TX Text Control .NET for WPF

Create a .NET Framework Application

Topic

Many WPF applications in production still target the .NET Framework 4.8, and TX Text Control .NET for WPF runs in them as well. You build the small word processor of the Simple sample that the setup installs: a TextControl with a button bar, rulers and a status bar, and a menu that opens and saves files, uses the clipboard and shows the formatting dialog boxes. The XAML and the code are the same as in a .NET project; the references and the license reach the project in a different way.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio on Windows with the .NET Framework 4.8. See .NET and .NET Framework.
  • The setup of TX Text Control .NET for WPF 34.0, the full or the trial version. For .NET Framework projects, it provides the assemblies, the license and the toolbox tab. See Installing the Product.

Create the Project

  1. Open Visual Studio and create a new project.

  2. Select C# from the Languages list, Windows from the Platform list and Desktop as the Project Type.

  3. Select the project template WPF App (.NET Framework) and click Next.

    The Create a new project dialog of Visual Studio with the template WPF App (.NET Framework) selected.

  4. Enter a project name, select .NET Framework 4.8 in the Framework list and click Create.

No NuGet package is installed: in a .NET Framework project, the assemblies come from the installation of the setup.

Build the Window

The window is built exactly as in the .NET tutorial. In short:

  1. In MainWindow.xaml, replace the Grid with a DockPanel.
  2. In the toolbox tab TX Text Control 34.0, double-click ButtonBar. Visual Studio adds a reference to TXTextControl.WPF and asks you to restart the XAML Designer: click OK, then choose Build > Build Solution.
  3. With the window selected, double-click RulerBar, StatusBar, a second RulerBar and TextControl, in this order.
  4. Remove the Height and Width attributes of the new elements and name them buttonBar1, rulerBar1, statusBar1, rulerBar2 and textControl1.
  5. Set DockPanel.Dock of rulerBar2 to Left, its HorizontalAlignment to Left and its VerticalAlignment to Stretch.
  6. Select textControl1 and set its properties ButtonBar to buttonBar1, RulerBar to rulerBar1, StatusBar to statusBar1 and VerticalRulerBar to rulerBar2.

Create Your First WPF Application shows each of these steps with screenshots and explains why the order matters.

Add a Menu

A WPF Menu at the top of the window gives the editor its commands. It has to be the first child of the DockPanel, so that it is docked above the button bar.

  1. In the toolbox, find the WPF control Menu and double-click it.

  2. In the XAML, move the Menu element to the top of the DockPanel, remove its Width and Height attributes and set DockPanel.Dock="Top":

    The XAML of the DockPanel with the Menu element as its first child, docked at the top, followed by the button bar, the rulers, the status bar and the TextControl.

  3. Replace the Menu element with the following XAML, which adds the menus File, Edit and Format:

    <Menu x:Name="menu1" DockPanel.Dock="Top">
    <MenuItem Header="_File">
        <MenuItem Header="_Open..." Click="MenuItemOpen_Click" />
        <MenuItem Header="Save _As..." Click="MenuItemSaveAs_Click" />
        <Separator />
        <MenuItem Header="E_xit" Click="MenuItemExit_Click" />
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="_Edit">
        <MenuItem Header="Cu_t" Click="MenuItemCut_Click" />
        <MenuItem Header="_Copy" Click="MenuItemCopy_Click" />
        <MenuItem Header="_Paste" Click="MenuItemPaste_Click" />
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem Header="F_ormat">
        <MenuItem Header="_Character..." Click="MenuItemCharacter_Click" />
        <MenuItem Header="_Paragraph..." Click="MenuItemParagraph_Click" />
    </MenuItem>
</Menu>

  4. Add Loaded="textControl1_Loaded" to the WPF:TextControl element.

Write the Menu Handlers

Open MainWindow.xaml.cs, for example by right-clicking MenuItemOpen_Click in the XAML and choosing Go To Definition, and add the handlers to the class MainWindow:

private void textControl1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    textControl1.Focus();
}

private void MenuItemOpen_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // Show the Open dialog box and load the file the user selects
    textControl1.Load();
}

private void MenuItemSaveAs_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // Show the Save As dialog box and save to the file the user selects
    textControl1.Save();
}

private void MenuItemExit_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    Close();
}

private void MenuItemCut_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    textControl1.Cut();
}

private void MenuItemCopy_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    textControl1.Copy();
}

private void MenuItemPaste_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    textControl1.Paste();
}

private void MenuItemCharacter_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // Font, size and other character attributes of the selection
    textControl1.FontDialog();
}

private void MenuItemParagraph_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // Indents, spacing and alignment of the current paragraph
    textControl1.ParagraphFormatDialog();
}

The code works as follows:

  • Load without parameters opens the Open dialog box and replaces the contents of the editor with the file the user selects. Save without parameters opens the Save As dialog box.
  • Cut, Copy and Paste exchange the selection with the clipboard.
  • FontDialog and ParagraphFormatDialog open the built-in dialog boxes for character and paragraph formatting.

Run the Application

Press F5. The window shows the menu, the button bar, the rulers, the editor and the status bar. Type some text, format it with Format > Character..., and save it with File > Save As....

The same XAML and code build in a .NET project with the package TXTextControl.TextControl.WPF.SDK.

What Is Different in a .NET Framework Project

  • The assemblies come from the setup. The project references TXTextControl.WPF.dll and TXTextControl.dll in the Assembly folder of the TX Text Control installation. Visual Studio adds the reference to TXTextControl.WPF when you add the first control. If your code uses types of the namespace TXTextControl and the reference to TXTextControl.dll is missing, add it with Project > Add Reference....
  • The license comes through licenses.licx. The license compiler reads the entries of licenses.licx and embeds the license into your executable when you build. The file needs an entry for TXTextControl.WPF.TextControl with the full version of the assembly you reference, and its build action is Embedded Resource; the Simple sample keeps it in the Properties folder. If the application reports that a control could not be licensed, see Licensing and Development Licenses.
  • Deployment is yours. You ship the assemblies and native libraries with the application. See Deploying .NET Framework Applications.

The Finished Sample

The setup installs this tutorial as a finished project in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\TX Text Control 34.0.NET for WPF\CSharp\Tutorial\Simple, and in Visual Basic under VB.NET\Tutorial\Simple.

Next Steps