I would like you to give me some good resources regarding Windows development of applications that integrates with OS like Application managers, Docks, Task-bar\System tray etc.
Resources like how to interact with particular subsystems are welcome.
Thank you
What you are looking for is information on writing shell extensions. Generally it is not recommended that you write shell extensions in .NET though the landscape might be much better now with Framework 4.0 supporting side by side loading of the framework.
Searching with Bing/Google for shell extension c# will yield a number of results that might be relevant.
As for the docking part of your question, the most reliable way would be to register your application as an Application Desktop Toolbar (AppBar), here is a Code Project article on doing this with C#, it should be a fair starting point. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/AppBar.aspx
It appears much of what you would like to know about involves using the Windows API. Its documentation might give you a start: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383749(v=vs.85).aspx
Related
I'm looking for a library that can be used in native .NET code, just like any .NET assembly. The purpose of the library must be to automate Windows (push a button, select a window, send keys, record & playback, that sort of thing).
So: the library is supposed to be used natively in .NET, but the automation itself must be able to target any native or .NET Windows application that can receive user input.
Suggestions so far:
benPearce suggested AutoIt. It has a DLL, which is native Win32 but not native .NET and cannot be used without use of .NET Interop.
Chris Dunaway suggested Global Mouse Keyboard Lib. This came closest, but is not an automation lib. It just helps setting up keyboard and mouse hooks.
pm100 suggested Microsoft's WPF UI Automation. This one is pretty good, albeit that it's not available if you develop in .NET 2.0 and it requires the WPF to be installed on the system. It can, however, automate everything from Win32 apps to HTML in a browser.
JasonTrue suggested WebAI from ArtOfTest. This is a testing framework mainly geared towards browsers and web applications. It is unfortunately not well suitable for use for Windows automation.
If nothing else appears available, I'll probably choose Microsoft's UI Automation and upgrade any projects that require it that are still in .NET 2.0 to .NET 3.5, if possible. But I hope for a more widely applicable automation framework (.NET prior to 2.0 does not need to be supported).
Have you looked at the White framework?
I have used AutoIt in the past with success.
microsoft's own built in one is fine
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms747327.aspx
not restricted to wpf as some seem to think.
If you haven't seen it yet, and a commercial library is acceptable, you might check out Ranorex:
http://www.ranorex.com/
I used Ranorex 1.5 quite a bit to write small C# UI automation utilities. It was pretty effective! Development seemed faster compared to using the MS UI Automation API directly, since Ranorex has a lot of useful convenience methods already available.
I haven't used Ranorex 2 very much yet, though.
In Ranorex 1.5, there was also support for traditional Win32 development in C++, but I didn't use it. As far as I know, that's still available in Ranorex 2.
I can't speak to the quality of the record/playback support in Ranorex since I never used that feature.
One final plus: Their support team was really responsive and helpful anytime I emailed them.
This library is pretty interesting and is fairly simple. Perhaps it will help you.
Check out Tools for automated GUI testing on windows
I would still suggest FlaUI for autoamating .Net Desktop,Mobile apps. Its based on Microsoft UIA libraries and have support for external controls like the DevExpress Grid too
Moreover, it is built on top of TestStack.White so indeed a very good library and has a github page also
I have used WebAii from ArtOfTest with a fair degree of success in automating integration testing for a Silverlight app. It also supports WinForms and Web applications.
Microsoft UI Automation, the successor to Active Accessibility, can do almost all of the Windows UI automation you would need.
How about CSharpScript, here's an article about it on Codeproject, and here's the link to the main website. Furthermore, it is familiar C#, scripted which can be used to automate anything.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Tom.
My company uses a flavour of GIT for moving source code from your local system to the repository at the desired location (which later deploys and stuff , its a server basically) and the support for that tool is BAD. It uses the commandline and its very tedious to use it . I want to build somthing similar to tortoiseSVN / tortoiseGIT for this purpose and i am looking for a starting point.
How would i get the overlay icons in the folder ?
How would i be able to do windows explorer integration in the "right" way ?
I'm going to use .Net C# to build this tool.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Cheers.
You can write a Shell Extension! There is a lot to learn, though. Part IX of the complete idiot's guide to shell extensions series explains how to deal with icons.
In general writing IE and Shell extensions in C# isn't supported. Of course, newer versions of the runtime do allow you more flexibility in the area of SxS support. But you're on your own in terms of writing the COM interop and you need to think very carefully about how this will effect other apps that do things like use the file-open dialog.
I will be developing an interactive application, involving multitouch, several layers of large bitmaps, and video playback. The screen resolution will be fairly large (1920x1280).
For several years, I have developed interactives in Flash, iOS, and OS X Cocoa. However, this project must run on a Windows box, so iOS & Cocoa are impossible. Also, I'm concerned about performance in Flash, since there may be 3 videos playing simultaneously, and large bitmaps moving around.
