Forms and Panels don't respond to help requests?

Hello,

Why don't forms and panels respond to help requests? I have a basic form
showing the Help button in the title bar, a HelpProvider, a panel and a
button; and the panel and button are identically configured to show help on
the HelpProvider. When I use the Help button and click on the button the
.chm is opened; when I click on the panel (or the background of the form),
nothing happens at all.

In addition, if I add an EventHandler to the HelpRequested handler of the
panel, it never gets called either.

So is there some magic trick here, is this a bug or some mysterious
"feature?" I've tried this with labels and textboxes, comboboxes,
pictureboxes, radio buttons, trackbars; all manner of UI controls. Why are
panels and forms different?

Anyone have some insight or suggestions?

Keith

Keith
Fri Sep 23 11:41:44 CDT 2005

So,

No one knows anything about this? Do I need to post a project to illustrate
my point?

k

"Keith" <keith@alh.com> wrote in message
news:uFm5JLXvFHA.720@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
>
> Why don't forms and panels respond to help requests? I have a basic form
> showing the Help button in the title bar, a HelpProvider, a panel and a
> button; and the panel and button are identically configured to show help
> on the HelpProvider. When I use the Help button and click on the button
> the .chm is opened; when I click on the panel (or the background of the
> form), nothing happens at all.
>
> In addition, if I add an EventHandler to the HelpRequested handler of the
> panel, it never gets called either.
>
> So is there some magic trick here, is this a bug or some mysterious
> "feature?" I've tried this with labels and textboxes, comboboxes,
> pictureboxes, radio buttons, trackbars; all manner of UI controls. Why
> are panels and forms different?
>
> Anyone have some insight or suggestions?
>
> Keith
>

Andrew
Sat Sep 24 12:13:04 CDT 2005

I don't think this has anything to do with .net per se. The help button is
in the titlebar by virtue of the form being created with the
ws_ex_contexthelp style so the os is handling the display and interaction
with the help button. It seems that any window/control that has an extended
window style of ws_ex_controlparent will never receive a wm_help as a result
of clicking on it with the help button activated. It might be possible to
derive your own panel, form, groupbox, etc. that override the createparams
and strip out this exstyle but I'm not sure if this will cause any other
issues with those classes. Also, this will introduce an unmanaged code
requirement on those classes which may affect your deployment depending on
how you distribute your app.

"Keith" <keith@alh.com> wrote in message
news:ehW1i4FwFHA.2808@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> So,
>
> No one knows anything about this? Do I need to post a project to
> illustrate my point?
>
> k
>
> "Keith" <keith@alh.com> wrote in message
> news:uFm5JLXvFHA.720@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Hello,
>>
>> Why don't forms and panels respond to help requests? I have a basic form
>> showing the Help button in the title bar, a HelpProvider, a panel and a
>> button; and the panel and button are identically configured to show help
>> on the HelpProvider. When I use the Help button and click on the button
>> the .chm is opened; when I click on the panel (or the background of the
>> form), nothing happens at all.
>>
>> In addition, if I add an EventHandler to the HelpRequested handler of the
>> panel, it never gets called either.
>>
>> So is there some magic trick here, is this a bug or some mysterious
>> "feature?" I've tried this with labels and textboxes, comboboxes,
>> pictureboxes, radio buttons, trackbars; all manner of UI controls. Why
>> are panels and forms different?
>>
>> Anyone have some insight or suggestions?
>>
>> Keith
>>
>
>

Keith
Mon Sep 26 11:42:37 CDT 2005

Andrew,

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into deriving a class and see if it helps.

Keith
"Andrew Smith (Infragistics)" <webflyer99@yahoo.com_nospam> wrote in message
news:eNS99sSwFHA.2540@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I don't think this has anything to do with .net per se. The help button is
>in the titlebar by virtue of the form being created with the
>ws_ex_contexthelp style so the os is handling the display and interaction
>with the help button. It seems that any window/control that has an extended
>window style of ws_ex_controlparent will never receive a wm_help as a
>result of clicking on it with the help button activated. It might be
>possible to derive your own panel, form, groupbox, etc. that override the
>createparams and strip out this exstyle but I'm not sure if this will cause
>any other issues with those classes. Also, this will introduce an unmanaged
>code requirement on those classes which may affect your deployment
>depending on how you distribute your app.
>
> "Keith" <keith@alh.com> wrote in message
> news:ehW1i4FwFHA.2808@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> So,
>>
>> No one knows anything about this? Do I need to post a project to
>> illustrate my point?
>>
>> k
>>
>> "Keith" <keith@alh.com> wrote in message
>> news:uFm5JLXvFHA.720@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Why don't forms and panels respond to help requests? I have a basic
>>> form showing the Help button in the title bar, a HelpProvider, a panel
>>> and a button; and the panel and button are identically configured to
>>> show help on the HelpProvider. When I use the Help button and click on
>>> the button the .chm is opened; when I click on the panel (or the
>>> background of the form), nothing happens at all.
>>>
>>> In addition, if I add an EventHandler to the HelpRequested handler of
>>> the panel, it never gets called either.
>>>
>>> So is there some magic trick here, is this a bug or some mysterious
>>> "feature?" I've tried this with labels and textboxes, comboboxes,
>>> pictureboxes, radio buttons, trackbars; all manner of UI controls. Why
>>> are panels and forms different?
>>>
>>> Anyone have some insight or suggestions?
>>>
>>> Keith
>>>
>>
>>
>
>