I have a working application that has been written in C#, and I now want to extend that application to allow the user to switch between viewing the application, and viewing a built in web browser (inside the same application window).
I also have a separate working web browser, that has also been written in C#.
I have just added the functionality to the original application to include 'tabbed' displays, where the original application will be displayed on the first tab, and a built in web browser on the second tab.
The 'tabbed' displays for the application have been created using XAML markup in Visual Studio. I now want to add an instance of the Web browser that has also been written in C# to the second tab that I have created in the XAML markup.
It would be something like:
<TabControl>
<TabItem Header="Browser">
<StackPanel>
<!-- Call/ instantiate the browser here -->
</StackPanel>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
But I have no idea how I call/ create an instance of the browser from within the XAML markup...
The browser has been created using C#:
namespace Agent
{
public partial class Browser : Form
{
public Browser()
{
...
}
}
}
Can anyone explain to me how a create an instance of Browser inside the ` of the XAML markup?
Edit
Ok, so I have edited my XAML markup as recommended in the answer that's been suggested- I now have:
<Window ...
xmlns:Agent="clr-namespace:Agent"
...>
<Grid>
...
<TabControl>
<TabItem Header="R">
<StackPanel>
...
</StackPanel>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Browser">
<Agent:Browser x:Name="Browser" />
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
</Grid>
</Window>
I have also updated my Browser.cs class, so that it is now extending UserControl, rather than Form:
public partial class Browser : UserControl{
However, I am getting a compile error on the line:
<Agent:Browser x:Name="Browser" />
which says:
The name "Browser" does not exist in the namespace "clr-namespace:Agent".
But clearly Browser does exist in Agent, as shown by the code I've included here... In fact, when typing the line <Agent:Browser x:Name="Browser />, when I typed the :, Browser was one of the options that came up in the autocomplete menu...
What am I doing wrong here? Why doesn't the compiler think that Browser exists inside Agent?
The key to instantiating any object in XAML is to make sure the namespace is declared. You can provide any XML prefix and assign it to your CLR namespace (ref) and it will act like a using statement. For example:
<TabControl xmlns:agent="clr-namespace:Agent">
<TabItem Header="Browser">
<StackPanel>
<agent:Browser/>
</StackPanel>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
NOTE: your object has to extend UIElement (or one of its children) for it to work in a XAML tree. If your control is a WinForms control you either need to find the equivalent XAML control or wrap it in a WindowsFormsHost (ref).
WPF vs. WinForms
The purpose of this section is to help recognize which platform code is by namespace, as well as some of the trade-offs. I've used both and can say from experience that they each have good points and... not so good points.
WinForms classes live in the System.Windows.Forms namespace, and are available by referencing the System.Windows.Forms.dll assembly.
WPF classes live in the System.Windows and System.Windows.Controls namespaces, and are available by referencing a set of DLLs
WinForms rendering is immediate. That means you are working against bitmaps and you are responsible for clearing and redrawing stuff yourself (usually you can just call Invalidate()). If you do heavy image bit manipulation, WinForms is easier to work with.
WPF rendering is declarative. That means more work is offloaded to your GPU and you just tell it how to draw stuff. You can also use GPU render shaders for special effects. WPF has a nicer look out of the box, but it has a reputation for making easy things difficult but impossible things possible.
WinForms is easier to learn, but has a dated look out of the box.
WPF is built around data binding, enabling the UI to update in response to property values automatically. It's also able to be completely restyled, although that is quite an undertaking.
If you are just getting started, I'd go ahead and bite the bullet to start the heavier learning curve for WPF. It will provide a basic understanding that transfers to other platforms like Windows Store apps, etc.
Firstly you need to place that tag inside of your UserControl opening tag like so:
<UserControl x:Class="View.testControl"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:Agent="clr-namespace:Agent">
Then you can use it like this:
<TabControl>
<TabItem Header="R">
<StackPanel>
...
</StackPanel>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Browser">
<Agent:Browser x:Name="Browser" />
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
EDIT
From what you told me in the comments you will need to create a Custom Control in your WPF project. To do that you need to:
Right Click your Project;
Select Add New Item;
From Installed (which is in the left column) select WPF;
From the list in the middle column select Custom Control;
Now you can create that control in your XAML with xmlns attribute.
