Copy/Paste in windows forms with custom controls

Question

I am writing a small app in C# using windows forms. I want to let my users copy and paste data around the app and there are some custom controls, for example one is a colour picker.

Some of the default controls (well at least the TextBox) have a copy and paste functionality already. I want to have the same thing with my colour picker, and also want an 'Edit' menu at the top to copy and paste.

At the moment I can't see how to do this in a nice way, my current tack is to catch the Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V commands and the menu clicks and go through a function which uses some Win32 to find the focused control and then copy or paste data from or to the control (with a massive if statement depending on the type of the focused control).

The alternative seems to be to write key handling into every custom control, but with this method I'm not sure how to incorporate the Edit menu functions.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this in an elegant or more 'standard' way?

Answer 1

Hai ,

Have look at this It is similar to ur prob just check it out..

Answer 2

to find the focussed control: ContainerControl.ActiveControl Then depeding on the type of control you can set a value (with the clipboard value)

Answer 3

Try this also cut-copy-paste-code

Answer 4

The simplest way is to activate KeyPreview in the form and then follow the logic in KeyDown event.

But an other approach can be useful:
If you have in your win application a menu (by e.g. &Edit => Copy (Paste)).

Enable for that menus the keyboard shortcuts

// 
// editToolStripMenuItem
// 
this.editToolStripMenuItem.DropDownItems.AddRange(new 
System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] {
this.copyToolStripMenuItem,
this.pasteToolStripMenuItem});
this.editToolStripMenuItem.Text = "Edit";
// 
// copyToolStripMenuItem
// 
**this.copyToolStripMenuItem.ShortcutKeys = ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys)
((System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Control | System.Windows.Forms.Keys.C)));**
this.copyToolStripMenuItem.Text = "&Copy";
// 
// pasteToolStripMenuItem
// 
**this.pasteToolStripMenuItem.ShortcutKeys = ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys)
((System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Control | System.Windows.Forms.Keys.V)));**
this.pasteToolStripMenuItem.Text = "&Paste";

So you have your shortcuts to Copy paste. Now manage just your menu clicks

private void copyToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Image myData = this.ActiveControl.BackgroundImage;
    Clipboard.SetImage(myData);
}

private void pasteToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Image myData = Clipboard.GetImage();
    this.ActiveControl.BackgroundImage = myData;
}

Surely, you can make invisible your menu, if you want do not show it to the user.

=============================================================================== UPDATE

code for multiple controls:

    private void copyToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ICopyPasteable control = sender as ICopyPasteable;
        if (control != null)
        {
            control.CopyToClipboard();
        }
    }

    private void pasteToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ICopyPasteable control = sender as ICopyPasteable;
        if (control != null)
        {
            control.PasteFromClipboard();
        }
    }
}


public interface ICopyPasteable
{
    void CopyToClipboard();
    void PasteFromClipboard();
}

public class MyTextBox : TextBox, ICopyPasteable
{

    #region ICopyPasteable Membres

    public void CopyToClipboard()
    {
        Clipboard.SetText(this.Text);
    }

    public void PasteFromClipboard()
    {
        if (Clipboard.ContainsText())
        {
            this.Text = Clipboard.GetText();
        }
    }

    #endregion
}