Controls.Add MyCheckBox
.Controls.Add MyButton
.CancelButton = MyButton
.Text = "My Custom User Form"
.ShowDialog
End With

msgbox MyCheckBox.Checked

Set MyCheckBox = Nothing
Set MyButton = Nothing
Set Pos = Nothing
Set MyForm = Nothing

The Output will be

Check on the check Box on the user form and click the close button it will pop up a message as ‘True’. It will pop up as ‘False’ if the check box is checked on.

To create Radio button control we will use type name‘System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton’ and the same assembly ‘System.Windows.Forms’.

Set MyRadioButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton", "System.Windows.Forms")

To define the location of Control on the user form we can use the Point object again. We can use Text Property to identify the object on form

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 100
End With

With MyRadioButton
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 1"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
End With

Now we can Create a Radiobutton on the user form. As Radio buttons are arranged in a group of two or more and allows users to choose one from the set of options in the group, the single radiobutton on the form will be of no use. We need to create at least one more control on the form. In the same way we can create another control.

Set MyRadioButton1 = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyRadioButton2 = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 100
End With

With MyRadioButton1
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 1"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
End With

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 130
End With

With MyRadioButton2
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 2"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
End With

The Checked property of RadioButton control can be used to retrieve which control is selected.

This returns the Boolean value as True/False.

MyRadioButton1.Checked
MyRadioButton2.Checked

This property can also be used to set the default option selected. If you need to set the first radio button selected by default then set the property to True

With MyRadioButton1
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 1"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
.Checked = True
End With

Putting it all together

Example 14

Set MyForm = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Form", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyRadioButton1 = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyRadioButton2 = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set MyButton = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Windows.Forms.Button", "System.Windows.Forms")

Set Pos = DotNetFactory.CreateInstance("
System.Drawing.Point","System.Drawing",x,y)

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 100
End With

With MyRadioButton1
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 1"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
End With

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 130
End With

With MyRadioButton2
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Option 2"
.Name = "optRadioButton1"
End With

With Pos
.X = 90
.Y = 160
End With

With MyButton
.Location = Pos
.Text = "Close"
End With

With MyForm
.Controls.Add MyRadioButton1
.Controls.Add MyRadioButton2
.Controls.Add MyButton
.CancelButton = MyButton
.Text = "My Custom User Form"
.ShowDialog
End With

If MyRadioButton1.Checked Then
msgbox "You have selected - Option 1"
elseif MyRadioButton2.Checked then
msgbox "You have selected - Option 2"
else
msgbox "No Options Selected"
End If

Set MyRadioButton1 = Nothing
Set MyRadioButton2 = Nothing
Set Button = Nothing
Set Pos = Nothing
Set MyForm = Nothing

This gives the output as

Select an Option and click button, it will pop up the message accordingly

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