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Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (December 21, 2006)

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Chat Topic: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Date: Thursday, December 21, 2006

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

**Christian (Moderator):
** Hello again everyone and welcome to today’s chat!

**Christian (Moderator):
** Today’s Chat topic: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

**Christian (Moderator):
** Please feel free to begin asking your questions and remember to check the “ask the experts” box before sending.

**Christian (Moderator):
** We are pleased to welcome our Experts for today’s chat. I will have them introduce themselves now…

*Introductions

**Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
** Hi -- my name is Arik Cohen and I am a program manager on the WPF team. I am more of a generalist than many of the other experts -- but handle a lot of community efforts and release management issues.

**SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
** Sam Bent - dev lead for data binding

**Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
** Kevin Moore, Program Manager on WPF, Control, Data, Binding, UI Automation, blog: https://blogs.msdn.com/okoboji, 27/Male/Seattle, WA, USA :-)

**Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
** Hi. My name is Karen Corby & I'm a program manager. On WPF, I am heavily invested in security, XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs), our application model, and our core element services.

**kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
** There are two people at this chat address. kshearer is a Test lead for annotations and Layout, and llobo is a tester for Editing. We cover a large part of the documents area.

**Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
** Hi, my name is Tim Sneath, and I manage the WPF Client Evangelism team here at Microsoft. Our team works with early adopters of WPF (hopefully like yourselves!) to build great demos, community samples, and so on. Nice to see you all!

**Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
** Hello, this is Ernie Booth , WPF Technical Evangelist

**Christian (Moderator):
** Okay everyone, we have officially started today's WPF chat. Please feel free to begin asking your questions and remember to check the “ask the experts” box before sending. Thanks again.

*Start of Chat

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I do have a request related to XBaps. I hope my question doesn't seem ignorant as I've only been working with this stuff for about a month, however... Why is there an .xbap file and an .exe file when I compile and I need to launch the .xbap file? (more)
A: XBAPs behind the scenes are ClickOnce applications. That means there are actually 3 files associated with an XBAP:
1. Deployment Manifest (.xbap): Describes where to find the application manifest.
2. Application Manifest (.exe.manifest): Describes where to find the individual files of the applications
3. Executable (.exe): Main exe of the application

**kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
** llobo: thanks a lot

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tab Control is the one with more wierd issues
A: Could you expand on the "weird issues" with TabControl?

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: I realize there are airspace rules when mixing WPF/DX/WinForm API's in a single application. What happens if you 'slightly' violate them? For example: Overlaying WPF controls *temporarily* (like a dialog or a list box) on top of a DX window?
A: It would follow normal HWND rules. If you are hosting inside a WPF application --most likely it would just get clipped. Can you provide a bit more details about the exact scenario?

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Has there been any statement made by MS with regards to the release of a DataGridView for WPF?
A: We know it's important. We also know it takes a lot of work to get right. We have a team working on it now.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is LLobo - Lester Lobo? His blog is awesome, please keep it up!
A: Lester says thanks very much :-)

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Will there be support for MDI in WPF V1 and vNext?
A: There is no support for MDI in v1. It's definately something we are looking at for future version -- but no definate plans yet.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: which operating systems / web browsers do you currently support for WPF and WPF/E? and, which are in your schedule?
A: For WPF, we support Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. For WPF/E, the current CTP supports Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista and Macintosh OS X 10.4. We don't have any other OS releases announced at this stage, but we want WPF/E to have broad ubiquity so you can expect to see other releases being supported.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q:https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1031377&SiteID=1, this is the most recent, there was one discussion few months back
A: I'll get a TabControl expert to reply on the forum

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hi experts, WPF has great layout support for text - like with the new times application, does WPF/E offer similar support??
A: The current CTP of WPF/E does not, but as you may imagine we will be moving more features from the full WPF set to WPF/E as we progress with the product. I can't give any solid response on this particular feature set moving to WPF/E though. Thanks for the interest, its good to know what people are looking for in WPF/E.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Where can I find documentation and samples for inherit dependency properties?
A: Can you clarify what you mean by "inherit'?

