Article ID: 906769 - Last Review: November 22, 2007 - Revision: 2.2

A Visual Basic 6.0 project that was upgraded by using Visual Studio .NET 2003 no longer functions as expected when you click to select the "Enable application framework" check box in Visual Studio 2005

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SYMPTOMS

A Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 project that was upgraded by using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 no longer functions as expected when you click to select the Enable application framework check box in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Consider the following scenario:
  • You have a Standard EXE project that was created by using Visual Basic 6.0.
  • You have upgraded the Standard EXE project to a Microsoft Windows Forms project by using Visual Studio .NET 2003.
  • Then, you have recompiled the upgraded Windows Forms project in Visual Studio 2005.
In this scenario, you may notice the following behavior when you run the Windows Forms project:
  • If you use the Form1.DefInstance.PropertyName property to reference a form property of the default instance of a startup form, any changes to the property do not take effect.
  • If you use the Form1.DefInstance.MethodName method to reference a method, any method that you call on the default instance of a startup form does not work as excepted.
Note Form1 is a placeholder for the class name of the startup form.

CAUSE

This problem may occur in the scenario that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section if you enable the Enable application framework option in Visual Studio 2005.

The Visual Basic Upgrade tool adds a Try/Catch block to the New constructor in the project. When the Enable application framework option is enabled, the If statement in this Try/Catch block no longer evaluates to True in Visual Studio 2005.

The following code example shows the Try/Catch block that contains the If statement.
Public Sub New()
    …
    Try
        'For the startup form, the first instance that is created is the default instance.
        If System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.EntryPoint.DeclaringType Is Me.GetType Then
            m_vb6FormDefInstance = Me
        End If
    Catch
    End Try
    …
End Sub
Because of this behavior, the m_vb6FormDefInstance = Me statement in the form's New constructor cannot run when the startup form is being initialized. Therefore, the m_vb6FormDefInstance variable does not point to the default instance of the startup form after the startup form has been initialized.

When you first use the Form1.DefInstance property later in the code, a new form is created. Additionally, the m_vb6FormDefInstance variable is set to point to this new form. Any later calls to the Form1.DefInstance property will return a reference to this new form instead of a reference to the startup form.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, change the old logic from the If statement to appear similar to the following code example.
If System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.EntryPoint.DeclaringType Is Me.GetType Or _
   System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.EntryPoint.DeclaringType Is My.Application.GetType Then
	m_vb6FormDefInstance = Me
End If

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

REFERENCES

For more information about the Object.GetType method, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.object.gettype(vs.71).aspx (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.object.gettype(vs.71).aspx)
For more information about the MemberInfo.DeclaringType property, visit the following MSDN Web site:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.reflection.memberinfo.declaringtype(vs.71).aspx (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.reflection.memberinfo.declaringtype(vs.71).aspx)
Keywords: 
kbprogramming kbtshoot kbprb KB906769
APPLIES TO

Note: This article is from Microsoft Knowledage Base

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