Creating a Management Solution in Visual Basic #2 Add Record

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Introduction:
This tutorial is going to be on how to create a record management solution in Visual Basic.

This Tutorial:
Since this is a multi-part tutorial series, this tutorial is going to be on creating the add record function to append a new record to the management file.

Add Record Form:
As mentioned in the previous tutorial, the first part, we created the main form design, made the writeToFile function, and I mentioned that this addRecordButton component would link to a new form where the user is able to add, remove and modify as many values for the new record to be added as they like.

Design:
So the way we are going to do this is through code instead of the designer part of the Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 application. The advantage of this is that we can keep track of how many components we have, organise them the way we like, and reference to the right ones without having to know the exact name of the ones we are looking for.

Create a new form within the same management solution project, and name it 'Add Record Form'.

-In the new 'Add Record Form'...-

So, in the designing code, we are going to have a list to hold all of the information the user wants the new/current record to hold, of course, the information will be as a string...

1. Dim
   
   information As
   
   New
   
   List(Of String
   
   )
   

Lets write a small function for the addRecordButton to add a new piece of information from the textbox on the form (named 'valueText') to the information list, and update the listbox with the new information. I've named the function 'addInformation'...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   addInformation()
   
2. information.Add(valueText.Text())
   
3. informationListbox.Items.Add(valueText.Text())
   
4. End
   
   Sub
   

We are also going to have a few components on our form;
A button named 'valueAddButton' with the text set as 'Add Information',
A textbox named 'valueText',
A button at the bottom or top named 'backButton' with the text set as 'Back',
A listbox to hold all of the current information, name this 'informationListbox',
And finally another button to delete the information from the listbox, named 'delValueButton' with the text set as 'Delete Value'.

So on the valueAddButton mouse click function we want to simply call the addInformation function, like so...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   valueAddButton_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles valueAddButton.Click
   
2. addInformation()
   
3. End
   
   Sub
   

Next we want to create a simple variable to hold the value the user would like to remove when they click the delete value button...

1. Dim
   
   removeString As
   
   String
   

And we also want to set the value of that new removeString string variable to the selected item whenever the item selected is changed, there is already a listbox function pre-made for this so we simply use it like so...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   informationListbox_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles informationListbox.SelectedIndexChanged
   
2. removeString = informationListbox.SelectedItem
   
3. End
   
   Sub
   

Now we want to program the 'deleteValueButton' button...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   delValueButton_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles delValueButton.Click
   
2. If
   
   (informationListbox.SelectedIndex > -1) Then
   
   'Is an item selected
   
3. Dim
   
   tempInformation As
   
   New
   
   List(Of String
   
   )
   
4. For
   
   Each
   
   s As
   
   String
   
   In
   
   information
   
5. tempInformation.Add(s)
   
6. Next
   
7. information.Clear()
   
8. For
   
   Each
   
   s As
   
   String
   
   In
   
   tempInformation
   
9. Console.Write(vbNewLine + s)
   
10. If
    
    (s = removeString) Then
    
11. Console.Write("Skipping "
    
    + s)
    
12. Else
    
13. information.Add(s)
    
14. End
    
    If
    
15. Next
    
16. informationListbox.Items.Clear()
    
17. For
    
    Each
    
    s As
    
    String
    
    In
    
    information
    
18. informationListbox.Items.Add(s)
    
19. Next
    
20. End
    
    If
    
21. End
    
    Sub
    

First we create a temporary list of string information and set it to the current list form the information list. Then we clear the global information list and begin to iterate through each piece of string information in the temporary list (which is a clone of the pre-cleared information list).

For each string within the iteration we ensure that the string is not the same as the selected string of the listbox (contained in the removeString string variable) and re-add it to the global information list of strings. If they are the same, it is the value the user wants to remove and so we do not re-add the information.

Finally we just need to make the back button which simply hides the form and shows the main form...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   backButton_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles backButton.Click
   
2. Me.Hide()
   
3. Form1.Show()
   
4. End
   
   Sub
   

Showing The Form:
So that's the add user form design and coding mostly finished with, now we just need to show the form and hide the main form when the user clicks the button (opposite to the back button on the second/add user form)...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   addRecordButton_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles addRecordButton.Click
   
2. Me.Hide()
   
3. Add_Record_Form.Show()
   
4. End
   
   Sub
   

Saving The Records:
Finally now we just save the record. Add a new button, give it the text of "Save Record" and the name of "saveRecord", this will simply create a single string containing all of the information strings concatenated/compiled in to one, then send that data to the main forms writeToFile function...

1. Private
   
   Sub
   
   saveRecord_Click(sender As
   
   Object
   
   , e As
   
   EventArgs) Handles saveRecord.Click
   
2. Dim
   
   info As
   
   String
   
   = Form1.addRecordText.Text + ", "
   
3. For
   
   Each
   
   s As
   
   String
   
   In
   
   information
   
4. info += s + ", "
   
5. Next
   
6. Form1.writeToFile(Form1.filePath, info)
   
7. End
   
   Sub
   

There are a few things wrong in the above code because they are not correctly set yet. First we need to change the writeToFile function in the main Form1 form from Private to Public...

1. Public
   
   Sub
   
   writeToFile...
   

We also need to create a publicly avaiable filePath string name to write to the file which we will be doing in the next tutorial, lets just make it equal nothing for now (in the main Form1 form...)...

1. Public
   
   filePath As
   
   String
   

And the final explanation that I will give is that the 'info' string variable starts with 'Form1.addRecordText.Text + ", "' because it is the title that the user has entered on the main Form1 form before pressing the Add Record button 'addRecordButton'.