Latest Contributions by CharlesMacleod

Basically, if you ignore the logic Wolf has implemented to check whether to change progress value and text or not, the pattern Wolf is using (in WPF) is the same standard pattern as with old school WinForms for updating the UI from a non-UI thread. Namely: Check if you are on the UI thread, if so, update progress directly. If not, invoke the update on the UI thread first. So the pattern resolves to: private void UpdateProgress ( . . . ) { //whatever "update progress" means - change a counter, text, etc NotifyPropertyChanged ( "ProgressValue" ) ; //Assuming something is bound to this } private void UpdateProgressSafely ( . . . ) { //FrameworkApplication and System.Windows.Application are the same thing if ( FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . CheckAccess ( ) ) //On the UI - do update directly UpdateProgress ( . . . ) ; else { //We are on a background thread, invoke on the UI FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . BeginInvoke ( ( Action ) ( ( ) = > UpdateProgress ( . . . ) ) ) ; ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ Which is pretty much copy/paste ready. UpdateProgressSafely() can be called from any thread. The last thing probably worth some explanation is this intuitive piece of syntax: //what is all that "(Action)(() => .....) for? FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . BeginInvoke ( ( Action ) ( ( ) = > UpdateProgress ( . . . ) ) ) ; ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍ ‍ Well, let's remove all that "(Action)(.....)" cast reducing the syntax to a more legible: FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . BeginInvoke ( ( ) = > UpdateProgress ( . . . ) ) ; ‍ ‍ where "() => ..." is the standard anonymous delegate usage. However, intellisense will complain that: It "Cannot convert lambda expression to type 'Delegate' because it is not a delegate type" and you will get a compiler error. BeginInvoke has numerous overloads and without the "Action" cast the compiler cannot resolve which overload we want it to use. We have to help it by providing an explicit "Action" that wraps the delegate "() => ..." bringing us back full circle to "BeginInvoke( (Action) (() => ....) )". To simplify the syntax, you can also add your own utility method like this in your Module that can be used to call any method safely on the UI: //in your module or some helper class public void RunOnUIThread ( Action action ) { if ( FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . CheckAccess ( ) ) action ( ) ; else FrameworkApplication . Current . Dispatcher . BeginInvoke ( action ) ; } //usage await QueuedTask . Run ( ( ) = > { //some length process //... Module1 . Current . RunOnUIThread ( ( ) = > UpdateProgess ( 50 , "working..." ) ) ; ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ... View more

As Uma stated >> The Pro UI is written using WPF << and the SDK templates automate the generation of most of the possible UI elements that are supported in Pro (buttons, tools, panes, dockpanes, property pages, property sheets, custom controls, and so on). However, you can write any of the UI elements by hand - you would just be responsible for deriving from the correct base classes, adding the requisite overloads and so forth, and adding the necessary Config.daml entries.  This can be a tedious business to repeat each time you need to add, say a button or a dockpane. That is where the SDK templates come in - to help automate a lot of these repetitive tasks. However, you don't _have_ to use them. You can do it all by hand as you need (for example - copy/pasting or moving existing classes from one add-in project to another). Also, within WPF, the underlying technology used by the Pro UI, you can host a Winforms control within a WPF user control or window - though this is not a common pattern and is usually done for legacy reasons (eg an old WinForms control provides a specific set of functionality not easily duplicated in WPF or the level of effort is too great to rewrite it). You can read the  Microsoft documentation on WindowsFormHost for more information if you are interested. ... View more