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When an application requires a message to be display or to ask a user questions the common method is to use aMessageBox.
✔️ Seearticle
NoteWith .NET Core 5 and higher there is TaskDialog. All code provided started out as .NET Core 5 and has been updated to use .NET Core 7.
A standardmessage box with its manyoverloads forShow method is fine for simply displaying and asking for input (without a input/textbox) while the TaskDialog provides more flexibilities. With these flexibilities comes more code which can be placed into a separate class in a project or better, place code into a separate class project. To use the class project, add a reference to a project or create a NuGet local package and install the package in any project.
Below find common examples for using a TaskDialog in a Windows Form and WPF projects. And note that there are many more methods to explore in the class project WindowsFormsLibrary.
💡 There are 25 plus examples to learnTaskDialog from, take time to traverse the code rather than simply running the code samples to get a grasp of what is possible.
There are two frontend projects, one Windows Forms and one WPF. The Windows Forms project has more code samples but the WPF project is capable of the same code as found in the Windows Forms project. Why? Generally speaking there are more developers using Windows Forms than WPF.
A third project, AutoCloseNotTaskDialog is a clean way to have a auto closing MessageBox prior to .NET Core 5. This project has not been updated to .NET Core 7.
Best way to use the code is to take the class project WindowsFormsLibrary, place it in a Visual Studio solution then build the solution.
For ease of use, redirect the build output to a library folder e.g. C:\DotNet\Libraries then when needed in a frontend project, add a reference to the dll. Alternate is to create a local NuGet package, add the local NuGet folder to NuGet package manager under Visual Studio and when needed install the package to a project.
Here the author (Karen) uses C:\Dotnetland\NuGet for local packages
The following will display a message center screen.
MessageBox.Show("Something went wrong!!!");
There is an overload to center a MessageBox on a form which looks simple
Show(IWin32Window,String)
But try and implement it is not so easy, we need to create a method to transform a form handle using
publicclassWin32Window:IWin32Window{readonlyIntPtrhandle;publicWin32Window(IWin32Windowwindow){handle=window.Handle;}IntPtrIWin32Window.Handle=>handle;}
Which is passed as the first parameter to the Show method.
UsingTaskDialog use the following code.
/// <summary>/// displays a message with option to assign button text/// </summary>/// <param name="owner">control or form</param>/// <param name="heading"></param>/// <param name="buttonText"></param>publicstaticvoidInformation(Controlowner,stringheading,stringbuttonText="Ok"){TaskDialogButtonokayButton=new(buttonText);TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Information",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=TaskDialogIcon.Warning,Buttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection(){okayButton}};TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);}
Usage
Dialogs.Information(this,"Something went wrong");
Let's use our own Icon from project resources (available in code)
/// <summary>/// displays a message with option to assign button text/// </summary>/// <param name="owner">control or form</param>/// <param name="heading"></param>/// <param name="buttonText"></param>publicstaticvoidInformation(Controlowner,stringheading,stringbuttonText="Ok"){TaskDialogButtonokayButton=new(buttonText);TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Information",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(Properties.Resources.Explaination),Buttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection(){okayButton}};TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);}
Using the buttonText to override the default text of OK.
Dialogs.Information(this,"Something went wrong","Oooops");
💡 Dialogs can be removed by using a static import using statement
usingstaticWindowsFormsLibrary.Classes.Dialogs;
With MessageBox, a question is done as shown below
if(MessageBox.Show("Would you like a cup of Coffee?","Question",MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,MessageBoxIcon.Question)==DialogResult.Yes){ ...}else{ ...}
Like in the first example to show a message, the handle may be passed to center the dialog on the form.
