Which technology (WPF or Winforms) should be used if UI supposed to be highly customizable like controls layout/design could be change by user and such sort of UI customization.
Kindly mention best practices along to achieve that...
I just recently developed a designer in both WinForms (company req) and WPF (to see how much better it was). WPF has a definate edge, especially when it comes to nicer looking controls and control transparency.
This was my first actual WPF project, other than just messing around, so I was learning as I went. I found this series on creating a diagram designer very helpful. I didn't really do the same things that this article talks about, but more of a hybrid between that and my WinForms app.
I have to admit that the UI functionality was up and running much faster in the WPF version than with the WinForms version.
WPF I have found the easiest to create controls on a fly. Because I can just attach them as child controls to the parent, and the Grids, Dock Panels, just make life easier.
I found WinForms to be clunky to always work with. However I come from a Web background and Xaml makes sense to me.
WPF controls are design and lookless. That means you have a default view of them, but everything detail of a WPF control can be overridden. It's almost akin to using CSS. In the WPF world, you do not create custom controls like you do in WinForms. The main thing in WPF world is "styling" controls and defining a style for them. It just happens that the style also controls the layout and the form of the controls.
WPF is FAR superior for designing and style of UI. Check out these two top WPF companies and tell me if this stuff is easy to do in WinForms:
Cynergy Systems: http://www.cynergysystems.com/
Thirteen23: http://www.thirteen23.com/
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I'am learning wpf. As a part of learning I'm converting a winforms application into a wpf application using mvvm.
In winforms I just dragged and droped. After that I aligned based on my requirement.
But in WPF when i drag and drop a default grid is wrapping the components and I'm facing great difficulty in aligning the components.
On learning the tutorials on wpf https://www.tutorialspoint.com/wpf/wpf_layouts.htm
I tried to work with but I don't know which is suitable for my UI.
I want to create UI in wpf as below winform
I have used grid and stackpanel but I have issue with alignment. In grid I have issue with adding new elements in the existing row. In stackpanel I face issue with spacing between the components and aligning the compnent.
Can anyone help me on which panel to use for the above kind of UI.
In general you don't use editors for WPF, you edit the layout XAML by hand and use the visualizer as a guide to show whether or not you've done it right. The Visual Studio editor does let you do things like basic layout, but as soon as you start using ControlTemplates/DataTemplates/Behaviours etc you'll quickly find that it's useless (and believe me, that moment will come much sooner than you think). If you really want to use a graphical editor then Microsoft Blend is your best bet, but even that is generally designed for non-programmers. In fact, in the 10+ years I've been a professional WPF contractor I've yet to encounter a single company that actually uses Blend...or indeed any other GUI-driven XAML editor...for their product development.
Not sure if this an appropriate forum for this, but I need some guidance from those who are further down the road than I am with WPF.
I've used Telerik Winform controls for a years and have mixed feelings about them. They look good, but they are deeply nested, have a steep learning curve, and sometimes don't perform the best. For example, just working with a RadWindow in the WPF designer, it's slow compared with native wpf controls.
I like Caliburn.Micro MVVM framework and MahApps metro styles, but to keep the same look and feel for a ribbon bar I'd need to use another third party tool (like Fluent) or just use the Microsoft Ribbon View control and figure out how to use templates and styles myself (or find an existing metro template for it).
I tried to combine Telerik and Caliburn but had trouble getting them to work. There is a Caliburn Telerik library but its based on Caliburn Micro 1.5.2 and I'm trying to use Caliburn.Micro 2.0.2. Problem is I always get an aero-looking full window title bar and frame wrapped around the Telerik styled window.
I just don't know enough about conventions and such to make it all work together. And frankly, not sure it's worth the trouble. I'm looking for a more streamlined approach that lessens my dependence on pricy and heavy third party controls.
So, I'm looking for guidance on whether I should use straight Telerik, straight caliburn or go through the work of trying to get them to work together.
What I would prefer is to use Caliburn as the mvvm framework with a layer of styling, like what MahhAps provides. And for those controls that aren't styled, like the Ribbon Bar, to either use Microsoft's ribbon bar and find templates and styles that would work or maybe a 3rd party control like Fluent. But would I be getting in over my head in trying to learn templates and styles?
Sorry for the ramble, but I'm frustrated and need some help in working through this. Thanks.
I found a great resource that maybe others new to WPF and struggling with similar questions would benefit from: MarkPad, a Code52 project on CodePlex.
It's written in WPF using Caliburn Micro MVVM framework (although it's version 1.5.2 rather than the current 2.0) and MahApps metro styles with some "roll your own" windows. It's a great looking app with the kind of simple menuing system I was looking for AND an MDI implementation. It's also a good example on how to organize a somewhat complex WPF application, something I was also unsure about.
It answers the question: Do I need to use Telerik? The answer is a definite NO. It's a great learning tool for me and maybe will be useful to others.
I would like to use both Telerik WPF UI Controls and WPF own controls in the same project. I think WPF is quite good and I need only a few controls and themes from Telerik. However, when I mix them, not all WPF controls benefit from the themes of Telerik. I read that, Telerik only support a few of WPF controls like TextBox and etc. However, I could not find a way to achieve a WPF Window with a looking like RadWindow. I have been searching and found some answers about this topic, but I think they are a little bit disorganized.
In brief, I would like to use styles from Telerik for also other WPF Controls (non-Telerik ones), but I am not sure whether it is possible or not? When I use WPF Window and RADProgressBar together, of course it does not look very good. If mixing is not a good idea I am considering completely switching to WPF. I do not have much experience with Telerik and I do not want to struggle in a mess due to this mixed environment. I want to use both if it is possible to achieve a unified style for both controls (Telerik and non-Telerik).
Take a look at MahApps Metro (http://mahapps.com/), a WPF control toolkit that has styles to give your application a metro feel, as that is what a lot of the Telerik UI kit does as far as I can tell.
I am new to WPF and I am facing a problem here. In one of our application, few dialogs responsible for similar kind of work. All dialogs have OK and APPLY buttons. But in our new UI Design, these will be displayed on a side bar which is a panel(Yet to decide control). I thought of having a Base Usercontrol which will have OK and APPLY button with few methods. And my other dialogs(which are Usercontrols now in new UI) are derived from this Base User Control.
I downloaded few code samples from internet, but problem didn't solve.
If you have any idea/code sample please share.
Thanks in advance.
WPF (also WinForm to some extent) doesn't play well with inheritance. You could create the UI in C# code and get inheritance working but I don't think designer play well so you'll be stuck in design mode and in Blend.
To work around it you could create piece of functionality that you want to reuse and use composition instead of inheritance, which is considered a better approach anyway.
Is there a way to download more controls or anything, because I have seen a few things in other programs I don't think I've seen in the toolbox. Can you download new ones, or did the company somehow custom make a control? If it was custom made, are there any tutorials I can take a look at that tell how to make your own?
Some companies make third party controls for Winforms - Telerik is one I know of.
Personally, I prefer to make my own controls based on the existing WinForms ones, as I have more control over them - this prevents my products from having bugs which just can't be fixed. I can also tweak the controls to do exactly what I need, rather than choosing a closest match. Building custom controls is relatively easy if you have the experience.
There is a basic tutorial on CodeProject which shows how to create a fancy Button. After that you should be able to figure out how to customize more complex controls.
Side-note:
While it's reasonably easy to develop custom controls in WinForms if you have the time to practice, WPF is a much better framework for building custom controls. WPF controls are designed specifically for customization, so there is a lot more flexibility.