Calling a public method in Windows Forms

Question

I have 1 MDI Form which contains 1 panel control, and 1 Form with 1 button which serves to make panel in MDI not visible.

Code in MDI Form:

    public void displayInit()
    {
        panel1.Visible = false;
    }

Code in Form1:

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        displayInit();
    }

The Error is: The name 'displayInit' does not exist in the current context, Any advice please ?

Answer 1

Try referencing the parent (and cast it):

((MyMDIForm)this.MDIParent).displayInit();

This probably isn't the best way to do it though. Consider having the child form raise an event to the MDI parent. Separation of concerns.

Answer 2

The method displayinit() is an instance method, so you need an instance to call it from

MyMDIForm.displayInit();

when constructing the MDI Form keep a reference to it and use that reference when calling it's methods.