Plotting Pins on Map in WinRT - c#

In my metro app using XAML and C# I need to plot some Pins on the Map control. I found several samples which all of them having plot the pins in the code behind file(add pin as children to the map control). Is it possible in another way? (similar to Windows Phone)

You can create a custom control that derives from ItemsControl. It will monitor changes to a backing ObservableCollection in your ViewModel. Then, you can just add/subtract pins from that.
Note: This is not necessarily a simple task. There is a reason there are companies creating complex controls for profit, and this is certainly a more complex one. It's not nearly impossible, but it will take some work to accomplish, much less successfully.
To get you started, it will most likely need:
Some kind of backing Map image
The ability to convert coordinates in the Pin to (x,y) pixel coordinates on the map image
You'll most likely need to override:
MeasureOverride : Find out how much space the map needs
ArrangeOverride : Find out where all of the current children go
OnDisconnectVisualChildren : What to do when you remove a pin
PrepareContainerForItemOverride : Creating an item container for items added/removed
You can then go on to add things like childtransitions (so they 'pop in').
Then, all you need to do is set up your VM, load your pins, and you're off to the races.
Good coding!

Related

Moving a MapLayer child element programatically

I have an application with a Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.WPF map, and a few layers added with mapView.Children.Add(layer).
Each of those layers has different types of overlays on it, which are images added with layer.Children.AddChild(image, locationRect).
I want to be able to move, resize and rotate those objects from code (not from xaml which knows nothing about them), but I don't seem to be able to do the first two (rotation being quite simple).
After trial and error and finding some non Microsoft documentation I see that MapLayer.GetPositionRectangle(UIElement) returns the correct location of the object, so it would seem logical that MapLayer.SetPositionRectangle() should set it, but it doesn't and I can't find any examples of anything on the web that programatically moves an object to a new Lat/long.
Is there a way of moving a geographical object on the map, or do I have to either remove it and add it in the right place, or just move it on the canvas in X/Y coords that I have worked out from the lat/long, both of which seem wrong somehow, but this is my first WPF application (normally use forms) and maybe this is the way it is done?
The Windows-universal-samples that exist on Microsoft github page can help you. There is an example of MapControl where you can get some ideas.
This sample demonstrates how to use the universal map control (MapControl) in a UWP app.
MapControl Basics: adjusting the ZoomLevel, Heading, DesiredPtich, and map stype
Adding points of interest on the map: PushPins, images, and shapes
Adding XAML overlays on the map
Showing 3D locations in MapControl
Showing Streetside experience within MapControl
Launching Maps using URI Schemes
Url: https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-universal-samples/tree/master/Samples/MapControl
After this example, if there is more question, post here to solve it.
I think, the best way is getting an model for this XAML, where you can update this properties.
What you can do is apply standard transitions to your image through code. you can use the MapLayer.SetPosition to link it to a location on the map. You may want to use an position origin/offset or a margin to align a specific point of the image with the location.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.maps.mapcontrol.wpf.maplayer.setposition.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.maps.mapcontrol.wpf.maplayer.setpositionorigin.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.maps.mapcontrol.wpf.positionorigin.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.maps.mapcontrol.wpf.maplayer.setpositionoffset.aspx

How to render dynamic data in a custom WPF control, such as a line graph?

I'm working on a LineGraph control which consists many DependencyProperties that affect how the control should display its data. For example, the control contains the following properties to affect its axes:
AxisStroke - Color of the axes.
AxisThickness - Stroke thickness of the axes.
It also contains properties for display numbers & tick marks
VerticalTicks - True/False to indicate whether or not ticks appear along the vertical axis
HorizontalTicks - True/False to indicate whether or not ticks appear along the horizontal axis
VerticalMin - Minimum value on the vertical axis (numeric)
VerticalStep - The distance in between each vertical tick
VerticalMax - Maximum value on the vertical axis (numeric)
HorizontalMin - Minimum value on the horizontal axis (numeric)
HorizontalStep - The distance in between each horizontal tick
HorizontalMax - Maximum value on the horizontal axis (numeric)
And many more properties exist to allow for different line styles on a single graph (LineColor, LineThickness, DataPointShape, and DataPointIcon to name a few).
My goal is to be able to call out my LineGraph in XAML to insert it into a Window. I would like to be able to specify each of these settings inside the XAML as well, and see the new rendered image of the control in the WPF designer.
Now, given there is a lot of geometric shapes to render on the LineGraph, I though using a Canvas would be a good choice to render the data. Unfortunately, when I'm working in XAML, I cannot perform computations for the locations of shapes based on the control's width & height.
And yes, the shapes' locations must be computed because the data points for the graph are dynamic and the tick-related information is dynamic. Not to mention, I would like to display the actual values along each axis of the LineGraph.
So, I thought I might be able to display this control as if I was doing the rendering in C# code. Other windowing frameworks sometimes provide a Render method that can be used for laying out all of the sub-components.
Doing this, however, doesn't seem possible since WPF relies heavily on XAML for the visual appearance of controls. Also, requiring that the WPF designer must display the LineGraph based on the properties and data specified, it doesn't seem like C# code would solve the problem.
I suppose my questions are these:
How can I render data dynamically inside of a WPF control?
Am I able to specify in C# how my control is rendered, allowing the WPF designer to reflect it?
Side Note:
I've done quite a bit of research, but I am only finding information on how to implement more simple types of controls. If you know of any references that contain information on this topic, please feel free to post them in addition to your answers. I will be more than happy to learn how to do this completely.
EDIT:
I've created a graph using Excel to elaborate what the LineGraph control might look like if it has correct data and properties.
I will answer this based on my experience on implementing custom built graphing libraries in WIN32, WinForm, WPF, WinCE, WP8+WinRT, ....and even on a FPGA :)
It's extremely difficult to implement one from scratch. It may seem easy at first but you will run into a lot of "What should I do if this happens?". For example, in your above graph it seems you got a DataPoint # (5,100) it graphs it pretty well. But lets say, I add another DataPoint # (5.000000005, 0). How would you handle that in your code? Would you say that each pixel on the graph represents an exact value on the X-Axis, or does each pixel represent a range of X-Values?
I would recommend that you use an already establish library to do what you want to do unless you need something very specific like lets say you need horizontal cursors on the graph (think Tektronix Oscilloscope) and you need to calculate some values in between the two cursors.. then maybe you need to implement your own custom one or build on top of an open source one.
So, if you are still adamant of creating your own custom control here are answers to your questions.
How can I render data dynamically inside of a WPF control?
You can use a WriteableBitmap and create your own primitive drawing library from that. After you're done rendering, set it as the ImageSource of your control.
Or you can use WriteableBitmapEx which has GDI like drawing functions already implemented for you.
WriteableBitmapEx CodePlex Page, I also think you can just get it from NuGet as well.
You can also use a <Canvas> and add UI elements to that as well.
Am I able to specify in C# how my control is rendered, allowing the WPF designer to reflect it?
This depends on how you create your controls, but yes you can create Properties in your custom control that will appear in the Designer. Allowing you to change it thus updating the display. I would read a lot of tutorials about writing your own custom user control library. They can explain it better than I can in a SO answer. If you implement the properties correctly it should like so.....
Full Size Image: http://i.stack.imgur.com/pmevo.png
After changing the Number of Rows from 15 to 10 and the starting Y offset to -1 (thus moving the graph up and making the rows a lot taller)
Full Size Image: http://i.stack.imgur.com/0RKnA.png

