Nishant Rana's Weblog

Hi today we will see how to create wizard like window application in .NET 2.0.

1) Create a new window application.
2) Add three forms in it. I have named the form as FirstStep, SecondStep and ThirdStep.
3) In FirstStep add two button – Next and Cancel
4) In SecondStep add three button- Previous, Next and Cancel
5) In ThirdStep add two button- Previous and Cancel
6) Than add a new class file – name it WizardData.cs
7) Add following code to it

// this wizardData class will have a enumeration and a property to display the appropriate form
public class WizardData
{
public enum wizardForms
{
FirstStep =1, SecondStep=2, ThirdStep=3,Cancel =99
}
private wizardForms formToShow;
public wizardForms FormToShow
{
get
{
return formToShow;
}
set
{
formToShow=value;
}
}
}

8. Then go to program.cs and modify it in the following manner

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
MyInitialization();

//Replace Application.Run(…. ) with MyInitialization() – custom function
}

9) The code for MyInitialization() goes like this

// Create instances of all the forms to be displayed
private static void MyInitialization()
{
WizardData wData = new WizardData();
wData.FormToShow = WizardData.wizardForms.FirstStep;
Form step1 = new FirstStep(wData);
Form step2 = new SecondStep(wData);
Form step3 = new ThirdStep(wData);while (wData.FormToShow != WizardData.wizardForms.Cancel)
{
switch (wData.FormToShow)
{
case WizardData.wizardForms.FirstStep:
{
step1.ShowDialog();
break;
}
case WizardData.wizardForms.SecondStep:
{
step2.ShowDialog();
break;
}
case WizardData.wizardForms.ThirdStep:
{
step3.ShowDialog();
break;
}
}
}10) Now go to your FirstStep Form. Replace the constructor with this

public FirstStep(WizardData wd)
{
this.wData = wd;
InitializeComponent();
}

11) In the cancel button and next button click event handler write the following code

private void btnNext_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// to show the SecondStep form
wData.FormToShow = WizardData.wizardForms.SecondStep;
this.Close();
}private void btnCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
wData.FormToShow = WizardData.wizardForms.Cancel;
this.Close();
}

12) Repeat the same step 11 for SecondStep and ThirdStep form.
for previous button click event handler add the following codeprivate void btnPrevious_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// replace the wizardForm.(…) with appropriate form to be displayed
wData.FormToShow = WizardData.wizardForms.FirstStep;
this.Close();
}


That’s it