Have some free time and wanted to try making a game in WPF.
I was wondering, what is the best way of changing the view of a window?
I have made a "main menu" window, with three buttons.. New Game, Continue Game and Exit Game.
When pressing New Game I want the window to go to next "viewstate" for creation of player and such, dont want a new window to pop up. Whats the best way of implementing that.
It is appropriate to use DataTemplates if you want to dynamically switch Views depending on the ViewModel:
<Window>
<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ViewModelA}">
<localControls:ViewAUserControl/>
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ViewModelB}">
<localControls:ViewBUserControl/>
</DataTemplate>
<Window.Resources>
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding CurrentView}"/>
</Window>
If Window.DataContext is an instance of ViewModelA, then ViewA will be displayed and
Window.DataContext is an instance of ViewModelB, then ViewB will be displayed.
The best example I've ever seen and read it is made by Rachel Lim. See the example.
You could implement every gui you need as an UserControl and load the needed UserControl depending on your current step.
Related
I am using roslynpad project for educational purposes.
It is based on avalon dock library which implements MVVM pattern which is new to me.
There are editors window's which can be docked. I want to add new window that could be docked also but it should be my custom window.
I see that dock manager binds to collection of OpenDocumentViewModel objects. OpenDocumentViewModel represents the model of the view as is understand.
Than there is a DocumentView class which describes a layout of the window.
Now there is a line in main window xaml file:
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ui:OpenDocumentViewModel}">
<roslynPad:DocumentView />
</DataTemplate>
This line is responsible for connecting view model and document view, in other words says that for that DocumentView design should be attached to windows in OpenDocumentViewModel collection.
I want to insert my window with my own design. So for particular window i would like to write
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ui:OpenDocumentViewModel}">
<MyCustomView />
</DataTemplate>
But i don't know how to do that or maybe it is impossible?
Okay, to start, I'm pretty inexperienced with WPF and XAML, so any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have a scheduling program that I'm working on that I need some help setting up. I had things working previously, but it wasn't organized correctly. I had UI elements in my ViewModels that I would add to a StackPanel at the initialization of the MainWindow. Generally not MVVM style coding. So I made some views (UserControls) to display the things I have, and most everything broke.
Basically, I have a Schedule ViewModel that has some parameters and a list of a different Room ViewModels. Each Room ViewModel has a RoomSchedule ViewModel that contains a list of RoomEvent ViewModels.
I'm trying to write controls for the things that need displaying. I've created a Schedule view, which has a list box of Room views, and the Room view uses the RoomEvent view to display the events of the room. The Room view uses the WPF Extended Toolkit's TimelinePanel, the rest of the controls are pretty much basic controls. The general idea has been: a model provides data to the ViewModel, which massages that data to what needs to be displayed. So an Event should know how to display itself, a Room should know how to display itself, and the Schedule should know how to display itself.
The problem I'm running into is: now that I've scooted everything from the xaml.cs or ViewModel files to their appropriate places, the controls aren't rendering at all. I've been reading other SO postings where people have the same problem, but none of them seem to work for beginner stuff like this. I think I'm close, it seems like all the controls are being created, and the DataContext's are being set correctly, but nothing is showing up.
This is, basically, what I have so far. I left some of the xaml boilerplate stuff off for succinctness:
Schedule.xaml:
<StackPanel>
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Rooms}" >
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<localcontrols:RoomView ScheduleStart="{Binding ElementName=ScheduleControl, Path=DataContext.Start}"
</DataTemplate>
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
</StackPanel>
RoomView.xaml:
<extended:TimelinePanel BeginDate="{Binding localcontrols:ScheduleStart}" EndDate="{Binding localcontrols:ScheduleEnd}"
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=mRoomSchedule.mScheduledEvents}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<localcontrols:EventView />
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControls.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</extended:TimelinePanel>
EventView.xaml:
<Border BorderThickness="1" BorderBrush="Black" extended:TimelinePanel.Date="{Binding mStartTime}" extended:TimelinePanel.DateEnd="{Binding mEndTime}">
<TextBlock Background="{Binding mColor}" Text="{Binding mEventID}" />
</Border>
The ScheduleStart and ScheduleEnd are dependency properties defined in RoomView.xaml.cs. My thinking was that Schedule would have Start and End properties that would be set in its constructor, and the RoomViews in the ListBox would bind to those properties to set the TimelinePanel's BeginDate and EndDate.
