I want to create a UI sequence where the user clicks a button and it pops up a small panel below it with a button and a textbox and maybe a small list of items.
The dialog is non-modal and more importantly, it just goes away when you click somewhere else in the main window.
For example, when you click the 'Favorites' Star icon in Internet Explorer 7 or you click the Star in the location bar in Firefox twice and it brings up the bookmark editor dialog.
What's the cleanest way to achieve this?
Should I use a UserControl and absolutely fix the location of it when a button is clicked?
If so, how do I hide it when the user clicks somewhere else?
I'd say the cleanest way to do what you are looking for is to use a Popup. The Popup class displays an element that floats above the rest of the elements on the screen, but is non-modal and can be configured to disappear when the user clicks away from it - perfect for your non-modal dialog. The Popup class has properties that allow you to control where it shows up relative to another control (in your case, the button you want the user to press to open the popup).
Here's an all-XAML example:
<Grid>
<ToggleButton HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top"
x:Name="PopButton" Content="Pop"/>
<Popup Placement="Bottom" PlacementTarget="{Binding ElementName=PopButton}" StaysOpen="False"
IsOpen="{Binding ElementName=PopButton, Path=IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}">
<Rectangle Height="100" Width="200" Fill="Blue"/>
</Popup>
</Grid>
You can also use commands or event handlers to open/close the popup from code.
The Placement and PlacementTarget properties set where the popup will appear, and which control it will appear relative to (there are other options that allow you to have it appear relative to its current position and relative to the mouse, too). Setting StaysOpen to False will have WPF automatically close the popup when the user clicks outside of it.
By default, a Popup has no style of it's own - it's just a container for floating content - so you'll have to style it to look like your window chrome/toolbar/etc. as appropriate.
Related
WPF MenuItem is only selected when user hovers mouse exactly over the text of MenuItem.
If user clicks now then menu will be expanded, good:
This does not happen when mouse is not over the text.
If user clicks in this situation then nothing happens (you can see background of MenuItem is darkened, i.e. mouse is not over the element):
This is quite incovenient, uses complained, I even set bold font to increase area where user clicks succeed to open submenu.
Code is very simple:
<MenuItem x:Name="MainMenuItem" Header="Menu" ToolTipService.HasDropShadow="True"
Foreground="{StaticResource BasicBritnessForeground}" FontWeight="Bold">
How to fix this?
I am a newbe on wpf. I need a control like that
It should work like a button. It should change background color on IsMouseOver and on IsPressed. But click should be triggered and command invocked only when user clicks the cross. Is there a way to restrict clickable area for button with providing some custom content or template?
Instead of trying to make a whole button-control with just a "partly"- button I would instead do it with a stackpanel or grid.
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Textblock>Some Text</Textblock>
<Button source="YourImage"/>
</StackPanel>
Now you can decide width,heigt and those properties you see fit. To make your Textblock and button to change background if the mouse is over, I would look over Style's and Trigger's
Here is a link to a tutorial
Greetings
I'm currently making an application in WPF as I'm fairly new to WPF I'm running into some difficulties. I have Googled my question but with no great success. This is the current situation, XAML of main window below:
<Grid Height="279" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="166,0,0,0" Name="gridScoreboard" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="808">
<!--Scoreboard Image-->
<Image Source="pack://application:,,,/Images/Style/Scoreboard.png" Width="517" Height="91" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="138,1,0,0" Name="image1" Stretch="Fill" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
<Canvas Name="canvasRacePlayer1" Width="14" Height="14" Canvas.Left="33" Canvas.Top="66" Background="Transparent" MouseLeftButtonDown="canvasRacePlayer1_MouseLeftButtonDown" Margin="171,70,623,195" />
<local:ucRaces HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="93,62,632,187" Width="78" Visibility="Hidden" x:Name="ucRacesP1" Height="33" />
</Grid>
The user control is hidden from the start (ucRaces), once the little canvas (canvasRacePLayer1) is clicked the user control will be shown. However I would like this user control to 'slide' from right to left from a certain point. As if it would become visible in small steps. I have found information for animations for rectangles and buttons but no success really for User Controls.
Thank you in advance
If you are going to create animations for your WPF project, I suggest that you use Expression Blend. You can design your program using EB and implement the functionality of it using Visual Studio. It will be hard to make animations, writing XAML syntax or C# code.