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: where is the correct place to submit bugs with wpf/e, we found already a lot of them.
A: We are still setting up a tool to submit bugs for "WPF/E" keep an eye on Joe Stegman's Blog:https://blogs.msdn.com/jstegman/default.aspx

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ...XML web methods against SQL Server or even creating SOAP endpoints in SQL 2005 is the simplest solution for this type of application?
A: For intranXBAP applications are ClickOnce applications behind the scenes. For LOB intranet application, using Trusted Deployment (https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/01daf08f.aspx) is a good option.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the recommended method for developing LOB XBAPs that are SQL data driven? XBAPs are sandboxed and that seems to exclude the SqlClient namespace unless you workaround the sandbox and that only works on the same domain. Does this mean that using...
A: XBAP applications are ClickOnce applications behind the scenes. For LOB intranet application, using Trusted Deployment (https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/01daf08f.aspx) is a good option.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can a class based on Panel force some of its children to take on certain sizes using MeasureOverride and ArrangeOverride? I need a wrap panel that makes the first couple of children larger than the ones after the "wrap", so I can create a special layout.
A: What do you mean by force? A panel dictates the measure/arrange size to a child element via its override methods. You can arrange them to any size you wish.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Experts: At this point, what is the expected set of enhancements we should expect to see in V2? I know it's a long way off, but I want to know what you all have in mind at this point.
A: We are just happy to have released the first version (8) :) We are starting work on a release that will ship with Visual Studio "Orcas". Our current focus is on making things work great along with "Orcas" (e.g., great support for LINQ, better work with Cider design time surface). We would love to hear what is the things that you are looking for in the next release. Customer feedback will drive most of that work.

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any posibility to develop in c# ended in javascript with WPF/e?
A: We will have support for managed code support in the future.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: adding AlternatingItemStyle to the controls that implement selection would be nice
A: I hear you. It's a bit tricky due to the possiblity of insertions/deletions to the Items, and due to virtualization. But it's a useful idea; definitely on our list to consider for future version.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I am acutally transfering a ASP.NET 2.0 application to WPF, so I would like to know if there will be something like Master Pages? Now I wrote a Code-Only BaseClass but I would like to have something like visual Inheritans?
A: We have no concrete plans around masterpages, but we’ve received this feedback more than once. It would be an interesting scenario to support.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: what is the difference between xbap and wpf/e (with C# support which will come next year when I'm right)?
A: XBAPs provide much of the full richness of WPF: they have access to 3D, can use hardware acceleration, controls, data binding, styles, templates etc. WPF/E is a smaller subset that is optimized for cross-platform and cross-browser support. If cross-platform is your most important feature, then WPF/E is probably your solution. If you can live with Windows only, then WPF will offer significantly more power.

**Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
** Lots and lots of great questions coming in - thanks for your patience as we work through the backlog :)

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Where is OpenGL 1.4 under Vista? We are not seeing accelerated graphics...
A: We don't have the right people to answer this question.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is it possible to apply anti-aliasing to 3D objects in WPF? How about Pixel Shader effects?
A: Anti-aliased for 3D objects is supported on Windows Vista (for video drivers that support that). It is not supported on Windows XP due to video driver instability. It is not possible to use PixelShader effects directly from WPF.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: My question is for Kevin - in playing with the (great!) AniPanel sample in the SDK we have noticed the animating performance goes way down once you make the items more complex UIElements with databound properties. Have you seen this?
A: By complicated, do you mean “containing text”? If the AniTilePanel is resizing items, (especially text) the perf will be affected drastically because text layout is very expensive. Otherwise, I’m curious how many items you have in the screen and how complicated are they?

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: any chance we can get a WPF/e renderer on the xbox 360 for media center 'online spotlight' applications?
A: Currently WPF/E supports Windows XP, Vista, and Mac. It's pretty portable code so given enough time it's possible to port it to all sorts of platforms, but xbox 360 is not currently at the top of our list.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [21] but you will not add support for Win98,NT, maybe Windows 2000?
A: There are significant technical issues in taking WPF downlevel below WinXP, and currently there are no plans to do this.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Arik Cohen- what kind of things can we expect from the Orcas release, bug fixes and/or new functionalities
A: Lots of bug fixes (if all of you submit the bugs). There will be new functionality -- the exact set of new features is still being determined.

