docs-desktop/dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/wpf/advanced/walkthrough-hosting-a-windows-forms-composite-control-in-wpf.md

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Host a Windows Forms composite control in WPF		03/30/2017	csharp vb	hosting Windows Forms control in WPF [WPF] composite controls [WPF], hosting in WPF	96fcd78d-1c77-4206-8928-3a0579476ef4

Walkthrough: Hosting a Windows Forms Composite Control in WPF

[!INCLUDETLA#tla_winclient] provides a rich environment for creating applications. However, when you have a substantial investment in Windows Forms code, it can be more effective to reuse at least some of that code in your [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application rather than to rewrite it from scratch. The most common scenario is when you have existing Windows Forms controls. In some cases, you might not even have access to the source code for these controls. [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] provides a straightforward procedure for hosting such controls in a [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application. For example, you can use [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] for most of your programming while hosting your specialized xref:System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView controls.

This walkthrough steps you through an application that hosts a Windows Forms composite control to perform data entry in a [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application. The composite control is packaged in a DLL. This general procedure can be extended to more complex applications and controls. This walkthrough is designed to be nearly identical in appearance and functionality to Walkthrough: Hosting a WPF Composite Control in Windows Forms. The primary difference is that the hosting scenario is reversed.

The walkthrough is divided into two sections. The first section briefly describes the implementation of the Windows Forms composite control. The second section discusses in detail how to host the composite control in a [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application, receive events from the control, and access some of the control's properties.

Tasks illustrated in this walkthrough include:

• Implementing the Windows Forms composite control.

• Implementing the WPF host application.

For a complete code listing of the tasks illustrated in this walkthrough, see Hosting a Windows Forms Composite Control in WPF Sample.

Prerequisites

You need Visual Studio to complete this walkthrough.

Implementing the Windows Forms Composite Control

The Windows Forms composite control used in this example is a simple data-entry form. This form takes the user's name and address and then uses a custom event to return that information to the host. The following illustration shows the rendered control.

The following image shows a Windows Forms composite control:

Creating the Project

To start the project:

1. Launch Visual Studio, and open the New Project dialog box.

2. In the Window category, select the Windows Forms Control Library template.

3. Name the new project MyControls.

4. For the location, specify a conveniently named top-level folder, such as WpfHostingWindowsFormsControl. Later, you will put the host application in this folder.

5. Click OK to create the project. The default project contains a single control named UserControl1.

6. In Solution Explorer, rename UserControl1 to MyControl1.

Your project should have references to the following system DLLs. If any of these DLLs are not included by default, add them to the project.

• System

• System.Data

• System.Drawing

• System.Windows.Forms

• System.Xml

Adding Controls to the Form

To add controls to the form:

• Open MyControl1 in the designer.

Add five xref:System.Windows.Forms.Label controls and their corresponding xref:System.Windows.Forms.TextBox controls, sized and arranged as they are in the preceding illustration, on the form. In the example, the xref:System.Windows.Forms.TextBox controls are named:

• txtName

• txtAddress

• txtCity

• txtState

• txtZip

Add two xref:System.Windows.Forms.Button controls labeled OK and Cancel. In the example, the button names are btnOK and btnCancel, respectively.

Implementing the Supporting Code

Open the form in code view. The control returns the collected data to its host by raising the custom OnButtonClick event. The data is contained in the event argument object. The following code shows the event and delegate declaration.

Add the following code to the MyControl1 class.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#2] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#2]

The MyControlEventArgs class contains the information to be returned to the host.

Add the following class to the form.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#3] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#3]

When the user clicks the OK or Cancel button, the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Control.Click event handlers create a MyControlEventArgs object that contains the data and raises the OnButtonClick event. The only difference between the two handlers is the event argument's IsOK property. This property enables the host to determine which button was clicked. It is set to true for the OK button, and false for the Cancel button. The following code shows the two button handlers.

Add the following code to the MyControl1 class.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#4] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#4]

Giving the Assembly a Strong Name and Building the Assembly

For this assembly to be referenced by a [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application, it must have a strong name. To create a strong name, create a key file with Sn.exe and add it to your project.

1. Open a Visual Studio command prompt. To do so, click the Start menu, and then select All Programs/Microsoft Visual Studio 2010/Visual Studio Tools/Visual Studio Command Prompt. This launches a console window with customized environment variables.

2. At the command prompt, use the cd command to go to your project folder.

3. Generate a key file named MyControls.snk by running the following command.

   Sn.exe -k MyControls.snk
   

4. To include the key file in your project, right-click the project name in Solution Explorer and then click Properties. In the Project Designer, click the Signing tab, select the Sign the assembly check box and then browse to your key file.

5. Build the solution. The build will produce a DLL named MyControls.dll.

Implementing the WPF Host Application

The [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] host application uses the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost control to host MyControl1. The application handles the OnButtonClick event to receive the data from the control. It also has a collection of option buttons that enable you to change some of the control's properties from the [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application. The following illustration shows the finished application.

