Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed

655 Pages·2006·18.566 MB·English

by  Adam Nathan

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Adam Nathan
with Daniel Lehenbauer,
Lead Developer Responsible for WPF 3D
Windows
®
Presentation
Foundation
U N L E A S H E D
800 East 96th Street,Indianapolis,Indiana 46240 USA
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Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed Editor-in-Chief
Copyright ©2007 by Sams Publishing Karen Gettman
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or
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transmitted by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,
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the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the
preparation of this book,the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omis- Development Editor
sions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information Mark Renfrow
contained herein.
Managing Editor
International Standard Book Number: 0-672-32891-7
Gina Kanouse
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nathan,Adam. Project Editor
Windows presentation foundation unleashed / Adam Nathan. Betsy Harris
p. cm.
Copy Editor
ISBN 0-672-32891-7
Karen Annett
1. Windows presentation foundation. 2. Application software. 3. Microsoft .NET Framework.
I. Title. Indexers
Lisa Stumpf
QA76.76.A65N38 2007 Ken Johnson
005.2’768—dc22 Proofreader
2006038586 Kathy Bidnell
Printed in the United States of America
Publishing
First Printing: December,2006
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction....................................................................................................1
PART I Background
1 Why Windows Presentation Foundation?.....................................................9
2 XAML Demystified........................................................................................19
3 Important New Concepts in WPF................................................................45
Part II Building a WPF Application
4 Introducing WPF’s Controls.........................................................................85
5 Sizing, Positioning, and Transforming Elements.......................................127
6 Layout with Panels......................................................................................147
7 Structuring and Deploying an Application................................................191
Part III Features for Professional Developers
8 Resources.....................................................................................................239
9 Data Binding...............................................................................................259
10 Styles, Templates, Skins, and Themes.........................................................307
Part IV Going Beyond Today’s Applications with Rich Media
11 2D Graphics................................................................................................355
12 3D Graphics................................................................................................415
13 Animation...................................................................................................469
14 Audio, Video, Speech, and Documents......................................................501
Part V Advanced Topics
15 Interoperability with Win32, Windows Forms, and ActiveX....................539
16 User Controls and Custom Controls..........................................................579
17 Layout with Custom Panels........................................................................605
Part VI Appendix
Appendix Helpful Tools...............................................................................................617
Index...........................................................................................................621
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iv Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Who Should Read This Book?........................................................................2
Software Requirements...................................................................................3
Code Examples................................................................................................4
How This Book Is Organized..........................................................................4
Part I: Background.................................................................................4
Part II: Building a WPF Application......................................................4
Part III: Features for Professional Developers........................................5
Part IV: Going Beyond Today’s Applications with Rich Media............5
Part V: Advanced Topics........................................................................5
Conventions Used in This Book.....................................................................6
PART I Background
1 Why Windows Presentation Foundation? 9
A Look at the Past.........................................................................................10
Enter WPF.....................................................................................................11
Part of the .NET Framework.........................................................................16
Designed for Managed Code...............................................................16
Emphasis on Declarative Descriptions................................................17
Conclusion....................................................................................................18
2 XAML Demystified 19
XAML Defined..............................................................................................20
Elements and Attributes...............................................................................20
Namespaces...................................................................................................22
Property Elements.........................................................................................24
Type Converters............................................................................................25
Markup Extensions.......................................................................................26
Children of Object Elements........................................................................29
The Content Property..........................................................................29
Collection Items..................................................................................30
More Type Conversion........................................................................32
Compilation: Mixing XAML with Procedural Code....................................34
Loading and Parsing XAML at Run-Time...........................................34
Compiling XAML................................................................................36
XAML Keywords..................................................................................41
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Contents v
Conclusion....................................................................................................43
Complaint #1: XML Is Too Verbose to Type.......................................44
Complaint #2: XML-Based Systems Have Poor Performance.............44
3 Important New Concepts in WPF 45
Logical and Visual Trees................................................................................45
Dependency Properties.................................................................................51
A Dependency Property Implementation...........................................51
Change Notification............................................................................53
Property Value Inheritance..................................................................55
Support for Multiple Providers............................................................57
Attached Properties..............................................................................60
Routed Events...............................................................................................64
A Routed Event Implementation........................................................64
Routing Strategies and Event Handlers...............................................66
Routed Events in Action......................................................................66
Attached Events...................................................................................70
Commands....................................................................................................73
Built-In Commands.............................................................................74
Executing Commands with Input Gestures........................................77
Controls with Built-In Command Bindings.......................................78
A Tour of the Class Hierarchy.......................................................................79
Conclusion....................................................................................................81
Part II Building a WPF Application
4 Introducing WPF’s Controls 85
Content Controls..........................................................................................86
Buttons.................................................................................................87
Simple Containers...............................................................................91
Containers with a Header....................................................................95
Items Controls..............................................................................................97
Selectors.............................................................................................100
Menus................................................................................................111
Other Items Controls.........................................................................115
Range Controls............................................................................................120
ProgressBar.........................................................................................120
Slider..................................................................................................121
Text and Ink Controls.................................................................................122
TextBox..............................................................................................122
RichTextBox.......................................................................................123
PasswordBox......................................................................................123
InkCanvas..........................................................................................124
Conclusion..................................................................................................126
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vi Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed
5 Sizing,Positioning,and Transforming Elements 127
Controlling Size..........................................................................................128
Height and Width..............................................................................128
Margin and Padding..........................................................................130
Visibility.............................................................................................132
Controlling Position...................................................................................133
Alignment..........................................................................................133
Content Alignment...........................................................................134
FlowDirection....................................................................................135
Applying Transforms...................................................................................136
RotateTransform................................................................................138
ScaleTransform...................................................................................139
SkewTransform...................................................................................142
TranslateTransform............................................................................142
MatrixTransform................................................................................142
Combining Transforms......................................................................143
Conclusion..................................................................................................145
6 Layout with Panels 147
Canvas.........................................................................................................148
StackPanel...................................................................................................151
WrapPanel...................................................................................................152
DockPanel...................................................................................................155
Grid.............................................................................................................157
Sizing the Rows and Columns..........................................................161
Interactive Sizing with GridSplitter...................................................164
Sharing Row and Column Sizes........................................................166
Comparing Grid to Other Panels......................................................168
Primitive Panels..........................................................................................169
TabPanel.............................................................................................169
ToolBarOverflowPanel.......................................................................170
ToolBarTray........................................................................................170
UniformGrid......................................................................................170
Handling Content Overflow.......................................................................170
Clipping.............................................................................................171
Scrolling.............................................................................................173
Scaling................................................................................................175
Putting It All Together: Creating a Visual Studio-Like Collapsible,
Dockable, Resizable Pane..........................................................................179
Conclusion..................................................................................................189
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Contents vii
7 Structuring and Deploying an Application 191
Standard Windows Applications................................................................191
The Window Class.............................................................................192
The Application Class........................................................................195
Creating and Showing Dialogs..........................................................201
Persisting and Restoring Application State.......................................204
Deployment: ClickOnce Versus Windows Installer..........................205
Navigation-Based Windows Applications...................................................206
Pages and Their Navigation Containers............................................207
Navigating from Page to Page...........................................................209
Passing Data Between Pages..............................................................215
Applications with a Windows Vista Look and Feel....................................218
Going Beyond MessageBox with TaskDialog....................................219
Using Aero Glass................................................................................221
Gadget-Style Applications...........................................................................225
XAML Browser Applications.......................................................................227
Limited Feature Set............................................................................229
Integrated Navigation........................................................................231
Deployment.......................................................................................232
Loose XAML Pages......................................................................................235
Conclusion..................................................................................................236
Part III Features for Professional Developers
8 Resources 239
Binary Resources.........................................................................................239
Defining Binary Resources.................................................................240
Accessing Binary Resources...............................................................241
Localization........................................................................................246
Logical Resources........................................................................................247
Resource Lookup................................................................................250
Static Versus Dynamic Resources......................................................251
