We have an existing Legacy Winforms application which is old and hard to maintain. So we decided to re-write the application using WPF. Due to lack of resource, we plan to have a hybrid type, where new features will be developed in WPF and over the course of time will migrate everything from Winforms to WPF.
Now the problem is, how can we integrate WPF application that uses MVVM framework to be launched from Winforms application. I tried "ElementHost" control to host WPF application. But I dont know how to achieve it with MVVM framework. Tried with Caliburn.Micro and getting an null exception when the BootStrapperBase.Initialize() method is called.
Please advice.
After reading the Caliburn documentation see here, there is an option where we can pass “false” to the base constructor’s “useApplication” parameter.
This worked for me.
This launches the application. I tried playing around passing a reference to the WPF applicaton which contains event and method.
Related
I'm trying to use Surface Toolkit controls on WPF controls in a WPF Control Library. I'm using these controls in a MFC front using HwndSource. All of that is fine. The problem I have is that now I get the following exception:
A System.Windows.Application is required. Please initialize an Application before using this API.
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.SurfaceMetrics..ctor()
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.SurfaceMetrics.get_Instance()
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.DefaultColorSource..ctor(Int32 rank)
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.SurfaceColors..ctor()
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.SurfaceColors.EnsureInstance()
at Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.SurfaceColors.get_ControlForegroundBrushKey()
The solution was to new up an instance of System.Windows.Application in my MFC application. That pacified the Surface Toolkit.
See the answer here for my complete WPF in MFC solution. It's pretty marvelous, I have to say. Way better than it was in the old days.
I've already worked with WPF but i don't know anything about SilverLightnow I need to develop an application which can run on both Mac and Windows,so i was thinking to write an WPF Application with MVVM for Windows and run it on Mac Using SilverLight?Is that possible to port from WPF to Silverlight and how much work needs or maybe should I write the application with SilverLight from beginning,even for my Windows users?Which one is better and faster?
a quick answer is Yes..
but lot of things to do. You could share most of XAML view across platform but not all of them.
try to put all business logic into service layer like BAL or middle tier
put presentation logic into ViewModel class library
create separate XAML View (for SL and WPF)
there are several docs about target multi-platform here..
A Cross-platform WPF, Silverlight & WP7 Application at codeproject
Sharing Code Between Silverlight and WPF
I'm hoping someone here can explain to me the difference between WPF and XAML exactly in this context:
I have an application (an XBAP specifically) written in VB.NET using MVVM & Repository Pattern, implementing the the usual INotifyPropertyChanged, OLEDB etc etc.
The front end of the application is written in XAML.
From what I understand there is nothing specifically "WPF" about this application. In my view its XAML + VB.NET; where does the WPF come in? Given windows 8 and the "death of Silverlight/WPF" that I keep hearing about, what should I be doing to "upgrade" my application to ensure its future?
I would greatly appreciate someone clearing up this confusion for me.
XAML + your code behind is WPF. You are using WPF. XAML is the markup used for defining the interface in WPF.
And I wouldn't worry too much at this point about "the death of Silverlight/WPF". Just because Windows 8 supports HTML5/JavaScript doesn't mean WPF has gone away. At least, not yet.
See also.
An XBAP (XAML Browser Application) is a kind of WPF XAML application, that runs in the browser. Nothing more, nothing less.
WPF isn't going away anytime soon; in fact, it received a number of enhancements in .NET 4.5. Windows 8 will continue supporting WPF whether it's run on the desktop or as an XBAP. There's no need to "upgrade" your app, but if you want to take advantage of the Windows Store and the new user interface, it's not difficult to port your WPF XAML to WinRT XAML.
See, WPF can be called as the Successor of WinForms . In WPF WE have this XAML that is simply XML but Is more powerful and has greater properties .
WPF isn't dead !
Talking about Windows Store Apps, Silverlight has lots to do with WPF and XAML
Your XBAP application uses WPF : XAML for the UI and VB.NET for the code behind.
If you want to be sure, check if the namespaces you use in the code begin with "System.Windows".
Your XBAP is just a kind of project you can create with the WPF technology. (that's an application which shows several web pages as its UI).
This is a question about design approach. I have limited COM experience and a little WCF experience. My constraints are given by the application environment, but I have some design flexibility.
From within a VB6 dll, I need to start, and communicate with, a WPF application. The WPF application is currently an exe, but I could make it a library if that helped. I would like to provide two way communication between the VB6 dll and the WPF application. I have some flexability to adjust the design of the VB6 dll.
I'm developing C# using in VS2010 and .NET 4.
How many components should I use? Can I start the WPF application In-Proc with the VB6 dll? Should there be a third component between them? Can COM+ play a helpful role? Do I have to make the entire WPF application COM-visible? Is there a down-side to doing this?
I'm looking for a design approach that I can prototype. I'm willing to research the details.
I would
Create a Web Service from the WPF application, using WCF. I would abstract out those aspects of the WPF application which should be accessed remotely. This would explicitly not include any of the user interface code.
I would create a simple class library project, and use "Add Service Reference" to add a reference to the WCF service.
I would make the methods of the class library COM-visible
I would call those methods from VB6
This has the benefit of removing any considerations of user interface from the equation.
Out of the options available I like the COM option more than the 'start another process' option for the simplicity that the inter 'application' communication will be via method calls rather than WCF or anything similar.
I am assuming that your VB DLL lives in a window'd process and not a service or web application. You would only need to mark any exposed types as COM visible, that is the classes, their argument and return types.
You may have to wrap your WPF UI inside the windows forms ElementHost [1] but I'm not sure, try it and see.
I'm not sure if you saw this [2] in your search, it sounds do-able but unsupported, ok as long as you don't have too much going on.
[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.integration.elementhost.aspx
[2] http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/wpf/thread/7555ba6a-1359-4dfe-aa23-c31a8f121142/
I work on an application primarily written in VB6 but most of the recent code is written in .net with UI components built in WPF and some WinForms. Datasources for this application are WCF, MSSQL server, and a propritary unix based server. All the WCF calls are made from data access components referenced by the .net UI components.
You can host WPF in VB6 windows or other container controls. Start by getting the Interop Forms Toolkit and build shell user controls to host your WPF controls.
To be able to host WPF in these controls you need to build a WinForms usercontrol which contains a ElementHost, which you can set the content to your WPF usercontrol.
WPF Usercontrol inside an Element Host inside a
WinForms usercontrol inside a VB6 usercontrol or
window
The interop toolkit will want to build VB.Net code but you can do it in C#, although I have not tried this. The usercontrols created by the interop toolkit will be exposed as COM components which you can reference VB6 by adding them as components via Project > Components and then you will find them in the toolbox.
In terms of data sources (WCF, databases) etc, you should build all your data access in .net components referenced directly from the UI components, don't try to call back in to VB6 libraries, you will probably just create a mess.
In my application I also have a configuration section which I call from the VB6 application startup which sets up an IoC container for all the .net components.
From a best practice approach I actually would recommend rewriting your VB6 code to .net and putting VB6 out of the picture. If this is not an option then you have a number of options, my explanation is just one of them.
If we develop a winform app using an MVC architecture, it should not be too hard to change over to WPF at a later date, correct?
Well designed WPF application heavily leverage data-binding. As such, you might consider using classes such as ObservableCollection and others and implement IPropertyNotify when designing your model.
Look up some references to the M-V-VM pattern advocated by Microsoft product groups (e.g., Blend) for more information.
It seems that in Codeplex there is an MVC winform open souce fmwk for developping winforms app
That framework is koossery.MVCwin, located on Codeplex at http://koosserymvcwin.codeplex.com