The following image shows the complete application, including the control embedded in the WPF application:

Creating the Project

To start the project:

1. Open Visual Studio, and select New Project.

2. In the Window category, select the WPF Application template.

3. Name the new project WpfHost.

4. For the location, specify the same top-level folder that contains the MyControls project.

5. Click OK to create the project.

You also need to add references to the DLL that contains MyControl1 and other assemblies.

1. Right-click the project name in Solution Explorer and select Add Reference.

2. Click the Browse tab, and browse to the folder that contains MyControls.dll. For this walkthrough, this folder is MyControls\bin\Debug.

3. Select MyControls.dll, and then click OK.

4. Add a reference to the WindowsFormsIntegration assembly, which is named WindowsFormsIntegration.dll.

Implementing the Basic Layout

The [!INCLUDETLA#tla_ui] of the host application is implemented in MainWindow.xaml. This file contains [!INCLUDETLA#tla_xaml] markup that defines the layout, and hosts the Windows Forms control. The application is divided into three regions:

• The Control Properties panel, which contains a collection of option buttons that you can use to modify various properties of the hosted control.

• The Data from Control panel, which contains several xref:System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock elements that display the data returned from the hosted control.

• The hosted control itself.

The basic layout is shown in the following XAML. The markup that is needed to host MyControl1 is omitted from this example, but will be discussed later.

Replace the XAML in MainWindow.xaml with the following. If you are using Visual Basic, change the class to x:Class="MainWindow".

[!code-xamlWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#100]

The first xref:System.Windows.Controls.StackPanel element contains several sets of xref:System.Windows.Controls.RadioButton controls that enable you to modify various default properties of the hosted control. That is followed by a xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element, which hosts MyControl1. The final xref:System.Windows.Controls.StackPanel element contains several xref:System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock elements that display the data that is returned by the hosted control. The ordering of the elements and the xref:System.Windows.Controls.DockPanel.Dock%2A and xref:System.Windows.FrameworkElement.Height%2A attribute settings embed the hosted control into the window with no gaps or distortion.

Hosting the Control

The following edited version of the previous XAML focuses on the elements that are needed to host MyControl1.

[!code-xamlWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#101] [!code-xamlWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#102]

The xmlns namespace mapping attribute creates a reference to the MyControls namespace that contains the hosted control. This mapping enables you to represent MyControl1 in [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_xaml] as <mcl:MyControl1>.

Two elements in the XAML handle the hosting:

• WindowsFormsHost represents the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element that enables you to host a Windows Forms control in a [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] application.

• mcl:MyControl1, which represents MyControl1, is added to the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element's child collection. As a result, this Windows Forms control is rendered as part of the [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_winclient] window, and you can communicate with the control from the application.

Implementing the Code-Behind File

The code-behind file, MainWindow.xaml.vb or MainWindow.xaml.cs, contains the procedural code that implements the functionality of the [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_ui] discussed in the preceding section. The primary tasks are:

• Attaching an event handler to MyControl1's OnButtonClick event.

• Modifying various properties of MyControl1, based on how the collection of option buttons are set.

• Displaying the data collected by the control.

Initializing the Application

The initialization code is contained in an event handler for the window's xref:System.Windows.FrameworkElement.Loaded event and attaches an event handler to the control's OnButtonClick event.

In MainWindow.xaml.vb or MainWindow.xaml.cs, add the following code to the MainWindow class.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#11] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#11]

Because the [!INCLUDETLA2#tla_xaml] discussed previously added MyControl1 to the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element's child element collection, you can cast the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element's xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost.Child%2A to get the reference to MyControl1. You can then use that reference to attach an event handler to OnButtonClick.

In addition to providing a reference to the control itself, xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost exposes a number of the control's properties, which you can manipulate from the application. The initialization code assigns those values to private global variables for later use in the application.

So that you can easily access the types in the MyControls DLL, add the following Imports or using statement to the top of the file.

Imports MyControls

using MyControls;

Handling the OnButtonClick Event

MyControl1 raises the OnButtonClick event when the user clicks either of the control's buttons.

Add the following code to the MainWindow class.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#12] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#12]

The data in the text boxes is packed into the MyControlEventArgs object. If the user clicks the OK button, the event handler extracts the data and displays it in the panel below MyControl1.

Modifying the Control’s Properties

The xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost element exposes several of the hosted control's default properties. As a result, you can change the appearance of the control to match the style of your application more closely. The sets of option buttons in the left panel enable the user to modify several color and font properties. Each set of buttons has a handler for the xref:System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.Click event, which detects the user's option button selections and changes the corresponding property on the control.

Add the following code to the MainWindow class.

[!code-csharpWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#13] [!code-vbWpfHostingWindowsFormsControl#13]

Build and run the application. Add some text in the Windows Forms composite control and then click OK. The text appears in the labels. Click the different radio buttons to see the effect on the control.

See also

• xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.ElementHost
• xref:System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost
• Design XAML in Visual Studio
• Walkthrough: Hosting a Windows Forms Control in WPF
• Walkthrough: Hosting a WPF Composite Control in Windows Forms