A simple config dialogue box in C#.

As a developer, I often encounter situations where I need to get configuration values from the user. These values range from actual config file values to test configuration values, and for the most part I don't require a very extensive interface to collect them with.

I put together a very simple control that will take any number of configuration key,value pairs as input. It will display them in a list, allow the user to change what they wish and submit the modified values back to the client.

The form is very simple, it contains a layout panel, two labels and two buttons.

To use it, you simply build up a Dictionary with the values you want to give the user the opportunity to modify:

The table layout panel handles adding vertical scroll bars if necessary. It also handles adding rows and figuring out borders, blah blah.

So there you go! A very simple control to allow a user to modify any name/value pairs of data.


Here are the file contents.

SimpleConfigurationControl.Designer.cs

using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace SimpleConfigurationControl
{
    partial class SimpleConfiguration
    {
        ///

        /// Required designer variable.
        ///
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        ///

        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        ///
        /// true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        ///

        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        ///
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.btnSave = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
            this.btnCancel = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
            this.tableLayoutPanel = new System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel();
            this.lblConfigKey = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
            this.lblConfigVal = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            //
            // btnSave
            //
            this.btnSave.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(546, 400);
            this.btnSave.Name = "btnSave";
            this.btnSave.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23);
            this.btnSave.TabIndex = 5;
            this.btnSave.Text = "Save";
            this.btnSave.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
            this.btnSave.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.btnSave_Click);
            //
            // btnCancel
            //
            this.btnCancel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 400);
            this.btnCancel.Name = "btnCancel";
            this.btnCancel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23);
            this.btnCancel.TabIndex = 4;
            this.btnCancel.Text = "Cancel";
            this.btnCancel.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
            this.btnCancel.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.btnCancel_Click);
            //
            // tableLayoutPanel
            //
            this.tableLayoutPanel.Anchor = System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.None;
            this.tableLayoutPanel.AutoScroll = true;
            this.tableLayoutPanel.ColumnCount = 2;
            this.tableLayoutPanel.ColumnStyles.Add(new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Percent, 45F));
            this.tableLayoutPanel.ColumnStyles.Add(new System.Windows.Forms.ColumnStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Percent, 45F));
            this.tableLayoutPanel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 61);
            this.tableLayoutPanel.Name = "tableLayoutPanel";
            this.tableLayoutPanel.RowCount = 2;
            this.tableLayoutPanel.RowStyles.Add(new System.Windows.Forms.RowStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Absolute, 20F));
            this.tableLayoutPanel.RowStyles.Add(new System.Windows.Forms.RowStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Absolute, 20F));
            this.tableLayoutPanel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(608, 333);
            this.tableLayoutPanel.TabIndex = 6;
            //
            // lblConfigKey
            //
            this.lblConfigKey.AutoSize = true;
            this.lblConfigKey.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 10F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((byte)(0)));
            this.lblConfigKey.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 25);
            this.lblConfigKey.Name = "lblConfigKey";
            this.lblConfigKey.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(141, 20);
            this.lblConfigKey.TabIndex = 7;
            this.lblConfigKey.Text = "Configuration Key";
            //
            // lblConfigVal
            //
            this.lblConfigVal.AutoSize = true;
            this.lblConfigVal.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 10F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((byte)(0)));
            this.lblConfigVal.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(328, 24);
            this.lblConfigVal.Name = "lblConfigVal";
            this.lblConfigVal.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(155, 20);
            this.lblConfigVal.TabIndex = 8;
            this.lblConfigVal.Text = "Configuration Value";
            //
            // SimpleConfiguration
            //
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(633, 446);
            this.Controls.Add(this.lblConfigVal);
            this.Controls.Add(this.lblConfigKey);
            this.Controls.Add(this.btnSave);
            this.Controls.Add(this.btnCancel);
            this.Controls.Add(this.tableLayoutPanel);
            this.MaximizeBox = false;
            this.MinimizeBox = false;
            this.Name = "SimpleConfiguration";
            this.Text = "SimpleConfiguration";
            this.TopMost = true;
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.PerformLayout();

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.Button btnSave;
        private System.Windows.Forms.Button btnCancel;
        private System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel tableLayoutPanel;
        private Label lblConfigKey;
        private Label lblConfigVal;
    }
}

SimpleConfigurationControl:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Mime;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace SimpleConfigurationControl
{
    public partial class SimpleConfiguration : Form
    {

        private Dictionary _configurationValues;

        public Dictionary ConfigurationValues
        {
            get { return _configurationValues; }
            set
            {
                _configurationValues = value;
                DisplayConfigurationValues();
            }
        }

        public SimpleConfiguration()
        {
            InitializeComponent();          
        }
       
        private void DisplayConfigurationValues()
        {
            //get the table width
            var layoutPanelWidth = tableLayoutPanel.Width;
            //subtract a few points for borders etc
            var cellWidth = (layoutPanelWidth/2) - 10;
           
            foreach (var configurationValue in _configurationValues)
            {
                var lbl = new Label()
                {
                    Name = string.Format("{0}{1}", "lbl", configurationValue.Key),
                    Text = configurationValue.Key,
                    Width = cellWidth
                };

                var txtBox = new TextBox()
                {
                    Name = string.Format("{0}{1}", "txt", configurationValue.Key),
                    Text = configurationValue.Value,
                    Width = cellWidth

                };

                tableLayoutPanel.RowCount = tableLayoutPanel.RowCount + 1;
                tableLayoutPanel.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle(SizeType.Absolute, 45F));
                tableLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(lbl, 0, tableLayoutPanel.RowCount-1);
                tableLayoutPanel.Controls.Add(txtBox, 1, tableLayoutPanel.RowCount - 1);
               
            }
           
        }

        private void btnSave_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            var returnDictionary = new Dictionary();

            foreach (var configurationValue in _configurationValues)
            {
                var genericTxtBox = Controls.Find("txt" + configurationValue.Key, true);

                foreach (var control in genericTxtBox)
                {
                    if (control is TextBox)
                    {
                        returnDictionary.Add(control.Name.Replace("txt", ""), control.Text);                        
                    }
                }
            }

            _configurationValues = returnDictionary;

            this.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
            this.Close();
        }

        private void btnCancel_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            this.DialogResult = DialogResult.Cancel;
            this.Close();
        }
    }
}