Here is a great example from msdn on how to create custom controls
Related
Both of these applications are rather old and have been built and maintained over several years by several people. At the moment, one of controls used in the WinForms project really needs to be displayed in the WPF project.
I've read about using WinForms controls in WPF projects, and for the most part if you're just instantiating a regular empty WinForm control, it seems relatively simple.
What I'm wondering is how you would best approach using part of a large project in another project? Ideally the WinForm control will be visible from within ONE of our WPF controls, on ONE tab, after having been sent and loaded the required data.
Here are some general guidelines.
From your WPF application, add project references to:
your WinForms project
WindowsFormsIntegration
System.Windows.Forms
Modify your XAML to include a WindowsFormsHost:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<TabControl>
<TabItem Header="Old Form">
<WindowsFormsHost Name="WinFormsHost"></WindowsFormsHost>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
</Grid>
</Window>
Instantiate your old Form and set it as the child of the WindowsFormsHost. Set TopLevel to false or it'll complain that "the child control cannot be a top-level form." Change the FormBorderStyle too, to prevent the Form's title bar from showing up and allowing the user to drag the Form around.
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
WinFormsHost.Child =
new Form1 { TopLevel = false, FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None };
}
You end up with something like this:
You can read more in "Walkthrough: Hosting a Windows Forms Control in WPF" and the MSDN documentation for the "WindowsFormsHost Class".
Hi I'm trying to learn a bit of WPF and C# for a project I'm working on. I realised after working for a while that I was going to use couple of the same item and I thought it would be fitting to create my own class to make it easier to use. However now I can't reference elements defined in the XAML in the code behind like I could when just doing it in a window. The error I get is "Cannot resolve symbol 'ThaButton" in the ContactPanel.xaml.cs:
using System.Windows.Controls;
namespace WPF_OOM
{
public partial class ContactPanel : ContentControl
{
public Contact Person { get; set; }
public ContactPanel()
{
ThaButton.Content = "test";
}
}
}
My ContactPanel.xaml
<UserControl x:Class="WPF_OOM.ContactPanel:UserControl"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<DockPanel x:Name="dp">
<TextBlock x:Name="NameTextBlock" Text="testtesttest" DockPanel.Dock="Left"></TextBlock>
<Button x:Name="ThaButton" Content="button" DockPanel.Dock="Right"></Button>
</DockPanel>
</UserControl>
Hopefully I've explained my problem well enough. I might have taken the wrong approach to this problem, let me know if there's a better way.
Cheers
Remove :UserControl from x:Class="WPF_OOM.ContactPanel:UserControl" so it looks like x:Class="WPF_OOM.ContactPanel"
Also in your code behind you have the ContactPanel inheriting form ContentControl, but in your xaml it inherits from UserControl. These base classes must match. So change them both to be UserControl or ContentControl
It looks like you created a separate .cs file? I would recommend working with the code behind generated with the xaml file. One way to get to it is in the xaml editor right-click and choose 'View code'. If you imported the xaml and .cs file then reloading the project or restarting visual studio should combine them again in solution explorer if they are not already.
I would suggest looking into the Model-View-ViewModel or MVVM pattern. It works rather nice with WPF ;)
Hope this helps get you started.
I'm looking for a way to create an application layout for a little tool that looks like the ESET Antivirus UI:
I thought, that I take a TabControl and do a complete Restyling on this whole thing. I created a basic tab layout:
<Grid Background="White" Grid.Row="1" >
<TabControl TabStripPlacement="Left">
<TabItem Header="Dashboard">
<Grid>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Projects">
<Grid>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Settings">
<Grid>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Help & Info">
<Grid>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
</Grid>
However, I don't have the slightest clue how to get the tabs the way I'd like them to be. I tried a lot with Blend to get the Tabs look the image above, but I don't get it. The triangle would be a nice to have, but the highlighting should be adapted.
Any advice?
