C# How to add dynamic content to a dynamic button?

Question

In pushing forward with my application (winforms) and I have found a need to have dynamically generated content to be pushed to a button that then will display that dynamic content in a messagebox.

What I am doing is reading FTP links from a file, based on a product selection, then I want to take each line and have it append a textbox and a button so that they can fill out the file name.

I have it it working where the Label, textbox and button all appear as i would expect. Now what I want is to have the button when clicked display my content that was just generated.

So the code I have right now that generates everything as expected is as follows. I just need to know how to make the button accept my ftpLabel.Text and tb.Text data. I have tried to follow the post here: How can i create dynamic button click event on dynamic button? However, I cannot seem to make it accept any of my dynamic content.

    private void productComboBox_SelectedItemChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Read from the text file and out put the results
        try
        {
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(selectedProduct + ".txt"))
            {
                string line;
                int l = 0;

                // build the ftp link records line by line
                while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
                {
                    Label ftpLabel = new Label();
                    ftpLabel.AutoSize = true;
                    ftpLabel.Text = line;
                    TextBox tb = new TextBox();
                    Button bt = new Button();
                    bt.Text = "Copy Link";
                    bt.Click += bt.Click;
                    flp.Controls.Add(ftpLabel);
                    flp.Controls.Add(tb);
                    flp.Controls.Add(bt);

                    l++;
                }
                ftpGroupBox.Controls.Add(flp);
            }
        }
        // If the read fails then output the error message in the same section
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Label ftpErrorLabel = new Label();
            ftpErrorLabel.AutoSize = true;
            ftpErrorLabel.ForeColor = Color.Red;
            ftpErrorLabel.Text = "Error: " + ex.Message;
            flp.Controls.Add(ftpErrorLabel);
            ftpGroupBox.Controls.Add(flp);
        }
    }

    void bt_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Does this work?");
        // this message displays but cannot pass my dynamicly created content to this
    }

Any Advice is appreciated.

Thanks

before I answer, your saying you have 2 lines in your streamreader, and you want to make 1 button tha corresponds to each label and textbox? — DidIReallyWriteThat
– DidIReallyWriteThat, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 16:00
why don't you create a method that accepts string ftpLabel and within that method create the Button object and it's related event handler..? — MethodMan
– MethodMan, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 16:02
@DJKRAZE That sounds like an option except i am still pretty new at c#, so i am not quite sure how to do something like that — jAC
– jAC, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 16:09
create a private or public method since you are new then google C# how to create methods with a single parameter — MethodMan
– MethodMan, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 16:11

DidIReallyWriteThat · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-03 12:55:46Z

1

You need a hook between the button and the corresponding label and textbox. This is probably not the correct way to do this but the easiest way it to induce a naming convention as a hook.

try
    {
        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(selectedProduct + ".txt"))
        {
            string line;
            int l = 0;

            // build the ftp link records line by line
            while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                Label lFTPtextext = new Label()
                 {
                    AutoSize = true,
                    Text = line,
                    Tag = l
                 };


                Button bt = new Button()
                 {
                   Text = "Copy Link",
                   Tag = l
                 }

                 bt.Click += bt.Click;

                TextBox tb = new TextBox()
                {
                   Tag = l
                }

                flp.Controls.Add(lFTPtextext);
                flp.Controls.Add(tb);
                flp.Controls.Add(bt);

                l++;
            }
            ftpGroupBox.Controls.Add(flp);
        }
    }
    // If the read fails then output the error message in the same section
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Label ftpErrorLabel = new Label();
        ftpErrorLabel.AutoSize = true;
        ftpErrorLabel.ForeColor = Color.Red;
        ftpErrorLabel.Text = "Error: " + ex.Message;
        flp.Controls.Add(ftpErrorLabel);
        ftpGroupBox.Controls.Add(flp);
    }
}

void bt_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string tagNumber = ((Button)sender).Tag.ToString();

        var tbText= this.Controls.OfType<TextBox>()
                           .Where(x => x.Tag.ToString() == tagNumber)
                           .FirstOrDefault()

        var lblText = this.Controls.OfType<Label>()
                           .Where(x => x.Tag.ToString() == tagNumber)
                           .FirstOrDefault()

        MessageBox.Show(tbText.ToString() + " " + lblText.ToString());
    }

Maybe not the best answer, but its how I would solve it.

edited Sep 3, 2014 at 12:55

answered Sep 2, 2014 at 16:22

DidIReallyWriteThat

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13 Comments

jAC Over a year ago

I think it may be missing something? I get Error Operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'object' and 'int'

jAC Over a year ago

hmm... now the select does not appear to like the string values: Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<string>' to 'string' Sorry for being such a noob here :(

jAC Over a year ago

Any thoughts on how to fix that last error anyone? If i convert it to an INT then it says it needs to be a string and if i convert it to a string then it says the above error... Any help would be apprecated

Loathing Over a year ago

Select returns an IEnumerable. You can wrap the whole thing in (...).FirstOrDefault(); or you can rewrite it as var lblText = this.Controls.OfType<Label>().Where(x => x.Tag.ToString() == tagNumber).FirstOrDefault();

jAC Over a year ago

@Loathing Ok so i tried both methods and even though I dont get any errors but I also do not get any results (lblText appears empty). Sorry for being a pain. I do get the tag number each time. When I debug, lblText = null and tagNumber = 0 (which is expected).

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