I'm starting my first C# project, and I want to make a "form designer" (like the one in VS).
The idea is, there will be a visual form designer with a limited toolbox, which will generate Python code (later more) to create the same form.
Problem is, I have no idea how to even get started. First of all, I have the form designer in VS: how do I make a "form-within-a-form?"
Next... I have no idea how complicated this is going to be. I suppose I could just make little boxes appear beside each control created on the form when it is clicked, for resizing, and make a textbox appear on it when double clicked or something, to change the text in it... Things like this.
So another thing I would like to know is this:
I do have programming experience in C and C++, I've done PHP for a number of years and am starting with Python as of recently. I've generated forms dynamically in VB6. Given this experience, am I in way over my head with this project?
this looks like a really good place to start. It has a pretty good example to get you started. You can even download his source (registration required).
It sounds like you're aware it's non-trivial for a C# first-timer. If you keep it pretty simple, it sounds like you're heading in the right direction (although a web-based form designer might be easier).
SharpDevelop would be an example of a full-featured IDE that can be re-purposed, but that's way over the top.
Good luck!
For most people starting out in C#, this project would be too much. With your VB6 background, you may be able to pull it off, though.
Here's a hint: the Visual Studio Windows Forms designer draws controls on its surface - by asking the controls to draw themselves.
Related
Is someone know any .NET Winform control which look like this button control?
QPushButton:
http://zetcode.com/gui/csharpqyoto/layoutmanagement/
You have several options here. You aren't specific about exactly which part of the platform you are using, but if using Winforms, you can certainly customize the buttons to some extent.
If you are using WPF, you can pretty much make it look exactly like you want in XAML. Check out Expression Blend.
As #Dimitri put it, the sky is the limit, but you may need to do the leg work.
You can create custom controls according your need and have its reference added to your project. you will have it added to your toolbox that you can use.
If you are refering to a button that is located on this example form:
We currently finishing our own application that has rather similar looking buttons. We did this by using a third party component. Steps are:
We purchased DevExpress.com's WinForms library.
We developed our own DevExpress Skin (with the help of an external screen design guy)
This was a bit of a work and some amount of money but the results look pretty neat.
I normally code with PHP, I am used to opening up my editor of choice and going away at it, coding classes,methods, etc. It is fairly easy as there is no GUI to worry about.
Last night I spent the whole night following a couple tutorials with C# in Visual Studio, it's turning out to be harder then I thought it would be. Once thing that I am not use to is, all the tutorials have you add a form object like a text box or button, then have you double clikc it to get to the code part, you then enter some code for that method. Then back to the form and re-peat
This seems very hard as you are never really working on "just the code" so 1 question is, is it always like that or just because i'm new and following tutorials?
Another question, when I see source code online to do certain functions, say I see a class I would like to try using, how can I use that class in the existing form class created by VS, do you somehow import other classes or do you add them right to the form code you are working on?
I'm sure that didn't make much sense but hopefully it does to someone, i'll try wording it better if not.
I should add that this was with WPF, also I feel like you have to learn 2 languages, the C# which has very similar syntax to PHP so that doesn't seem too difficult and the for GUI that's like a whole diff language
You can download the classes you are interested into.
Then you go to the Solution Explorer panel and you add existing items.
This will COPY the files to your project.
In order to use those classes you need to declare that you wan to use them.
So, what you have to do is to say something like
using FooNamespace;
Then you are ready to use the classes.
The name space is declared right before any class. You can go edit it.
Now about the forms. Each form is a Class and it consists of three files
ClassForm.cs
ClassForm.designer.cs
ClassForm.resx
You ONLY need the first one. Right click and view code. You can go there and use it.
Many questions, Many answers
Difficulty and Repetition
you can add form objects via the designer or you can hit the source button (CTRL-PgDn). From there you can edit elements in asp and html just like any php IDE. I do most of the work in source. I am a real programmer so I can never do the drag and drop. With intelligence and time you learn the properties and what to do.
to make complex pages you just have to know what you are doing.
What I started with VS I had the same feelings as you, but i have gotten into the flow of it.
As far as the code behind, you are just hooking methods up to the asp elements that get called by the built in code. You can add your own classes, functions, everything in the code behind or in separate files, just like c++, php, whatever.
Hope that helps, VS is really powerful and runs smooth when you learn where things are, been using it for years now and I'm still learning. Bottom line, never use drag and drop and just play with it.
unfortunately the .net world love drag-drop controls. so most tutorials are designed around this concept. drag a textbox on the to form. drag a button onto the form. double click button image to get the click handler.
it's not needed, it's just the approach for most people using visual studio. being that this is a WPF project everything can be done from code, or xaml markup. you don't need the WYSIWYG editor.
as for adding/referencing classes first you need to reference the assembly the class is located in. your core .net types (part of the BCL, base class library) are automatically included as references. then you add a using statement to the appropriate namespace. then you can instantiate the object.
There are ways to have a C# interactive window; see this question. Alternatively, you don't need to use a form, but you could also create a command-line application.
As for the second question, you can add a new class to your project and then use it in your form. There's really no additional step, except that if the namespaces are different, then it is easier if you import that namespace (via using).
Partly, yes, because you're new and using tutorials.
Partly, no, because you're working with forms, and you really don't want to hand-code those by hand.
If you just want to play with C#, and not concern yourself with forms and display, look for information on Console application. Instead of worrying about buttons and textboxes, your worst nightmare will be Console.WriteLine();
Here are some console-based C# tutorials:
C# Station tutorial
C# Yellow Book - it's a PDF. It's good.
Yes, it is exactly because you are following the video tutorials which are almost always tailored for beginners... Most of us making a living working in VS, developing WPF solutions do not even use the visual editor but instead work directly with XAML to build our UI and have very little or no code in the code behind files following the MVVM pattern.
To answer your second question, most of your classes that "do stuff" which is not directly intertwined with the UI should be in a separate class library (dll file) and should not even be referenced directly by your main UI project (in order to facilitate loose coupling) but instead accessed using some form of Dependency Injection, typically utilizing Interfaces.
The code that responds to user interaction should be in your ViewModel classess which are typically a data context for your views and these VM classes are typically using service agents which implement different Interfaces in order to use code stored in the class libraries mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Now, it is possible to just double click on a button and write all your code in that method created for you in the code behind file just like with Winforms, but just like in the Winforms world that leads to code that is hard to maintain, that is tightly coupled to your user interface and very difficult to test so try to resist that instant gratification and invest some time in learning the MVVM pattern, DI and OO design patterns which facilitate code reuse, decoupling and testability...
Hope this helps...
It really depends on what you are trying to learn. I don't think I would start off with WPF if I was using C#. I would start off with a console application to get the basics of the language down, then move down to a simple WinForms application, and finally to WPF where you started.
But yes, your questions about how the editor works is correct. It's how that platform works.
I have been wondering from the first day, when I started to read, how does the .NET Framework work?
First it's really good to have an IDE like Visual Studio. While for example when I click and drop the textboxes, buttons, set their properties and so on, everything works fine.
But in the case of Java in most cases we as a programmers write coding to develop a Frame (window). But in case of .NET, Visual Studio make things easier, but how does work that, without writing a single line of code, all Windows, buttons, etc. are created?
And if I change the button name in the Form design area, where does this get stored, and more importantly how does it get displayed when we execute our program? Is this magic? Or there is a long process under the hood?
There is absolutely no magic behind this. The visual forms designer in Visual Studio generates C# code for you. Just chceck the Form1.designer.cs file.
The code in your .designer.cs is generated by serialization (objects -> code, code -> objects). Look at the CodeDomSerializer class if you wanna try understand better what is happening under the hood (with Reflector you might wanna check ControlCodeDomSerializer in System.Design.dll). And of course you can create your own serializer for custom controls and components.
I am interested in creating my very own control from scratch. (Yes, I know...) - here's what I was thinking, I'll only choose one of the following, but depending on the complexity, I think I am going to go with a TextBox or ComboBox:
TextBox
ComboBox
FormTyper
I made the third name up. FormTyper is simply a "way" of being able to click absolutely anywhere on the Form and just start typing, and the letters/numbers etc will appear as if you were typing in a textbox. This would be my ideal new project, I would love to do this, but I haven't seen it done before, and I'm not sure how to start.
Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, or really good, in-depth (but simple :P) tutorials/articles/code I can read up on/play around with?
Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)
Jase
You picked the wrong kind of control to get started with. Making your own text editor from scratch is unreasonably hard. Seemingly simple things like displaying a caret requires pinvoking obscure api functions. Calculating where to show it inside of a string is very hard.
Pick an easier one to get started with. A calendar for example. Essential skills you'll learn is how to write your own OnPaint() method to give a control a visual appearance, how to do mouse hit testing and how to pick the right kind of events and properties to make the control useful in a program.
I hope I am able to illustrate the problem using a lot of images. First of all, I was no real fan of XAML (Silverlight issues, crashes in Preview, and so on...)
Now, with VS2010 the situation has become better. There are still a lot of things I like better in code, but I also want a preview in my VS.
So, take a look at the following control: It is really simple, a todo details list. The first screenshot shows the code of the control, pretty straighforward:
CodebasedControl http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/2263/invoicea49.png
There is no XAML, so obviously no preview. Of course, I could encapsulate it in another control, like shown in the next screenshot:
CodebasedControl http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9515/invoicea48.png
But, in that case I have an additional file I do not want or need.
So I had the idea to move the init stuff inside the contructor of a XAML control. For simplicity, I used simple elements. But they do not show up in the preview...
CodebasedControl http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5547/invoicea47.png
CodebasedControl http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9625/invoicea46.png
Finally, I know I could use the controls in other parts of my app when creating UIs. But I am using layout manager, PRISM and a lot of other stuff, so I just want an easy preview of some specific control I created (without having to have a XAML wrapper file for each control)
Thanks for help, and sorry for the post structure, but I though with images it is better to understand...
Chris
Ok,
I found a way. Basically I am tricking VS by changing the XAML, but keeping the code-behind linked to the file. It the same like the wrapper solution, but without having a dedicated extra class or file. I am using the "xaml-infront" file for preview.
This solution only works with pure code controls, I have to do more research for mixed controls (at least I think so.. but it is enough for me for now).
Please be aware, the code behind is NOT partial anymore. It could be placed anywhere else, what I am doing here is basically only related to file-names and visual studio "readability"..
See screenshots for explanation:
alt text http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5456/invoicea50.png
Some space for easier reading
alt text http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1545/invoicea51.png