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Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
In previous article we discussed brief introduction about WPF. Now let’s move to develop WPF application.
Before start programming in WPF I assume that you are familiar applications with .NET Framework using managed technologies like ASP.NET and Windows Forms. And you should have fundamentals of instantiate classes, change properties, handle methods and handle events, with your favorite programming languages in .NET Framework, such as C# or VB.
System requirements
Visual studio 2005 with .NET framework 3.0 or later version
In addition to that the windows software development kit (SDK), specifically the .net framework tools includes is recommended.
Controls in WPF
Controls are the important things with arranging applications. So far, you have seen how to create instances of controls, set properties, and handle events through windows applications.
The following picture shows how a control work with a program.
Figure1: Control vs. a Program
You can create a new WPF project like other applications in visual studio. After creating new project you can see tool box with controls and property window to change properties which you use in your project.
Figure 2: Create New WPF Application
Figure 3: Tool Box
Figure 4: Property Window
Buttons
Clicking of the button controls are up to the application developers. Clicking on a Check Box or Radio Button expresses a choice, and does not normally have any immediate effect beyond visually reflecting that choice.
<Button Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="58,49,0,0" Name="button1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="75" Click="button1_Click">Button</Button>
An XML attribute specifies the handler for the Click event. This indicates that the code behind for the XAML must contain a method with the name specified in the markup. Ex:
private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("Button was Clicked");
WPF supports this style of keyboard access with the Access Text element. You can wrap this around some text, putting an underscore in front of the letter that will act as the access key. You can see by pressing Alt key.
WPF supports this style of keyboard access with the Access Text element. You can wrap this around some text, putting an underscore in front of the letter that will act as the access key. You can see by pressing Alt key.
<Button Height="23" ....... >
<AccessText>_Button</AccessText>
Figure 5: Button with Access key
If you want use access key without access text do this way
<Button Width="75">_Button</Button>
Radio button with different group
<StackPanel>
<RadioButton GroupName="Fuel">Petrol</RadioButton>
<RadioButton GroupName="Fuel">Diesel</RadioButton>
<RadioButton GroupName="Induction">Unforced</RadioButton>
<RadioButton GroupName="Induction">Mechanicalsupercharger</RadioButton>
<RadioButton GroupName="Induction">Turbocharger</RadioButton>
If you want to add another things to control radio buttons press Ctrl+Space and get following menu and try to go through it.
Figure 6: Aditional properties in Radio Button
Tool Tip
A box with text that appears like below when you hover over the mouse an associated control and disappears when you move the mouse away.
<Button Name="button1" Click="button1_Click" ...
ToolTip="Click here to submit your request" ></Button> 
WPF Tool Tip can hold anything because, flexibility of the WPF’s content controls. Look at following example it shows how can construct Microsoft office 2007 style Screen Tip.
<CheckBox Margin="26,32.347,118,0" Height="54.49" VerticalAlignment="Top">
CheckBox
<CheckBox.ToolTip>
<StackPanel>
<Label FontWeight="Bold" Background="Blue" Foreground="White">
The CheckBox
</Label>
<CheckBox Margin="26,32.347,118,0" Height="54.49" VerticalAlignment="Top">
CheckBox
<CheckBox.ToolTip>
<StackPanel>
<Label FontWeight="Bold" Background="Blue" Foreground="White">
The CheckBox
</Label>
<TextBlock Padding="10" TextWrapping="WrapWithOverflow" Width="200">
CheckBox is a familiar control. But in WPF, it’s not much more than a ToggleButton styled differently!
</TextBlock>
<Line Stroke="Black" StrokeThickness="1" X2="200"/>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Label FontWeight="Bold">Press F1 for more help.</Label>
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</CheckBox.ToolTip>
Figure 8: Tool TIP
You can also add picture to the Tool Tip using like below.
<Image Margin=”2” Source=”help.gif”/>
Show Duration control how long the ToolTip should be displayed.
ToolTipService.ShowDuration=”3000”
You can get a Tool Tip to appear when hovering over a disable element by using
<Button ToolTipService.ShowOnDisabled=”True”>. . . . . .</Button> in XAML or
ToolTipService.SetShowOnDisabled(myButton, true); in C#.
So, in later articles will discuss about rest of the controls in WPF.
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