I've looked at a couple of articles today, and it doesn't seem to be working, I don't have enough of an idea of what is going on to troubleshoot... any simpler implementations or insights that may make this easier?
A WPF based treeview would exactly solve the purpose. This is a classic example of it's implementation for Windows Explorer.
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I am a systems analyst focusing on interaction design and usability, normally working on web applications (using my Mac). However, currently I am in a project team working on a legacy application which has a Windows Forms-based front-end.
I try to simplify and clean up the interface but given my web background it's quite frustrating to work within the strict constraints of WinForms and DevExpress 8.3 controls. (WPF would be great but it is not an option: the company has lots of off-shore users logged in remotely to virtual machines. WPF was tested several times and it failed. Windows XP and IE6 are still on all workstations.)
It would be great to see some good examples for elegant UI design for complex forms with lots of input fields in different categories and groups, including read-only sections with meta-data. It should not be fancy, just simple, slick and clean. Do you happen to have some good examples?
It looks like this post might give you some ideas/leads to pursue:
Where are examples of great program UI's built free with Winforms?
I still couldn't find real good ones, only sporadically. The best WinForms examples I found are in Windows XP itself and in other Microsoft products, like IE, Office.
This may be a long shot but have you considered using a metro-style layout (see wp7 et cetera)? I personally think it would be really well suited to forms with large data entry requirements, I mean, you have the spacing that will separate things perfectly for you, and it's all blocky so you know what you're doing.
This is just my opinion, but hope it can help!
With regards to being "restricted" to Windows Forms, I wouldn't see it as this. By creating your own custom controls you can do pretty much anything you want. I've always hand-coded my WF apps and they're always easier (not to mention more fun) to develop than in WPF. I think WPF is the restrictive place, but again that's just me... Haven't used it too heavily at all.
I'm looking for a skinning library for Windows Forms.
I see this question asked a few times on StackOverflow, but always people looking for free/open source solutions. I don't mind paying for a skinning library. Googling around I see DevExpress's controls support some kind of skinning, and there's also skincrafter.com (though I'm unclear if that supports Windows Forms). Anyone familiar with either of these products or can recommend something better?
I'd like "full" skinning support, but I might be happy with something simple like Firefox Personas/Chrome Themes.
I'm used to using the DotNetBar controls but they don't seem to support skinning, other than basic color themes.
I use DevExpress WinForms and I'm very happy with them.
However, developing custom controls that look good in all of their included skins can be quite challenging.
I know WF designer has re-hosting capability.
Since it's WPF-based, I thought it might be rehostable in web, using silverlight.
Does anyone have any experiece regarding this?
Or, does anyone know an easy and powerful web-based workflow designer solution for WF?
The WF designer can be hosted in the browser, just not with silverlight but as a wpfbrowser application. See details here
This requires the .net framework on the client.. but it does work.
When Microsoft introduce WF 4 at PDC2008, I specifically asked the question about rehosting in Silverlight and the answer was "No, it isn't something we are currently supporting but it seems there is some demand so we are conisdering it".
A little more than 2 years later and they aren't still supporting it so I guess it will be a while before we see that happening out of the box from MSFT
I'm working in the "WF area" too: the designer can't be rehosted in a web page. Keep in mind that WPF is quite different from Silverlight.
Not really answering you question, but... have a look at SnapFlow.
If you find something useful don't forget to write a short note here. ;-)
I want to automate the application develoepd in silverlight. Can you let me know whether there are any open source tools are available which can be used for automating SilverLight app. Thanks.
We are doing UI testing on a Silverlight application using the UIAutomation API, and it works very nicely.
Project White is a library that sits on top of UIAutomation, and many people find it helpful. I prefer to use the UIAutomation APIs directly - it's really not as hard as you might think, as my tutorial shows.
If you're looking to perform User Interface Automation (UIA) to simulate mouse clicks, keyboard presses, etc. there is no "easy" way to get this today.
I've seen some third party tools that may work, such as Telerik's. Note that I have not used and do not endorse this, just know it is out there!
I am currently trying out Project White and finding it quite easy to use.
Before using Project White I tried out WiPFlash which was also rather easy to use. It just lacked a few features that I was after (Right Click and Drag options).
The explorer control in Windows Vista is very handy and I would like to be able to incorporate it in an application written in WPF. I've been unable to find a stock control that is part of the Framework. This application is being specifically developed for Windows Vista and therefore, having the same look and feel as the OS is desirable.
One could use the Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog, but the problem with that is that it looks nothing like Vista's so it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Any thoughts on a good implementation would be most helpful. I would like to stay away from Third Party components if possible, but am definitely open to all suggestions.
Actipro makes a really good WPF breadcrumb control. There's also an open source WPF breadcrumb control that I might actually give a try.
I haven't yet tried it but look at VistaBridge... It gives you all the Vista look dialog boxes!
There is a replacement for the Microsoft.Win32 file dialogs on my blog that gives you the Vista look without the complexity of VistaBridge and is also backward compatible with XP.
http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/07/15/Vista-style-open-and-save-dialogs-with-WPF-without-using.aspx
At the risk of sounding self-serving, the best Breadcrumb control for WPF you can find is here:
http://www.teraque.com/Products/Explorer-Chrome-Suite
I've spent a year trying to reverse engineer the Window's Vista control because none of the off-the-shelf products provided the right look-and-feel. You will run into the limitations of all of the suggestions above sooner or later. And, having been through it myself, I can tell you that trying to embark on developing the controls yourself will take you months. The oddities surrounding the overflow logic alone will be enough to eat up two months just to get it right.
Good luck. If there's anything I can answer for you, please feel free to contact me.
Donald Roy Airey
Donald.Roy.Airey#teraque.com
If you are coding for the .net Framework 3.5, calling for the common dialog should display the correct Vista era dialog.
Sorry, appears I was mistaken. In previous projects, I was using this library to call the Vista dialogs.