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: one more question about intellisense : if I put custom control declaration in Xaml I'm loosing the intellisense. I tried to create xsd file but nothing helps. Thanks , Irina
A: Yes, the XAML editing schema in VS doesn't resolve custom namespaces. You could add your type into "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Xml\Schemas\XamlPresentation2006.xsd" to make this work.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: will there be developed a new datagridview for wpf?
A: We are working on a DataGrid now. Keep in mind, though, that this is a complex control and we’re not going to ship it until it’s done.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there an easy way to convert custom WPF C# classes to their corresponding XAML file representation?
A: Today, there is no easy way to go from a C# class to a XAML file representation.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: The question we all want to ask, when is WPF becoming the basis for the shell;)
A: I'm sure you do :) We've nothing to announce at this time - sorry!

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any parsers of Office 2007.....
A: You can use the Open Packaging Conventions API to get at the data from the Office 2007 files and then use the Office 2007 schema to pull what you want.

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: Well, when will it be possible to write some own controls. I tried already working with JavaScript, but there are a couple of bad issues...
A: In wpf/e, it's possible to write controls today, but I'll be the first to admit it's not a super pleasant experience. Some of the issues are inherent limitations in JavaScript, others are things we can and are working on. What kind of JavaScript problems are you running into?

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: what is the decent number of items that we can show in listbox/listview etc before we see performance hit(I know it will depend on the Itemtemplates)
A: It does depend on the complexity of the templates and your expected usage. We virtualize the UI items, but as you scroll we add/remove new items to the tree--this is not free. What issues have you had?

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: in WPF/E you can specify JavaScrupt handlers, but only as a string, not as a function handler. why?
A: We're currently working on fixing this.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Are there any plans in v2 to introduce primative solid model objects for 3D?
A: We are looking at putting some of this into the platform in the future -- still not sure how generic we want to make this. For now -- there are great sample libraries at https://www.codeplex.com/3DTools

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What are the guidelines for using XmlDataProvider for Xml binding? Setting the data context directly on an control such as a list box seemds to work.
A: That works fine for one-shot use. XDP is useful if:
1. you want to switch the source to a different XML file
2. you want to pre-filter the XML via an XPath query
3. it automatically reads the XML on a background thread - avoids blocking the UI
4. it gives a convenient place to share the data among several controls
5. it gives a convenient place to assign the XmlNamespaceManager (if your XML uses namespaces)
If you don't need any of this, you can skip XDP

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: What issues should we look out for if considering WPF/E for a WPF app?
A: WPF/E doesn't currently have built-in controls or layouts (other than Canvas), so that's going to be a stumbling block if you're taking an existing application.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: sorry I'm late, when should we expect to see wpf support in windows mobile?
A: We plan to introduce WPF/E support for Windows Mobile in a future release. There are no current plans to support "full" WPF on mobile devices, however.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: What kind of time scales can we expect between CTPs?
A: We are looking to integrate in with the "Orcas" CTPs moving forward. I believe the goal is at least every 2 months. Not sure when you'll get the first WPF update in there though (we just finished v1 -- and are really focused on supporting that)

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I am wondering if there is a plan to converge WPF and WPF/E. For example, make WPF communicate with the JavaScript engine. Add 3D to WPF/E. Port WPF to other platforms, etc...
A: There is a clear advantage for us in keeping the transition between WPF and WPF/E as simple as possible, so the team will certainly work hard to make this so. WPF/E will gradually add more features from the full WPF platform as it progresses. Stay tuned for updates, and listen in at PDC for some announcements on that.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Should we expect to see a version of wpf/e that supports checkboxes and textboxes in the near future, or is that a long way off?
A: Pretty soon - in the next CTP or two, probably. We know that basic control support is important.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Experts: What is the best way to submit feature requests/suggestions to MS? How can we give feedback, besides posting to the WPF forum?
A: The connect site is the best place to give that information. https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=212

Several of us also look at blog posts, forum posts, etc -- so get it to us anyway you can.

