OMG Dependencies–new direction time

After looking at the BaseDALObject and tracing its usage, I’ve come to the conclusion that at the moment, it is too intertwined to refactor. I will leave it as is with its simple code cleanup and try a different angle.

So I decided to run the application. And kaboom! No go. So I think I will just start from the top down.

Wow, I completely forgot that back in the day we didn’t have the awesomeness of partial classes. So my main form has a bunch of generated controls etc from the designer. So I am going to create a new MainForm and let VS do its magic joo joo. And actually since I have to create a new form anyway, I am going to create a WPF application.

Step 1 – Create a new WPF project called RMS

Step 2 – Move all the WinForm controls over

When I tried to compile after fixing some minor issues. I got this error message

The issue is my MainForm still has a ‘main’ method. The new WPF application project has the main method in the App.xaml.cs

Remove this and we should be good to go.

1.         /// <summary>
2.         /// The main entry point for the application.
3.         /// </summary>
4.         [STAThread]
5.         static void Main()
6.         {
7.             Application.Run(new MainForm());
8.         }

The project already has a MainWindow and it is opened up by the application on startup. How do I know? I can just look at the App.xaml and the StartupUri.

So now time to start moving over the actual code and controls for the MainForm.

Menu

File > Quit

Manage Data > Manage Datasets, Manage Other Data

Analysis > Analyze Rate Schedules

To recreate this in WPF we simply do:

1.         <Menu>
2.             <MenuItem Header="File">
3.                 <MenuItem Header="Quit" />
4.             </MenuItem>
5.             <MenuItem Header="Manage Data">
6.                 <MenuItem Header="Manage Datasets" />
7.                 <MenuItem Header="Manage Other Data" />
8.             </MenuItem>
9.             <MenuItem Header="Analysis">
10.                 <MenuItem Header="Analyze Rate Schedules" />
11.             </MenuItem>
12.         </Menu>

Change layout controls

1.             Panel leftPanel = new Panel();
2.             leftPanel.AutoScroll = true;
3.             leftPanel.Width = 350;
4.             leftPanel.Dock = DockStyle.Left;
5.  
6.             Splitter splitterCtrl = new Splitter();
7.             splitterCtrl.Dock = DockStyle.Left;
8.             splitterCtrl.MinExtra = 200;
9.             splitterCtrl.MinSize = 200;
10.  
11.             Panel mainPanel = new Panel();
12.             mainPanel.AutoScroll = true;
13.             mainPanel.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
14.  
15.             Controls.AddRange(new Control[] {mainPanel, splitterCtrl, leftPanel});

Based on the naming of the controls and my recollection. I had a left side and a main panel. And looks like a splitter between the two panels. In WPF we can do this all within a grid control.

1.     <Grid>
2.         <Grid.RowDefinitions>
3.             <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
4.             <RowDefinition />
5.         </Grid.RowDefinitions>
6.         <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
7.             <ColumnDefinition />
8.             <ColumnDefinition />
9.             <ColumnDefinition />
10.         </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

1.         <StackPanel x:Name="leftPanel"
2.                     Grid.Row="1"
3.                     Grid.Column="0"
4.                     Width="350"
5.                     MinWidth="200"
6.                     />
7.         <GridSplitter Grid.Row="1"
8.                       Grid.Column="1" />
9.         <StackPanel x:Name="mainPanel"
10.                     Grid.Row="1"
11.                     Grid.Column="2" />

Now time to swap out change the code where some other controls are added to the panels.

1.             Contract_Control contractsCtrl = new Contract_Control(rmsController);
2.             contractsCtrl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
3.             leftPanel.Controls.Add(contractsCtrl);
4.  
5.             RateSchedule_Control rateScheduleCtrl = new RateSchedule_Control(rmsController);
6.             rateScheduleCtrl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
7.             mainPanel.Controls.Add(rateScheduleCtrl);

We just need to wrap up the form controls in WindowsFormsHost controls and add them to the stackpanels.

1.             var contractsCtrl = new Contract_Control(rmsController);
2.             contractsCtrl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
3.             var host = new WindowsFormsHost();
4.             host.Child = contractsCtrl;
5.             leftPanel.Children.Add(host);
6.  
7.             var rateScheduleCtrl = new RateSchedule_Control(rmsController);
8.             rateScheduleCtrl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
9.             var host2 = new WindowsFormsHost();
10.             host2.Child = rateScheduleCtrl;
11.             leftPanel.Children.Add(host2);

Now I can compile. But when I run, I blow up. Looks like I need to take a look at the RMS Controller. But that can wait for another day.