.NET Framework 4

Question

Hi there,

will ArcGIS 10 support Desktop Extensions written on .NET Framework 4? Is WPF supported (besides Windows Forms)?

Best regards, Stefan

BobPokorny · Answer

I am using ArcEngine 10.0 in VS2010 .NET 4.0 and haven't experienced any problems that I am aware of.  I know that there is no support for WPF at this time, other than wrapping the map control within a WinForm.  Although we haven't done any WPF work, this information was communicated from some folks at ESRI.

egismazeika · Answer

I encounter some trouble while embedding wpf control into custom TOC in ArcMap:
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/13940-using-wpf-in-IContentsView3?p=42573

AndrewMay · Answer

This link seems to state that .net 3.5 is the required target version - but then it doesn't specifically rule out .net 4.0 either.

http://resources.arcgis.com/content/arcgissdks/10.0/system-requirements

I've used wpf fairly extensively and not hit any issues with its use in ArcDesktop.  If you're used to WindowsForms then interfacing with wpf forms is not much different - in the end you're just displaying a form, and it doesn't really matter whether it's a windows form or wpf one.  With this kind of model the interface between ArcDesktop and your wpf code is fairly simple so there's not much that can go wrong.

I've read it's possible to embed wpf controls directly onto windows forms but this isn't something I've tried.  If you're going down that route then you're more likely to hit issues - but then you're going to end up with a slightly odd looking application so this probably isn't something I'd recommend.

I think the biggest strength of using wpf is using the MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) design pattern (seee http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx), especially with regards to unit testing.  Definitely worth investing the time to learn about.

Regards