WPF Practicals!!

(WPF ListView/ TreeView)Get rid of that default (blue) selection colour!!

Anshulee — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:18:00 GMT

As promised this next blog covers a very trivial but important problem. important because i think almost everyone would want to override this default behaviour of WPF and trivial because the solution is actually pretty simple.Atleast its simple now that...(read more)

Removing the Dotted border around selected WPF UI element

Anshulee — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:29:00 GMT

The WPF app i have been working on looks great but there was a small visual irritant which i wasn't being able to get rid of. Everytime i clicked on a UI element..especially a ListViewItem, treeViewitem it would have this default selected look i.e...(read more)

Exploring the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit (OCRT) !!

Anshulee — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Microsoft Recently announced version 2 of the OBA Composition Reference Toolkit . Microsoft has released a pretty intensive framework.Looks like the beginning of something big!! Version 1 had been announced at the Office Developers Conference in San Hose...(read more)

(WPF)Figure out dynamically if the ListView ScrollViewer is showing!!

Anshulee — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:42:00 GMT

I recently faced a situation where i had a databound ListView with a ItemTemplate consisting of a text block.The ListView is of a predefined height and width and the TextBlock is textwrapped and set to the same width as the ListView.. Everything worked...(read more)

Multiple Level Master Detail Binding in WPF(XAML)

Anshulee — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:31:00 GMT

I’ve seen a couple of developers fumble with a LOT of Code when asked to implement a 2-3 level Master –detail form. So I put together a bit of code to showcase how easily it can be done with virtually no code (alteast no code behind!!) in WPF Consider...(read more)

The One Stop Shop for Mix 08 related downloads

Anshulee — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:54:00 GMT

I was going berserk trying to keep a tab of WHAT ALL has been advertised on Mix, before i hit this site Thanks to Sarah Perez for collating everything and sharing with us!! So Sarah's blog along with http://sessions.visitmix.com/ should keep you busy...(read more)

Mix 2008 Sessions- Already available

Anshulee — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:38:00 GMT

There is still hope for us "unfortunate" ones who cannot attend the Mix 08 sessions live!! Get updated with the latest presentations uploaded at http://sessions.visitmix.com/ I love the presentation of this site! Happy Viewing!! Anshulee...(read more)

Structured Navigation Using Page Functions!

Anshulee — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:42:00 GMT

One of the new features WPF has given us windows programmers is the "Page" as the supposed equivalent of the html web page..information can now flow from one page to another as in a website by linking one page to another via a hyperlink .This gives users the familiar web experience(and looks much better than windows popping up with every click!!)..

Along with pages, WPF also introduces a concept known as Page Functions..but before i go there, lets examine WHY we need them!

Hyperlink driven navigation in pages has the following drawbacks

a) It is difficult to pass information between the host page and the calling page

b) In case the host page called a task page to do some work , its difficult for the host page to know if the work was actually completed or not

c) In some cases it is desired that the user should NOT be able to navigate back to the task page. For example once he has submitted the information he shouldn’t be allowed to go back using the Navigation service and change it. This is very difficult to achieve

The first 2 points above i.e. a and b can be achieved in the traditional page + hyperlink combination using Application scope properties to pass information between them, though not in a very structured manner. However it is very difficult to remove the task page reference from the history.

WPF has solved these issues by creating Page Functions.

Essentially, page functions enable a style of navigation that is analogous to functions in procedural languages, which typically involves the following:

Calling a function.
Passing parameters to the function.
Performing processing from the function.
Calling other functions from the function.
Return results from the function to the calling code.
Cleaning up.

Given below is the definition of a Page Function. To create a Page function you simple do a AddNewItemàPage Function into your solution.

PageFunction.xaml

<PageFunction

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"

x:Class="CSharp.TaskPageFunction"

x:TypeArguments="sys:String"

Title="Task Page Function" WindowWidth="250" WindowHeight="150">

</PageFunction>

PageFunction.xaml.cs

public partial class TaskPageFunction : PageFunction<String>

{

public TaskPageFunction()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

The declaration is pretty much similar to a page. However Page Function is a generic class and needs a declaration of the Type of the value it will return.This is set in the x:TypeArguments="sys:String" in the xaml configuration and correspondingly as <String> in the Page.xaml.cs file

You can create your own custom types and use your page function to return custom information (If you are interested leave me a comment and i can upload an example!).

Now that we know the concept of Page Function and how to define it. We’ll see how to create, call, pass values and get the results from a page function

Creation and calling and passing value: It is same as creating an instance of a Page and navigation to it

Say

TaskPageFunction taskPageFunction = new TaskPageFunction()//Call an overloaded constructor if you want to pass information to it,

this.NavigationService.Navigate(taskPageFunction); Getting return value from the task page

In order to pass values back to the Calling page, Task page calls a method called OnReturn(). OnReturn is a protected virtual method which will be called with an instance of Generic ReturnEventArgs of the type same as the Type arguments you had specified for the page function.

So whatever data you want to return will be sent to the OnReturn() function.

For example in the Page function definition we created above, on clicking a submit button you want to pass the text entered by the user into a textbox called “NameTextBox” the code will be as under

Public void SubmitClicked(sender object, RoutedEventAgrs args){OnReturn(new ReturnEventArgs<string>(this. NameTextBox.Text));}

The OnReturn() method in turn fires the Return event of the task page which the calling class has to hook onto.

To summarize the following 3 parts of the code are needed to complete the navigation

//create the page function, hook onto its Return event and navigate to it

TaskPageFunction taskPageFunction = new TaskPageFunction()taskPageFunction.Return += taskPageFunction_Return; this.NavigationService.Navigate(taskPageFunction);

// the Page function will call ONReturn on completing its task

OnReturn(new ReturnEventArgs<string>(this. NameTextBox.Text));

The Calling page method delegated to receive the event will get called and will extract the information from the event args passed to it

void taskPageFunction_Return(object sender, ReturnEventArgs<string> e) { MessageBox.Show(“Name Is “+ e.Result} Removal of Page function ref from the Navigation history

Every PageFunction /Page has a property called as RemoveFromJournal .Setting it to true removes it from the navigation history after the page has been navigated away from.

By default a Page function has RemoveFromJournal set to true. So it will be removed from history once its OnReturn has been called.

Oh btw...this form of Navigation is called Structured Navigation in WPF Terminology!!

Enjoy!

Anshulee

Know me!!

Anshulee — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:17:00 GMT

Oops..i didn't really introduce myself did i?? Well..here

Name:- Anshulee Asthana

Experience:- 4.5 years

Hobbies:- Playing!!..may be no good at all..but i still enjoying playing...anything ...but it better be outdoors!!

Tech Interests:- Anything to do with Windows Programming!!

What am i doing here??:- Well i am here to show off a little and to learn a lot from you!!

Silverlight blueprint for Sharepoint!!

Anshulee — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:24:00 GMT

Looks like Microsoft really does believe in creating an integration between all of its technologies and frameworks.

The latest announcement at the Sharepoint conference at Seattle speaks of a Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint .. This will allow SharePoint Developers building web parts to take advantage of Silverlight user interface components.

Check it out!

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/cc303301.aspx

--Anshulee