Enable and Disable textboxes in Powershell

Question

I'm trying to enable textboxes in my form only if the field prior has been completed. I'm stuck as I can still enter information in my subject textbox even though the combo box before it is empty. Everything I'm finding is how to disable a button and not individual textboxes or comboboxs. I assume it would all work the same.

Edit With Code

<# This form was created using POSHGUI.com  a free online gui designer for PowerShell
.NAME
    Ticket Request
#>

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()

#region begin GUI{ 

$Form                            = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Form
$Form.ClientSize                 = '600,400'
$Form.text                       = "Ticket Request Form"
$Form.TopMost                    = $false

$image = [System.Drawing.Image]::Fromfile('G:\My Drive\CLASD Tech\CL Logos\CL_Lion.png')     
$pictureBox = new-object Windows.Forms.PictureBox 
$pictureBox.width=320
$pictureBox.height=240
$pictureBox.top=10
$pictureBox.left=375
#$pictureBox.Right=5
$pictureBox.Image=$image

$Label1                          = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Label
$Label1.text                     = "Email"
$Label1.AutoSize                 = $true
$Label1.width                    = 25
$Label1.height                   = 10
$Label1.location                 = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(25,78)
$Label1.Font                     = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$Label2                          = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Label
$Label2.text                     = "Request Type"
$Label2.AutoSize                 = $true
$Label2.width                    = 25
$Label2.height                   = 10
$Label2.location                 = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(25,114)
$Label2.Font                     = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$Label3                          = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Label
$Label3.text                     = "Subject"
$Label3.AutoSize                 = $true
$Label3.width                    = 25
$Label3.height                   = 10
$Label3.location                 = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(25,152)
$Label3.Font                     = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$Label4                          = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Label
$Label4.text                     = "Description"
$Label4.AutoSize                 = $true
$Label4.width                    = 25
$Label4.height                   = 10
$Label4.location                 = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(25,195)
$Label4.Font                     = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$TextBox1                        = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$TextBox1.multiline              = $false
$TextBox1.width                  = 100
$TextBox1.height                 = 20
$TextBox1.location               = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(-12,-19)
$TextBox1.Font                   = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'


$email                           = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$email.multiline                 = $false
$email.width                     = 267
$email.height                    = 20
$email.location                  = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,74)
$email.Font                      = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$email.Text                      = (Get-ADUser $env:USERNAME -Properties mail).mail
#$email.AppendText("@clasd.net")
$email.ReadOnly                 = 'true'

$subject                         = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$subject.multiline               = $false
$subject.width                   = 267
$subject.height                  = 20
$subject.location                = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,147)
$subject.Font                    = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$description                        = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$description.multiline              = $true
$description.width                  = 267
$description.height                 = 163
$description.location               = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,190)
$description.Font                   = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$request                         = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$request.width                   = 267
$request.height                  = 20
@('Maintenance','Technology') | ForEach-Object {[void] $request.Items.Add($_)}
$request.location                = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,113)
$request.Font                    = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$btn1                            = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Button
$btn1.text                       = "Send Request"
$btn1.width                      = 98
$btn1.height                     = 40
$btn1.location                   = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(450,323)
$btn1.Font                       = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$btn2                            = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Button
$btn2.text                       = "View My Tickets"
$btn2.width                      = 98
$btn2.height                     = 40
$btn2.location                   = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(450,200)
$btn2.Font                       = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'

$Form.controls.AddRange(@($Label1,$Label2,$Label3,$Label4,$TextBox1,$email,$subject,$description,$request,$btn1,$btn2))
$Form.Controls.add($picturebox)

#region gui events {
$btn1.Add_Click({ sendRequest; thankyou })
$btn2.Add_Click({ opentickets })
#endregion events }

#endregion GUI }

function sendRequest()
{
# API Key
$FDApiKey="key"
#################################################

# Force TLS1.2 as Powershell defaults to TLS 1.0 and Freshdesk will fail connections 
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::TLS12

# Prep
$pair = "$($FDApiKey):$($FDApiKey)"
$bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair)
$base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
$basicAuthValue = "Basic $base64"
$FDHeaders = @{ Authorization = $basicAuthValue }
##################################################

