FarPoint Forums

Hello,

I have a rather odd thing happening all the time in one of my projects where I use the Spread. It is a WinForm with one single spread and a bunch of other controls. The layout is mostly managed by sets of TableLayoutManagers. I use VS2008 and Spread for Windows Forms for 3.5 Framework 4. I have also updated the Spread from the .Net Framework 2.0 to 3.5 variant if that can help you with anything.

My problem appear after I run my WinForm, quit the application and go back to design mode for the form. Then all controls that are added to the WinForm after the Spread is added gets invisible. They are still there if check the designer code and there are no changes in the Designer.vb file for the form either. I can also select them if I scroll and select them in the properties window dropdown. If I then close the design file and open it again the controls magically reappear as they were supposed to be.

I have tried removing the Spread and then everything works like a charm again. I have also tried rearranging the order in which the controls are added to the form but the same problem appear and all the controls after the Spread have been added turn invisible. I have not yet tried removing the Spread and creating a new one fro scratch since I would rather not do that unless it is the very last option I must take. I have done a lot of styling to the Spread and would not like to go through the hassle again.

Do you have any idea what so ever what I can do to make this incredibly annoying problem go away? So far it hasn't removed any of my other controls but it is really frustrating having to close and reopen the form each time I run the project.

/Johan

Johan,

I am not able to reproduce this issue. All my controls before and after the Spread are displaying when I run a project and then go back to design time. Could you create a project with just this one form to send to us to debug the issue you are seeing?

Johan -

I do not see a TableLayoutManager for use in a WindowsForms project.  I see a TableLayoutPanel.  Is that what you are using?  If so, I am not able to reproduce the issue you are seeing.  Do you have a small project you could attach that shows this issue?

Yes, it is the TableLayoutPanel I use. Just typed it wrong.

I do not get this behaviour in every project I do which include a spread. The current project I now have is rather large and unfortunately I don't think I will be able to successfully reproduce this in a small project.My guess is that it has something to do with the upgrade from Spread for framework 2.0 to 3.5 since this behaviour started occurring after the update.

I guess I will have to delete the current spread, add a new one and redo all the layout to see if that sorts it. I think I have done that in the past (some years ago) with some older version of the spread.

Removing the spread and adding a brand new one didn't solve the problem. Though, I think I am on to something now...

I managed to reproduce the problem now in a new project. The behaviour occur when you also have at lease one UserControl on the WinForm.

In the application I have attached I have a form consisting of one UserControl (just one TextBox and one ListView and no special code), one Spread, one label and two buttons. Most times (not 100% but nearly) I run the project and enter design mode again the buttons will be invisible (these are added to the same TableLayoutPanel after the spread). The label will still be visible since it was added before the spread. If I remove either the spread or the usercontrol from the application everything works fine.

silk -

Running your project(30 times) I am still not seeing this behavior.  What steps do I need to take to see the issue?  I did remove the reference to EnvDte.

I installed FarPoint Spread 4 for Framework 3.5 at one of my programmers computers. His machine is running Windows XP (while mine is Vista) and he didn't have the spread installed before. I was able to reproduce the behaviour at his computer aswell.

When I first opened the solution, I ran it straight away and didn't have the problem. Though, when I added a Button on the first cell of the TableLayoutPanel and ran the project the problem was reproduced.

Hello,

I am not sure what is causing this issue. It is hard to debug. I opened your Form at design time and ran the application, With the application still running I looked at the Designer of the form and saw the two buttons gone. I then closed the application, and closed and open the form in the designer. The buttons now are back and I can not reproduce the issue any more. Even exiting out of Visual Studio and coming back in to retry, everything works. The only way for me to reproduce the issue is to unzip your project again and I can only reproduce this issue one time.

Do you have SP1 of Visual Studio 2008. I am wondering if there is something in this service pack that is making this start working again after closing and opening the form after saving the project (by running the project).

Yes, I do have SP1 installed. It's updated with all the latest patches and service packs.

Did you try what I suggested before (adding new controls, ie buttons, to the form)? Each time I do this I get 100% chance of reproducing the bug even if on other computers.

Hello,

When I add a control and run the project, I am able to reproduce the problem again. I have reported this as a bug (#23053) for the development team to research for the next release.

Thanks for helping! If possible please do report back if you get any feedback from the developers since I'm getting quite annoyed with this :)

I guess you won't be having a hotfix ready for this sometime before the next maintenance release?

/Johan

Johan,

We will not be having any hotfixes for this issue. The maintenance release is scheduled for the end of this month. However, since I could not find the reason for this behavior, I am not sure if this is an issue with Spread or Visual Studio. If this comes back as not beiong able to be fixed, I will let you know.

Ok good to know. Thank you, Scotts.

I'll keep my eyes open at the end of this month then. If I find anything else on the subject I'll post it here to help you out.