Book Image

Windows Presentation Foundation Development Cookbook

Book Image

Windows Presentation Foundation Development Cookbook

Overview of this book

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft's development tool for building rich Windows client user experiences that incorporate UIs, media, and documents. With the updates in .NET 4.7, Visual Studio 2017, C# 7, and .NET Standard 2.0, WPF has taken giant strides and is now easier than ever for developers to use. If you want to get an in-depth view of WPF mechanics and capabilities, then this book is for you. The book begins by teaching you about the fundamentals of WPF and then quickly shows you the standard controls and the layout options. It teaches you about data bindings and how to utilize resources and the MVVM pattern to maintain a clean and reusable structure in your code. After this, you will explore the animation capabilities of WPF and see how they integrate with other mechanisms. Towards the end of the book, you will learn about WCF services and explore WPF's support for debugging and asynchronous operations. By the end of the book, you will have a deep understanding of WPF and will know how to build resilient applications.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the example code files

Download the color images

Conventions used

Free Chapter

WPF Fundamentals

WPF Fundamentals

The WPF Architecture

Presentation Framework

Presentation Core

Common Language Runtime

Media Integration Library

Types of WPF applications

The XAML overview

XAML syntax terminologies

Object element syntax

Property Attribute syntax

Property Element syntax

Collection syntax

Event Attribute syntax

Installing WPF Workload with Visual Studio 2017

How to do it...

Creating WPF applications

How to do it...

There's more...

Creating and navigating from one window to another

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating and navigating from one page to another

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a dialog box

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using the open file dialog

Using the save file dialog

Using the print dialog

Other common dialogs

Creating ownership between windows

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a single instance application

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Passing arguments to WPF applications

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Handling unhandled exceptions

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using WPF Standard Controls

Using WPF Standard Controls

Using the TextBlock control to add plain text

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using Label to add other controls in text

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Providing a user option to input text

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Windows Clipboard support

Adding spellcheck support

Adding images to your application UI

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with ready-to-use 2D shapes

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding tooltips to show additional information

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a standard menu to the WPF application

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding an access key to menus

Adding icons to menus

Adding checkable menu items

Adding click-event handlers to menus

Providing extra functionalities using the context menu

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding user options with radio buttons and checkboxes

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with the progress bar control

How to do it...

How it works...

Using the Slider control to pick a numeric value

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using the Calendar control in your application

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

The SelectionModes property

The DisplayDate property

The DisplayMode property

The BlackoutDates property

Listing items in a Listbox control

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Implementing multi selection

Customizing the ListBoxItem with multiple controls

Providing options to select from a ComboBox

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a status bar to your window

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding a toolbar panel to perform quick tasks

How to do it...

How it works...

Layouts and Panels

Layouts and Panels

Building a UI layout using a Grid

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a resizable Grid

Spanning elements across multiple rows and/or columns

Placing elements in uniform cells

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Setting the row and column count

Defining the first cell of the UniformGrid

Filling elements from right to left

Automatically repositioning controls using WrapPanel

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Placing controls in a Stack

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Positioning controls inside a Canvas

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Wrapping UI elements using a Border

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a scrollable panel

How to do it...

How it works...

Docking controls using the DockPanel

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Rescaling UI elements using a ViewBox

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a tabbed layout

How to do it...

How it works...

Dynamically adding/removing elements in a panel

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Implementing the drag and drop feature

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with Data Bindings

Working with Data Bindings

Working with CLR properties and UI notifications

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with dependency properties

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Working with attached properties

How to do it...

How it works...

Data binding to an object

How to do it...

How it works...

Data binding to a collection

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Element-to-element data binding

How to do it...

How it works...

Sorting data in a DataGrid control

How to do it...

How it works...

Grouping data in a DataGrid control

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Filtering data in a DataGrid control

How to do it...

How it works...

Using static bindings

How to do it...

How it works...

Using value converters

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using multi-value converters

How to do it...

How it works...

Using Custom Controls and User Controls

Using Custom Controls and User Controls

Creating a custom control

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

XMLNS attribute declaration

Default styling

Toolbox integration

Customizing the template of a custom control

How to do it...

How it works...

Exposing properties from the custom control

How to do it...

How it works...

Exposing events from a custom control

How to do it...

How it works...

Extending the functionality of a control using behavior

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a User Control interface

How to do it...

How it works...

Exposing events from a User Control

How to do it...

How it works...

Customizing the XMLNS namespace

How to do it...

How it works...

Using Styles, Templates, and Triggers

Using Styles, Templates, and Triggers

Creating the style of a control

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating the Style of a control based on another Style

How to do it...

How it works...

Applying Style to a control automatically

How to do it...

How it works...

Editing the template of any control

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a property trigger

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a multi trigger

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a data trigger

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a multi data trigger

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating an event trigger

How to do it...

How it works...

Using Resources and MVVM Patterns

Using Resources and MVVM Patterns

Using binary resources inside a WPF application

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using binary resources from another assembly

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Accessing binary resources in code

How to do it...

How it works...

Using static logical resources in WPF

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using dynamic logical resources in WPF

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Managing logical resources

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using user selected colors and fonts

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Building an application using the MVVM pattern

How to do it...

How it works...

Using routed commands in a WPF application

How to do it...

How it works...

Working with Animations

Working with Animations

Scaling an element while rendering

How to do it...

How it works...

Rotating an element while rendering

How to do it...

How it works...

Skewing an element while rendering

How to do it...

How it works...

Moving an element while rendering

How to do it...

How it works...

Grouping multiple transforms

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating property-based animations

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating path-based animations

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating key-frame-based animations

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding easing effects to animations

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

ExponentialEase

Using WCF Services

Using WCF Services

Creating a WCF service

How to do it...

How it works...

The DataContract attribute

The DataMember attribute

The ServiceContract attribute

The OperationContract attribute

Self-hosting a WCF service

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Hosting a WCF service in an IIS server

How to do it...

How it works...

Integrating a WCF service in a WPF application

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Debugging and Threading

Debugging and Threading

Enabling the UI debugging tool for XAML

How to do it...

Navigating through XAML elements using Live Visual Tree

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Inspecting XAML properties using Live Property Explorer

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Updating the UI from a non-UI thread

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding cancelation support to long running threads

How to do it...

How it works...

Using the background worker component

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using a timer to periodically update the UI

How to do it...

How it works...

Interoperability with Win32 and WinForm

Interoperability with Win32 and WinForm

Hosting WinForm controls in WPF applications

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Hosting WPF controls in WinForm applications

How to do it...

How it works...

Calling Win32 APIs from WPF applications

How to do it...

How it works...

Embedding ActiveX controls in WPF applications

How to do it...

How it works...

Other Books You May Enjoy

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How to do it...

Follow the steps mentioned here to verify and enable the UI Debugging Tools for XAML in Visual Studio 2017:

Inside the Visual Studio IDE, navigate to the Tools | Options... menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

This will open the Visual Studio Options window. From this page, navigate to the Debugging | General section.

Select the checkbox labeled Enable UI Debugging Tools for XAML, and switch it ON if it is not already:

Once you switch ON the functionality to debug the XAML application UI, you will enable a few more settings to use the Live Visual Tree and modifications of XAML properties when the debugger is already attached.
From the same page, select the other checkboxes labeled Preview selected elements in Live Visual Tree and Show runtime tools in application.
To be able to change the XAML elements and their properties when the application is already running in debug mode, check Enable XAML Edit and Continue, as shown in the preceding screenshot.