More than 2 millions rectangles in a WPF canvas

I am creating a custom control for semiconductor wafermap
Each of those small rectangle need to satisfy following requirements;
1) Tooltip to show the index
2) clickable to include or exclude from the wafermap definition.
no of dies in the wafermap may cross 2 millions in the case of 1400 x 1450 dies.
at certain point i need to show all the dies in a window (most of the clicking will happen in zoomed view).
Currently I am adding each die separately using Rectangle shape and store the coordinate information (index like (10,10)) for the tooltip as an attached property.
I use different style to each die; depending on certain calculation and position of the die.
DieStyle1 = new Style { TargetType = typeof(Rectangle) };
DieStyle1.Setters.Add(new Setter(Shape.FillProperty, Brushes.MediumSlateBlue));
DieStyle1.Setters.Add(new Setter(Shape.StrokeProperty, Brushes.White));
DieStyle1.Setters.Add(new EventSetter(MouseDownEvent, new MouseButtonEventHandler(DieStyle1_MouseDown)));
this approach is slow and use high memory too. so suggest a better way to achieve this in WPF?
In creating a designer for christmas tree lights, I ran into the same problem. Using UIElement or Shapes is way too slow when you get to 100+ items. The best approach to handle a very large number of items entails using double-buffering with your own managed buffer of the image and a structure to handle the clicks. I have posted my project which should give you a good start. It can be obtained at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xlightsdesigner/
You are interested in the Controls\ChannelitemsCanvas.cs. It can be modified to suit your needs and uses a quad-tree to store the rectangles so that click events can be quickly determined.

High performance plot control in WPF

I am doing some work for which I need to develop a control, it should be a simple graph that shows several points and two edges.
My problem is that I need to show up to 16k points, with an update rate of 30 Hz. Has anyone done something similar?, and has any advice?.
For example whether to inherit from FrameworkElement or Control (ItemsControl in this case). If the control inherits from FrameworkElememt it may have a better performance drawing the points in the OnRender method but I would miss the Templating feature that comes from inheriting from Control.
Or does there exist another control that can do this out there?
Thanks in advance for your time.
I ended up using InteropBitmap, it is the fatest bitmap rendering class from WPF.
It allows you to map the image that you want to paint (in memory) and then reder it as a Image. This was perfect as i needed to plot points on the screen.
I got great performance (almost 50Hz for 20k points), i also use PLINQ to update the points in memory.
check this article for more details...
Try and read about ZoomableCanvas. I believe it can solve your problem. You can render all the points as small rectangles/ellipses inside the ZoomableCanvas.

WPF - Dynamically rearrange control hierarchy

How is it possible to dynamically fill a container? Let's say to fill a big circle with small circles, recursively. Just fill the space fine.
I would like to use it for data hierarchy display.
To make it clear:
If you want something off the shelf, have a look at Graph#
http://graphsharp.codeplex.com/
videos here:
Simple usage scenario
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTbuvkaPGxE
Data Visualization with Graph#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agDPDzqB4o0&feature=related
It does dynamic graph layout and is fairly easy to use. There are a choice of layout algorithms [see sample app] each of which are configurable.
however filling until an area is "full" is not something that'll work out of the box. Although you could for example create a graph, lay it out & then measure the ratio between the size of a vertex and the size of the whole graph, then add or remove vertexes until you hit upon your desired density. I would hazard you could pretty quickly by trial and error come up with a quick and dirty forumula between the size of canvas to fill & the number of vertexes you should add.
Note that you can customise the vertex templates pretty easily to be any kind of data [this is standard wpf but Graph# specific examples can be found on http://graphsharp.codeplex.com/discussions ]
if you wanted to code your own layout you might like to have a look at some of the techniques Graph# use... for example a dynamic zoom component the source for which is available here: http://wpfextensions.codeplex.com/
hope that helps a little

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