Christian (Moderator):
Q: A general chat question, is it possible to get the transcript of the chat?
A: We will be posting the transcript for today's chat here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/net/default.aspx in the few days.

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Experts: Is MS planning on releasing more introductory material on 3D programming with WPF? Most of the docs I've read assume a certain level of experience with 3D (or at least skim over the basic very quickly).
A: For 3D Math check out: Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics (Eberly). For WPF 3D I would wait for Charles Petzold next book Windows 3D due summer 2007: https://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/12/070343.html

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there there any components which I can use to parse a docx file or any other office 2007 files
A: llobo: currently we do not have components to parse the docx file

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is there any posibility to develop in c# ended in javascript with WPF/e?
A: We intend to enable C# (and other CLR languages) in a future release of WPF/E.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [9] Dare I ask where Linux is on the list?
A: We're open to your feedback on this :-) We want broadly ubiquitous support for WPF/E, certainly.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I have a pretty straight forwward XAML file which uses an XmlDataProvider and is binding that data to a ListBox (successfully). If I've specified two way binding mode, should the changes I make in any control tied to the XML get persisted back to the XML?
A: No. You'll need to make the individual bindings two-way to get the values persisted into the (in-memory) XML. Most bindings on editable properties are two-way by default (e.g. TextBox.Text, CheckBox.IsChecked, Slider.Value, etc.), so you don't have to do anything special.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What should I do to scroll the WPF list box smoothly as it was in CListBox(MFC)?
A:

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is the WPF/e team considering interest in WPF/e as a cross-browser solution for LOB applications that are accessing SQL Server data? What are their plans, if any, to make that easier?
A: In our first release of WPF/E, the primary focus is enabling media-enhanced websites to complement ASP.NET. In the long-term future, we'll look to expand that a little, but really WPF or ASP.NET are the best solutions today.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What kind of security considerations should be taken into account when developing xbaps and WPF/E applications - are XSS/SQLi etc still a problem?
A: In V1, we don't support scripting for XBAPs (so today XSS is not a threat vector).

To protect against SQLi threats, individual applications should harden themselves against malicious user input when constructing query strings. WPF itself does not provide SQL query authoring.

In general, we've done a lot of work to ensure that the XBAP sandbox is safe. For more information, see this whitepaper: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa480229

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: My exact scenario is WorldWind (https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov) using WPF controls. Currently it is a DX control running in a WinForm. We would like to embed it in WPF *and* try and use some WPF controls on top of the globe. Would they even show up?
A: The short answer is, your mixing hwnds so you need to follow hwnd rules. Your DirectX code is one hwnd, you're WPF controls typically share one hwnd (although if you have multiple windows or pop-ups, those are reach separate hwnd). If you're really clever, you can do non-rectangular hwnds or layered windows for the hwnd on top (the WPF HWND), although if the thing underneath is changing a lot or you need to reposition the part on top a lot, you'll start to see painting glitches -- classic hwnd limitations.

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Dependency Properties may be register with Inherit flag. I was not able to find documentation which explain it well.
A: See https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms753197.aspx

**Christian (Moderator):
** Just a heads-up on time everyone, we’re now about halfway through today’s chat. Thanks.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: on pixelshaders is that a YET?? please say it is back on the burner for wpf.next or wpf.next+1
A: We are definately considering it for a vNext. Unfortunately there are some serious security implications to supporting pixelshaders (not to mention having appropriate support when rendering is being done in software).

The short answer is -- we are investigating -- but no definate committment on timeframe yet. Sorry about that.

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hello. I've a question about Mask in Blend. Is it any form to use Mask like flash in wpf?
A: How do you want to use the Mask?

