User Interface Process Application Block

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craig

Has anyone been able to use the UIPAB for the purpose of creating an
Outlook-style interface?

It appears that the application block supports views in which each
individual view corresponds to a seperate instance of a windows or web form.
Even the wizard example implements each step in the wizard as a seperate
form. This makes no sense to me as most wizards that I have used are
implemented as changing pages within the same form. Very disappointing.

In order to be able to create an Outlook-style interface, or a true wizard,
it must be possible to specify a view as a different "page" within the same
windows form. Does anyone know if this is possible, or has anyone attempted
to do something like this?

Thanks!
 
Of course. Just make each page a separate UserControl, instantiate them on
the fly, and show/hide them within the parent. Only way to go for a
multi-paged UI.

Is MS really *recommending* that people implement wizards with a separate
form for each page? Yecch. It's bad enough that they do it themselves in
the UI for Microsoft Installer packages.
 
Thanks for the reply, Joe. Have you been able to do what you described
above within the context of the UIPAB? Have you been able to create views
within the application block that correspond to the pages, or user controls,
within the single-form UI? Could switch views using the app block
controler?

I definitely agree about multiform wizards being yecch. That is why I am so
suprised to see MS create that type of an sample within the UIPAB.
 
Actually, I didn't even know about the UIPAB until you posted -- I
really need to spend some time at the Patterns & Practices site at some
point. I'm taking a look at it now, reading the intro. It sounds
interesting so far, but I haven't gotten to any of the implementation
details. I'll try to play around with it some this week and see what I
can do with it.
 
Cool. Let me know what you think after you check it out. I am also
studying it right now. It is hard to imagine designing a complex
Outlook-style UI without having some type of framework such as this to use.
 
Hello Guys:

This UIPAB can be used for WinForms, WebForms, etc. But I am trying to
use it in a Real-Time application.

I have an Windows Desktop applicaiton that will get events from a TCP
socket and will be displayed on the screen - The user will act on
these screens. There are hardly any new windows/forms being shown and
hidden. If at all there are they are a couple (i.e. I dont have much
navigation to be done).

I wanted to know how will the UIPAB be used here - Is it a good idea.
One good thing about this model is the seperation on Business and the
UI Component layer.

Please help thanks.
 
It almost sounds to me that the UIPAB might be overkill for the type of
application you are describing, unless there a quite a few different user
process that will need to be completed.
 
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