I know little about the technologies available on Windows. I'm investigating Silverlight, C#, Unity, Processing, and Java. If anyone can offer advice, it will be greatly appreciated.
You seem to be investigating several technologies on different levels:
C# and Java are programming languages. What you prefer may depend on your existing skills, but C# is from Microsoft so chances are that you will experience less friction using this language if you develop for Windows. Picking the right programming language is an important decision.
Silverlight is a "technology stack" from Microsoft. It enables you to develop XAML based applications that run in the browser. Compared to the native WPF stack it is less powerful. Choosing Silverlight, WPF or another technology stack like Processing.js is an important decision.
Unity is a dependency injection container from Microsoft. You can use this or any other suitable container if you like. Or none at all. You don't really have to think about this until you have made some of the more important decisions about your project.
Personally, I don't have experience with the type of application you describe, but I would go with C# and WPF. WPF has some support for multitouch on Windows, and only if it isn't adequate for your requirements you need to to go native and develop in say C++ which tends to require more work.
Multitouch in Windows 8 has been redesigned but unless you want to develop for a yet to be release operating system this is not an option.
Use Visual C++ if you like to create a LAN based Application, C++ is known for it's power and you could have many resources that could help you in developing this application. If you're going to create this application for web Use ASP.net(C#) C# is known for its flexibility and class libraries dedicated for web and client appilcation i also advice the use of WPF and Silverlight applications.
I suggest you have a look at Windows 8 and Metro Apps. Here is a link to start with this: The Microsoft BUILD conference, Windows 8, and the new UX Challenge. C# (.NET languages in fact), HTML5 and XAML are clearly the direction. Native C++ is back in town with WinRT. Silverlight is now in the gray area :-)
Even if you don't use Windows 8, it will give you a good overview of multitouch future in the Windows space.
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I'm a C++/Java developer and have no idea about .Net or GUIs. I need to develop a windows app for 2000/XP/Vista/7.
I think I've come to conclusion that C# is the best and the fastest way to go (please correct me if I'm wrong). What do you recommend? Which GUI approach should I learn? (Forms? Any other stuff?)
Is it the best way to compile in .Net 2.0 mode? It's going to be an application for the public to download.
For desktop applications there are basically two options; WinForms and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
WinForms is more traditionally built and hence easier to learn. WinForms might therefore be a simpler start, but if you plan on actually using your gained knowledge in GUI development for .NET I'd say you're better of diving into WPF from the start. It's a much richer framework, and where Microsoft is putting their effort for desktop applications. It is also similar to Silverlight, meaning you can easily get into Silverlight too when you know WPF.
This other question gives some useful resources when getting started with WPF.
Also check out this tutorial at MSDN.
WpfTutorial obviously has a few nice hints for you too!
Good luck!
In my personal development experience Windows Forms is just about as easy as it gets when it comes to rapidly deploying a GUI application on Windows. WPF is of course another option, but using it would likely require you spend some time familiarizing yourself with XAML. Windows Forms look and feel like a lot of the available GUI options for Java, it's just much better than the majority of them, in my opinion.
If you want the fastest possible GUI development time in .NET, Windows Forms is it.
Yes. C# is the language of choice when it comes to .NET development. Since you've programmed in Java, you'll find that the language looks very familiar (it looks a bit cleaner though and has some very nice features like delegates and you can even use pointers if you really want to, although you won't need to in most circumstances).
It's SWF (System Windows Forms) or MWF (Managed Windows Forms - a lightweight version of SWF written in managed Code using System.Drawing - it frees you from the WinAPI that's underlying classical SWF) all the way.
There's also GTK-Sharp, a GTK+ binding for C-Sharp, but since you're developing for Windows, users will find it strange to install a third-party GUI framework for your application.
I wouldn't recommend using WPF though. It makes direct calls to the underlying graphics hardware, which means it's quite fast, but not portable at all. It will only run on x86 systems (not SPARC, etc.) with DirectX compliant hardware rendering units (graphics cards) and it will not run on a system with strong hardware abstraction (like most Unices like BSD or Linux or Solaris).
Novell also stated that they will never implement WPF in the near future due to it's strong hardware dependencies (Novell wants Mono to be portable across many processor platforms). Don't use WPF. Software is no longer just a throw-away-product and when it comes to operating systems we're in the age of spin. The platform you're running today isn't necessarily the platform you're gonna run tomorrow. WPF is a proprietary and patent-encumbered technology developed by Microsoft and Intel. If you use it, you'll find yourself in a very nice Win32-on-x86 vendor lock in. And this means that you'll most definitely find yourself completely re-writing your application sooner or later. Just write portable software from the beginning, even if you don't need that portability today. I'm telling you from experience, you will need portability tomorrow. Definitely!
