WinForms Development Skill

Name: winforms
Rating: 92
Author: TalkingMonkeyOz

When to Use: Working on Windows Forms applications

Critical Rules

•NEVER directly edit .Designer.cs files unless explicitly asked
•Designer code follows serialization rules - no lambdas, no control flow
•Regular code can use modern C# features
•Prefer layout controls over absolute positioning

Quick Patterns

Layout

csharp

// TableLayoutPanel for forms
tableLayoutPanel1.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle(SizeType.AutoSize));  // Labels
tableLayoutPanel1.RowStyles.Add(new RowStyle(SizeType.Percent, 100));  // Content
tableLayoutPanel1.ColumnStyles.Add(new ColumnStyle(SizeType.AutoSize));  // Labels
tableLayoutPanel1.ColumnStyles.Add(new ColumnStyle(SizeType.Percent, 100));  // Inputs

// FlowLayoutPanel for buttons (right-to-left)
flowLayoutPanel1.FlowDirection = FlowDirection.RightToLeft;
flowLayoutPanel1.Dock = DockStyle.Bottom;

// Responsive controls
textBox1.Anchor = AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Right | AnchorStyles.Top;
dataGridView1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;

Async Event Handlers

csharp

private async void btnProcess_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        btnProcess.Enabled = false;
        await DoWorkAsync();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show($"Error: {ex.Message}");
    }
    finally
    {
        btnProcess.Enabled = true;
    }
}

Cross-Thread UI (.NET 9+)

csharp

await control.InvokeAsync(() => label1.Text = "Updated!");

Naming Conventions

Control	Prefix	Example
Button	btn	btnSave
TextBox	txt	txtName
Label	lbl	lblTitle
ComboBox	cbo	cboCountry
CheckBox	chk	chkActive
DataGridView	dgv	dgvOrders

Workflow

•Read existing .Designer.cs to understand structure
•Identify if changes need designer or code-behind
•For designer changes: Guide user to use VS Designer
•For code changes: Edit the .cs file directly
•Test with dotnet build to catch errors

Related Knowledge

•knowledge-vault/20-Domains/WinForms/winforms-designer-rules.md
•knowledge-vault/20-Domains/WinForms/winforms-layout-patterns.md
•knowledge-vault/20-Domains/WinForms/winforms-async-patterns.md
•knowledge-vault/20-Domains/WinForms/winforms-databinding.md

Spawn Agent

For complex WinForms tasks, spawn:

code

mcp__orchestrator__spawn_agent(agent_type="winforms-coder-haiku", task="...")