Do you know what is the difference between: User Control, Pages and Windows on WPF Browser Applications. I've found information related with this, but all the time are about WPF Desktop application.
Is it different for WPF Browser application?
I'm deploying an application but I don't know what is the best option for the Login section, the main section, the about section, etc.
Could someone explain me how can I use this tools in WPF Browser application?
Thanks in advance!
I use Pages in XBAPs the exact same way I would use a Window object in WPF. That is to say, rarely.
I usually have one Page/Window for my application and that is it. Switching the current view is usually done by switching a CurrentView property in my ApplicationViewModel, which changes what View is displayed in the main page.
I use UserControls when I want to create some kind of generic control, or for my Views. My Views can also be DataTemplates, and it is not uncommon for me to have a UserControl View that also has other Views in the UserControl.Resources (providing that all Views are related)
For example, I might have a UserControl called ProductsView which is the View that displays a list of Product objects, and the UserControl.Resources will contain a DataTemplate called ProductView which defines how WPF should display the ProductModel.
Related
lately i often see questions regarding MVVM and usercontrol, where - for me - view and usercontrol are mixed up.
for me a View when doing MVVM is just a pretty interface that allows users to interact with my ViewModels - so at least a collection of controls with Bindings. most time xaml only but codebehind not forbidden.
for me a usercontrol instead is not related to a viewmodel at all. the usercontrol has a representation in xaml and of course codebehind where properties, methods and Dependency Properties exist.
i'm on a wrong way with that?
EDIT: of course view and usercontrol inherit from UserControl class - so both technically UserControls. but i use just the term View when doing MVVM. and the term usercontrol just when there is no direct relation to a viewmodel.
ps: my english is too bad to write down what i mean...
You're not wrong just consider the fact the user control can be a reusable view that has a view model. cause the entire composite ui architecture is based on s shell(main window, view) and some regions with view (user controls)
A View and User Controls are totally different in MVVM.
The View is a conceptual name of the folder where you put all UI related stuff like user controls, windows, pages, etc. So the View is the folder that contains your GUI part for the particular application.
The User Control is the control which is configured by the developer by mixing multiple components / controls to work like a single control. A user control can also hold the other user controls.
The mix point is that, generally, views hold the user control in an MVVM application, as WPF is XAML based. It gets rendered in there, so the developer can plug your, his and other's user control into some where he wants to.
Whereas windows can not be placed into other windows. And pages can only be shown in frame element, so most views are user controls.
Can somebody help me understand what the real difference is and why the MVVM Light toolkit users UserControl's for Views instead of Pages? I know there are some inherient differences between UserControl's and pages like access to the "NavigationService" on a page.
And some of the examples from John Papa's implementation of the MVVM Light use Page instead UserControl, but if you use the MVVM Light "View" Template it uses a UserControl.
thanks
dbl
A Page within a Silverlight application is designed to be hosted within a Frame - and is part of the navigation framework (see the MSDN Navigation Overview documentation). Applications of this style navigate from page to page, with the URL updating to reflect the current location, in much the same way as HTML-based websites.
A UserControl, is a re-useable unit of your user-interface. It is typically composed of a number of controls, UI elements - and may have some code-behind to perform logic.
If MVVM Light used Pages instead of UserControls, the framework would only be useful for navigation-based Silverlight applications, which are not terribly popular. However, UserControls can be hosted inside any other Panel or Page, therefore this approach is more flexible. A UserControl can be used as the content of a Page, but can also be used in many other contexts.
Is there a difference between window and user control? It seems to me that these two are exactly the same. So which one should I use and when?
(I tried googling this phrase and I couldn't find anything)
A Window is as the name suggests a window, it can be closed, minimized, resized etc. This should be quite intuitive.
A UserControl on the other hand is a composite component/module which can be placed inside other controls and is itself made up of controls (possibly even other UserControls), the main use for UserControls is reusability, encapsulation and loose coupling, some applications can be broken up into a set of UserControls of which each one provides a certain functionality.[citation needed]
We make user control if we want to reuse it. As name says User Control it means some control like grid,combo box like that.If i need same grid on 3-4 windows then i will prefer to make it as User Control.If it is not reusable i will define my grid in the required window.At last you paste your user control on some window.
Conclusion :- If you want to reuse the control then make it as a user control otherwise define it in required window.
A window is managed by the OS and is placed on the desktop.
A UserControl is managed by wpf and is placed in a Window or in another UserControl.
Applcations could be created by have a single Window and displaying lots of UserControls in that Window.
wpf window is a Win32 window, but user control is just something of wpf, not a Win32 window.
I presume you refer to the windows forms. Usually they are classified as user controls and custom controls - same stands for web forms as well. For more information you can refer to these links control vs user control in winforms and over view of user controls and custom contorls.
I will be starting a new project soon and am looking for some architectural advice from those of you who have experience with WPF, Prism, and MVVM.
The project will definitely be WPF and I will be implementing MVVM (I will likely use Josh Smith's MVVM Foundation as a starting point) in order to be able to benefit from the separation of UI/logic etc. I am not sure though if I would benefit from using Prism as well to structure my project.
