Using Forms Classes

Control Classes

• Button - A push button that responds to a user's click by sending an event to the calling analysis technique.
• Checkbox - A small box that can be checked or unchecked by the user.  They send an event when clicked allowing the analysis technique to review the checked or unchecked state.
• ComboBox - Presents a list of items to a user from a drop-down list and sends an event when a selection is made.
• Label - Displays non-editable text on form. They can be used to provide descriptions or identify surrounding controls.
• ListView - Displays a collection of text items in a multi-column format. They send an event when a selection is made.
• NumericUpDown - Displays a numeric value that users can quickly increment or decrement at a predefined step value using up-down arrows.
• Radio Button - Typically placed in groups of two or more, allows users to select from a group of mutually exclusive options. Radio buttons can send an event when clicked, and their state can be queried at runtime.
• TextBox - Displays a string of characters that can be edited by a user.

Container Classes

• Form - A window in which to place the form's related controls and containers.
• Panel - An area to visually place a form's related controls.
• GroupBox - An area used to visually group a form's related controls.

   To use EasyLanguage form controls and containers, you must have the following elements:  

• Declare a variable for each container or control to be used. The class type of each variable must be appropriate for the object it will reference. Remember to include the identifier "elsystem.windows.forms" in front of the specific class type unless you have previously added a 'using' statement for the forms namespace.  In this example, "form1" and "button1" are the names of the variables being created.

vars: elsystem.windows.forms.Form form1(Null ),     //declare form1 as a Form type variable
      elsystem.windows.forms.Button button1(Null);  //declare button1 as a Button type variable

• Create an instance of each container and control object by assigning it to the object variable created above.

form1 = form.create("Form Heading", 100, 100);      //create a form container object and assign it to form1
button1 = button.create("MY BUTTON", 40, 30 );      //create a button control object and assign it to button1

• Add control objects (eg. buttons) to a container object (eg. form1).

form1.AddControl(button1);

• Set the location property to specify the relative placement of a control within a container.

button1.Location( 50, 50 );   

• Add an event handler (a method to call when a control event occurs, such as when a button is clicked).

button1.Click += OnButton1Click;

• Finally, write the method(s) to be called when an event happens.

method void OnButton1Click( elsystem.Object sender, elsystem.EventArgs args )
begin
         //Your EasyLanguage code
end;

The following example shows how to create a windows form with a button and a text box.  

Import Example

Windows form with a button control and text box.

1. Click on the Import Example link to import the example into TradeStation.   
2. Go to the TradeStation platform and create a chart window.  Use the Insert - Indicator menu sequence and Add !ex_WinForm to the window.
3. To review or modify the example code, go to the TS Development Environment and open indicator !ex_WinForm in the EasyLanguage Editor.

elsystem.Object

  elsystem.windows.forms.[ClassType]