How to: Use the HardwareButton Component
You can configure the hardware buttons on a Pocket PC to activate a Form. This example activates an application with the first and fourth hardware buttons, and indicates in the status bar which button was pressed.
To set a hardware button to activate a form
Create a Pocket PC Windows application.
Create an instance of a HardwareButton.
Set the AssociatedControl property to the form.
Set the HardwareKey property to an application key defined by the HardwareKeys enumeration.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 for additional hardware buttons you want to use.
When a hardware button is pressed and released, the form receives both the KeyDown and KeyUp events. You can use either event to determine if a hardware button was pressed.
Example
This example sets the first and fourth hardware buttons to activate the form. To demonstrate:
Run the application.
Open another application on the device.
Press hardware button 1 or 4 to activate the form of this application. The status bar indicates which hardware button was pressed.
Private Sub ConfigHWButton()
' Set KeyPreview to true so that the form
' will receive key events before they
' are passed to the control that has focus.
Me.KeyPreview = True
hwb1 = New HardwareButton()
hwb4 = New HardwareButton()
' Set the AssociatedControl property
' to the current form and configure the
' first and fourth buttons to activate the form.
Try
hwb1.AssociatedControl = Me
hwb4.AssociatedControl = Me
hwb1.HardwareKey = HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey1
hwb4.HardwareKey = HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey4
Catch exc As Exception
MsgBox(exc.Message & " Check if the hardware button is " & _
"physically available on this device.")
End Try
End Sub
Private Overloads Sub OnKeyUp(sender As Object, e As KeyEventArgs) _
Handles MyBase.KeyUp
' When a hardware button is pressed and released,
' this form receives the KeyUp event. The OnKeyUp
' method is used to determine which hardware
' button was pressed, because the event data
' specifies a member of the HardwareKeys enumeration.
Select Case CType(e.KeyCode, HardwareKeys)
Case HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey1
statusBar1.Text = "Button 1 pressed."
Case HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey4
statusBar1.Text = "Button 4 pressed."
Case Else
End Select
End Sub
// Configure hardware buttons
// 1 and 4 to activate the current form.
private void HBConfig()
{
try
{
hwb1 = new HardwareButton();
hwb4 = new HardwareButton();
hwb1.AssociatedControl = this;
hwb4.AssociatedControl = this;
hwb1.HardwareKey = HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey1;
hwb4.HardwareKey = HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey4;
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
MessageBox.Show(exc.Message + " Check if the hardware " +
"button is physically available on this device.");
}
}
// When a hardware button is pressed and released,
// this form receives the KeyUp event. The OnKeyUp
// method is used to determine which hardware
// button was pressed, because the event data
// specifies a member of the HardwareKeys enumeration.
private void OnKeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
switch ((HardwareKeys)e.KeyCode)
{
case HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey1:
statusBar1.Text = "Button 1 pressed.";
break;
case HardwareKeys.ApplicationKey4:
statusBar1.Text = "Button 4 pressed.";
break;
default:
break;
}
}
Compiling the Code
This example requires references to the following namespaces: