I'd like to create a popup dialog box in silverlight in which i can manipulate controls, enter data, and return a value. I want it to be modal, so that when it is open, the page "Below" is inaccessible. I havent found an easy way to do this yet. Any suggestions?
I know the question asked for a Silverlight 2 solution but in Silverlight 3 (Beta now, RTW in July 2009) there is a built-in ChildWindow that can do everything you're looking for.
I haven't found a perfect solution either. The closest I have seen is this:
Using Popup to create a Dialog class
If it is ok to be non-modal, you can try this tip using HtmlPage.PopupWindow().
How to Popup a Browser Window
I'm new to the Sliverlight framework and am just starting to figure it out, but I have a similar need for a popup modal dialog box. I just tried an idea that looks promising:
I created a Rectangle (named "Shield") that covers my entire application area. It exists on top of everything in the main app. I set the fill-brush to White, and the opacity-brush to 81% so that the main app contents show through, but lightly (as in disabled). Then make sure the "Shield" is hit-testable. Now, when the "Shield" is visible, it will also, in effect, block all input to the controls below (at least from the mouse, haven't tried keyboard yet). When the app initializes, set the "Shield" visibility to Collapsed. In that state it won't block input to the main app.
The dialog box is then constructed on another canvas element that exists in the z-order on top of the shield. Normally the dialog box will be invisible, but when I need it, I just set the "Shield" to visible, and the dialog to visible. Since the dialog is on top of the "Shield" I get a very modal-like behavior. When the dialog box is closed, make both the dialog canvas and "Shield" canvas invisible again and the main app is again active.
I'm sure this the most brute-force way of doing it and that I will eventually zero in on a more elegant construct, but it works for now.
A more elegant solution is here:
http://community.devexpress.com/blogs/theonewith/archive/2008/08/06/custom-silverlight-controls-creating-a-reusable-messagebox-dialog-part-i.aspx
I had the same requirement and ScottGu's Building a Basic Modal Dialog Using a User Control was the best solution that fit my requirement.
Here's a free library that provides one: http://www.vectorlight.net/demos/popup_dialogs.aspx
Related
The PERFECT example of what I need is in the Groove Music app. When the SplitView pane is open (in overlay mode), you are still allowed to interact with the rest of the UI (clicking other buttons, etc., and even when you hover your mouse over controls that are outside of the pane, they are highlighted as normal).
In my app, NOTHING is clickable outside of the pane area (besides the 3 system buttons in the top right area of window). But once you click outside the area of the pane, it closes. ONLY at that point can you interact with the UI as usual again.
I searched through the SplitView's property list to see if I was missing something, but still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :]
The behaviour you're describing is by design. If the DisplayMode property of a SplitView is set either to SplitViewDisplayMode.Overlay or SplitViewDisplayMode.CompactOverlay and when the SplitView is opened, rest of the UI is inaccessible. To have it opened all the time and let user interact with the rest of the UI, you have to use either SplitViewDisplayMode.Inline or SplitViewDisplayMode.CompactInline.
For more info, see the SplitViewDisplayMode enumeration.
With the Weifen Luo DockPanel component, one can add to their .net project the ability to dock forms within other forms. The component is very well done.
Now, I see from this page at the project forum at github (where this component is now hosted), that it is possible, through the use of this dock.extender to allow the floating windows to have a normal winform look, that is, sizeable with regular Windows title bar, maximize box, minimize box, etc (see here, too). This also allows for the form's icon to show.
My problem is, and hence my question, is that the icon I assign in the form's properties will show in the designer, but one it runs in debug as a float-panel, a generic form icons appears in its place.
Now, I tried assigning the icon through code (both in the form's own code, and in the main application code too, where the form is called) rather than through properties, and that didn't work either.
So how do I get my own custom icon to show as the form's icon when the form is floated, and the extender is used? I am using the main docking panel in DockingWindow mode.
[EDIT]
I think this is a hard question! It's been 2 days and I've not gotten any answers!
This requires a change to the the FloatWindow class itself to set and update the Icon property internally as the content changes.
I have just checked the change in and it will be included in the 2.7 release of the library.
https://github.com/dockpanelsuite/dockpanelsuite/issues/35
How can I open a child window and keep the parent window active. I am using Silverlight 5 with the latest version of the toolkit.
I understand that playing with the brushes can help to have the background look normal but the parent window is still disabled.
I am trying to implement a find feature similar to a control F. I want the user to search in a child window and the matches would be displayed on the main display.
Thank you for your help,
ChildWindow is made for modal (disables the parent) use.
It uses a overlay window to make the background appear disabled as you've discovered, however it also marks the Application.Current.RootVisual's IsEnabled to false, which it then restores when the ChildWindow is closed.
This prevents any interaction to the controls of the 'parent' window. The only way around this to make your own style ChildWindow control but leave out this behavior.
FloatableWindow is a codeplex project from Tim Heuer's work, which is a nice quick way to solve your problem. Altho it appears as tho the project hasn't been updated in a while so compatibilty with the latest silverlight version might be in questionable.
DevExpress has a DXDialog control which includes Show and ShowDialog functions for modal and non-modal behavior. I'm sure other silverlight toolkit companies provide similar alternatives, this is just one I'm familar with.
If you don't mind making a custom control you could follow something like Tim Heuer's blog post on the subject to adapt your own control or use a tool like Reflector to reverse engineer the ChildWindow from silverlight itself and remove the parts you don't want.
I m coding in c# and I want to change the default arrangement of 'Save' and 'Cancel' buttons in SaveFileDialog. The default arrangement is that the 'Save' button is above the 'Cancel' button.
What I want is to place 'Cancel' button on the right hand side of the 'Save' button.
I searched over the web and found that the text on these buttons can be changed(to which the answer was on stackoverflow itself) and nothing found on changing their arrangements (locations).
Please give me a solution if any of you have experienced this so far....
thank you
Please don't do this.
The user is used to where these buttons appear. If you try to change their layout then you will just make you app feel wrong.
If you have to do this then should make sure you use the legacy file dialogs (which will make your dialogs look even more odd on Vista/7). Use the lpfnHook field in the OPENFILENAME struct to obtain hooks in to the dialog procedure. Respond to the CDN_INITDONE notification and move the buttons around with MoveWindow or SetWindowPos. You'll have to hunt for the button window handles.
But really, please don't do this, you'll just make your app worse.
That rings a bell. When you have the code to change the text of the button then you have the handle of the button window. Which you can then use when you pinvoke GetWindowRect and MoveWindow to move the button somewhere else. Visit pinvoke.net for the declarations.
Beware that the dialog changed in every Windows version. The next one might well break your program. Your customer is not going to be disappointed when you don't do this.
I'd like to implement a feature in my application where show a dialog to the user, and the main form (similar to how jQuery looks). My only idea is to take a screenshot of the form, place it as the background of a panel (with opacity to my liking) then pushing the panel over everything on the form. I have to believe there is a better way of doing this, any suggestions?
The Opacity property is what you need to "dim" a form. You'll need to create an overlay, my code in this thread shows how to do this.
Be careful to not make it look like your program is displaying a UAC prompt. While perhaps appropriate in browsers, the user will never have any trouble recognizing that a window overlaid by a dialog is disabled. Controls paint themselves differently to make it clear.
Why not just set the opacity to something like 50% of the parent window just before launching the modal dialog and then back to 100% when the modal dialog is dismissed? This isn't exactly what you're asking for serves the same function for the end user.
If you do want to do something like your JQuery example you would indeed have to do the screen cap/augment/set as background idea that you described.
I know this is an old thread but if still interested you can take a look at this project.
Download Project