Initial Flow Code

Flow projects can be created in C# or Visual Basic. You will be prompted to select the language when you first create the project. Note that the language you select cannot be changed for the project after initialisation.

Designs in Visual Basic or C# contain a number of initial statements to simplify the referencing of common classes and their methods and properties. The following sections outline the initial code available for VB and C# Flow projects.

Visual Basic

When you create a Visual Basic form in Flow, the initial code available for use in your design is as follows:

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Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Threading.Tasks
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class MainForm


    Private Sub MainForm_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        
    End Sub
End Class

A number of System libraries (Namespaces) are initially available for the design. These are the most often used for common requirements. Other namespaces are compatible with Flow designs and can also be utilised, but will need to be entered in the code or added with the designer.

Information on the namespaces provided in the initial code is contained in Namespaces.

C#

When you create a C# form in Flow, the initial code available for use in your design is as follows:

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Flow
{
    public partial class MainForm : Form
    {
        public MainForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }
}

The initial namespaces available are the same as for Visual Basic with C# as the language - e.g. using in place of Imports.

A number of System libraries (Namespaces) are initially available for the design. These are the most often used for common requirements. Other namespaces are compatible with Flow designs and can also be utilised, but will need to be entered in the code or added with the designer.

Note: It is possible to have many Flow forms in design mode at once, however because some of the internal resources are shared, if you see a red syntax error underscore under the Namespace in the Code pane, simply change the Namespace from ‘Flow’ to a unique name. This will allow running in debug mode, as well as scripting assistance to be displayed.

Information on the namespaces provided in the initial code is contained in Namespaces.

Namespaces

The following table contains information on each of the namespaces available in the initial Visual Basic and C# Flow forms, as well as a link to Microsoft® Documentation for further details.

Flow Panes