WindowControl

During the implementation of standard MDI and hosted floating windows for this product, we ran into the need for a Window-like class that was skinnable and behaved like a regular Control. Thus, we developed WindowControl, a control that looks and acts like a Window and can mimic both normal and tool window styles.

A WindowControl displayed in a couple of the built-in themes

WindowControl is a Control that implements most of the same members as the standard WPF Window class.

What Can I Do with WindowControl?

Unlike a normal Window, WindowControl can be put in any control hierarchy. It also supports complete templating and can be animated.

Want to have a window that flies and rotates into view? No problem!

While we use WindowControl in two general areas in this product, we wanted to make it available to you as well in case you find your own uses for it.

Restrictions

Since WindowControl is a Control it still must be contained by a root Window (in Windows desktop apps) or a Page.

Themes

This control has a number of built-in themes, with various Metro, Office, and operating system theme options.

Working with the WindowControl

As mentioned above we implemented many of the same members found in a WPF Window within WindowControl. You can set properties such as WindowState or ResizeMode. Browse through the members list on the WindowControl control to see what is available to you.

There are also a number of extra properties, methods, and events that aren't on Window, such as the ToggleWindowState method, the TitleBarMenuOpening event, etc.

Title bar drags and border resize operations will cause the control's Left, Top, Width, and Height properties to be altered. To support drag operations visually, place the WindowControl in a Canvas and bind the Canvas.Left attached property to the WindowControl.Left property, and Canvas.Top attached property to the WindowControl.Top property.

Managing the Title Bar

The title bar can be hidden entirely by setting HasTitleBar to false. Alternatively, the buttons, icon, and text displayed by the title bar can be customized as described below.

Buttons

A number of properties can be used to alter the state or visibility of the title bar buttons. By default, the current window state governs which of the minimize, restore, and maximize buttons are visible.

The CanClose property indicates if the Close button is enabled.

Sometimes it is useful to be able to always force one or more of the buttons to be hidden. One use case is where you don't wish to allow minimization of the window and never want the Minimize button visible. The HasMinimizeButton, HasRestoreButton, HasMaximizeButton, and HasCloseButton properties can be set to false to specify that their related button should never be visible.

Icon

An icon can be displayed by setting WindowControl.Icon to a valid ImageSource. By default, the icon is displayed when an valid image is specified. You can alter this behavior by explicitly setting WindowControl.HasIcon. Therefore, you can force the WindowControl to display the specified image by setting HasIcon to true.

Context Content

Additional context content can be added to the right of the title bar text by using the WindowControl.ContextContent, WindowControl.ContextContentTemplate, and WindowControl.ContextContentTemplateSelector properties.