How to: Work with Form Windows

Applies to: InfoPath 2010 | InfoPath Forms Services | Office 2010 | SharePoint Server 2010 | Visual Studio | Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office

In this article
Overview of the WindowsCollection Class
Overview of the Window Class
Using the WindowsCollection and Window Classes

When working programmatically with an InfoPath form, you can write code to access the form's windows, and then customize some of the items that they contain. The InfoPath object model provided by the Microsoft.Office.InfoPath namespace supports access to a form's windows through the use of the Window class in association with the WindowCollection class.

There are two types of windows in InfoPath:

• The editing window that is used when a user fills out a form.

• The designing window that is used when a user designs a form template.

When writing code in a form template, it is the editing window that provides the most useful functionality, because you can use a Window object that represents the current window to access a variety of properties and methods that can be used to customize the form editing experience.

Overview of the WindowsCollection Class

The WindowCollection class provides the following properties, which form template developers can use to manage the Window objects that it contains.

Overview of the Window Class

The Window class provides the following methods and properties, which form developers can use to interact with an InfoPath window. Support for these methods and properties differ depending on the type of window (WindowType) you are working with. Some methods and properties work only with the editor window type (WindowType.Editor). The remaining methods and properties work with both the editor window type and the designer window type (WindowType.Designer). Additionally, like all InfoPath object model members, when called from a form template, support for methods and properties can vary depending on the security level and how the form is deployed.

Using the WindowsCollection and Window Classes

The WindowCollection class can be accessed through the Windows property of the Application class. When using the WindowCollection class to access a form's windows, you use an indexer (for Visual C#) or pass a long integer to the Item property (for Visual Basic) to return a reference to a Window object instance. For example, the following code sets a reference to the first Window object contained in the WindowCollection for the current InfoPath session.

Window myWindow = this.Application.Windows[0];

Dim myWindow As Window = Me.Application.Windows(0)

You can access the currently open window directly using the ActiveWindow property of the Application class, without going through the WindowCollection, as shown in the following line of code.

Window myWindow = this.Application.ActiveWindow;

Dim myWindow As Window = Me.Application.ActiveWindow

A Window object can also be accessed by using the Window property of the View class, which represents the current view that is being used to work with the form's underlying XML document. The CurrentView property of the XmlForm class is used to access a View object that represents the current view. For example, the following code sets a reference to the Window that is associated with the current view.

Window myWindow = this.CurrentView.Window;

Dim myWindow As Window = Me.CurrentView.Window