How would you be able to animate your user controls using EB? Well, it is actually very simple. You need to open your existing WPF project first. Then, go to File -> New Item -> User Control, and create the user control. Then, if you want to add it to your project, switch back to the WPF project currently open in EB and click the right arrows (>>) on the toolbar placed on the left-hand side of the screen and go to Project -> [Your User Control Here]. Now you have added it to your project.
If you want to animate the user control, you have to add a StoryBoard to your timeline. When you are on your WPF project in EB, under Objects and Timeline, click the plus (+) sign and add a new StoryBoard. Now, you have a timeline that you need to use to animate your user control. You can place KeyTime attributes on the timeline and define the path the user control is supposed to follow from location A to location B and also the level of opacity if you want the user control to gradually become visible.
You can add one more user control and implement its logic for the second user. Expression Blend will make your life easier.
Animating your UserControl shouldn't be much different from animating any other WPF object: You can either animate the margin (using a ThicknessAnimation), or drop your user control into a canvas of its own, then animate the Canvas.Left property of your user control. In the latter case, take care to put the property name in parenthesis: Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Canvas.Left)".
How can I create notifications for my WPF apps, like those on browsers where they show messages via a "toolbar" at the top of the browser or a "MSN" style notification via a popup that slides up/down on the bottom right of the screen. Maybe a panel that fades in/out at the center of the app will do to
Your question is a little vague, in that with WPF, your options here are really only limited by your imagination.
Here are some options:
MessageBox
This is the simplest option - if you want to notify your user with a simple message that he must acknowledge to continue, then just show a message in a MessageBox.
Roll Your Own Dialog
If MessageBox doesn't quite do it, and you want to show more or different kinds of information, then you can simply create a new Window, and open it with the ShowDialog() method, forcing the user to close it (acknowledge it) before proceeding.
StatusBar
If you simply want to convey information, you can just add a StatusBar to the bottom of your dialog. I've linked to a nice example from fellow SO'er Kent Boogaart. Note that you aren't limited to just text in a StatusBar - you can add any UIElement to it, so you could have images, progressbars, whatever.
Some Other Panel
You could also have another panel of some sort (using your example, a StackPanel or something at the top of your application) that has Visibility set to Collapsed unless it is needed. You could also have, for example, a Border with some content in it, that shows up in front of the rest of the UIElements in your dialog. You can use a PopUp control.
If you go the "extra panel" route (which perhaps sounds most in line with what you are asking), then it may be nice to do some tricks with animations to add just a little flash to your app. Stuff like sliding the panel into place, or animating the opacity, etc. If you are putting the information over the rest of your window content, you can also play with the Opacity to make the panel semi-transparent - dark enough to see and read, but also allowing the user to see a little bit of the window behind it.
Here's a very basic example of what I mean. I'll leave it as an exercise for the user to add any formatting, slick animations, handle multiple messages, etc.
<Window ...>
<Grid x:Name="gridMainLayout">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<StackPanel x:Name="stackNotificationArea"
Grid.Row="0"
Orientation="Horizontal"
Background="LemonChiffon"
Visibility="Collapsed">
<TextBlock x:Name="txtMessage"
Text="{Binding NotificationMessage}" />
<Button x:Name="btnAcknowledge"
Content="Acknowledge" />
</StackPanel>
<!-- Rest of your window goes here -->
<Grid x:Name="gridContent"
Grid.Row="1">
<!-- Content of window -->
</Grid>
</Window>
In the above example, I assume that there is a property called NotificationMessage that returns the latest notification message. You could hard-code this in text, or whatever. It would probably be best to bind the Visibility of the StackPanel as well, based on if there were any notifications. In any case, you will have to toggle the StackPanel to Visible as needed. Setting it to Visible will automatically move the content of your window down, as you described.
Be sure to set Visibility to Collapsed when the message is acknowledged. If you set it to Hidden, the StackPanel will not be shown, but the real estate will still be held for it (i.e. there will be a blank space at the top of your application).
Of course, you can be as fancy as you need to be here - you could have a small listbox with all the messages, or a couple of buttons to scroll through messages, or a button to launch a window with all messages, or...
How to close the WPF Popup in a WPF Control if clicked outside the Popup area or if the Parent Control is moved ?
I cannot check it from the Parent Control, Everything must be done by the control itself.
<Popup x:Name="pop" IsOpen="False" StaysOpen="False">
in WinRT and universal app you can use
IsLightDismissEnabled="True"
its will close automatically when click any where.