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. ;-)
Related
I'm looking to create an interface which has drag-drop-dock functionality like Visual Studio. Telerik offers exactly what I'm looking for:
http://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/dock.aspx
Trouble is, it will cost $1000. This is a side project and I don't have a budget for that. Does anyone know of a similar control which is free and/or open source? Google didn't turn up any results.
Thanks
I ended up going more low-level and using OpenTk GameWindow and GWEN, which contains docking.
GWEN - GUI Without Extravagant Nonsense
https://github.com/garrynewman/GWEN
It's absolutely great, but unfortunately the original project is abandoned. There are a ton of forks at different states. I've personally had a lot of success with it.
I know such questions have been discussed here but have never seen them to be put it in this new light. We all know that WinForms isn't updated anymore by Microsoft. For client apps they are pushing WPF now. And people say WPF is harder to learn (I don't know, haven't tried really. And when I've tried I didn't much like it). But on the other hand, could that be it is just WinForms is perfect and there is nothing more to be done here?
WPF is in deed much harder to learn as WinForms. However it is really powerfull and gives you a lot of new possibilities. (I like the DataBinding-features and Templating really a lot).
WinForms on the other hand is very stable and is built on Win32. I'm sure it will be supported for a long time in future. But for me it's clear that microsoft will not extend the features if they have a new concept out there. Would you extend your old app, if you have a new one?
For me, I have switched already some years and I have never regreted the change. However, I have a lot of clienst with WinForms-apps, I built before and I don't have any hurry to update them to WPF. I never had a problem with WindForms, it is really a good and reliable product. As for your question: I think really WinForms is complete. It represents its time and has the features, this time had to offer. However, it's not perfect, no software can be perfect. Furthermore, I know also a lot of companies, developping new Apps with WinForms. MS will surely not letting die a technology for which so many apps exists. Look at XP, it will live longer than Vista.
Hard to learn is subjective.
I started learning winforms and WPF about the same time and I definitely feel more confident using WPF and feel I have picked it up quicker simply because I didn't have to "unlearn" winforms.
Sure, some WPF concepts are harder to understand at first but once they click into place you will start making progress and won't look back.
Saying that both technologies are great. Winforms Ace card is that it is mature, stable and easier to find help for.
Saying this, your question has a hint of "I'm not sure which one to choose so need someone to tell me" - The best advice is pick one and get on writing your application. Great applications can be written in both WPF and Winforms.
WPF is definitely better than WinForms, when you develop any LOB application its a high priority that how well you manage your code/project. When using WPF you have the power of following:
Separating your view from logic (the power of xaml, easier to read and design)
You can implement MVVM which gives you great control of your code. When working with multiple teams on a big project its a big plus.
On top of all that you can choose to use a framework like MVVM light, or use Prism 4.0 which not only helps implement MVVM but has other features too.
Another big advantage is, once you develop an application in WPF, you'll be able to develop in Silverlight with great ease. and with Silverlight 4 you have the capability of running your app out of browser without coding. Same app will run on desktop, cloud, web.
Finally I would say I wouldn't use WinForms because its 2011, WinForms is 90s...
I am a ten-year veteran of ASP.NET and C# development and I'm moving into a position where I will be doing much more Windows Forms and WPF development. I have minimal experience with these technologies.
Can you recommend any good books or resources that will help me ramp up on these technologies quickly? I'd like to find resources that skip over basic .NET programming topics and get right to the heart of good application architecture, design and implementation.
There are many resources on windowsclient.net. This is the official, Microsoft run Windows Forms and WPF site.
That being said, I'd recommend only trying to get a very basic idea of Windows Forms, and instead, focus on learning WPF. This will help for Silverlight development, as well. WPF is the newer technology, and really is a better path going forward for future proofing yourself. By learning it first, you won't have to unlearn many bad habits you'll pick up with Windows Forms development.
Take a look at MEF and Prism if you are looking for good WPF application design. As for books - I'd recommend Apress' Pro WPF in C# 2008 (Don't know when it will be updated for 4.0, but relative few new things to learn here (mostly a few new controls and improvements in existing controls/syntax).
