Show and Hide Windows Form in System Tray

How to show and hide your form in windows system tray.

1. Add NotifyIcon class in your project (System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon) and drag it into form.



2. Change NotifyIcon properties.

BalloonTipIcon = Info
BalloonTipText = Running
Change Icon
Text = Running Your Program
Visible = True

3. Add code in Event Form1_Resize.

Private Sub Form1_Resize(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles MyBase.Resize
' If minimize form that will show in system tray.
If System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Minimized = WindowState Then
sysMonTray.ShowBalloonTip(5, "Running", "Running Your Program", ToolTipIcon.Info)
Me.Hide()
End If
End Sub

4. Add code in Event NotifyIcon_Click to hide and show form.

Private Sub sysMonTray_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles sysMonTray.Click

If Me.Visible Then
Me.Hide()
Else
Me.Show()
Me.ShowInTaskbar = True
Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal
Me.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen
End If

End Sub

Make your programs run on Windows startup

The two best methods for automatically launching a program at startup are to use the registry or the system's Startup folder. Which method you choose depends on how easy you want to make it for the user to remove the program if he or she decides that it shouldn't run at system startup. Using the Startup folder gives the user more control; to prevent the program from running at startup, the user just has to remove its shortcut from the folder. Using the registry makes it less accessible; the user will have to be familiar with the structure of the registry and will have to know how to use an editing tool like RegEdit in order to prevent the application from running at startup.
Sample Code.

'Write to register
Dim regKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKeyregKey
regKey = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", True)
regKey.SetValue("YourApplicationName", "YourInstallPath")
regKey.Close()


If you want to remove from register use this code.

regKey.DeleteValue("YourApplicationName", False)

Insert picture into Report

Insert picture into report by convert picture to byte array and add to report.


1. Add picture column in ReportDataset.xsd and set data type to System.Byte() then compile project.




2. Open CustomerReport.rpt , right click Database Fields and select Verify Database menu. Insert Picture column into report.




3. At CreateDataSet function insert this code for add new picture data column.

dt.Columns.Add("Picture", Type.GetType("System.Byte[]"))

4. Create new function.

Private Function CreatePictureArray(ByVal bImagePath As String) As Byte()
Dim imgLogo As System.Drawing.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(bImagePath)
Dim msLogo As New IO.MemoryStream() imgLogo.Save(msLogo,
System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp)

Return msLogo.ToArray()
End Function

5. Convert image to byte array and bind to datarow.

' Create new row
Dim dr As DataRow = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
dr("Title") = "Mr"
dr("FirstName") = "Tom"
dr("LastName") = "Brown"
dr("Address") = "Tom Address"
dr("Picture") = CreatePictureArray("c:\person.jpg")

6. Show Report

Create Report

Create report by vb.net and crystal report

1. Create new visual basic project.

2. Add button and CrystalReportViewer to form1.

3. Add new DataSet item.

4. Add DataTable in dataset design page and add data table columns.
- Title, FirstName, LastName, Address

5. Add Crystal Report item by select report document as a blank report

6. On Field Explorer right click at Database Fields and select Database Expert.

7. Select Project Data -> ADO.NET DataSets and add customer table to ReportDataset.

8. Design Report (Add report header name txtHeader and report footer name txtFooter).

9. Sample code to show report.

Private Sub btnShow_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnShow.Click
' Get data to dataset
Dim CustomerData As DataSet = CreateDataSet()

' Create report instance and set data to report data source
Dim rpt As New CustomerReport
rpt.SetDataSource(CustomerData.Tables(0))

' Access crystal report object
' Sample to access textbox object
Dim txtHeader As CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.TextObject = rpt.Section2.ReportObjects("txtHeader")
txtHeader.Text = "This is Report Header"

Dim txtFooter As CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.TextObject = rpt.Section2.ReportObjects("txtFooter")
txtFooter.Text = "This is Report Footer"

' Show Report
Me.CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = rpt

End Sub

Private Function CreateDataSet() As DataSet
Dim ds As New DataSet("ReportDataset")

' Create Table
Dim dt As New DataTable("Customer")
dt.Columns.Add("Title", Type.GetType("System.String"))
dt.Columns.Add("FirstName", Type.GetType("System.String"))
dt.Columns.Add("LastName", Type.GetType("System.String"))
dt.Columns.Add("Address", Type.GetType("System.String"))

' Add DataTable to DataSet
ds.Tables.Add(dt)

' Create new row
Dim dr As DataRow = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
dr("Title") = "Mr"
dr("FirstName") = "Tom"
dr("LastName") = "Brown"
dr("Address") = "Tom Address"
ds.Tables(0).Rows.Add(dr)

dr = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
dr("Title") = "Mr"
dr("FirstName") = "John"
dr("LastName") = "Grary"
dr("Address") = "John Address"
ds.Tables(0).Rows.Add(dr)

dr = ds.Tables(0).NewRow
dr("Title") = "Mr"
dr("FirstName") = "Alex"
dr("LastName") = "Smith"
dr("Address") = "Alex Address"
ds.Tables(0).Rows.Add(dr)

Return ds
End Function


10. Show Report.

BackgroundWorker

BackgroundWorker Class

Executes an operation on a separate thread.

Sample Code

1.Create event DoWork.

Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_DoWork(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DoWorkEventArgs)
'Sample how to disable button send before send email method after that enabled button.
DisableSendButton()
' to do SendEmail method
EnabledSendButton()
End Sub

2. Show how to invoke method when use BackgroundWorker control.

Private Sub DisableSendButton()
If Me.InvokeRequired Then
Me.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(DisableSendButton))
Else
btnSend.Enabled = False
btnCancelSend.Visible = True
End If
End Sub

Private Sub EnabledSendButton()
If Me.InvokeRequired Then
Me.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(EnabledSendButton))
Else
btnSend.Enabled = True
btnCancelSend.Visible = False
End If
End Sub

3.Start BackgroundWorker

BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync()