hakimin

Using Windows Forms DateTime picker in WPF

2007-04-21T23:14:00Z

WPF is great piece of technology coming out from Redmond , it's kinda of really good when you're building nice presentation, that really shines. But for most enterprise developer, who needs to deal with data frequently, the lack of certain data aware control is a huge limiting factor, and we all know that, there's no DateTime data control in WPF. Kevin Moore's bag o tricks created a pure WPF dateTime picker but the feature far behind what's offered by Windows Forms. Fortunately we could use any Windows Forms control in WPF with WindowForsm Intergration(crossbow).

Basically we're going to create a UserControl, put a grid in and off we go

Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

<wfi:WindowsFormsHost Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" Margin="0">
<swf:DateTimePicker x:Name="wfdateTimePicker" Format="Custom" CustomFormat="dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt"/>
</wfi:WindowsFormsHost>
</Grid>
</UserControl>

wfi:WindowsFormsHost Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" Margin="0">
<swf:DateTimePicker x:Name="wfdateTimePicker" Format="Custom" CustomFormat="dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt"/>
</wfi:WindowsFormsHost>
</Grid>
</UserControl>

Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

Then we need to create proxy property for the WF DatePicker to be able to do DataBinding, we're going to need DependencyProperty

public static readonly DependencyProperty ValueProperty;

static WpfDateAndTimePicker()

{

IsDropDownOpenProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("IsDropDownOpen", typeof(bool), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnIsDropDownOpenChanged, null));

ValueProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Value", typeof(DateTime?), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

static WpfDateAndTimePicker()

{

IsDropDownOpenProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("IsDropDownOpen", typeof(bool), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnIsDropDownOpenChanged, null));

ValueProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Value", typeof(DateTime?), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

= DependencyProperty.Register("IsDropDownOpen", typeof(bool), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnIsDropDownOpenChanged, null));

ValueProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Value", typeof(DateTime?), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(false, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnIsDropDownOpenChanged, null));

ValueProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("Value", typeof(DateTime?), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

= DependencyProperty.Register("Value", typeof(DateTime?), typeof(WpfDateAndTimePicker),

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(DateTime.Now, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.BindsTwoWayByDefault, OnValueChanged, null));

}

Creating a Form

2006-11-03T09:12:00Z

Here i will write an example doin a form programming. No more such bull *** of explaination. I Will give an example and it will make you all more easy to understand.

Example :

From last blog we have create a simple form application. Today is some but little bit different;

using System.Windows.Form;

class FirstFormApplication: Form {

    public class FirstFormApplication()
    {
       this.Text = "Hello World Form Programming";
    }
}

and we can call the FormApplication class to other application class we want to as example

class MyApplication{
    static void Main() {
    Form form = new FirstFormApplication();
    Application.Run(form);
    }
}

so we can do a lot of change and more on FirstFormApplication class and it can be call into MyApplication class and run it on because the entry point is there. So we can modified FirstFormApplication as i create an example :

class FirstFormApplication: Form {

    public class FirstFormApplication()
    {
       this.Text = "Hello World Form Programming";
       Button button = new Button();
       button.Text = "Click Me";
       this.Controls.Add(button);
    }
}

that for today dude...

adios

Form.Show or .ShowDialog or .Application.Run(Form)

2006-11-02T08:31:00Z

Chapter 1 in Window Forms 2.0 Programming.

What the book talk about. Ermmm from the reading, i got a very clear view of Windows Form 2.0 programming. As example have been show, i know a little bit basic of Form under System.Windows.Form.

So for today, i will give a very simple example of Windows Form programming as a basic to me and all. For this first blog of Window Forms 2.0 Programming.
First of all i will tell about Form. What is it?. We can create an application without using a form. Form is just an interface that communicate user with the computer system. An application without a form will be simple boring because user will se a text only. By using a form, a sofware developer can create an interface which will make user fell glad to using an application. A form can be a dialog box, message box, sigle document interface (SDI) windows or a multiple document interface (MDI) windows. It can be more complicated as we can se windows application today. That the explanation about windows form. So i will give a simple example creating a windows form application.

Example :

class FormApplication
{
    static void Main()
    {
       System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Hello, Form Programming");
    }
}

so that is the very simple windows form programming. But now a day, we can not use a very long statement as System.Windows.Forms to get a message box from Form library. In C# we can use 'using' to call the System.Windows.Forms namespace. So what we have to do is

Example :

using System.Windows.Forms;

class FormApplication
{
    static void Main()
    {
       MessageBox.Show("Helloo, Form Programming");
    }
}

the code so easy to read and we the developer will be easy to maintain. So lets procceed to our main topic. The example shown is very simple form application. We can create a complex application, but before that i want to show a three diffrent way to show a form windows.

Example 1 :
using System.Windows.Forms;

class FormApplication
{
   static void Main()
   {
       Form form = new Form();
       form.Show();
   }
}

this way we can show the form application but it not the best way to use it. Because it will prompt returns and exist the process. So if you want to show a form modeless, you can use that approach. "Show" the form. If you want to show form "modally", see this second example. Modally meant the form will be shown until user close it, an it will return to the Main method. It use "ShowDialog" method.

Example 2 :
using System.Windows.Forms;

class FormApplication
{
   static void Main()
   {
       Form form = new Form();
       form.ShowDialog();
   }
}

but this one its not the one you maybe want to use if you are building an application. Because it not accessible to other parts of your application. So to make it real and contect with you application, pass the main form as an argument to the Application objects static run as example below.

Example 3 :
using System.Windows.Forms;

class FormApplication
{
   static void Main()
   {
       Form form = new Form();
       form.Text = "Hello Form Application";
       Application.Run(form);
   }
}

so many things you can do more. But i will write more about. Enough at this for an enterview

Adios

Windows Form

2006-11-01T08:24:00Z

Tomorrow i start to write a blog post about windows form programming. I will write all about it every day maybe or evry time if lucky to tell to all of you abou window form programming so you also can learn about. Today i'm not ready and don't know nothing. so tomorrow i will start.

Get ready dude. and wait for it

First Day in blog

2006-08-29T08:38:00Z

Today is my first day to have a blog. So for purpose, my blog is to share a knowledge of your all about .Net technology. For your information, i'm new in this arena so maybe i will post a lot a question and solution from my observation and also my exprience in work. So anyone can read it, ask me a question or what ever so we can share the knowledge.

So everybody

Have a nice day and wait for my update.