.NET Framework - Include ActiveX control in Blend

Asked By Matte

27-Jul-07 04:20 AM

I've to include my own ActiveX ocntrol inside expression blend. Does it exist
a "visual" way or i have to write XAML directly? in this case, can someone
suggest a reference to do it..... i'm using xaml since last week!)

thanks in advance.

Matteo

27-Jul-07 08:58 PM

With some doing (depending on the ActiveX control & its licensing) you can
wrap an ActiveX control in a WindowsForms UserControl and then easily use the
WPF WindowsFormsHost to host the WindowsForms control inside a WPF
UserControl. At that point you just add the reference (to the assembly with
the WPF control) to your project in Blend and you can grab your new control
from the 'Custom Controls' tab in the Asset Library in Blend and drag it onto
the design surface. Unfortunately, the wrapped ActiveX controls don't behave
well in Blend (just graphically - they overlap the project view on the right
and the asset panel on the left as your resize / scroll your design surface.)
Its a wrapper-on-a-wrapper solution but it works. I will post more details if
you would like (maye a sample project or something).



--
Ben Hoffman
www.benhoffman.us

30-Jul-07 04:12 AM

Hello Ben,

can you post details of this method? How can I wrap an ActiveX control (my
Control is written in VC++) in a UserControl (is it a UserControl created
with VC++ or with Compact Framework). I need my Control as a visible Control
in a VB-Form (PPC).

I use Visual Studio 2005.

Thanks for all replies
Matthias Kliefoth

30-Jul-07 09:52 PM

Hi Matthias,

Check out:

http://www.benhoffman.us/default.asp?Display=8

for more information.

--
Ben Hoffman
http://www.benhoffman.us

31-Jul-07 04:54 AM

Hi Ben,
i tried to reply your example:
1 - open an empty WPF custom control library (named "WPFAxControlLibrary")
2 - add a windows user control and drag inside a windows media player ax
( putting its dock style to "fill")
3 - Add reference to WindowsFormIntegration; visual studio add reference to
4 - inside the UserControl1.xaml (the default uc found inside the empty
project) i typed the aliases for clr namespace:

THIS IS OK:
xmlns:wfi="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Forms.Integration;assembly=WindowsFormsIntegration"

BUT THIS:
xmlns:code="clr-namespace:WPFAxControlLibrary"
PRODUCE THE ERROR:
Assembly '' was not found. The 'clr-namespace' URI refers to an assembly
that is not referenced by the project.

I'm sure that "WPFAxControlLibrary" is the correct namespace for my uc. This
should be the same thing of "WPFWrapper" in your example.....

thanks for the help

Matteo

31-Jul-07 05:06 AM

The same thing was appen with your example code, if i add clr-eference to the
namespace WPFWrapper the xaml designer disappear and cannot see the window
preview......

31-Jul-07 10:00 AM

You will need to either build the ActiveX control library with VB6 (the build
process registers it on the machine) or register it yourself (using the old
RegSvr32 - oh...the joys of ActiveX) to get VS2005 to find it in the
WPFWrapper project.

Also, I don't see the graphical preview in VS2005 either (I see 'Whoops!'),
which, I think, is due to the XAML Editor for VS2005 (Cider - right?) still
being beta - it is probably better with Orcas Beta2 (which is out now). I see
the following 'errors' in VS2005:

-Assembly '' was not found. The 'clr-namespace' URI refers to an assembly
that is not referenced by the project.
-The type 'code:WindowsFormsWrapper' was not found. Verify that you are not
missing an assembly reference.

However, it still builds & works fine - go figure.

If you'd like, we can work out your specific issues offline. As for
interoping to Media Player, you might look at using WPF's native support for
multimedia. You can add multimedia content very simply in Blend using the
MediaElement. For more advanced features, check out the Video Shelf Sample in
the August 2007 Blend 2 Preview.

Here's a sample video player created with Blend, I think you can get the
sample code there too.

http://www.blendtips.com/?q=node/12


--
Ben Hoffman
http://www.benhoffman.us

01-Aug-07 02:38 AM

Thanks a lot ben,
as you tell me, the probem is related to the beta version of 'cider', in the
last version of vs 2005 extension the reference to local assemblies have some
problem ( and also the design preview ), however it can be build and working
fine at run time (as you say)
I'll try with the beta 2 of vs 2008 and hope to solve those problems. thanks

Matteo