$Body = @{
description = $description.Text
email = $email.Text
subject = $subject.Text
type = $request.Text
priority = 1
status = 2
}

Invoke-WebRequest "https://clasd.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets/" -Headers $FDHeaders  -ContentType "application/json" -Method Post -Body ($Body | ConvertTo-JSON)


}

function thankyou ()
{
New-BurntToastNotification -Text 'Request Sent' -AppLogo 'Y:\JustLion.jpg'
$description.Text = ''
$email.Text = ''
$subject.Text = ''
$request.Text = ''
}

<#function opentickets()
{
# API Key
$FDApiKey="key"
#################################################

# Force TLS1.2 as Powershell defaults to TLS 1.0 and Freshdesk will fail connections 
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::TLS12

# Prep
$pair = "$($FDApiKey):$($FDApiKey)"
$bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair)
$base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
$basicAuthValue = "Basic $base64"
$FDHeaders = @{ Authorization = $basicAuthValue }
##################################################

$requester = $email.Text
}

Invoke-RestMethod "https://clasd.freshdesk.com/api/v2/tickets?email='$requester'" -Headers $FDHeaders  -ContentType "application/json" -Method Get 
#>
function validate(){
    if($request.SelectedIndex -ge 1){
        $subject.Enabled = $true
    }
    else{
        $subject.Enabled = $false
    }
}

#Write your logic code here


[void]$Form.ShowDialog()

Please edit your question with the actual code at the very least. Even better would be for you to creat an [MCV](https://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve) and put that in your question. — EBGreen, Apr 19 '18 at 12:52
You probably want to sanitize some of that code. You just gave everyone the ability to access your tickets in Freshdesk. — EBGreen, Apr 19 '18 at 13:11
Be aware that PoshGUI is a great tool especially for being free but it only exposes a subset of the proerties on controls. Use the `.Enabled` property to control whether or not a textbox can be typed in. Pair that with the keypress events on other controls. — EBGreen, Apr 19 '18 at 13:16
@EBGreen Okay setting the fields as disabled on the intial load of the form works. So now it's just a matter of making an if/else statement correct. If $request.Text equals this then $subject.Enabled equals $true? — Justin Merwin, Apr 19 '18 at 13:29

emanresu · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-19T13:54:13.927

First, it looks like you never attached the Validate function to any event on the combo box. So for example you could use the TextChanged or SelectedIndexChanged event on the combo box.

You would attach it like this:

$request.add_TextChanged({Validate})

or

$request.add_SelectedIndexChanged({Validate})

Then in your Validate method you can check the index like this:

function Validate{
    if($request.SelectedIndex -ne -1){
        $subject.Enabled = $true
    }
    else{
        $subject.Enabled = $false
    }
}

Negative 1 is the value when no index is selected. If you prefer you can check the length of the text. This depends on whether the user will type in this combo, or just select pre-existing items from the list. As was already pointed out in comments, you want to disable the text box from the start using

$request.Enabled = $false

Here is a stripped down example based on your code. This version assumes that the user will be selecting pre-existing values from the combo:

function Validate{
    if($request.SelectedIndex -ne -1){
        $subject.enabled = $true
    }
    else{
        $subject.Enabled = $false
    }
}

$Form = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.Form
$Form.ClientSize = '600,400'
$Form.text = "Ticket Request Form"

$request = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$request.width = 267
$request.height = 20
$request.location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,113)
$request.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$request.Items.Add('1')
$request.Items.Add('2')
$request.add_TextChanged({Validate})


$subject = New-Object system.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$subject.multiline = $false
$subject.width = 267
$subject.height = 20
$subject.location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(122,147)
$subject.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$subject.Enabled = $false

$Form.Controls.Add($request)
$Form.Controls.Add($subject)

$form.ShowDialog()

Then I would just do the same for the subject as well with another function correct? Worked like a charm — Justin Merwin, Apr 19 '18 at 14:11
@JustinMerwin You can certainly create additional functions and employ them in a similar fashion, always keeping in mind whether you want to look at indices or text length. You might want to look into creating a generic function that can handle multiple form controls. It is possible for the function to be aware of which item invoked it, which provides the basis for a more generic solution. — emanresu, Apr 19 '18 at 14:29

Enable and Disable textboxes in Powershell

1 Answers1