I'm adding a bar manager and popup menu control to a Winforms application. I have to add the code to bind the menu to the manager, but I don't know where it would be best to do so.
I'll be using the designer heavily (company mandated) for the rest of the build-out, but the binding has to be done in code AFAIK. Currently I have it in the form load method.
I believe this is just fine to make it work, but I'm curious if you could put it in the designer code with the control details, or if it should go somewhere else in the code behind.
Hopefully this isn't an opinion based question.
Winforms doesn't make it very easy to separate things correctly, but you should try to separate as much as possible the UI code from the functional code.
Basically, you should try to put all your business logic in classes that are separated from your UI. Try to think that all that code could be used by another type of application, like a web app, or a WPF app.
The things that are in the codebehind should be only related to UI management, updating the UI and passing the changes to your business classes. There also seems to be some things that exist to have a MVVM or MVP on Winforms, check this SO question: UI Design Pattern for Windows Forms (like MVVM for WPF).
Related
I'm currently developing an Windows Forms application in C# which will make use of tabs for the GUI. The problem I'm facing though is that the code is becoming untidy.
The reason is that the code for GUI components (such as button clicks) resides on the main form code.
So I'm looking for a way to still handle all the GUI interactions the same way but separate the code in a logical way (e.g. different files). Like having button1_click() reside in another file but work the same way as before.
Thanks :)
You can place each "Tab" into its own UserControl, and handle the events there instead of all within the main form.
As tabs typically each represent something "distinct", this is often fairly simple to implement, and helps clean up your code.
First of all, I want to let everyone know that I'm very new to the MVVM concept, and have looked pretty extensively for some explanation of what I want to do, but to no avail.
In the program I'm working on, I have a UserControl with a few buttons on it, which need to control the navigation of the main window. I have 3 different "pages" I want to be able to switch between in my main window. Instead of pages, I decided (for whatever reason, correct me if this is not the best approach) to use a UserControl for each page, and switch the visibility to the correct one. I need the data to persist while switching, so I don't believe that creating new instances of the Usercontrols will work.
My question is: How can I bubble the events from my "NavBarView" to the main window in a way that will allow me to switch the visibility, but in a MVVM way? I know I may be completely going about this the wrong way, and I'm happy to take any suggestions on a better way of achieving this navigation.
I have to use WPF, so WinForms is not an option. Too much transparency and custom controls for WinForms.
I would make the "NavBar" part of the main window if possible and use that to control the sub controls in the forms. I would be careful nesting User Controls. If you can avoid it I would (key indication is are you going to reuse it somewhere else). I took over a project a while back that had a main window with 3 separate highly coupled user controls that had to all work together and it was a nightmare. The only way I could get it to work somewhat safely was to have them all set their data context to the same view model. If I had to do it from scratch - would have taken a completely different approach with a single view.
Create own TextBox, Button etc control as own control using User control in C# Windows application, is this good idea?
I wanted make consistency for through out the application. Suppose if I want to change the Textbox border color then all forms textbox updated with this changes. It's just an example.
Please suggest me.
I don't recommend using UserControl just for consistency. If application skinning is what you are after, look into WPF. It makes it relatively simple to skin an application (or even a window, or smaller groups)
Here is an article on skinning with WPF: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19782/Creating-a-Skinned-User-Interface-in-WPF
Another alternative, staying within Windows Forms, is creating a class that inherits from TextBox, and using that class throughout the application. The Factory pattern would work well here. You could even adapt it to multiple skins.
It's not a bad idea to provide custom controls that match your "User Experience" (UX). It really just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your program.
All in WPF:
Developing a wizard application, user has to answer a number of simple questions before brought to the main app. The main app is then prefilled with the information obtained from the wizard.
I started with a Window which I then planned to add usercontrols to. The main window would have the user control in the first row, then Next and Previous buttons to control moving between the controls in the second row. This way I could easily control the logic to switch between screens like:
WizardControl1.IsVisible = false;
WizardControl2.IsVisible = true;
But for some reason, user controls do not have setter for IsVisible. Hurray.
So then I thought I would just use seperate windows for each section of the wizard. The problem with this approach is that now when stepping between, the window opens in random positions, and by steppign through the wizard with next, the next window pops up randomly which is really distracting and frustrating.
So how can I develop a wizard properly? I don't get why this is so hard...not exactly rocket science... replacing text and controls and storing input after pressing next/previous!
Thanks
Check this link:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/InternationalizedWizard.aspx
This is the article about building wizard in WPF by Josh Smith, it's seems to be nice pattern.
I found it's helpful for me, hope you'll too.
There is also an open source Avalon Wizard control on codeplex.
I'd probably aproach this using data binding and template selectors. Have the wizard form bind to a "WizardData" class, which exposes a list of "WizardPage" base classes.
The WizardData class can expose properties defining the correct info on the forms, and display a control for the main page that uses a template selector to determine the proper control to display based on the actual type of the particular wizard page.
It sounds like more work than it is, really. It also gives you the benefit of good separation between code and UI (all "work" is done by the WizardData and WizardPage classes), and the ability to test logic independent of the UI.
It's also a very WPF/MVVM way of approaching the problem.
I recognize this does not directly address your question, but I thought I'd mention it as a possible alternative. I've used Actipro's Wizard control with pretty good results, and when I have needed support, they have been very responsive. I am not affiliated with them in any way; I just like not having to write the plumbing to manage a wizard.
The property is called "Visibility".
I find that I do better when I dynamically add and removing controls rather than hide them.
I was looking for a Wizard solution too. I have the need to stick with stock WPF components so I implemented the wizard using a standard form and a tab control.
I only hide the tabs at runtime so there available in the IDE. At runtime just use Back, Next, Finish... to navigate thru the tab items
works good
I'm writing a WinForms application and want to have an "MVC-Type" Design. Actually it's more MVP or MVVM,.
The plan is to have a Central Controller which does all the actual work, so that the Forms just render out ViewModels and handle user input, but everything that actually does something goes through the Controller.
I just wonder if this is a good idea, and where to put the Controller? The current idea is to have a static class which is initialized in Program.cs (Sending in some Dependencies like IMyDatabaseRepository) so that it just stays a controller that delegates work between User Interface and Model.
As you might guess, I come from a Web Background and have little experience with WinForms architecture. Previously, my MainForm was the Controller class, holding all the State Variables, which obviously means that my MainForm is my application rather than just a part of the User Interface.
Nice question Michael!
Here are some links:
Sacha Barber's WPF MVVM VS Project Template
Sacha's Article Series on CodeProject.com
Nice article on this Wordpress blog
Hope these help you to structure your project properly!
I don't know if this is a better way, but I am having Structuremap create my controller and database instance.
The main form has no real code in it - it just loads the first set of controls and then starts the controller. The user controls on the form use StructureMap to access the controller.
My project is regular WinForms and not WPF and is my first time using the MVC pattern with WinForms.
You might have a look at the WAF Windows Forms Adapter download. It comes with the BookLibrary sample application which uses a Controller / MVVM design together with Windows Forms.