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Does MS have any plans of releasing a WPF Ribbon control (like in Word 2007)? Is that a v2 feature?
A: No concrete plans. It’s requested a lot. Our short terms plans are mostly around unblocking issues: this involves blocking bugs and blocking features (like internal members that aren’t available to 3rd parties). There are 3rd parties working on a ribbon control now.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: A lot of 3D assets out there are currently developed by designers in Flash, 3DStudio Max, Maya etc. rather than XAML. We have Electric Rain and Expression today - can you give an update on the tools support you expect in the coming months?
A: Mike Swanson maintains a great list of converters for all the formats you mention, plus a number of others. We're working with tools vendors to add XAML export facility as an intrinsic feature, but having good external converters seems to be working pretty well also... Here's Mike's list: https://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/articles/WPFToolsAndControls.aspx

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is it planned to support generic UserControls or Controls in general?
A: I assume you're asking about WPF/E? We don't currently have any special support for writing controls (although you can use createFromXaml to write controls), we'd love your feedback on what you need to be successful.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: What is the schedule for offering .NET 3.0 to XP users via Windows Update, and at what point will it be forced down (rather than be "optional")?
A: We are working to get it up there as fast as possible. Should be available within the next month or so (holiday time slows us down a bit).

There are current no plans to make .NET 3.0 a required update.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the mechanism for adding borders to Cells of a GridView?
A: It's not natively supported. The most straight-forward way: add borders to the cell templates should give you the behavior you want.

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Ernie: If i need to use a schema to parse a word document then it will become a tedious work. Will there be any release in the future releases to make this simple.
A: The OPC APIs in WPF should make this easier. That way you don't have to manually open the file and parse the XML. You can use the relationships Office2007defines in their schema with this API. Sorry not specific Office 2007 API

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: The current rtm release of WPF has a lot of bugs, what is the timeframe for the release of SP1 for .Net Framework 3.0 ?
A: We will have an SP along with Windows Vista SP1. Can you please make sure to log all of the blocking bugs on the connect site -- so we can make sure to address them.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I have observed a big performance problem data binding XML to a list view. If I change the document structure of a bound (to a listview) XmlDocument , I get to 100% cpu quickly. XmlDataProvider has a defer refresh property but this does not seem to work.
A: You're right. There are two reasons for this:
1. Any change to the XML might affect any of the bindings (because XPath can depend on any node in the XML tree). So all the bindings need to re-query.
2. When the changes add/remove items for your ListView, the old ListView UI stays around for a while until it gets GC'd. Meanwhile it's still listening to change notifications. We've actually looked at this recently. Too late for V1, of course, but we have some ideas on how to improve this. I agree it's painful.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there going to be any events/conferences at which you MS WPF Experts will be discussing WPF in great depth? If so, please link us to it. If not, please consider it!
A: The next three are the Expression "launch" in San Francisco, Chicago and New York as well as mix07 for designers (https://www.visitmix.com) and of course the PDC in Los Angeles (https://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/). There are obviously many other regional events organized by local Microsoft offices that I don't have so much visibility into....

Tim Cahill [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When developing a WPF application, it seems like it uses a huge amount of memory on my machine. I can shut down and restart and after a while its very high again. Is this a common issue?
A: That's a great question. WPF apps do use more memory than say, a simple Win32 app, but you can do so much more with WPF. Video is seemless, animation is baked in, databinding just works, etc. The good news is that WPF is written specifically to be as pay-for-play as possible. There is a certain baseline cost to loading the various WPF modules, etc. For example XamlPad, a fairly-but-not-completely basic program, uses approximately 20 meg. Beyond that, you get what you pay for.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: So I'd love to ask you guys a question: what's the biggest obstacle _you_ face in adopting WPF today? What can we do to help?

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: In terms of web dev, I am REALLY excited about the possibilities of WPF/E. However, before I can honestly recommend this to my clients, I feel there needs to be a Linux (I'm sorry) runtime. Are there plans to have one in the near future (9-12 months)?
A: We are currently trying to understand which platforms customers need at which time frames, so your inputs appreciated. Which distributions/versions of Linux do you need?

