Adding iPack CF39 to toolbox of VS 2012 / VS 2013

This article describes how to work around the inability to add Bee Mobile iPack CF39 controls to toolbox of Visual Studio 2012 / 2013.

Microsoft admits that it is not possible to add custom controls which target Compact Framework v. 3.9 to Visual Studio toolbox here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh300132.aspx (see “Application Development: Managed code and designer” section) and advices to add a control manually in code.

Manipulating controls from code is possible but siginificantly impairs the development experience. We have figured out a work-around which won’t allow you to add the controls to Visual Studio’s Toolbox anyway, but it will give you the Visual Designer experience back.

These steps apply to both – Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2013. If you’re using Visual Basic for development, then exchange any “cs” with “vb” in the following description:

1. Create a new project in Visual Studio which targets a Windows Embedded Compact 2013 device.
2. Visual Studio Designer with Form1 will appear.
3. Display the toolbox and drag and drop a standard System.Windows.Forms.Button onto the form.
4. Adjust its location and size as if it was a Bee Mobile iPack CF39 control which you want to add to your form.
5. Open Solution Explorer, expand references section and a new reference to your project. Your project has to reference a Bee Mobile iPack CF39 assembly which contains the control you are about to add to your form. You can browse for Bee Mobile iPack CF39 assemblies in iPack CF39 installation folder. By default the path is c:\Program Files (x86)\Bee Mobile\iPack CF39\BeeMobile Controls CF3.9\
6. Please note, that almost all Bee Mobile iPack CF39 controls depend on BeeMobile.Common.CF39.dll assembly, so you should definitelly add it. Bee Mobile TouchList is implemented in BeeMobile.TouchList.CF39.dll assembly and it depends also on BeeMobile.RoundTextBox.CF39.DLL assembly. Bee Mobile RoundComboBox control depends on TouchList (as well as RoundTextBox).
7. In Solution Explorer expand the Form1.cs item (if you’re using Visual Basic, you will have to click ‘Show All Files’ icon at the top of Solution Explorer first).
8. Open Form1.Designer.cs file for editing. Look for a line of code where the button which we added in step 3 is declared. The line of code will look like this in C#:

   private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;

9. Use your mouse to select the “System.Windows.Forms.Button” and then press CTRL+H on the keyboard to active Search And Replace tool.
10. The Search And Replace tool contains two text boxes. The first text box will already contain the “System.Windows.Forms.Button” text pre-filled. Leave it as it is. In the second text box type the name of Bee Mobile iPack CF39 control which you want to add to your form preceeded by its full namespace name. For example, if you want to add Bee Mobile TouchList, type “BeeMobile.TouchList.TouchList”. Confirm the Search and Replace (or press Alt+A on the keyboard).
11. Save your changes and switch back to Visual Studio Designer. You should now see Bee Mobile iPack CF39 control on your form and you can proceed designing it.

If you have any feedback regarding this article, do not hesitate to send it to support [at] beemobile4 [dot] net. Thank you.