I really liked this video by Jason Dolinger on the MVVM pattern for WPF. It is a really great into what you can do with WPF, how data binding works, and helps get you thinking in the right direction.
http://blog.lab49.com/archives/2650
I want to learn WPF but from all the commentary I've been hearing the tooling in Visual Studios is weak and would require me writing XAML by hand which is inefficient. I've seen tools such as Expression Blend that are used to create XAML however given my complete lack of understanding of WPF I'd be hard-pressed to get enough "mileage" out of the trial to learn enough to decide if I want to buy the software. So my question is if I want to learn the tooling that Microsoft is providing for WPF as I learn WPF what approach would you suggest? As for tooling, is there an Express edition of Blend that I can use to learn before I upgrade to the professional license? Thanks!
Honestly,
I've felt that I've learned WPF the best by writing the XAML by hand. I've been using VS 2010 Beta 1 and the designer has gotten better (with intellisense and such) and it sounds like when Beta 2 comes out it will be better yet.
After you learn WPF and get comfortable with the basics and functionality, then using Blend for making things look "pretty" is useful.
I do not know how long the trial version of Blend 3 is, but before 3 came out, they kept giving out a version (June Preview, August Preview and the likes) that lasted 3 months before they expired.
Again, I didn't feel like Blend helped me learn WPF, it just helped make things more visually appealing (gradients and some animations). But to each his own.
This isn't exactly what you are looking for, but I found it helpful when playing around with XAML.
Kaxaml
You might want to look at learnvisualstudio.net. I think they have some videos on WPF.
I use this website to help me learn VS.net and some .net languages.
I really enjoyed this tutorial when I was first getting started. I think they do a good job orienting you with WPF and Blend.
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At company I'm working, new project will be started soon. I'd like to use Silverlight 2.0 but I need to convince my CEO and Photoshop/AfterEffects guy for using Silverligt for upcoming project. These persons are - let's say - rather Flash / Apple oriented, but for me as a .NET developer Silverlight seems to be proper solution :-)
I have a list of advantages from developer's point of view but I need to show for these non-technical persons any working demos .
These applications could be business applications, but the most important features are:
fancy graphics - not a developer manufacture,
comfortable and interesting UI,
functionalities which are difficult to implement in Flash
Thanks.
I find that folks really like Quince:
(source: sparklingclient.com)
One of my favorites is Centre des Usages:
(source: sparklingclient.com)
Telerik have a couple of nice looking demos of their controls
This silverlight showcase will probably have something you can use
There are some killer visual effects in SL3:
http://blogs.msdn.com/henryh/archive/2009/03/20/mix09-the-gratuitous-graphics-demo.aspx
That demo is pretty awesome. Be sure to mention out of browser support, which you can't do in flash (though I understand other adobe technologies support OOB). Other posts on stack overflow have pointed to there being more 3rd party controls for SL than Flash but I don't have any stats to back it up.
Surely you don't need Demo's of fancy graphics or comfortable and interesting UI's. Since this would be by design and would be implementable in Flash or Silverlight.
Surely things like the fact that existing programmer knowledge can be extended into the rich UI because you can reuse your .Net skills would be the key thing. Being able to deliver functionality rather that just "flash"....
The showcase above is quite good, but the argument is still going to come back from the people who are used to using flash by saying "Yea, but we could do that in flash".
You need to show them what additional functionality Silverlight would allow for which you are battling to implement using flash. The down side is that if you can not do that, and you have a company with resources that is already trained in building things in Flash, you may be better off staying with Flash.
Becoming more familier with Silverlight yourself would help you to explain the strengths of SilverLight and all the good things. Time for that Hello World Silverlight app to be created.
Most of the things that you can do in Flash/Air can be done in Silverlight and vice versa. even if they are some things you can do in one but not the other, they might not be applicable to your scenario. picking the tool is one task. Assuming you have picked Silverlight then comes the difficult task do you use Code Behind, MVP, MVC, MVVM, Prism, Caliburn, SLExtensions. and once you pick the pattern you use, you will soon find there are n-variations of each with no definitive guidance
I would say if dev's are familiar with .net go with Silverlight
I met the CEO of this company on Tuesday, so I have no prior affiliation or vested interest. (But, he was a nice enough guy, so I'll give him this free plug.) Both the apps you see on this page are pretty cool, and the first is a Silverlight app.
http://www.atamagroup.com/