Windows Presentation Foundation In Windows Forms And Vice Versa

Transcription

1 Windows Presentation Foundation In Windows Forms And Vice Versa Brian Noyes Chief Architect IDesign Inc ( 1 About Brian Chief Architect, IDesignInc. ( Microsoft Regional Director/MVP Writing Developing Applications with Windows Workflow Foundation, LiveLessons, June 2007 Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce, Addison-Wesley, Jan 2007 Data Binding in Windows Forms 2.0, Addison-Wesley, January 2006 MSDN Magazine, MSDN Online, CoDe Magazine, TheServerSide.NET, asp.netpro, Visual Studio Magazine Speaking Microsoft TechEd, Visual Studio Connections, DevTeach, DevReach, INETA Speakers Bureau, MSDN Webcasts Participates in Microsoft Design Reviews brian.noyes@idesign.net Blog: 2 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 1

2 Interoperability Challenges 3 Why Interop? WPF adoption is not all or nothing Leverage existing investment in Windows Forms controls or applications Use the capabilities of WPF incrementally as needed WPF design tools are not fully mature Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 tools are v1.0 Microsoft Expression Blend good for certain tasks, but not a full blown coder s tool 4 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 2

3 Why Interop? Windows Forms control suite is more comprehensive than WPF (at this point in time) DataGridView/DataGrid Xceed / Infragistics/etc. options BindingNavigator ColorDialog DateTimePicker ErrorProvider FontDialog FolderBrowserDialog MaskedTextBox etc. 5 Interop Overview Can easily host WPF controls in Windows Forms Windows Forms controls in WPF Direction choice WPF in Windows Forms Existing Windows Forms app that you are adding new graphics capabilities to Windows Forms in WPF Leverage existing investment in Windows Forms controls or compensate for missing controls in WPF 6 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 3

4 Interop Fundamentals WPF and Windows Forms controls and components are still just.net class instances References to objects on the heap Can use non-visual components from either framework in the other Ex: WPF Line object can be treated as a data structure Rendering engines are very different, so need different screen ownership model Shared screen areas may not behave as expected 7 InteropChallenges 8 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 4

5 Hosting WPF Controls In Windows Forms ElementHost Windows Forms control that hosts a single WPF Element Typically a composite WPF control Provides rendering container for hosted WPF element within a Form/Control Hosting Windows Forms Control in WPF Exposes properties to control the presentation of the hosted element within the ElementHost container 9 Hosting WPF Controls In Windows Forms Create or obtain the WPF control Create the Windows Forms host application Add reference to the WindowsFormsIntegrationassembly Create an ElementHost control in the Windows Form Create instance of WPF control Set the WPF control as the Child of the ElementHost Add the host to the Controls collectionforthe container Form, user control, or composite control 10 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 5

6 Interoperability Challenges 11 Hosting Windows Forms Control in WPF WindowsFormsHost WPF Element that hosts a single Windows Forms control Provides rendering container for Windows Forms within WPF Window/Control/Page System.Windows.Forms.Integration namespace Exposes properties to control the presentation of the hosted control within the WindowsFormsHost container 12 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 6

7 Hosting Windows Forms Control In WPF Create or obtain the Windows Forms control Create the WPF host application Add reference to the WindowsFormsIntegration assembly Add WindowsFormsHost control to window/page Create instance of WinForms control Set as Child of WindowsFormsHost Add the host to the Children collection Implicit in XAML based on the element hierarchy 13 Interoperability Challenges 14 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 7

8 Interop Challenges Focus Styling Overlap Coordinates Windows Forms Instancing in Pages Opacity 15 Interoperability Challenges 16 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 8

9 Property Maps Map changes in host properties to changes in hosted control/element Example: Background in WPF -> BackColor in Windows Forms Automatic detection and value passing Only works for certain properties Can add custom handling of mapping process host.propertymap.add() Delegate pointing to method with signature void MethodName (object hostobj, string propname, object valuebeingset) 17 Interoperability Challenges 18 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 9

10 Visual Studio Design-Time Support For Interop Add WPF controls and element host from designer Toolbox item drag and drop Some ElementHost properties settable from designer Contained control properties and events not accessible from designer Drop to code Windows Forms to WPF support None 19 Resources Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed, Adam Nathan, SamsPublishing Essential Windows Presentation Foundation, Chris Anderson, Addison-Wesley Programming WPF, Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths, Addison-Wesley Windows Forms 2.0 Programming, Chris Sells and Michael Weinhardt, Addison-Wesley 20 Copyright 2008 IDesign, Brian Noyes 10