Custom Class for dealing with embedding in Forms

Question

I have a custom class file in C# that I inherited and partially extended. I am trying to re factor it now as I have just enough knowhow to know that with something

Answer 1

You don't need generic to do this:

public static void ShowFormInControl(Control ctl, Form frm) {
  frm.TopLevel = false;
  frm.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;  // Others rarely make sense
  frm.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
  frm.Visible = true;
  ctl.Controls.Add(frm);
}

Sample usage:

public Form1() {
  InitializeComponent();
  ShowFormInControl(this.panel1, new Form2());
}

Answer 2

Have you tried ReSharper? http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure that I got all the possible cases from there, but with generics and overloading you can compact this down to something that would be a lot easier to maintain. Here's my go at it:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using DevExpress.XtraEditors;
using DevExpress.XtraTab;

namespace psWinForms
{
    public static class WinFormCustomHandling
    {
        public static void ShowFormInControl<FormType, ControlType> (FormType frm, ref ControlType ctl, FormBorderStyle style)
          where FormType : Form
          where ControlType : Control
        {
             ShowFormInControl<ControlType>(frm, ref ctl, style, 0, 0);
        }

        public static void ShowFormInControl<FormType, ControlType> (FormType frm, ref ControlType ctl, FormBorderStyle style, FormWindowState? state)
          where FormType : Form
          where ControlType : Control
        {
            if (state.HasValue)
                frm.WindowState = state;
            ShowFormInControl<ControlType>(frm, ref ctl, style, 0, 0);
        }

        public static void ShowFormInControl<FormType, ControlType> (FormType frm, ref ControlType ctl, FormBorderStyle style, int left, int top)
          where FormType : Form
          where ControlType : Control
        {
            ShowFormInControl (frm, ref ctl, style, left, top, null);
        }

        public static void ShowFormInControl<FormType, ControlType> (FormType frm, ref ControlType ctl, FormBorderStyle style, int left, int top, string title)
          where FormType : Form
          where ControlType : Control
        {
            frm.TopLevel = false;
            frm.ControlBox = false;
            frm.Parent = ctl;
            frm.FormBorderStyle = style;
            frm.Left = left;
            frm.Top = top;
            frm.Width = ctl.Width + 4;
            if (null != title)
                frm.Text = title;
            frm.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
            frm.Show();
            //IMPORTANT: .Show() fires a form load event
            frm.BringToFront();
        }
    }
}