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Programming WPF, 2nd Edition
book

Programming WPF, 2nd Edition

by Chris Sells, Ian Griffiths
August 2007
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
864 pages
25h 52m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Programming WPF, 2nd Edition

Hosting a WPF Control in Windows Forms

Hosting a WPF control in Windows Forms is much the same as hosting a Windows Forms Control in WPF: we need a host. In WPF, we needed a host that was an element that could fit into WPF, but that also provided an HWND for use by the Windows Forms control. In Windows Forms, we need a Windows Forms Control-derived class so that it can fit into a container's Controls collection. For that, we have the ElementHost class, also from the System.Windows.Forms.Integration namespace and the WindowsFormsIntegration assembly.

The ElementHost class derives from ContainerControl to enable hosting other Windows Forms controls. The element host knows about HWNDs, how to size and paint itself, and how to handle keystrokes and focus. As an example, let's say we've got a form all laid out in the Windows Forms Designer, as shown in Figure B-5.

A Windows Forms form with space for a WPF button

Figure B-5. A Windows Forms form with space for a WPF button

In Figure B-5, we've got a form with two group boxes: one with a Windows Forms button laid out on the left using the Windows Forms Designer and one blank on the right, all ready for a WPF button to be added at runtime, which is what the code in Example B-5 does.

Example B-5. Creating a WPF button in a Windows Forms application

// Form1.cs ... using System.Windows.Forms.Integration; public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1( ) { InitializeComponent( ); // group boxes ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596510374Supplemental ContentErrata Page