A cleaner method is to place the following code in a class
publicstaticboolQuestion(stringtext)=>(MessageBox.Show(text,"Question",MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,MessageBoxIcon.Question,MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button2)==DialogResult.Yes);
Usage
if(Dialogs.Question("Would you like a cup of Coffee?")){ ...}else{ ...}
With TaskDialog we can have several overloads
Let's show an example using WPF
/// <summary>/// Dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="caption">text for dialog caption</param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="yesText">text for yes button</param>/// <param name="noText">text for no button</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">specifies the default button for this dialog</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(stringcaption,stringheading,stringyesText,stringnoText,DialogResultdefaultButton){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new(yesText){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new(noText){Tag=DialogResult.No};TaskDialogButtonCollectionbuttons=new();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption=caption,SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=TaskDialogIcon.Information,Buttons=buttons};TaskDialogButtonresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(page);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// Dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner">control or form</param>/// <param name="caption">text for dialog caption</param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="yesText">text for yes button</param>/// <param name="noText">text for no button</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">specifies the default button for this dialog</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(Formowner,stringcaption,stringheading,stringyesText,stringnoText,DialogResultdefaultButton){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new(yesText){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new(noText){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption=caption,SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=TaskDialogIcon.Information,Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// WPF Dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner">window</param>/// <param name="caption">text for dialog caption</param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="yesText">text for yes button</param>/// <param name="noText">text for no button</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">specifies the default button for this dialog</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(IntPtrowner,stringcaption,stringheading,stringyesText,stringnoText,DialogResultdefaultButton=DialogResult.No){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new(yesText){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new(noText){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add("yesButton");buttons.Add("noButton");}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption=caption,SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=TaskDialogIcon.Information,Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page,TaskDialogStartupLocation.CenterOwner);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// Windows Forms dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner"></param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="icon">Icon to display</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">Button to focus</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(Controlowner,stringheading,Iconicon,DialogResultdefaultButton=DialogResult.Yes){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new("Yes"){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new("No"){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(icon),Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// Windows Forms dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner"></param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">Button to focus</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(Controlowner,stringheading,DialogResultdefaultButton=DialogResult.Yes){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new("Yes"){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new("No"){Tag=DialogResult.No};TaskDialogButtonCollectionbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(Properties.Resources.QuestionBlue),Buttons=buttons,AllowCancel=true};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);returnresult.Tagis notnull&&(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// Windows Forms dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner"></param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="yesAction"></param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticvoidQuestion(Controlowner,stringheading,ActionyesAction,ActionnoAction){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new("Yes"){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new("No"){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection{yesButton,noButton};TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(Properties.Resources.QuestionBlue),Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);if((DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes){yesAction?.Invoke();}else{noAction?.Invoke();}}/// <summary>/// Windows Forms dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="icon">Icon to display</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">Button to focus</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(stringheading,Iconicon,DialogResultdefaultButton=DialogResult.Yes){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new("Yes"){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new("No"){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(icon),Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(page);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}/// <summary>/// WPF dialog to ask a question/// </summary>/// <param name="owner"></param>/// <param name="heading">text for dialog heading</param>/// <param name="icon">Icon to display</param>/// <param name="defaultButton">Button to focus</param>/// <returns>true for yes button, false for no button</returns>publicstaticboolQuestion(IntPtrowner,stringheading,Iconicon,DialogResultdefaultButton=DialogResult.Yes){TaskDialogButtonyesButton=new("Yes"){Tag=DialogResult.Yes};TaskDialogButtonnoButton=new("No"){Tag=DialogResult.No};varbuttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection();if(defaultButton==DialogResult.Yes){buttons.Add(yesButton);buttons.Add(noButton);}else{buttons.Add(noButton);buttons.Add(yesButton);}TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",SizeToContent=true,Heading=heading,Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(icon),Buttons=buttons};varresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page,TaskDialogStartupLocation.CenterOwner);return(DialogResult)result.Tag==DialogResult.Yes;}
Note we can also useActions passed to a Question.
Dialogs.Question(this,"Ask something",YesMethod,NoMethod);
Setup events for the above that are in scope to the method used above.
publicvoidYesMethod(){Debug.WriteLine(nameof(YesMethod));}publicvoidNoMethod(){Debug.WriteLine(nameof(NoMethod));}
With TaskDialog we can create a method to auto-close as shown below where the last parameter is how many seconds to wait before closing using a customer NumericUpDown control.
Dialogs.AutoCloseDialog(this,Properties.Resources.Timer_16x,SecondsUpDown.AsInteger);
Method for above
/// <summary>/// Auto close dialog by specified seconds, if timed out/// invoke continue button./// </summary>/// <param name="owner">control or form</param>/// <param name="Icon">icon to present</param>/// <param name="seconds">seconds to timeout</param>/// <param name="okText">text for continue button</param>/// <param name="cancelText">text for cancel button</param>publicstaticvoidAutoCloseDialog(Controlowner,IconIcon,intseconds,stringokText="OK",stringcancelText="Cancel"){varremaining=seconds*10;TaskDialogButtoncontinueButton=new(okText);TaskDialogButtoncancelButton=new(cancelText);TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Heading="Continuing with next process...",Text="Some text",Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(Icon),Buttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection(){continueButton,cancelButton},Caption="Auto-close"};usingTimertimer=new(){Enabled=true,Interval=100};timer.Tick+=(_,_)=>{remaining-=1;if(remaining!=0)return;timer.Enabled=false;if(continueButton.BoundPageis notnull){continueButton.PerformClick();}};TaskDialogButtonresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);ContinueOperation?.Invoke(result==continueButton);}
Displaying a message box with an option to now show again as shown below is not possible with a MessageBox.
Firs thing which is needed is a place to remember do not show again settings. Here a json file is used.
{"ShowAgain":true,"Heading":"Are you sure you want to stop?","Text":"Stopping the operation might leave your database in a corrupted state.","Caption":"Confirmation","VerificationText":"Do not show again"}Using the following class to provide dialog settings whereShowAgain is set from the result of the following method.