Whenever you are having trouble with trying to make WPF UI elements look exactly the way you want, you should go find the default <style> XAML from microsoft and try modifying that directly in your project until you get the desired result.
In case that wasn't clear, you you need to do is follow the links below, copy the style from the pages and put them into the Resources section of your window (or App.xaml, its really up to you). Then fiddle with them until you get it to look the way you want.
The two styles you'll need to play with are TabControl and TabItem
I'd think to a MVVM approach, instead.
Before all, shape the model of the data, as well as the business layer (commands, functions, etc.).
Then, you can "wear" your model (by leveraging a ViewModel) with a ListBox, for the left selector, and a simple ContentControl for the main part.
The selected item of the ListBox should be fed into the content of the body, and a DataTemplateSelector (for instance) will choose the proper visual fragment.
It's just a suggestion. Personally, I've found a bit tricky the TabControl and I seldom use it.
Cheers
An old trick is to have 2 different sets of images - one for clicked and one for passive (maybe one for mouseover) but clicked image will have the triangle in it.
This uses static images for buttons, which is very easy to use, but hard to modify on the fly.
I need to an extra dependancy property to a control, so I'm overriding it. I.E.:
namespace Custom_TextBlock_Sample
{
public class CustomLabel: Label
{
}
}
But I seem to be unable to add it to a DataTemplate. The following code will fail to build:
... xmlns:Custom_TextBlock_Sample="clr-namespace:Custom_TextBlock_Sample" ...
<DataTemplate x:Key="Test">
<Grid>
<Custom_TextBlock_Sample:CustomLabel></Custom_TextBlock_Sample:CustomLabel>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
However inserting my overriden control anywhere else, (say not in the datatemplate) .. and compilation works no problem.
The following works: (My control is not nested in a date template).
<Grid>
<Custom_TextBlock_Sample:CustomLabel></Custom_TextBlock_Sample:CustomLabel>
</Grid>
Also using a regular label in the Datatemplate also works:
<DataTemplate x:Key="Test">
<Grid>
<Label/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
Any ideas on what the issue might be ? Can I simply not add overridden controls to datatemplates in such a manor ? Is this a bug in Visual Studio 2007?
Note that since my intended changed to the control will be small, I simply want to override "Label" instead of wrapping it in a UserControl.
Thanks
Ok, figured it out. This seems to be a namespace bug with Visual Studio. The problem fixed itself, when I started a new project from scratch, this time with no spaces in the project name and no "_" in namespaces names.
Is it possible to open another Window in a TabControl's TabItem?
The reason I want to do this is that if I have 5 TabItems in my TabControl, the one Window file I'm coding all these TabItems and their associated actions will get very large. So it would be nice if it was possible to to give each TabItem its own Window file.
Or how do you solve the problem where theWindow file controlling the TabControl gets too large?
<Window ...
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MyNamespace"
>
<TabControl>
<TabItem Header="FirstTab">
<local:MyFirstTabUserControl/>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="SecondTab">
<local:MySecondTabUserControl/>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="ThirdTab">
<local:MyThirdTabUserControl/>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
</Window>
Your each TabUserControl is actually simple UserControl, since TabItem can host any control as its own child.
You have several choices:
add one or more resource dictionaries to your app that contain resources with templates and styles for the various views you host in your tabs. This approach works well if you just need to maintain separation of the visual trees only.
create user controls for each view (with own XAML and class file) and use one instance for each different view in the tabs. This approach allows you to encapsulated specific business logic and the corresponding visual tree together.
generate some of the UI from code. This one has no advantages, except t makes you XAML smaller. And is your .cs files become too big, you can always split them in multiple code files and use partial classes. (just had to throw in this one for completeness :-))
You can also set the TabItem Content equals to your Window content
ex: [WindowType is your window]
WindowsType oWindow = new WindowType();
TabItem oTab = new TabItem();
oTab.Content = oWindow.Content;
Make a UserControl for each TabItem.
You can use a UserControl as was mentioned already.
But you can also use the Page control. Each "Window" would be a page, and the tab would have a NavigationControl in it. I've used this approach before and it works well. I prefer the UserControl route, but both are valid.