Maybe your bindings are wrong. When I need to bind to a dependency property I use the ElementName feature of binding to say which control I want and I give the root node a name, in this case Root. It's one way to solve it.
<UserControl
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Weingartner.Controls"
x:Class="RoomView"
x:Name="Root">
<extended:TimelinePanel
BeginDate="{Binding ElementName=Root, Path=ScheduleStart}"
EndDate="{Binding ElementName=Root, Path=ScheduleEnd}"
>
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Path=mRoomSchedule.mScheduledEvents}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<localcontrols:EventView />
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControls.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</extended:TimelinePanel>
</UserControl>
I am currently writing a desktop application, but I cannot seem to get my head around what to use when redirecting someone to a new section of the application.
My options appear to be
Window
Page
UserControl
but I don't understand what the difference between them is, and when I should use each one.
Could someone explain the differences for me, and give an example of what situations/applications you may use each one for?
A Window object is just what it sounds like: its a new Window for your application. You should use it when you want to pop up an entirely new window. I don't often use more than one Window in WPF because I prefer to put dynamic content in my main Window that changes based on user action.
A Page is a page inside your Window. It is mostly used for web-based systems like an XBAP, where you have a single browser window and different pages can be hosted in that window. It can also be used in Navigation Applications like sellmeadog said.
A UserControl is a reusable user-created control that you can add to your UI the same way you would add any other control. Usually I create a UserControl when I want to build in some custom functionality (for example, a CalendarControl), or when I have a large amount of related XAML code, such as a View when using the MVVM design pattern.
When navigating between windows, you could simply create a new Window object and show it
var NewWindow = new MyWindow();
newWindow.Show();
but like I said at the beginning of this answer, I prefer not to manage multiple windows if possible.
My preferred method of navigation is to create some dynamic content area using a ContentControl, and populate that with a UserControl containing whatever the current view is.
<Window x:Class="MyNamespace.MainWindow" ...>
<DockPanel>
<ContentControl x:Name="ContentArea" />
</DockPanel>
</Window>
and in your navigate event you can simply set it using
ContentArea.Content = new MyUserControl();
But if you're working with WPF, I'd highly recommend the MVVM design pattern. I have a very basic example on my blog that illustrates how you'd navigate using MVVM, using this pattern:
<Window x:Class="SimpleMVVMExample.ApplicationView"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:SimpleMVVMExample"
Title="Simple MVVM Example" Height="350" Width="525">
<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:HomeViewModel}">
<local:HomeView /> <!-- This is a UserControl -->
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:ProductsViewModel}">
<local:ProductsView /> <!-- This is a UserControl -->
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<DockPanel>
<!-- Navigation Buttons -->
<Border DockPanel.Dock="Left" BorderBrush="Black"
BorderThickness="0,0,1,0">
<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding PageViewModels}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Button Content="{Binding Name}"
Command="{Binding DataContext.ChangePageCommand,
RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Window}}}"
CommandParameter="{Binding }"
Margin="2,5"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</Border>
<!-- Content Area -->
<ContentControl Content="{Binding CurrentPageViewModel}" />
</DockPanel>
</Window>
Window is like Windows.Forms.Form, so just a new window
Page is, according to online documentation:
Encapsulates a page of content that can be navigated to
and hosted by Windows Internet Explorer, NavigationWindow, and Frame.
So you basically use this if going you visualize some HTML content
UserControl is for cases when you want to create some reusable component (but not standalone one) to use it in multiple different Windows
All depends on the app you're trying to build. Use Windows if you're building a dialog based app. Use Pages if you're building a navigation based app. UserControls will be useful regardless of the direction you go as you can use them in both Windows and Pages.
