I'm working on a project in WPF and I'm not really familiar with it.
I have built the program, but I'm dissatisfied with the navigation.
It's a simple program, a couple of buttons which takes you to different pages. Changing page have I solved by the following:
Menu main = new Menu();
App.Current.MainWindow = main;
this.Close();
main.Show();
This is probably very incorrect. Any knowledge of standard practice for code behind or MVVM?
I had a project where i used the standard method Visibilty and changed it between collapsed and visible.
So three pages => 3 Containers
Button1
-- Show Container1 Collapse Container2,3
Button2
-- Show Container2 Collapse Container1,3
Button3
-- Show Container3 Collapse Container1,2
If you have a lot of pages this is not a nice way to do it, but for 2 to 5 pages its ok.
You could take a look at Paul Stovell's blog post for more information about the common navigations options that are available in WPF: http://paulstovell.com/blog/wpf-navigation
You could implement an interface in the view where the Frame is defined and then inject the view model with this interface to be able to use the Frame for navigation. There is an example available here: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/b09bbfd4-05ee-4f62-b5df-77c0792e6ad7/how-to-refresh-the-frame-using-a-view-model-in-c?forum=wpf
Related
So here's my Question, I'm new to C#(teaching my self at that) Here's the thing, I'm working on a basic sim game, nothing to complex but I've got the design and basic functions done.
However In order to implement it, I'm currently using multiple Forms(Visual Studio 2013)
I have my "main" form which has the "action" buttons to it
So when i want to go to a user Profile page I have
Btn_profileview Click(object sender, EventArgs e){
Form profile = new Form();
profile.Show();
}
The User would then implement the changes(for instance change name) which is written to a text file, for use in other areas of the program.
However It opens a new windows, I've tried modal and nonmodal windows and while the benefit of Modal so they have to actual close the window solves the issue, i'd rather have it just overwrite the preexisting Form, and then on close go back to the "main" screen without actually using multiple windows.
Now I was told UserControl and/or Panel would solve the issue, but it would cause a complete redesign moving from the multiple forms to the multiple panel screens and figuring out how to get those to work(Visible and Invisible), i'm assuming it wouldn't be extremely difficult something along the lines of Panel"name".show(); and panel"name".close();
But would it be possible to actually add a line of code to the pre-existing code(so as not to cause a complete reesign) or are Panels and UserControl the only real way to implement within 1 continuous windows?
paqogomez is right: There are many ways to do it.
Here is one that combines a lot of the pros:
You create an invisible Tab on your window with as many pages as you need. Place a Panel on each tab and create all your controls on of them. This does not mean that you have to do it all over - you can move and drop the controls you already have without much hassle. Of course you need to turn off docking and maybe anchors, but other than that this is a simple process.
If you have controls on the 2nd form with the same name, these names should be changed to something unique though. I hope all Controls have proper names already, but especially Labels get neglected, at least here.. (With a little luck you can even use cut and paste to get Controls from another form to panel2!)
The big pro of this trick is that you can do all work in the designer of the same form. The Tab control serves only as a container where you keep your panels without adding to the UI and without giving the user control of what is shown.
Next you create one Panel variable in your main form:
Panel currentPanel;
On Load you assign the first 'real' Panel to it like this:
currentPanel = panel1;
this.Controls.Add(currentPanel);
Later, each time you want to switch, you re-assign the panels you need like this:
this.Controls.Remove(currentPanel);
currentPanel = panel2; // or whichever panel you want to show..
this.Controls.Add(currentPanel );
If your real panels are docked to fill the tabpage, as they should, the currentPanel will fill the form. You still have access to each panel and to each control by their names at any time but you see no overhead of tabs and your form never changes, except for the full content.
Warning! This is noob question probably! Sorry in advance.
I'm learning C# (using MS Studio 2013) and I'm having hard time creating some kind of decent navigation in simple desktop program.
Basically what I want is this: MenuStrip with options like "calculate something", "Calculate somethingelse"... and other (that I can easily add later - like dynamic menu on a webpage). If you click first option inside the Form connected with the StripMenu you will get some controls that allows you to do something(like inputs on a webpage). If you click the second all these options will disappear and you will get a fresh set of controls where you can do somethingelse (simply another webpage to play with).
What is the best way to do it (I find it amazing hard to find out :) ). Only way I figured out (more from experience in js then tutorials) is to use show/hide like in javascript/html.
ExamplePanel.Visible = false;
ExampleOtherPanel.Visible = true;
But this doesn't seem right - I think it would be impossible to manage in bigger program (not only in code, but visual designer too - you can only fit that much Panels inside Form).
Any advice? Or at least a link to material where I can find out?
EDIT:
Finaly I gave up and used multiple Forms as sugested in answer.
private void MenuStripExample_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SomeForm SomeForm = new SomeForm();
this.Hide(); //Hide the main form before showing the secondary
SomeForm.ShowDialog(); //Show secondary form, code execution stop until SomeForm is closed
//this.Show(); //You may uncomment this if you want to have the previous Form to get back after you close new one
}
You normaly don't hide and show panels with different layouts. This is not a good design.
If you have complete different navigations/control sets, then create a new Form which is responsible for the control set.
If you don't want to use new Forms take a look at the TabControl.
You may also want to take a look at MDI-Container. You can use a Form as a MDI-Container and display various other Forms as child-elements inside of this container.
I have a WebForm that consists of a few dozen UI elements (all server controls). I have turned the whole page into a wizard-like user experience by separating the UI elements into distinct steps using asp:Placeholder controls and setting their visibilities between postbacks. Only one placeholder is visible at a time.
