Desktop: WPF

If you are familiar with WPF you are aware that the the grand daddy of all controls is FrameworkElement. It is defined in the PresentationFramework.dll assembly and derives from UIElement (defined in PresentationCore.dll). Its purpose is to serve as a base element for all framework related stuff: styles, inheritance context, etc. However there is another framework element - FrameworkContentElement. The main distinct between them is that the later did not defines its own rendering behavior (its inheritors should do so). This is way properties like: (Actual)Width or (Actual)Height are not present at FrameworkContentElement. If you examine the classes that derive from FrameworkContentElement...

As I have mentioned at the end of the previous post today I will show you how to create a generic adorner, which will allow you to decorate a single element  multiple times at different positions. At the end we will be able to create something that looks like this: To achieve this we will need a way to say that we want to position the adorner at the different corners of the element as well as to specify whether we want to be inside or outside (vertically or horizontally) of the element. Let's create some enumeration types that will serve for...

Today I'm going to tell you a WPF story. But before I start to dig deeper let me first introduce you the main characters in this post. Here they are: Adorner - adorners are simple UIElement decorators. Suppose that you have a RichTextBox and you want to place a comment box over it, so that users can comment on the text in the box. This can be archived with adorners. Actually the WPF framework uses adorners internally for exactly the same purpose when you edit and annotate FlowDocument in a DocumentViewer. This is the reason why adorners are in System.Windows.Documents namespace. Command - commands are UI...

This year the  MIX conference had a very cool Show Off contest. Here's what the organizers had to say about it: "At MIX08, we’re hosting what will be a world famous Show Off event. If you’ve ever wanted to put the smack down on lesser mortals, flex your brain, and get everyone to gloat at your—deservedly—awe-inspiring work, this is what might be called a prime opportunity. We want you to inspire others with your unique software, tip, tool, technique, animation, or anything else we can’t think of. All you need to do is create a short, 3-minute-or-less video demonstrating what you want...

We have received several requests so far by customers who one way or another ask for the same thing: "Can you make your WPF controls in such a way that later when I convert my WinForms application (which use your WinForms controls) to WPF I wouldn't need to deal with different APIs and inconsistencies?".   In general, this could be achieved if we had: the same feature set in these two product lines the same API for our WinForms controls and WPF controls The first point is feasible and we'll do our best to do it.   The second, however, is something we probably won’t do....