How to: Add a .NET Control to a Form

Article
05/18/2015

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

When you want to add a .NET control to a form that you are designing in the AOT, follow the procedures in this topic. The procedures describe how to add a Windows Form or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) control to a Microsoft Dynamics AX form.

Adding a .NET Control

This section of the documentation describes how to add a .NET control to the design of a form. When you add a .NET control to a form, you typically complete the following tasks:

Open the AOT and use the Design node of the form to add a ManagedHost control to that form.
Use form methods to initialize the .NET control and respond to events that originate with the .NET control.

To help illustrate how you add a .NET control to a form, the following procedures include example property values and code samples that add a LinkLabel control from the .NET System.Windows.Forms assembly.

Tip

Before you add a .NET control, you must know the .NET assembly and namespace of that control.

To add the .NET control

In the AOT, expand the Forms node. Find and expand the form where you will add the .NET control.
Expand Designs. Right-click Design, click New Control, and then click ManagedHost. The Managed Control Selector opens.
Use the top list to find the assembly that contains the control you want to add. Notice that when you click a name in the top list, the botton list changes to show the controls that are contained in that assembly.

For example, find and then click System.Windows.Forms in the top list. The bottom list shows the controls that are contained in that assembly together with the namespace of the control.

To add a control, click the control name in the bottom list and then click OK.

For example, click LinkLabel and then click OK. The Managed Control Selector closes.

Tip

If you cannot find the namespace or control, you might have to add a reference to the assembly that contains the specified control. For information about how to add a reference from the Managed Control Selector, see How to: Add a Reference to a .NET Assembly.
The AOT adds the ManagedHost control to the Design node of the form. Right-click ManagedHost and then click Properties. The Properties window lists the ManagedHost properties and the default value of each property.

Review the list of properties. You customize the ManagedHost control by replacing the default property values with a new value. The following table specifies the properties that are required to initialize a ManagedHost control.

Property	Value
Name	The default property value is ManagedHost. Use this property to uniquely identify the control. For example, enter LinkLabelManagedHost for a .NET LinkLabel control
AutoDeclaration	Yes
TypeName	Displays the fully qualified name of the .NET control. For example, a .NET LinkLabel control is identified as System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel. The property value is automatically populated when you add the .NET control by using the Managed Control Selector. Typically, you would not change the default value. However, you can update this property if you have to reflect a change to the name of the .NET control.
AssemblyName	Displays the name of the assembly that contains the specified control. The property value is automatically populated when you add the .NET control by using the Managed Control Selector and cannot be changed.
Sizing	Specifies how the .NET control appears on the form. If you use the Height and Width properties to specify the size of the ManagedHost, use SizeToHost to fill the ManagedHost with the specified .NET control. If you want the ManagedHost to match the size of the .NET control, set the property value to SizeToContent. For example, use SizeToContent with a .NET LinkLabel control.

The .NET and ManagedHost control are added to the form. To integrate the .NET control with the form, complete the steps in the following procedure.

To intialize the .NET control and add eventhandlers

In the AOT, expand the form where you added the ManagedHost control. Expand the Designs and Design nodes, right-click the ManagedHost control, and then click Events. The Events window opens.
Use the list of Events to identify the .NET control event or events where you want the form to perform an action based on that event. To add an event handler for an event, click the event name in the Events list, and then click Add. Notice how a method name is added to the X++ Methods column. When you have finished creating X++ methods for.NET control events, click Close.

For example, create an event handler for the LinkClicked event of a .NET LinkLabel control by opening the Events list, clicking the LinkClicked event, clicking Add, and then clicking Close.
In the AOT, expand the Methods node under the form. Notice that a method named init was added. Also notice that a method was added for each method added to the X++ Methods list in the Events window.

For example, if you add an event handler for the LinkClicked event for the .NET LinkLabel control, you will see a form method named LinkLabelManagedHost_LinkClicked.
To populate the initial property values of the .NET control, double-click the init method. The method opens in the code editor. Use the code editor to add code that populates the required properties of the .NET control. Add your initialization code after the code that declares the control and adds the event handlers.

The following code example shows how to add code to the init method that populates the Text property of a LinkLabel control named _LinkLabelManagedHost_Control. The Text property specifies the text message that the LinkLabel displays on the form.

        public void init()
        {
           super();
        
           // The following code is automatically added to the init method. 
           // The code initializes the managed host control, and adds the specified event handlers.
           _LinkLabelManagedHost_Control = LinkLabelManagedHost.control();
           _LinkLabelManagedHost_Control.add_LinkClicked(new ManagedEventHander(this, ‘LinkLabelManagedHost_LinkClicked’));
        
           // The following code initializes the Text property of the .NET LinkLabel control.
           _LinkLabelManagedHost_Control.set_Text(“Go to MSDN”);
        }

To customize the actions that occur when a .NET control event occurs, return to the AOT and double-click the name of the event handler method that was created earlier. The specified method opens in the code editor. Add code that performs actions for that event.

The following code example shows the event handler method for a .NET LinkLabel control. The method opens the specified web site when the text in the control is clicked.

        void ManagedHost_LinkClicked(System.Object sender, System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e)
        {
           WINAPI::shellExecute(“iexplore.exe”, “MSDN.Microsoft.com”);
        }

To validate and save your code changes, click the Compile button of the code editor window.

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How to: Add a .NET Control to a Form

Adding a .NET Control

To add the .NET control

To intialize the .NET control and add eventhandlers

See also

Additional resources