If the UI experience consisted solely of moving from Step 1 through Step 10, it's pretty trivial to create a generic Next / Prev button handler to move through the steps. However, there are a handful of UI elements that determine which steps (wizard panes) get displayed. (two radio buttons, two checkboxes on different pages)
Is there an elegant or simple way to achieve this flow logic without creating a dedicated Click handler for every Next/Prev button on the page? If there is a pattern for this, it eludes me.
Take a look at this: jQuery Form Wizard
I recently converted a form into a wizard and it works very nice. It might just work for you.
Create a Master Page
Add your nav buttons to the master page.
Create an abstract base class that inherits from Web.UI.Page.
public abstract class WizardPage: Page
{
public abstract void NextStep();
public abstract void PreviousStep();
}
Add abstract methods for NextStep and PreviousStep.
Create each wizard step as a separate page that inherits from the base class.
Implement NextStep and PreviousStep step on each page with the appropriate navigation.
Wire your buttons on the master page to call the active page's method...
protected void NextButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (Page is WizardPage)
{
WizardPage wizPage = (WizardPage)Page;
wizPage.NextStep();
}
}
All that being said -- I'd check out the wizard control.
I've used the Wizard control a number of times to handle the type of situation you describe. It takes a bit of study, like anything else, but can be made to provide a nice user experience. Controls that should be shown at each step of the wizard are declared inside a WizardStep template and it works out just great.
I am new to desktop application development and have a pretty basic question. I have a WPF form named MainWindow, how should I go about having multiple pages on this, such as "User Management", "Manage Content" etc..
I think I have the following options:
Use multiple forms
Tabs
Group Box?
Any clarification would be great!
Well in my most recent application I started by using a TabControl, that's a safe and rather easy way to go.
Recently switched the tabcontrol with a StackPanel with a series of Expanders inside. I styled the expanders to have them display the header vertically and expand horizontally... somewhat similar to the first xbox dashboard. And it looks and works great! =)
Another alternative would be to use a Page instead of a window... Then you would just have to Navigate to each different page.
EDIT:
Here's an example of a multi-page application... might be close to what you need.
The solution I went with that suited what I was looking for was using WPF Pages but thanks for your answers.
There are many ways to do that, such as creating UserControl and show them in the run time.But using TabControl is fast and safe.
Just Use TabControl and place your pages in tab items .Then hide the header of TabControl by setting the value Visibility="Collapsed" to each TabItem.
The result is as below:
As you see the headers are hide and you can switch to each page you want.
Create
usercontrol(wpf): UserManagement
usercontrol2(wpf) : ManageContent
place control "ContentControl" in the main window
Run the code on click of button:
//Displays usercontrol1
contentControl.content = new UserManagement();
//Displays usercontrol2
contentControl.content = new ManageContent();
Hope this helps you.
I'd like to give you an example of something I have in one of my applications.
The app has two windows: the main window and another one (also derived from Window and equipped with the appropriate buttons and event handlers) that is used as a start dialog. The start dialog is called in the constructor of the main window like this:
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
startdlg m_dlg;
// ...
public MainWindow()
{
m_dlg = new startdlg();
if ((bool)m_dlg.ShowDialog())
{
// ...
}
else
{
Close();
}
// ...
Is there any framework or tutorial on how to create a wizard in C#. I need to provide the user a way to do a sequence of selections/user inputs. I thought Wizards would be an ideal way. I need Next/Back buttons on each page. I haven't created wizards yet. Any inputs would be very helpful.
I'm working on a brief article for CodeProject on a "poor man's wizard" that uses the standard WinForms TabControl as its "foundation" : but that won't be ready for a few weeks.
But think about the advantages using the standard WinForms TabControl gives you :
"less code" == "cheap" : it will handle all the "business" suggested by Manzoor Ahmed's comment above (swapping in and out a bunch of panels), with much less code.
"no painting" == "less work" : it can be used without any special ownerdraw or painting code (the Simmons article on CodeProject cited by Jay Riggs above has some optional custom painting for gradients, but I have not examined that code in depth to see if it can be used without any custom drawing/painting). Note, of course, that Manzoor's suggestion would also not demand custom drawing/painting.
flexibility in UI : you can show the Tabs, or hide them.
Here's two ideas on how to start using the TabControl as a "wizard" :
I : how to hide the Tabs themselves if you don't want them visible (assuming a TabControl named tabControl1 on a Form named Form1) :
a. if you want to restore visibility of the Tabs : create a Form scoped variable of type Region, and in the Form Load event put the current Region of the TabControl into that variable :
Region tabOriginalRegion;
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tabOriginalRegion = tabControl1.Region;
}
b. add this to the Form Load event to hide the Tabs
// hide the tabs
tabControl1.Region = new Region(tabControl1.DisplayRectangle);
II : once the tabs are hidden : then, obviously you'll put your own buttons on each tab page to control forward and back movement. if the tabs are visible, then you'll want to handle the TabControl's 'Selecting event : inside that Event handler you can use e.TabPage to get the "destination" Tab, and you can cancel navigation to that "destination" tab by setting e.Cancel = true.
Hope this is useful.
I've found the DevExpress XtraWizard control to be quite nice to work with
I've used this one from CodeProject:
Wizard Form Implementation
Search CodeProject for other wizards.
Try this
C# Winforms Wizard — CodeGuru.com
Alternatively, you can use panels too. Every time you move forward or backward, just change the panels.