A good place to start exploring is here: http://windowsclient.net/learn
We usually use One Main Window for the application and other windows can be used in situations like when you need popups because instead of using popup controls in XAML which are not visible we can use a Window that is visible at design time so that'll be easy to work with
on the other hand we use many pages to navigate from one screen to another like User management screen to Order Screen etc In the main Window we can use Frame control for navigation like below
XAML
<Frame Name="mainWinFrame" NavigationUIVisibility="Hidden" ButtonBase.Click="mainWinFrame_Click">
</Frame>
C#
private void mainWinFrame_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
try
{
if (e.OriginalSource is Button)
{
Button btn = (Button)e.OriginalSource;
if ((btn.CommandParameter != null) && (btn.CommandParameter.Equals("Order")))
{
mainWinFrame.Navigate(OrderPage);
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Error");
}
}
That's one way of doing it We can also use a Tab Control instead of Fram and Add pages to it using a Dictionary while adding new page check if the control already exists then only navigate otherwise add and navigate. I hope that'll help someone
Most of all has posted correct answer. I would like to add few links, so that you can refer to them and have clear and better ideas about the same:
UserControl:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-IN/library/a6h7e207(v=vs.71).aspx
The difference between page and window with respect to WPF:
Page vs Window in WPF?
Why This?
MainWindow.xaml:
<Window x:Class="MVVMProject.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Grid>
<ContentControl Content="{Binding}"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
Have your ExampleView.xaml set up as:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:vms="clr-namespace:MVVMProject.ViewModels">
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vms:ExampleVM}" >
<Grid>
<ActualContent/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
And create the window like this:
public partial class App : Application {
protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e) {
base.OnStartup(e);
MainWindow app = new MainWindow();
ExampleVM context = new ExampleVM();
app.DataContext = context;
app.Show();
}
}
When it can be done like this?
App.xaml: (Set startup window/View)
<Application x:Class="MVVMProject.App"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
StartupUri="ExampleView.xaml">
</Application>
ExampleView.xaml: (a Window not a ResourceDictionary)
<Window x:Class="MVVMProject.ExampleView"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:vms="clr-namespace:MVVMProject.ViewModels">
>
<Window.DataContext>
<vms:ExampleVM />
</Window.DataContext>
<Grid>
<ActualContent/>
</Grid>
</Window>
Essentially it's "View as DataTemplate" (VaD) vs. "View as Window" (VaW)
Here is my understanding of the comparison:
VaD: Lets you switch Views without closing the window. (This is not desirable for my project)
VaD: VM knows absolutely nothing about the View, whereas in VaW it (only) has to be able to instantiate it when opening another window
VaW: I can actually see my xaml rendered in the Designer (I can't
with VaD, at least in my current setup)
VaW: Works intuitively with
opening and closing windows; each window has (is) a corresponding View
(and ViewModel)
VaD: ViewModel can pass along initial window width, height, resizability etc. through properties (whereas in VaW they are directly set in the Window)
VaW: Can set FocusManager.FocusedElement (not sure how in VaD)
VaW: Less files, since my window types (e.g. Ribbon, Dialog) are incorporated into their Views
So what's going on here? Can't I just build my windows in XAML, access their data cleanly through properties of the VM, and be done with it? The code-behind is the same (virtually nil).
I'm struggling to understand why I should shuffle all the View stuff into a ResourceDictionary.
People use DataTemplates that way when they want to dynamically switch Views depending on the ViewModel:
<Window>
<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:VM1}">
<!-- View 1 Here -->
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:VM2}">
<!-- View 2 here -->
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding}"/>
</Window>
So,
if Window.DataContext is an instance of VM1, then View1 will be displayed,
and if
Window.DataContext is an instance of VM2, then View2 will be displayed.
Granted, it makes no sense at all if only 1 View is expected, and never changed.
Since in VaD the view models know nothing about the views, you can build a fully functioning application entirely made up of view models only and no views. This leads to the possibility of writing an application that can be driven entirely by code. This in turn leads to the possibility of performing integration testing without the GUI. Integration testing through the GUI is notoriously fragile - while testing through view models should be more robust.