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: What si the timeframe for Windows Vista SP1 ?
A: Unfortunately, there is no timeframe I can comment on at this time.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We want to develop an application in WPF for Windows (standalone AND XBAP. Do you have any advices, guidelines, best practices on how to code once for both platforms (as far as possible).
A: I built a VS Flexible Template ( https://scorbs.com/2006/06/04/tips-tricks-for-flexible-application/) to use a single project to help switch back and forth between standalone & xbap.

(This template has some limitations, most notably "publishing" support.)

In general, its best to know what the sandbox limitations are so you can either (a) gracefully degrade in the limited trust scenario, or (b) make a different architecture decision. A high level list of what is available in the sandbox can be found: https://scorbs.com/2006/11/09/wpf-internet-sandbox-feature-list-xbaps-loose-xaml/

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Last evening I was playing with Attached Properties. I was interested that if you want to programmatically call Getters/Setters, there is a strict naming convention. Is the WPF runtime using reflection to set these? Isn't this a big performance hit?
A: WPF uses the naming convention (and reflection) at parse time - to call the right setters in response to properties set in markup. But if you call the (static) set method at runtime, there's no reflection; should be speedy.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the difference between a User Control and a Content Control (and Content Presenter)?
A: UserControl is a ContentControl, but it has design-time support for creating a XAML tree of elements. It’s meant to be used for creating a one-time experience (as opposed to a template-defined experience that can be changed at runtime).

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: [8] I wrote a lot of ajax controls and using prototype. I'd like to add wpf/e controls by code [see 23]. it is very bad currently to setup such controls, a lot of workarounds. maybe would be nice to get in mail contact with Nick.
A: There's definitely some tricks here, if I ever get some free time I'll try to blog a few of them. My email is Nick.Kramer@Microsoft.com, I'd but love to hear about your experiences writing controls for WPF/E. Thanks.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: True? When can we expect the Expression tools to be added to our MSDN subscriptions.
A: At the moment, Expression is not planned to be in the MSDN subscription (Tim ducks as 96 rotten tomatoes are thrown at him). We haven't announced pricing plans yet, but we're trying to not make the price prohibitive. I don't own this decision, but I promise I will relay your feedback onto those responsible...

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the mechanism for adding borders to Cells of a GridView?
A: You can get the text from the selected item and then determine its length using the Formatted Text class. You could then set the width of the box to this length.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: BitmapEffects are not allowed in XBAPs, as far as I know. Will we be able to have smooth drop shadows and nice blurs in our XBAPs in the future?
A: We are looking at providing that moving forward. No firm plans quite yet.

frederid [msft] (Expert):
Q: Are there any XAML Coding standards/guidelines available?
A: I'd recommend Charles Petzold's book "Applications = code + markup". More information is available on https://www.charlespetzold.com/

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Season's Greetings from the UK. Can you recommend any books to get me started with WPF? Which are the best ones?
A: Here's a starting point: https://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2006/12/18/wpf-unleashed-new-book-from-sams-publishing.aspx

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: in wpf/e I see the problem of resizing controls. why is there no own coordinate system possible? and, a bug in IE7 when using the zooming feature. https://groups.google.com/group/wpf-everywhere/browse_thread/thread/eb76d2b577ae1b2f/4130e0b8e4e98037#4130e0b8
A: Can you help me understand what you mean by problems resizing controls? We support scaling transforms. We don't currently have panels like StackPanel or Grid, is that what you have in mind?

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why do XBAPs take so long to load. Is there any optimzations I can make to speed up the load times. Take a look at this Flash/XBAP page https://www.thewpfblog.com/examples/SWF2XAML/SWF2XAML.html The XBAP take 25 seconds longer to load compared to Flash
A: There are several things that contribute to XBAP perf.

First is size of the XBAP. If you have a large XBAP, have you considered using On Demand download? Check out this sample: https://scorbs.com/2006/06/28/xbaps-ondemand-clickonce/

Second is the architecture of the XBAP. For instance, there are things you can do for smart loading of application resources (etc). Check out the SDK for general perf tips.

Third is loadtime of the platform. We've done a lot of work in this area and are planning to do even more in the next release.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Maybe it's a simple problem but how do I get a Combobox to be as wide as it's content?
A: llobo: the ans to Q29 if for this question --You can get the text from the selected item and then determine its length using the Formatted Text class. You could then set the width of the box to this length.

