Disable buttons, depending on where Form is opened from

Question

There's probably an easy solution to this, but I can't find anything on this.I have three forms:

1. Main Menu
2. Form 1
3. Form 2

Both Main Menu and Form 1 can launch Form 2. What I want to do is:

• if Form 2 is launched from Form 1, some buttons are disabled.

However

• If Form 2 is launched from Main Menu, everything is enabled.

I know there's a simple solution somewhere, but all I can find is how to open a form, and enable/disable it's parents controls, not open a child form and disable controls before Show() or whatever is called.

Answer 1

You could add a property to the Form2 class like this:

public bool HideSomeControls
{
    get;
    set;
}

Then, right before you show the Form2 in Form1.cs, set that property:

form2instance.HideSomeControls = true;
form2instance.Show(); // or ShowDialog, depending...

Then, add a Load event handler to Form2 like this:

private void Form2_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (HideSomeControls)
    {
        someControl.Visible = false;
        someOtherControl.Visible = false;
    }
}

Note that, if MainMenu and Form1 share a single instance of Form2, you'll have to set HideSomeControls to false again in MainMenu before you show the Form2 instance.