Cyotek Development Blog

csharp azure luminitix

Downloading new and changed Azure storage blobs at scheduled intervals

A sample project which downloads new and changed blobs from Azure storage, and optionally uploads new and changed local files.

Richard Moss

Sep 08, 2013

csharp winforms applicationcontext

Creating long running Windows Forms applications without a start-up form

Sometimes you may wish to create an application that sits running in the background but doesn't actually display an initial user interface. However, the user can interact with the application and so therefore its not appropriate to be a service. Often such applications are accessible from a system tray icon. Another viable requirement might be for multiple top level windows, for example recent versions of Microsoft Word, where each document has its own application window. By default however, a normal Windows Form application displays the start-up form which definitely isn't desirable, especially as hiding this form isn't as straightforward as you might expect. Fortunately however, the framework provides us with the `ApplicationContext` class that can be used by `Application.Run`. This article describes how to use application contexts to create an application that initially has only a system tray icon to which further functionality can be accessed.

Richard Moss

Aug 26, 2013

csharp imagebox

ImageBox 1.1.4.0 update

Update 1.1.4.0 of the ImageBox control is now available, with a large number of new features and bug fixes.

Richard Moss

Aug 10, 2013

csharp reflection componentmodel enum

Using alternate descriptions for enumeration members

Enums are useful language features. But what happens when you want to display a string version of an enum member rather than just casting the member to a string? You could manually create a switch statement for conversion, and periodically update such functions when extending the source enum. Or you could use the power of reflection and attributes to do it automatically.

Richard Moss

Jul 28, 2013

csharp typeconverter componentmodel instancedescriptor

Creating a custom TypeConverter part 2 - Instance descriptors, expandable properties and standard values

This article describes extending a custom `TypeConverter` created previously to support better code generation, expandable properties, and dropdown lists containing standard values.

Richard Moss

Jul 28, 2013

csharp typeconverter componentmodel

Creating a custom TypeConverter part 1 - getting started

Type converters allow classes to be edited via designers such as the `PropertyGrid`. This article details how to create a simple type converter to and from a `string` for use with a `PropertyGrid` control.