Steve Galic - MSFT (Expert):
Q: My 1-st question is about the data binding in coloranimation. Will it ever be possible to make smth like this:
A:

Purple
...

Storyboard.TargetName="Animate"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Color"
To="{DynamicResource buttonColor}"
...

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: will there be a binary xml format available in future wpf/e version for xaml? or is gzip in iis enough? what do you think?
A: We are considering adding some sort of compression option. Could you tell me a little about why you need that, to help us design the right format? Thanks.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: When can we expect support for WCF in an XBAP?
A: Expect this in a future version. The WCF team will comment on that when they are ready :-)

Tim Cahill [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I was running a XBAP app and it ended in DrWatson, 100% cpu (maybe because of missing DirectX support, very slow!). will the plugin (WPF and WPF/E) maybe have something like the VIsta experience index in the future to decide which version toweoffertheuser?
A: If your app is running at 100% CPU, I'd first recommend determining which features are being pushed so hard. There are two resources you can use to find this information out. The easiest is in the WPF SDK, where there are a collection of tools integrated into the WPFPerf.exe binary. Take a look at Perforator and the Visual Profiler. Your going to want to use Perforator to get a handle on which portions of your scene are being rendered in software. The Visual Profiler will tell you which WPF services are using the CPU. Look for updates to the Visual Profiler in upcoming SDK releases.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Follow up to SamBent q[53] - Sam we have a scenario with a databound tab control and a data trigger that works as expected with XDP and does not work with direct data context binding https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1031377&SiteID=1
A: I'll look at this offline, and respond to the forum. I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why is the WPF validation system restricted to only bound controls? In other words, why do I have to bind a TextBox in order to utilize the ValidationRule system? I know that you usually would bind the control anyways, but why the restriction?
A: In WPF was made a Binding feature, not a general control/dependency property feature. It was more of a design decision than an intentional restriction. Sounds like you’d like support on controls, right?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Does MS intend on publishing some WPF Best Practices material. What I'd LOVE to see is things like: How to structure an application's resources, How to design an app to be easily themed/skinned, How to localize (without that locbaml thing!), etc.
A: We've tried to put a fair bit of that into the MSDN library, for example: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970683.aspx (Perf best practices). You've got some good suggestions for further articles here though, and we'll log those for the future. Thanks for your input!

Steve Galic - MSFT (Expert):
Q: My 1-st question is about the data binding in coloranimation. Will it ever be possible to make smth like this:
A: This should work. Is this what you were trying to do?

Purple Button 2 ...

Tim Cahill [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: For many 3D primitives, is there a recommended way of transforming and modifying these primitives (e.g a large field of cubes for data visualization) so they can be rendered efficiently?
A: The fewer changes you push into WPF, the less work it will do. For example, modifying trans

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: I've yet to dabble with WPF/E. How similar to WPF proper is it's API? How much of a skillset overlap can I expect there to be between those two platforms?
A: I think knowing WPF should give you a huge leg up learning WPF/E. WPF/E xaml is a strict subset of WPF xaml. The programmatic APIs differ a little bit more, especially since they are JavaScript rather than CLR/C#/VB, but those to should feel pretty familiar, e.g. canvas.Opacity = 0.5.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are they any plans to support XBAPs in other browsers like FireFox or Opera?
A: We are planning on support Firefox in our next release. We are still investigating what other browsers (e.g. Opera, etc) we will also be able support in that release.

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to have a property which is set in the level of the UserControl (ZoomFactor property) and inherit to all the elements under it. What is the best way to do this?
A: You could use a RelativeSource Binding to tie the value of the Parent to the Child even if the property is not declared on the child.

