WinForms control for editing of a custom object collection - winforms

I have a list of some custom classes and an UserControl to edit one instance of the class. I want to have a control on a form which allows to add a new instance, delete an instance and edit any instance. What can you suggest for that?
The control should take less space than all UserControls for existing object instance (i.e. have some folding). Estimate maximum number of objects in the collection is 5-7.

There is no built in control that will provide this functionality for you. I would recommend that you copy the same approach that is used at design time for editing collections. You have a ListBox on the left with a list of the collection entries. On the right you have a PropertyGrid that shows properties of the currently selected instance in the ListBox. This allows editing of an existing item. Alternatively you could use your own custom UserControl. Then add a Delete button for removing entries and Add button for adding new owns. Pressing the Add button would present a dialog allowing you to select which of the possible types you want to create.

Related

Custom Items control Approach

I need to build a custom items control in WPF, where the user can drag/drop the items. Normally I would just maintain a list of view models and use a data template to define how the items should be displayed (in this case, a button). But I am concerned that this will make the drag/drop difficult as the ItemsSource objects will be view model objects , not the actual button.
My other potential approach is when an object is added to the ItemsSource, create a button in c# and add it manually, that way I can access the button directly to do drag/drop.
What would your advice be?
I have solved my issue. I found a way to get the control being render from the data template

Dynamic child user controls MVVM

I have a user control on a page and I'd like to load another custom user control within it's grid. However I want the user control type to be dynamic - e.g selecting "Calculator" from a drop down list would display my custom calculator control and selecting "Currency Converter" would load my currency converter. Can anybody help?
By the way I am trying to stick to MVVM.
Thanks in advance.
One way is to define multiple DataTemplates one for each child. As user selects the option set the corresponding ViewModel to a ContentControl's DataContext present in parent view and framework will pick the corresponding view for you.
John Papa has written a great blog post on exactly how to do this here.
The basic strategy is to instantiate a new instance of a class that derives from UserControl once selected from the drop down.
In other words, the SelectionChanged event of the drop down list could be handled and a new UserControl object created based on the selected item.

Custom Wizard Control in WPF to add and remove UserControls?

How best can I create a Wizard control in WPF. My tak is; first I have a Wizard Controller UserControl, that contains two buttons, i.e. Back and Next, then I have start off with two other UserControls with forms for users to fill in and click next step to the next form etc... What I woud like to know is how I could inserted this usercontrols and validate my current object before going to the next form. What can I use to get the next and previous events or is there a better solution for this?
Im still learning WPF, and am working on WinForm project atm, so sorry for any WinForm references in this.
The wizard control could contain a reference to each usercontrol the wizard will display. The wizard will add all these controls to itsself controls.add(_userControl1). Each control has its visible property set to false.
The wizard could also contain a private enum with a list of control names, i.e.
private enum CurrentControl
{
_MyControl1,
_MyControl2,
_MyControl3
}
Wizard control keeps a reference to the current displayed control CurrentControl _currentControl = CurrentControl._MyControl1; Have a UpdateDisplay() method, which based on the _currentControl will only make that one control visible.
Then when you click on Prev/next buttons, it updates the _currentControl varible based on its current value, calls UpdateDisplay() to show th enext control.
This way you have a reference to all your user controls (and thus the data they contain), and thus you can validate the content and your wizard can go back and forward through them by using the buttons on the wizard, and the logic in the wizard showing and hiding the controls.
You might be interested in the EmailClient (ViewModel) sample application of the WPF Application Framework (WAF). It shows how to create a Wizard with the Model-View-ViewModel pattern and it contains validation logic which disables the Next button when the user input is not valid.

Re-using Buttons in WPF

I have a bunch of different objects that are commonly edited in the same TabControl using different DataTemplates, but I want each DataTemplate to have a common look and feel with Ok and Cancel buttons at the bottom right of each tab that will close the tab or save the content and then close the currently selected tab. What's the best way to place buttons on each tab ? Is there a way to do it without copying and pasting the buttons and stack panel across all of my data templates ?
Sure, you can create your own OkCancelSaveControl. In WPF, creating a "user control" is much easier than it sounds. Here is a tutorial. In a nutshell, you
create a new user control,
create properties in the user control that give the your control the information it needs to perform its duties (e.g. the tab that it's supposed to close or the data object that it's supposed to save),
if necessary, create events that the user control raises (OkClick), in case some tab requires special treatment.
I would make a custom control, lets call it MyCoolTabItem, that inherits from the TabItem class, and just throw your buttons into the control. Then just add a MyCoolTabItem instead of a TabItem to all of your TabControls and it will have all of your buttons on it.
You could make a base view class that held those buttons. Views that needed the buttons would inherit them and common functionality.

Creating orderable list in WPF using ListBox (HOWTO or better approach?)

I've got a list of things that I want the user to easily edit the order of. Right now I'm binding them to a ListBox with a custom ItemTemplate. Within that template I have an UP & DOWN button. My goal was to move the item up/down based on the button clicked.
However I'm having trouble associating the button's click event with the actual item in the list. I've seen some folks setup a drag/drop for ordering items but that that would be too complex for this app (it's target user base =1, just me).
I assume this is possible with a ListBox. Maybe someone has a beter idea on how to implement this? It's not a huge set of data... less than 25 items.
The DataContext of the button (of the entire template, thus inherited by the button) is the item itself. Simply cast it to your desired type.

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