Hyperlinked file array list in windows form application

Question

Hello I'm new to this forum and I've found some great information here so far! Great site! Here's my dilemma... I have a windows form application which is currently populating a multiline textbox with an array result of files that is found in a specified directory (I can also do it in a richtextbox). What I want to do with these files is create links to them using something like file://path/file.txt (but display only the filename in the visible link ) and open in an existing richtextbox. I can get files to populate into the richtextbox with no problem but I'd like to make any files I find in that list linked so that when the user clicks on the file in the result it will read the contents and display in a larger richtextbox. I've been searching all over the place and cannot find anyway to do this without creating individual link labels which cannot be rendered dynamically based on the array result. As a side note I'm eventually going to be putting the paths of the text files in an SQL database (which I'm not quite sure yet how I will approach this). I'm sure this is trivial for a veteran programmer but I'm a newbie to C# and I'm learning the ropes. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Nilanka Dharmadasa · Answer

Hi Jose I have the solution to your problem. Check my code. I changed your code. Added a datagridview and also did some changes in filesystem watcher. If you find my answer useful please do not forget to tick 'Do you like this answer' checkbox.

Jose · Answer

Thank you so much Niki! That was exactly what I was trying to do. Now I can add the rest of my controls. Jose

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I am sorry I do not understand what you are trying to do. Can you provide an overview of how FileMonitor_Changed and DirMon_Load are used?

Jose · Answer

Thanks Sam. Would you be able to provide a working sample of the Datatable rendered into the DatagridView? My application basically is listing existing files from a folder and also has a filewatcher to list new files. I'd like to get this working in the DataGridview as you suggested. Here's my code thus far: using System; using System.Drawing; using System.Collections; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Data; using System.Configuration; using System.IO; namespace DirectoryMonitorWinForm { /// /// Summary description for DirectoryMonitor. /// public class DirectoryMonitorForm : System.Windows.Forms.Form { // The path where the FileMonitor will watch for files... private static string Path = @C:	est; private static string Filter=*.txt; private static bool IncludeSubs=false; private System.IO.FileSystemWatcher FileMonitor; private RichTextBox richTextBox2; private RichTextBox richTextBox1; private DataGridView dataGridView1; /// /// Required designer variable. /// private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null; public DirectoryMonitorForm() { // Required for Windows Form Designer support InitializeComponent(); } /// /// Clean up any resources being used. /// protected override void Dispose( bool disposing ) { if( disposing ) { if (components != null) { components.Dispose(); } } base.Dispose( disposing ); } Windows Form Designer generated code /// /// The main entry point for the application. /// [STAThread] static void Main() { Application.Run(new DirectoryMonitorForm()); } public void FileMonitor_Changed(object sender System.IO.FileSystemEventArgs e) { string ChangeType = e.ChangeType.ToString(); FileMonitor.Path = Path.ToString(); //display a message box for the appropriate changetype. if (ChangeType==Created) { // This adds the file:// to the file to make it appear as a link richTextBox2.AppendText(file:/ + / + FileMonitor.Path + e.Name); } public void DirMon_Load(object sender System.EventArgs e) { FileMonitor.Path = Path.ToString(); FileMonitor.Filter = Filter.ToString(); FileMonitor.IncludeSubdirectories = IncludeSubs; FileMonitor.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.LastAccess | NotifyFilters.LastWrite | NotifyFilters.FileName | NotifyFilters.DirectoryName; //Begin monitoring. FileMonitor.EnableRaisingEvents = true; //Get the list of existing files from the folder and list in the textbox System.IO.DirectoryInfo di = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(@C:	est); //to retrieve *.TXT files alone System.IO.FileInfo[] rgFiles = di.GetFiles(*.txt); richTextBox2.AppendText(***Contents of Folder*** + 
); foreach (System.IO.FileInfo fi in rgFiles) { string filePath = fi.Name; string line; if (File.Exists(filePath)) { StreamReader file = null; try { file = new StreamReader(filePath); while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null) { richTextBox2.AppendText(line + 
); } } finally { if (file != null) file.Close(); } } richTextBox2.AppendText(fi.Name + 
); } }

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Assuming you already have a DataTable with the data you want to show then you can set a DataGridView's DataSource Property to the DataTable and the data for the DataGridView will be filled in by automatically. Just add a DataGridView to the form. If you want all fields of the DataTable to be shown as columns in the DataGridView in the order they appear in the DataTable then you don't want to specify the columns at design time. The default for the AutoGenerateColumns Property is true so you can leave that as-is. If you need to specify columns in the DataGridView that are not all the fields in the DataTable then you will need to create the columns yourself. If the data in the DataTable changes then you probably will need to create a new DataTable and fill it with the new data and change the DataGridView's DataSource Property to the new DataTable. When you have all that working look at the documentation of the DataGridView.CellClick Event. Do you know how to add event handlers for forms? Add a handler for th DataGridView.CellClick Event and note that the example in the DataGridView.CellClick documentation shows how to determine what row and column that the click event occured for. Let us know if you need help with that.

Jose · Answer

Thanks for your reply. Actually I like your idea of the table with cells that change color when the mouse pointer hovers over the cell and making it click-able to link to the file (so the file will load up and display in the larger richtextbox in the app). Can the table be set up to increase the number of tablerows based on the number of file results found in the folder? Would you be able to provide me with some syntax on how to do this? Currently I have a foreach loop creating existing entries in the richtextbox and appending a new line every time it finds a new file using a filewatcher. What I would like to do it be able to click any of the files in the textbox (or cell of a table) and load the contents of the file into the larger richtextbox upon clicking the file (or double click). If you need the existing code I have let me know.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Do you need to show the data as a table with columns or a list of links or do you need to show free-format data in the manner of a document with text and the links in various positions within the text? If you need a table then a RTF box is probably not the best solution. You could use a DataGridView or a Listbox or possibly other choices. In a DataGridView you could use the CellClick Event to do the equivalent of a hyperlink click. There are many other possibilities. If you want to change the cell foreground color and/or the mouse cursor when the mouse hovers over a cell you might be able to use the CellEnter and CellLeave events. I am not sure how to use a RTF box to do what you are describing but it probably is possible. Another possibility is to use HTML in a WebBrowser control instead of a RTF control.