A follow up to my Previous Question on adding a button to the Window Chrome (also known as the Non Client Area) in Windows Forms, I have decided to switch to WPF to have a better chance of solving my issue. I need to add some buttons to the Non Client Area or Window Chrome similar to that of Firefox 4
From what I have heard it is easier to do this in WPF. I have no idea where to start. If possible could someone give me some guidance on how to do this?
You should modify the Window Control Template. See examples here.
Related
Being horrible at the design end, I tried creating the above code and it looked horrible. I still did not figure out how to create the tabbed look and move between screens.
Any leads or help with this would appreciated... I am not looking for the entire work, but just how do I create that white space when a tab is selected with the options in them.
Any other information required, I would be happy to reply.
Thank you
PS: The problem is solved...thank you
Why don't you use Tab Control of Windows Forms? Do you need to create it yourself?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4akwf92a.aspx
I've been trying to achieve this for months now and nothing seems to work!
Both Opera and Firefox 4 draw their menu button on the top-left corner. I can tell from a mile away that the button's ON THE FORM, because, when minimizing the form, the shrinking minimize effect shows the buttons, and the tabs.
I couldn't find any working ways or code in C# to do this, or in C++.
I know this is possible, but does any of you happen to know how?
You'd be helping a lot of people if you'd tell us.
search on internet how to draw anything on the non client area of a window.
in the times I was working with Visual C++ I was able to do so if I remember right taking care of the WM_NCPAINT which paints on the non client area, I do not have examples here but it should not be a problem to find some code on Internet.
I guess there are not builtin methods to do it in c# other than overriding the windowProc...
I think WM_NCPAINT should do the job for you, as indicated by Davide Piras.
Otherwise, the easiest way to have a customized title bar would be not to have a title bar at all. And then mimic the title bar functionality in the client area of the form.
You will have to handle a few messages by yourself, though.
I am trying to develop an windows application like Google chrome Browser in WPF
using C#.I am facing problem in making my own Custom Window and Placing Tabs at the Place of the Title Position of that window.
Please suggest me how to go for it, is there any tool for this ?
Guide me please..........
Updated:
Hi Friends Thanks for your active responses and I also followed the links you gave and the way you told, but still I have doubts in developing the application please give me some more ideas where I can develop this application by using Google Chrome like controls. I want to give my application Google Chrome like look and feel.....
Google Chrome essentially custom-draws the non-client area of its window to remove things that it considers superfluous like the title bar. That's how it gets the tabs to replace the title bar of the window, just like how Microsoft Office places its "pearl" and quick access toolbar in the title area of document windows.
To do something similar in WPF, you may find this article useful: Link
Remember that any time you re-implement the standard windows chrome, you're going to have to handle a bunch of stuff that Windows normally makes transparent to you, like resizing, minimizing, maximizing, moving, and closing a window.
It is worth considering that both Google Chrome and Microsoft Office applications (among others) behave differently depending on whether Aero Glass and the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) are present/enabled. You're going to have to make sure that your application degrades gracefully when these things are missing. I would advise being sure that you can really make a convincing case for the necessity and benefit to the users before you invest all the time and energy it takes to do things like this in your application.
I just finished a Google Chrome-like Tab Control for WPF. You can find the project at https://github.com/realistschuckle/wpfchrometabs and blog posts describing it at
Google Chrome-Like WPF Tab Control
ChromeTabControl and Visual Children in WPF
WPF Chrome Tabs Functioning
Hope that helps!
It appears that Chrome draws its tabs within a limited region of the title bar area. When enough tabs are open, the width of existing tab controls is reduced to make room for a new tab.
I would suggest that you adopt a similar strategy by drawing your tabs in a suitably sized Rectangle which does not intersect with the caption buttons (Minimize, Maximize Close) and reducing the width of existing tab headers when the region becomes full
[Update 1]
While I haven't seen your code, I would suggest this happens because the tab header (the part displayed in the title bar area) and the tab page (the part covering most of the screen) are a part of the same control and are drawn as a unit, so when you try and draw the header in the region the tab content is redrawn too.
If this is the case, then you need to draw the tab header and the content page as separate controls and maintain some state in the tab that indicates which tab page should become visible when the tab is selected.
I was wondering if anyone knows of an existing sample or an approach to achieve the desired functionality.
Basically, what I'm looking for is a web browser like skeleton. The idea is that the main screen of my application is shown in the left tab. This tab can never be closed. On this screen is an overview of various application components such as activities, events, contacts, etc.
When the user clicks on a specific contact/event/activity a new tab is created and auto-focused. The user can view and edit the information. When they are done they can close the tab.
The ability to have multiple tabs open is important.
Also, keyboard shortcuts to easily navigate between tabs would be great, but not absolutely essential at this point.
Note: I don't need to access any web content.
Really what I'm looking for, at least what I think I'm looking for, is a shell of a modern web browser. Does something like this exist? Is there a good approach to building such an application?
Note: I'm new to Windows GUI development, so I apologize if this is a rudimentary question. I was unable to find anything meaningful while searching MSDN and other resources.
Thanks!
What it sounds like is not really a Web Browser shell at all, simply the relative appearance of one functionality-wise.
What you can do is use a TabControl control. This can be altered to suit your needs quite perfectly in my view.
An example of a modified TabControl is as follows: [ From here ]
There are a number of things that can be done with a TabControl (as with any other component) to make it suit what you need.
Here are some links that you may find helpful:
Flat Tab Control - As per the picture
MSDN
Video on using a Tab Control
C# Corner
I'm currently learning WPF. I really am enjoying it so far. I love how easy it is to make great looking apps, and would like to create an app that has a custom window border. I would like for it to look something like this:
I know I could just easily change the Window type to not have a boarder and go from there, but that seems to much like WinForms. Wouldn't it be better to just create a class that derived from Window and styled it? If so how can I do this? Thanks!
Here's a great article on customizing Window "chrome" with WPF:
Custom Window Chrome in WPF
It is accompanied by a Code Gallery project from which you can download the code:
WPF Chrome
To show non-standard borders you have to set AllowsTransparency=True and no Border from the window. Whether you want to do this in the class is up to you. You basically have to realize WPF is really just a DirectX application hosted in a standard window. So you if you want non-standard Windows behavior, you have to drop the standard window border and start re-wiring it based on the standard window events you want to handle. Dragging, minimize/maximize/restore, Title bar.
Really, it shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes to an hour to come up with something close to what you want, and you could certainly put your custom window in a base class for re-use on down the road.
I have a feeling, for most cases, this is going to be the better and quicker option than trying override default Windows drawing.
There is a product called "Blendables" which contains a ChromelessWindow control in their "Essentials Mix" bundle which makes this very easy to do. I've never actually used it myself, I just know it exists and thought it might be of use. At bare minimum it shows that you can do what you ask about creating reusable, templatable chrome.