Show a list when a choice is made

Question

I'm trying to work around a script Under Windows.Form and I'm a little bit stuck.

I'd like to be able a specific list appears depending on the choice made from the first list, which means that at the start of the script, only one list has to appears and many other available depending of the choice made.

Here's the full script for reference

#Open a Window.
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
$form = New-Object Windows.Forms.Form
$form.text = "Contrôles"             
$form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(1000,700)

$OKButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$OKButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(75,150)
$OKButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)
$OKButton.Text = 'OK'
$OKButton.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK
$form.AcceptButton = $OKButton
$form.Controls.Add($OKButton)

$CancelButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$CancelButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(150,150)
$CancelButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)
$CancelButton.Text = 'Cancel'
$CancelButton.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::Cancel
$form.CancelButton = $CancelButton
$form.Controls.Add($CancelButton)

#Create the Data table (DataTable).
$table1 = New-Object system.Data.DataTable
$table2 = New-Object system.Data.DataTable

#Define the 2 column (Name, Type).
$colonne1 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Choice,([string])
$colonne2 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Choice,([string])

#Create columns in the data table.
$table1.columns.add($colonne1)
$table2.columns.add($colonne2)

#Add the data line by line in the data table.
$ligne = $table1.NewRow()   #Creation of the new row.
$ligne.Choice = "Service"    #In the column Choice we put the value we want.
$table1.Rows.Add($ligne)    #Add a line in the data table.
$ligne = $table1.NewRow()
$ligne.Choice = "Software"
$table1.Rows.Add($ligne)
$ligne = $table1.NewRow()
$ligne.Choice = "Other"
$table1.Rows.Add($ligne)

#Add the data line by line in the data table.
$ligne = $table2.NewRow()   #Creation of the new row.
$ligne.Choice = "Service Enable"  #In the column Choice we put the value we want.   
$table2.Rows.Add($ligne)    #Add a line in the data table.
$ligne = $table2.NewRow()
$ligne.Choice = "Service Disable"
$table2.Rows.Add($ligne)
$ligne = $table2.NewRow()
$ligne.Choice = "Other"
$table2.Rows.Add($ligne)

#Create the View.
$vu1 = New-Object System.Data.DataView($table1)
$vu1.Sort="Choice ASC"   #Tri la colonne "Extension" par ordre croissant.

$vu2 = New-Object System.Data.DataView($table2)
$vu2.Sort="Choice ASC"

$label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(650,50)
$label.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,35)
$label.Text = 'Please enter the information in the space below:'
$form.Controls.Add($label)

$textBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$textBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(650,100)
$textBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(260,20)
$form.Controls.Add($textBox)

#Create the Drop-down list (ComboBox).
$liste1 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Combobox
$liste1.Location = New-Object Drawing.Point 20,50
$liste1.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(150, 50)
$liste1.DropDownStyle = "DropDownList"

$liste2 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Combobox
$liste2.Location = New-Object Drawing.Point 350,50
$liste2.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(150, 50)
$liste2.DropDownStyle = "DropDownList"

#Associate the Data to the Drop-down list
#To do so, we create a "Binding Context".
$liste1.BindingContext = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.BindingContext
$liste1.DataSource = $vu1  #Assigne the view that contains the sorted Data.
$liste1.DisplayMember = "Choice"  #Column that will be displayed (Choice).  

$liste2.BindingContext = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.BindingContext
$liste2.DataSource = $vu2   #Assigne the view that contains the sorted Data.
$liste2.DisplayMember = "Choice"    #Column that will be displayed (Choice). 

#Attach the control to the window.
$form.controls.add($liste1)
$form.controls.add($liste2)

#Show everything.
$form.Add_Shown({$textBox.Select()})
$result = $form.ShowDialog()

#Work the code arround.
if ($liste1.DisplayMember= "Service Enable")
{set-service -name RemoteRegistry -ComputerName $textBox.Text -StartupType Automatic}

if ($liste1.DisplayMember = "Service Disable")
{set-service -name RemoteRegistry -ComputerName $textBox.Text -StartupType Automatic}
Write-Host "ComboBox = " $liste1.DisplayMember
Write-Host "ComboBox = " $liste2.selectedvalue

#Fin.

If anybody have an idea where I could look, it would be great.

Thanks you Nad

Answer 1

1. You have no form / trigger events in your code.

2. You don't have the correct GUI objects in your code to hold a list / record result.

A form is just a container to hold elements until you add the code behind to make it do something. You have to have a proper GUI object to send that result to.

I am not sure if you are doing this all by hand in the ISE or VSCode or Notepad or whatever, but this is a good first effort. However, what you show, seems to indicate you are not really up to speed on GUI development / general app dev work, as what you are doing is not really unique to PowerShell, but something required for any app development client or web.

So, really, spend some time studying / reviewing general WPF/Winforms development and that form event stuff will be covered.

As for your use case, you need:

• Define the list GUI object (multiline, ListBox, ListView, datagrid) to hold the results (synch'ing combox boxes mean adding and removing elements on event actions)
• Define what that list is (text files, db read etc)
• On the click, change or other form event, read from that list and populate the GUI list object

There are many examples of this on this site and all over the web.

Here a good video on GUI development with PowerShell:

powershell populate combobox basing on the selected item on another combobox

From the above discussion (not something to just add to your code without understanding the what's and the why's):

Use a ComboBox.SelectionChangeCommitted Event:

"Occurs when the user changes the selected item and that change is displayed in the ComboBox"
$combobox2_SelectionChangeCommitted={

  $Mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit $ClientSelected
  foreach ($mailbox in $Mailboxes)
  {
      $CurrentMailbox = "{0} ({1})" -f $mailbox.Name, $mailbox.Alias
      Load-ComboBox $combobox2 $CurrentMailbox -Append
  }

}

Use a button: 
$button1_Click={

$Mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit $ClientSelected
  foreach ($mailbox in $Mailboxes)
  {
      $CurrentMailbox = "{0} ({1})" -f $mailbox.Name, $mailbox.Alias
      Load-ComboBox $combobox2 $CurrentMailbox -Append
  }
}

Lastly, using this …

Write-Host "ComboBox = " $liste1.DisplayMember
Write-Host "ComboBox = " $liste2.selectedvalue

… is not something one would do, because the console is not opened to see these results and Write-Host should be avoided except for when using console only text colorizations of other console only formatting scenarios, it also empties the display buffer, so it cannot be sent to anything else. Also, you don't have a GUI object called 'ComboBox' anywhere on the form, so it's not serving any purpose for your use case.

Answer 2

After some times and research, I managed to find what I needed exactly.

This might help people who stumble upon the post so here a small part of what I found

function Service()
{if ($ListBox1.SelectedItem -eq 'Enable Services')
{
$form.Controls.Add($Label3)
$form.Controls.add($ListBox2)
$form.Controls.Add($Label4)
$form.Controls.Add($textBox)
$form.Controls.Add($Button2)
$form.Controls.Add($Button3)
}

I create firstly a Function with a name, in which will countain the condition of what I'd like to happen when a choice is made in my listbox "ComboBox"

$button1.add_Click({ Service })

Then I call that function from a button I Added, in which other Boxes will appear upon click on that button.

It is not very different from @Postanote's answer but that was the solution I'm more at ease with.