You could use Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation to develop your GUI; although, Windows Forms might feel more familiar to you. If you search on Google for Windows Forms tutorial, you will get many options for getting started.
If you need to use .NET 2.0, you will be limited to Win Forms. WPF requires .NET 3.5.
I would suggest downloading Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express Edition to use for developemnt. it includes an excellent drag-and-drop GUI design tool.
I would recommend learning Winforms first, then move the WPF. Winforms is easier to learn and get something working quickly. The future however is WPF, so I wouldnt leave that in the dark. I posted some good books and links for GUI development work.
Books
Design of Everyday Things A really good book about design of interfaces. It's not software specific but a must read for GUI designers.
Coding Horror. He recommends a lot of development books on his book list, but these ones are specifically interface-related:
Don't Make Me Think
About Face 3.0
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
GUI Bloopers
Web Links
Are Confirmation Dialogs Harmful? A blog entry by Guido van Rossum (creator of Python)
GUI Articles A few articles about GUIs by Joel Spolsky (joelonsoftware.com)
Interfaced Systems International Has a lot of resources, especially on their UI References page
User Experience Guidelines for Windows Vista
I disagree with all the WinForms advocates. It's not easier. It may be easier for someone who has traditional experience with GUI programming, but this poster doesn't have that.
WPF has a better design story and the databinding is much, much better than WinForms. You can get up and running on WPF at least as fast as WinForms, and then go much further without running into the limitations that WinForms has. Couple this with the design-time databinding in VS 2010, and I'd say that anyone starting out on GUI development should completely bypass Winforms.
C# WinForms will be the fastest in terms of getting a practical GUI working rapidly. Though if you think on making a complex GUI, with animations, 3D etc, WPF would be better.
You can use CodePlex to find some good working projects to learn from in terms of best practice, both for WinForms and WPF.
You can also look here for some good books on both WPF and WinForms.
C# for sure. Use Winforms for line of business app / classic GUI.
read petzold 'programming windows with c#'
Or just dive in with visual studio. Creating GUI with VS is really easy - you will like it
You will find the langauge transition from java to c# pretty simple (not the gui bit tho)
I think I've come to conclusion that C# is the best and the fastest way to go (please correct me if I'm wrong). What do you recommend?
Personally, I would stick with Java. We (meaning OffByZero, the company I co-founded) have released an encrypted text editor called OBZVault, which is written in Java.
We originally wrote it in Linux, and then ported to Mac OS X and Windows. We found that the Windows port provided a perfectly acceptable look & feel - almost (but not exactly) like a native Windows app.
We used InnoSetup to build a native Windows installer, and found that quite good as well.
Bottom line: unless you want to learn a new language & platform, or you have a specific need for functionality provided by a different platform like .NET, stick with Java for your Windows development too. You'll need to learn a Java GUI framework, but then you'd have to learn WPF or WinForms if you switched to .NET anyway.
It may be faster for an experienced .NET developer to build a Windows app in WinForms or WPF, but if you're already well versed in Java I say stick with the tools (language, libraries, IDE) that you know.
We are at a crossroad as what development tool to use for our application. We do not know if
we will go for Adobe Air or use the traditional road which is Objective-C and Cocoa. The software is similar to www.riffmasterpro in functionality. Is Air the best solution here?
Well, firstly, Flash isn't supported on iPhone so there is no Air platform for iPhone (at least, none that I know of - correct me if I'm wrong).
Secondly, native Objective-C applications on Mac will always surpass Air applications with regards to how well they tie into the OS. An example of this is TweetDeck. It's an amazing application but it just doesn't feel like a Mac app (no meaningful menus, no growl integration, etc...). Mac users are typically very specific with regards to how their apps behave.
I would advise that if you want to write Mac applications (and iPhone applications) to rather stick with Objective-C.
If your primary concern is cross-platform (with the exception of iPhone) then Air is an option worth considering.
If you're looking to build an app solely for the Mac/iPhone platform, I would suggest using Objective-C instead. Adobe AIR's strength is that it can be installed and used cross-platform with little problem.
One of the downsides of that, though, is that performance will never be as good as something that ties directly into the operation system.
problem of using middle frameworks is that you will never have the potential of the hardware, in other worlds you will not be able to use any feature that Mac/Windows can give to you by the hardware, you wll always be attached to what the framework will give to you and hope that you can do everything that you need...
specially in your music application.
regarding the Adobe Air framework, it is a good idea to cover both Linux, Mac and Windows computers but you will not be able to run it under the iPhone because there is no Adobe Flash supported... Adobe is making a flash player for the iPhone, but I do believe that will ot support Air, at least by the near future.
For the iPhone you can build a Web Application or a SDK Application, the last on, and if you will use SDK 3.0, you will find plenty of good things to use it to, but you need to develop a full application from sctrath.