Click here to Skip to main content
15,887,821 members
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
0.00/5 (No votes)
I'm new to Dock Panel suite
Basically i'm having run time error when it comes to loading layout from xml file. saving layout works fine.
I have 2 forms, 1st one is main form. 2nd form is child form
C++
public ref class MyForm2 : DockContent //2nd form (child form)

in main form, i have following code
C++
private: IDockContent ^GetContentFromPersistString(System::String ^persistString)
{
    array<Char>^ id = { ',' };
    array<System::String^> ^parsedStrings = persistString->Split(id);

    if (parsedStrings->Length != 3)
    return nullptr;

    MyForm2 ^mf2 = gcnew MyForm2();
    if (parsedStrings[1] != System::String::Empty)
        mf2->Name = parsedStrings[1];
    if (parsedStrings[2] != System::String::Empty)
        mf2->Text = parsedStrings[2];
    return mf2;
}

private: System::Void MyForm_Load(System::Object^  sender, System::EventArgs^  e) {
        System::String^ path = Path::Combine(Path::GetDirectoryName(Application::ExecutablePath), "DockPanel.config");
        DeserializeDockContent ^m_deserializeDockContent = gcnew DeserializeDockContent(GetContentFromPersistString);
            dockPanel1->LoadFromXml(path, m_deserializeDockContent); //Crashes here
        }


An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred in WeifenLuo.WinFormsUI.Docking.dll

Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.


I used this example code from C# (DockSample Project)

What I have tried:

using FileStream ^fs1 = gcnew FileStream(path, FileMode::Open,FileAccess::Read);
Stream ^s1 = fs1; instead of System::String
Posted
Updated 3-Jul-16 23:18pm
v4

1 solution

This is one of the most common problems we get asked, and it's also the one we are least equipped to answer, but you are most equipped to answer yourself.

Let me just explain what the error means: You have tried to use a variable, property, or a method return value but it contains null - which means that there is no instance of a class in the variable.
It's a bit like a pocket: you have a pocket in your shirt, which you use to hold a pen. If you reach into the pocket and find there isn't a pen there, you can't sign your name on a piece of paper - and you will get very funny looks if you try! The empty pocket is giving you a null value (no pen here!) so you can't do anything that you would normally do once you retrieved your pen. Why is it empty? That's the question - it may be that you forgot to pick up your pen when you left the house this morning, or possibly you left the pen in the pocket of yesterdays shirt when you took it off last night.

We can't tell, because we weren't there, and even more importantly, we can't even see your shirt, much less what is in the pocket!

Back to computers, and you have done the same thing, somehow - and we can't see your code, much less run it and find out what contains null when it shouldn't.
But you can - and Visual Studio will help you here. Run your program in the debugger and when it fails, VS will show you the line it found the problem on. You can then start looking at the various parts of it to see what value is null and start looking back through your code to find out why. So put a breakpoint at the beginning of the method containing the error line, and run your program from the start again. This time, VS will stop before the error, and let you examine what is going on by stepping through the code looking at your values.

But we can't do that - we don't have your code, we don't know how to use it if we did have it, we don't have your data. So try it - and see how much information you can find out!
 
Share this answer
 
Comments
Prakash1206 5-Jul-16 3:21am    
Thanks for nice explanation :)
while loading the layout, i had to remove previous content. so i thought dockPanel1 = nullptr; would do it. but it was the reason for above error.
i had to manually remove contents through following code

for (int index = dockPanel1->Contents->Count - 1; index >= 0; index--)
{
if (dynamic_cast<idockcontent^>(dockPanel1->Contents[index]) != nullptr)
{
IDockContent ^content = safe_cast<idockcontent^>(dockPanel1->Contents[index]);
content->DockHandler->Close();
}
}

I Hope it helps someone with same issue :)
OriginalGriff 5-Jul-16 3:30am    
You're welcome!

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

  Print Answers RSS
Top Experts
Last 24hrsThis month


CodeProject, 20 Bay Street, 11th Floor Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 2N8 +1 (416) 849-8900