Interaction with System Resources....................................................256
Conclusion..................................................................................................256
9 Data Binding 259
Introducing the Binding Object.................................................................259
Using Binding in Procedural Code....................................................259
Using Binding in XAML....................................................................262
Binding to Plain .NET Properties.......................................................263
Binding to an Entire Object..............................................................265
Binding to a Collection.....................................................................267
Sharing the Source with DataContext..............................................270
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viii Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed
Controlling Rendering................................................................................271
Using Data Templates........................................................................271
Using Value Converters.....................................................................274
Customizing the View of a Collection.......................................................279
Sorting................................................................................................279
Grouping............................................................................................281
Filtering..............................................................................................284
Navigating..........................................................................................285
Working with Additional Views........................................................286
Data Providers.............................................................................................288
XmlDataProvider...............................................................................289
ObjectDataProvider............................................................................293
Advanced Topics.........................................................................................296
Customizing the Data Flow...............................................................296
Adding Validation Rules to Binding.................................................298
Working with Disjoint Sources..........................................................301
Putting It All Together: The Pure-XAML RSS Reader.................................303
Conclusion..................................................................................................305
10 Styles,Templates,Skins,and Themes 307
Styles...........................................................................................................308
Sharing Styles.....................................................................................310
Triggers...............................................................................................316
Templates....................................................................................................321
Introducing Control Templates.........................................................321
Getting Interactivity with Triggers....................................................322
Restricting the Target Type................................................................324
Respecting the Templated Parent’s Properties...................................325
Respecting Visual States.....................................................................332
Mixing Templates with Styles...........................................................338
Skins............................................................................................................340
Themes........................................................................................................346
Using System Colors, Fonts, and Parameters....................................347
Per-Theme Styles and Templates.......................................................348
Conclusion..................................................................................................351
Part IV Going Beyond Today’s Applications with Rich Media
11 2D Graphics 355
Drawings.....................................................................................................356
Geometries.........................................................................................358
Pens....................................................................................................369
Clip Art Example...............................................................................370
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Contents ix
Visuals.........................................................................................................372
Filling a DrawingVisual with Content..............................................373
Displaying a Visual on the Screen.....................................................376
Visual Hit Testing...............................................................................378
Shapes..........................................................................................................385
Rectangle............................................................................................386
Ellipse.................................................................................................387
Line....................................................................................................388
Polyline..............................................................................................388
Polygon..............................................................................................389
Path....................................................................................................390
Clip Art Based on Shapes..................................................................391
Brushes........................................................................................................392
Color Brushes.....................................................................................392
Tile Brushes........................................................................................399
Brushes as Opacity Masks..................................................................406
Bitmap Effects.............................................................................................409
Conclusion..................................................................................................413
12 3D Graphics 415
Getting Started with 3D Graphics..............................................................416
Cameras and Coordinate Systems..............................................................420
The Position Property........................................................................420
LookDirection....................................................................................422
UpDirection.......................................................................................425
Orthographic Versus Perspective.......................................................428
Transform3Ds..............................................................................................430
TranslateTransform3Ds......................................................................433
ScaleTransform3Ds.............................................................................433
RotateTransform3Ds..........................................................................436
Combining Transform3Ds.................................................................439
Model3Ds....................................................................................................439
Lights.................................................................................................440
GeometryModel3Ds...........................................................................447
Model3DGroup..................................................................................459
Visual3Ds.....................................................................................................462
ModelVisual3Ds.................................................................................462
3D Hit Testing....................................................................................464
The Viewport3D Element...........................................................................465
Conclusion..................................................................................................468
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