tool windows disappearing when added through design view

Can you email us steps to reproduce this in our test application or email us a sample project with steps to reproduce it?

I can't give you my current project's source, and all attempts to recreate it in a virtually empty project are failing. What do you suggest? I can't use it at this point. :(

We have a form that we inherit from to give us added functionality to the windows form, when I threw this into a fresh project and tried it again, I got the same problem. I can't imagine anything short of an override would cause such designer quirkiness but I have looked at our code and can't see any problems. Here is the code for the only 2 overrides we have in our base class for (so far). Maybe you can find something wrong, or copy it into your own project and try to recreate the problem.

/// <summary>
/// Override to provide additional default functionality to Baseline Form control.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e"></param>
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
if (!DesignMode)
{
//remember who our parent is
_parentInstance = this.MdiParent;

//resume and suspend layouts are for hiding all of the
//video trash from the user.
SuspendLayout();

base.OnLoad (e);

//restore the location of this baseline form
restoreFormLayout();

ResumeLayout();
}
else
{
base.OnLoad (e);
}

}

/// <summary>
/// Override to provide additional default functionality to Baseline Form control.
/// Namely:
/// 1 - saving of form position, size and state
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e"></param>
protected override void OnClosed(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnClosed (e);

if (!DesignMode)
{
//TODO: Must get the app name ("Baseline" in the below string literal)
//from someplace centric.
RegistryKey myKey = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(@"Software\BGM\Baseline\BaselineForm\" + this.Name.ToString());

//Save the form size and location if the form is not maximized
if (WindowState != System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Maximized)
{
myKey.SetValue("x",Location.X);
myKey.SetValue("y",Location.Y);
myKey.SetValue("width",Size.Width);
myKey.SetValue("height",Size.Height);
}

//Save maximized state
myKey.SetValue("windowState", (int)WindowState);

//Save the form's MDI Docked status

//flush unwritten values
myKey.Close();
}
}

It looks as though taking out the Suspend and ResumeLayout() commands from within the if (!DesignMode) block fixed the problem. Fixed may not be the right word because I need to keep those statements in there. Maybe this will aid you in fixing the problem though. Let me know if you can recreate it and if/when it will be fixed so I know when I can put my code back in.

-Dave

I spoke too soon. This is still happening. I didn't notice it before because it is an intermittent problem.

So to dupe this I need to have a base Form and and one that derrives it, right? Which one has the DockManager on it?

Also, why do you need to do all that suspend/resume layout stuff? The Load event fires before the form is displayed.

It's in the derived form.

Supposedly the Load is called before the form is displayed, but that turns out to be a fallacy in actual practice. It might be more apparant when you have lots of stuff on your forms I don't know, but the form is visible for at least part of the form load event. It's probably a latency thing, but whatever it is the suspend and resume make it look as it should.

Anyway, like I said even with those lines gone I'm still experiencing the problem. It appears as though I spoke too soon earlier. It worked once or twice with the removal of those lines, but that's all.

In your code, what does this line do? Are you putting the dock windows on an MDI child form?

Oh, yes I am. Is that not allowed? It works great when you can get the designer to cooperate.

Well in order to duplicate the issue I need to know things like that. We have plenty of customers who have the product working fine. I need to know all the details that cause it to reproduce and using an MDI child could be something that triggers it. Are there any other things about your setup that are non-typical?

I've made this setup and it's working fine for me. I have a BaseForm class that has the OnLoad override. I have a ChildForm class with the DockManager and 4 tool windows on it. Then I have an MdiParentForm that is an MdiContainer. I show the MdiParentForm and add a ChildForm as an MDI child to it. No issues from what I can see.

I think it would be best if you created a simple project that duplicates the problem and email it and the steps to reproduce the problem to us. It's all working fine with everything I try here.

Ok, it's sent to you with steps.