Let me briefly describe the project. There will be a main "toolbar" that will display a number of widgets. Each widget displays some basic data related to its function and clicking the widget will open a new window that will display much more detailed data and contain a rich UI for viewing/editing the data.
Now, I was thinking that I can use Prism to frame the project but I have never used it before and am not sure if it is suitable for what I am trying to achieve. For example, would my "toolbar" be a shell that contains regions that each widget would populate? Would each new window that is displayed when a widget is clicked also be its own shell with its own region setup? If I can get the pattern down for the toolbar and one widget on the toolbar, I can replicate it for the rest of the widgets.
Aside from Prism, I have a question about how MVVM should be implemented for certain data editing windows. Let's say I have a chart that displays some data and the user is able to directly click/mouse move on the chart to edit the data that he sees. All of the data is in the model and the view model is making that data available to the view via binding. My question is where will the mouse click/move events, that are specific to the chart in that view, be written? We don't want much/anything in the view's code behind and we don't want to have UI event handlers in the view model so I am not sure how this type of scenario is handled. I know that commands are the likely answer here but the MVVM samples I have seen usually show sample commands for simple button clicks. Is the general idea the same?
So, if anyone has any suggestions on the above or any general tips on working with WPF and MVVM/Prism, please let me know.
Thank you.
There are a few questions in there so I will do my best at covering them all.
I worked on a project that had WPF, MVVM, and Prism along side other frameworks. The best advice is to understand the power and functionality of each before glueing it all together. You don't have to use all the features of Prism for it to be useful in this situation.
For Prism you can use...
Shell and bootstrapper to initialise the application and load modules from other assemblies.
Create and configure Unity for Dependency Injection. You can use other DI Containers. Here you can add global services each module will use.
Use of EventAggregator to notify differnent parts of the application, usually across modules and views
Regions for naming areas on the UI so modules can add a view to a particular location.
The above 4 don't all have to be used but can easily be integrated in a MVVM /WPF application.
For example, would my "toolbar" be a
shell that contains regions that each
widget would populate?
Here you can have a region you create (you can derive from Region) that will manage the buttons on the toolbar. (I have used a region with regards to a Ribbon). A service can be exposed via an interface that each module can supply the command/image (what ever you have) that when it is clicked will create a ViewModel. You can do this inside the module's Initialisation.
Would each new window that is
displayed when a widget is clicked
also be its own shell with its own
region setup?
If each button opens a brand new window I would suggest introducing a common controller class that will create a generic use window and attach a view model that your module creates. No real need to use regions in this case unless you are gluing different views to a application window that stays open longer than the life of the view itself. The window in basic form can simply be this...
<Window ...>
<ContentControl Content="{Binding}" />
</Window>
Where within your controller it can do this...
public void DisplayView(ViewModel vm)
{
var window = new MyWindow { DataContext = vm };
window.Show();
}
The controller can be used within your module directly of wrapped within a service... although for testabilty a service and interface would be best. Make sure you have merged your module resources with the Applicaiton.Resources and use DataTemplate's to link your view to the view model.
My question is where will the mouse
click/move events, that are specific
to the chart in that view, be written?
Don't be afraid of code behind but you can in this case use EventToCommand attached behaviour that will route to a command on your viewmodel. MVVMLight toolkit has this which you can reuse if you want.
DI is very powerful and I encourage using it even without Prism as constructing your view models will be easier.
HTH
I think Prism will work great for you.
->would my "toolbar" be a shell that contains regions that each widget would populate?
Put a single region with an ItemsControl in the Shell
Create modules for each widget
Keep adding the widget modules to the same itemscontrol shell region.
The biggest advantage with this is that if you add more modules you don't need to change anything.
->Would each new window that is displayed when a widget is clicked also be its own shell with its own region setup?
No, you can use a 'WindowRegionAdapter' in the shell to create views for your widgets in separate windows.
->where will the mouse click/move events, that are specific to the chart in that view, be written?
You can use attached behaviors to bind events in your view to commands in the ViewModel purely in XAML. Google 'Blend behaviors' or 'attached bahaviors' for how you could go about doing it. There is no need to write any code behind for this.
To be honest I am only trying to give you the keywords you'd want to search to get all the information you need.
I'm looking into using the Office Ribbon UI to help navigate around my application and provide different tools for the current selected tab.
I need the Ribbon to be plugable. Each plugin has its own tab and using a DataTemplate displays what's needed.
The main control area will have a navigation on the left and a Tab Control on the right. Multple tabs will be open most of the time.
Ok questions:
1. Is the Ribbon control the correct control for the job
2. How do i dynamically add Tabs to the Ribbon control through my View Model
3. Does anyone know how to define DataTemplates in an external assembly. I need to avoid configurations inside my main application IE make it plugable :D
FYI. The application is a POS system
The Office Ribbon was the wrong choice for my design.
I've seen posts on using Prism with Office Ribbon to get plugins working