Hosting WPF UserControls in Windows Forms

Question

Hello All There are many tutorials on how to get a WPF UserControl into a winform using an elementhost. The problem I am running into is figuring out how to dynamically control the WPF UserControl from the winform. I would like to be able to click a button on my winform and execute some of the code behind for the UserControl. Could someone give me an example of how to do this or direct me to a tutorial on the matter? Thanks Joshua Foulk

Mahesh Chand · Answer

From WindowsClients.net ====================== Q: How do I host a WPF control in a Windows Forms application? A: First add references to the WPF namespaces (PresentationCore PresentationFramework UIAutomationProvider UIAutomationTypes and WindowsBase). Next create an instance of the ElementHost control and the control you wish to embed in the Windows Forms application and then hook that control up to the ElementHost control. Then simply add the ElementHost control to your Forms control collection: ElementHost host = new ElementHost (); System.Windows.Controls. ListBox wpfListBox = new System.Windows.Controls. ListBox (); for ( int i = 0; i { wpfListBox.Items.Add( Item  + i.ToString()); } host.Dock = DockStyle .Fill; host.Controls.Add(wpfListBox); this .panel1.Controls.Add(host); However if you want to use XAML to describe the WPF control that you want to use in the Windows Forms application you would need to add an Avalon UserControl item to your project. This will create a UserControl1.xaml file and a UserControl1.xaml.cs file. You can then modify the UserControl1.xaml file to contain whatever XAML you wish to describe your control. Then you would simply create an instance of this control and add it to the ElementHost control as in the above example: ElementHost host = new ElementHost (); UserControl1 uc1 = new UserControl1 (); host.Controls.Add(uc1); host.Dock = DockStyle .Fill; this .panel1.Controls.Add(host); In addition you will need to modify the project file because the Windows Application does not what to do with the XAML file. You will need to open the project file (.csproj .vbproj etc.) in an editor like Notepad and then scroll to the bottom. You will see the following line: You will need to copy this line and paste it just below the above line and then change CSharp to WinFX so that the two lines look like: Now save this file and reload the project using VS and run the application. ------------------------------------------- Q: How do I host a Windows Forms control in a WPF application? A: First make sure to add references to System.Windows.Forms and System.Windows.Forms.Integration. Then you need to decide if you will use code XAML or a combination of both to work with the Windows Forms controls. If you are strictly using code you would write code similar to the following: //Instantiate the hosting control WindowsFormsHost host = new WindowsFormsHost (); //Instantiate the Windows Forms control in this case a button System.Windows.Forms. Button wfButton = new System.Windows.Forms. Button (); wfButton.Text = Windows Forms Button ; // Add the Windows Forms button to the host control host.Children.Add(wfButton); // Add the host control to the WPF element that you want to parent the control // in this case it's a Grid this .grid1.Children.Add(host); If you are using XAML you still need to add the references to System.Windows.Forms and System.Windows.Forms.Integration but you will also need to add mapping statements to your XAML that will allow you to refer to the objects that live in these namespaces via XAML: Mapping XmlNamespace=wfi ClrNamespace=System.Windows.Forms.Integration Assembly=WindowsFormsIntegration ?> Mapping XmlNamespace=wf ClrNamespace=System.Windows.Forms Assembly=System.Windows.Forms ?> The XmlNamespace property provide you a way to create a tag that you can use as namespace prefix in the XAML to refer to the controls within the System.Windows.Forms and System.Windows.Forms.Integration namespaces. To enable this you must also create xmlns properties in the XAML that map back to these prefixes: Window x:Class =  AvalonApplication17.Window1  xmlns =  http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/avalon/2005  xmlns:x =  http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/xaml/2005  xmlns:wfi =  wfi  xmlns:wf =  wf  Title =  AvalonApplication17  Loaded =  WindowLoaded  > Then you can use XAML to instantiate the WindowsFormsHost control and its subsequent child controls: Grid x:Name =  grid1  > wfi:WindowsFormsHost > wf:Button Text =  Windows Forms Button  /> wfi:WindowsFormsHost > Grid >