Advice on using XamRibbon with Composite WPF

If, like me, you are interested in using all the new fangled controls produced by every man and his dog, you will probably have come across the Infragistics WPF control. My mission, that I stupidly accepted, was to update the TFS Sticky Buddy application with their XamRibbon and XamDockManager controls, and anything else I can stuff in there.

The “anything else” I decided to use was the Composite WPF guidance. This is a newer WPF version of the Client Application Block (CAB) packages provided by the Patterns and Practices teams at Microsoft.

Anyhoo, I though I should give some advice for those of you mixing these technologies. I seam to have licked the XamRibbon implementation, but I am still working on the XamDockManager bits.

Note: You will need to be familiar with the Composite WPF bits for this all to make sense.

1   1: <igRibbon:XamRibbon  x:Name="uxXamRibbon" cal:RegionManager.RegionName="{x:Static inf:RegionNames.Shell_Ribbon}"
2
3                           AllowMinimize="True" AutoHideEnabled="False" IsMinimized="False">

1   2:         <igRibbon:XamRibbon.ApplicationMenu>

1   3:           <igRibbon:ApplicationMenu cal:RegionManager.RegionName="{x:Static inf:RegionNames.Shell_RibbonApplicationMenu}"
2
3                                           Image="/Hinshelwood.TFSStickyBuddy;component/RDIcon.ico">

1   4:             <igRibbon:ApplicationMenu.FooterToolbar>

1   5:               <igRibbon:ApplicationMenuFooterToolbar cal:RegionManager.RegionName="{x:Static inf:RegionNames.Shell_RibbonApplicationMenuFooterToolbar}">

1   6:               </igRibbon:ApplicationMenuFooterToolbar>

1   7:            </igRibbon:ApplicationMenu.FooterToolbar>

1   8:         </igRibbon:ApplicationMenu>

1   9:      </igRibbon:XamRibbon.ApplicationMenu>

1  10: </igRibbon:XamRibbon>

As you can see there are a number of regions here, for the Tabs, the Application Menu and the FooterToolbar. You will need both a XamRibbon and a RibbonTabItem adapter.

1   1: Public Class RibbonRegionAdapter

1   2:     Inherits RegionAdapterBase(Of XamRibbon)

1   3:

1   4:     Private m_regionTarget As XamRibbon

1   5:

1   6:     Protected Overrides Sub Adapt(ByVal region As Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Regions.IRegion, ByVal regionTarget As XamRibbon)

1   7:         m_regionTarget = regionTarget

1   8:         regionTarget.Tabs.Clear()

1   9:         AddHandler region.ActiveViews.CollectionChanged, AddressOf OnActiveViewsChanged

1  10:         For Each v As RibbonTabItem In region.ActiveViews

1  11:             regionTarget.Tabs.Add(v)

1  12:         Next

1  13:

1  14:     End Sub

1  15:

1  16:     Private Sub OnActiveViewsChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs)

1  17:         Select Case e.Action

1  18:             Case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add

1  19:                 For Each v In e.NewItems

1  20:                     m_regionTarget.Tabs.Add(v)

1  21:                 Next

1  22:             Case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove

1  23:                 For Each v In e.OldItems

1  24:                     m_regionTarget.Tabs.Remove(v)

1  25:                 Next

1  26:         End Select

1  27:     End Sub

1  28:

1  29:     Protected Overrides Function CreateRegion() As Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Regions.IRegion

1  30:         Return New AllActiveRegion

1  31:     End Function

1  32:

1  33: End Class

1   1: Public Class RibbonTabItemRegionAdapter

1   2:     Inherits RegionAdapterBase(Of RibbonTabItem)

1   3:

1   4:     Private m_regionTarget As RibbonTabItem

1   5:

1   6:     Protected Overrides Sub Adapt(ByVal region As Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Regions.IRegion, ByVal regionTarget As RibbonTabItem)

1   7:         m_regionTarget = regionTarget

1   8:         regionTarget.Content.Clear()

1   9:         AddHandler region.ActiveViews.CollectionChanged, AddressOf OnActiveViewsChanged

1  10:         For Each v As Object In region.ActiveViews

1  11:             regionTarget.Content.Add(v)

1  12:         Next

1  13:

1  14:     End Sub

1  15:

1  16:     Private Sub OnActiveViewsChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs)

1  17:         Select Case e.Action

1  18:             Case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add

1  19:                 For Each v In e.NewItems

1  20:                     m_regionTarget.Content.Add(v)

1  21:                 Next

1  22:             Case NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove

1  23:                 For Each v In e.OldItems

1  24:                     m_regionTarget.Content.Remove(v)

1  25:                 Next

1  26:         End Select

1  27:     End Sub

1  28:

1  29:     Protected Overrides Function CreateRegion() As Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Regions.IRegion

1  30:         Return New AllActiveRegion

1  31:     End Function

1  32:

1  33: End Class

I am pretty sure that these can be augmented, and I can think of a few Ideas already, including adding a re-parenting ability to allow menu items to be added to the XAML as well as programmatically added.

I think I might have to go away and try this…

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