/// <summary>/// Display a dialog with option to not display again where thier choice/// is stored in appsettings.json/// </summary>/// <param name="sender"></param>/// <param name="e"></param>privatevoidDoNotShowAgainButton_Click(objectsender,RoutedEventArgse){varsettings=SettingOperations.GetSetting;if(!settings.ShowAgain)return;ShowAgainOptionsoptions=newShowAgainOptions{Heading=settings.Heading,Text=settings.Text,Caption=settings.Caption,Icon=_DatabaseIcon,VerificationText=settings.VerificationText,IntPtr=_intPtr};(NoShowResultDialogResult,boolShowAgain)result=Dialogs.DoNotShowAgain(options);ShowAgainCheckBox.IsChecked=result.ShowAgain;}
Usage shown for WPF (a Windows Form version is also available)
privatevoidDoNotShowAgainButton_Click(objectsender,RoutedEventArgse){varsettings=SettingOperations.GetSetting;if(!settings.ShowAgain)return;ShowAgainOptionsoptions=newShowAgainOptions{Heading=settings.Heading,Text=settings.Text,Caption=settings.Caption,Icon=_DatabaseIcon,VerificationText=settings.VerificationText,IntPtr=_intPtr};(NoShowResultDialogResult,boolShowAgain)result=Dialogs.DoNotShowAgain(options);ShowAgainCheckBox.IsChecked=result.ShowAgain;}
These are really nice how we can setup buttons and in this case open a web page.
/// <summary>/// Example for opening a web page for windows forms/// </summary>/// <param name="owner">control or form</param>publicstaticvoidOpenLink(Controlowner){TaskDialogCommandLinkButtoncontinueButton=new("&Quit","Return to caller");TaskDialogCommandLinkButtonlinkButton=new("&Microsoft docs","Open in default browser");linkButton.SetAddress("https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/");linkButton.Click+=LinkButtonClick;TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Caption="Question",Heading="Open in browser",AllowCancel=true,Footnote=newTaskDialogFootnote(){Text=$"Copyright{Now:yyyy}: Some company"},Buttons={linkButton,continueButton},Icon=TaskDialogIcon.Information};TaskDialog.ShowDialog(owner,page);}
publicstaticvoidAutoClosingTaskDialog(IconIcon){conststringtextFormat="Closing in {0} seconds...";varremainingTenthSeconds=30;TaskDialogButtoncontinueButton=new("Just do it");TaskDialogButtoncancelButton=TaskDialogButton.Cancel;TaskDialogPagepage=new(){Heading="Continuing with next process...",Text=string.Format(textFormat,(remainingTenthSeconds+9)/10),Icon=newTaskDialogIcon(Icon),ProgressBar=newTaskDialogProgressBar(){State=TaskDialogProgressBarState.Paused},Buttons=newTaskDialogButtonCollection(){continueButton,cancelButton},Caption="Auto-close"};usingTimertimer=new(){Enabled=true,Interval=100};timer.Tick+=(_,_)=>{remainingTenthSeconds-=1;if(remainingTenthSeconds>0){page.Text=string.Format(textFormat,(remainingTenthSeconds+9)/10);page.ProgressBar.Value=100-remainingTenthSeconds*2;}else{timer.Enabled=false;if(continueButton.BoundPageis notnull){continueButton.PerformClick();}}};TaskDialogButtonresult=TaskDialog.ShowDialog(page);ContinueOperation?.Invoke(result==continueButton);}
In the code sample Radio buttons are used along with showing how to handle radio button and link button events.
Example using events
First setup an event for allowing the caller to know the selection.
publicdelegatevoidOnCheck(TaskDialogRadioButtonradioButton);publicstaticeventOnCheck VisualStudioChecked;
For the method to display a TaskDialog with, in this case threeTaskDialogRadioButton.
- Create selection buttons, one for okay and one for cancel
- Setup the TaskDialogPage with a Icon from project resources which will
- Not beep on Shown
- Provides a distinct image to go along with the question
- Setup each radio button's tag with an enum, each for a different version of Visual Studio
- Subscribe to CheckedChanged for each TaskDialogRadioButton which the calling form listens
- Get the results to return in a named value tuple.
enum for bullet 3
publicenumVisualStudioVersion{V2017,V2019,V2022,None}
Extension method for obtaining the selected radio button
publicstaticVisualStudioVersionVersion(thisTaskDialogRadioButtonsender)=>senderisnull?VisualStudioVersion.None:(VisualStudioVersion)sender.Tag;
Microsoft docsTaskDialog
This class project contains code samples ready to use for TaskDialogs for Windows Forms and WPF.
For pre .NET Core,AutoClosingMessageBox for auto-closing message boxes.
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Code samples in C# for using TaskDialog
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