From my personal experience:
Both work models are aviables, depending of what you want, and depending of the application requirements. The idea behind VaD is decopling the content, and the container. If you implement VaD you can use this template (by default) when ever you show any item of this type. You can use it in ItemsControls (lists, listviews, grids, etc) and in ContentControls only making bindings. Like you said, VaD works for switching the window's content with out closing and opening a new. Also you can define the view using UserControls, then you take control if focused elements, and also you can manage code behind. So, your data template may be like this:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:vms="clr-namespace:MVVMProject.ViewModels">
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vms:ExampleVM}" >
<CustomUserControl A="{Binding A}" B="{Binding B}" DataContext="{Binding}" .../>
</DataTemplate>
You also in an UserControl may set dependency properties, thats make easier the job, because allow bindings and decoupling the app.
But of course, if you app doesn't require dynamically content switching, it is fine to use VaW for the main window, or any other window. In fact, you can use both VaW and VaD. This last one can be used for inner items in the app, that doesn't require windows. You shoose what is better for you, depending of application requirements, and the time aviable for developing the app.
Hope this personal experience helps...
I'm new in WPF and C#. I know a lot of VB.NET and I'm used to the way when I call a form object like textboxes, etc. I'm calling it from another form. Now, I'm using WPF, I'm confused. Because I have a Main Window. And I want to add and item to a listbox in the Main Window from a Class. In VB.Net , its just like this.
IN FORM2
Form1.Textbox.Text = "";
Wherein I can't do it in WPF. Can someone please Help me. Thanks!
WPF windows defined in XAML have their controls publicly accessible from other classes and forms, unless you specifically mark them with the x:FieldModifier attribute as private.
Therefore, if you make an instance of your main window accessible in another class, be it a Window or anything else, you'll be able to populate controls from within this second class.
A particular scenario is when you want to update the contents of a control in your main window from a child window that you have opened on top of it. Is such a case, you may set the child window's Owner property to the current, main window, in order to access it while the child is visible. For instance, let's say you have defined these two windows:
// MainWindow
<Window x:Class="TestApplication.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<ListBox Name="mainListBox" Height="250" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
<Button Content="Open Another Window" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Margin="20" Click="OpenAnotherWindow_Click"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
and
// AnotherWindow
<Window x:Class="TestApplication.AnotherWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="AnotherWindow" Height="300" Width="300">
<Grid>
<Button Content="Add New Item to Main Window" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Click="AddNewItem_Click"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
each in its own XAML file.
In MainWindow's code behind, inside the button click handler, you show an instance of AnotherWindow as a dialog and set its Owner property to MainWindow's instance:
private void OpenAnotherWindow_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
AnotherWindow anotherWindow = new AnotherWindow();
anotherWindow.Owner = this;
anotherWindow.ShowDialog();
}
Now, you can access the MainWindow's instance from AnotherWindow's Owner property, in order to add a new item to the ListBox control defined on it, in the button click handler in AnotherWindow's code behind:
private void AddNewItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
MainWindow mainWindow = Owner as MainWindow;
mainWindow.mainListBox.Items.Add(new Random().Next(1000).ToString());
}
It simply adds a new random number to the ListBox, in order to show how the code accesses and modifies the control's data in MainWindow.
Pure WPF solution, but also may be easiest in your case, is using a Data Binding in WPF.
Every form's control is binded to some data on ModelView (pure MVVM approach) or to data (more or less like yuo can do it in WindowsForms). So the "only" thing you have to do is to read/write data binded to controls on UI of that form.
For example, you have TextBox on Windows and want to read a data from it.
This TextBox is binded to some string property of the class that is responsible for holding the data for the controls on that form (just an example, in real world could be 1000 other solutions, based on developer decisions). So what you need, is not to say: "window give textbox" and after read TextBox's content, but simply read binded string property.
Sure it's very simply description of a stuff. But just to give you a hint. Follow databinding link provided above to learn more about this stuff. Do not afraid of a lot of stuff there, it's after all is not a complicated idea and also pretty intuitive. To make that stuff to work in simply case you will not need to make huge efforts by me. The stuff becomes really complex when you end up into real world applications.
This will get all active windows:
foreach (Window item in Application.Current.Windows)
{
}