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I saw a channel 9 video regarding Accurate?? - US Estate Agents who have got Virtual Earth integrated into XBAPs. Looked very impressive!!! How difficult was this to develop? Sorry if I got there company name wrong.
A: I don't remember how long it took them, but with the new ability to have interactive 2D content on 3D it should be much easier. See: https://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=266036

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Has anyone published the "MS recommended way" of creating a multi-select TreeView in WPF? I've seen some hackarounds, but nothing smells quite right. How can I select multiple nodes in a TreeView?
A: Multiselect on top of our existing TreeView will probably always be a hack. We built our TreeView for single select. I’ve done some work to show how you can do this in a data layer (look at FolderPicker on my bag-o-tricks https://wpf.netfx3.com/files/folders/controls/entry7094.aspx). To do it right, you may need to start over with your own control.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: [30] what does this mean... will there be a own set of classes of .net framework or will it use the local installed one? will the .net support in wpf/e end in larger installation files?
A: The same place developers like me have always been... asking for help from people with better design sense (my wife helps me on my applications) :D

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What's the future about SideShow?
A: There's plenty of documentation here: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms744202.aspx. We'll continue to enhance this feature in future releases, but we don't have anything to announce right now.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I have notice that WPF assemblies have both XmlNsDefinition and XmlNsPrefix assembly attribute in them, yet every xaml document have the xml ns prefix in it. Are those attribute really do something?
A: The attributes on the assemblies are used by .NET tools, compilers and linkers etc, for various things. They are certainly used and important. The namespace in XAML is also used to locate schema etc in the same way it is for XAML, and as you may imagine in code behind these things interact.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: So two way binding utilizing the XmlDataProvider only works between the target and the "in memory" XML? Is there a way without doing my own XML file serialization to get WPF to write out the in memory XML back to the hard disk?
A: Correct. You have to do your own file serialization.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Karen, kudos for the flexible application template, I use it a lot. I'd love to see a "Publish" feature working with it ;-)
A: Thanks :) Unfortunately, getting publish to work has been tricky (as the different publish options clobber each other).

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We would definitely like improvements in the validation system in the future. It is already very powerful, but it would be nice if it was easier to determine if any child controls of a parent failed validation. Any hope in a future version?
A: We are more likely to build support to build this in the data layer instead of the UI layer. Sounds like you'd like it in the UI layer, right?

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: What is MS suggested path for migrating Windows Forms to WPF? any future migration tool?
A: We are not recommending anyone do a straight migration from Windows Forms to WPF. We would recommend using hosting to take advantage of WPF in areas of your Windows Forms applications that could use the visual richness of WPF.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Please put Expression (especially Blend) in MSDN. Look at the Blend forum https://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.expression.interactivedesigner The questions are mostly about technical issues.
A: Thanks for the feedback: I'll pass it on.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Kevin: I would like generic (non-bound) validation support. Maybe I'm just used to the WinForms model (Validating, Validated events) but I have found scenarios where I wish that an unbound control/property could be validated.
A: Good to know. We're looking at validation now.

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: [70] would be nice to add own controls with xml namespaces to xaml code that can use JavaScript
A: I agree, I'd love to get WPF/E to the point where I could define and use custom controls in xaml. You can kind of sort of do that today if you are clever enough with createFromXaml (the advanced tricks I need to blog about eventually), but it does come with some limitations.

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When I open Blend and I want to develop the handler of a button I saw that the VS 2005 is opened to edit the code. The problem with this is that I don't have the objects of the XAML at that point in VS 2005, so I can't use intellisense.
A: Yes, it's a known limitation with the static XAML schema that VS is using in the "Orcas" preview add-on. This will be fixed in the future with a solution that doesn't rely on the existing XamlPresentation2006.xsd.

Tim Cahill [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: For many 3D primitives, is there a recommended way of transforming and modifying these primitives (e.g a large field of cubes for data visualization) so they can be rendered efficiently?
A: The The key to modifying 3D primitives efficiently is to realize that the fewer changes you push into WPF, the less work it will do. For example, modifying a single transform connected to a single node at the top of your 3D scene is going to be much more efficient than modifying a transform connected to each node in your scene. While that’s going to be your main approach, you can also do tricks like limit the frequency of your changes to 20 or 30 fps, which will effectively double (or better) the performance of your app with little or visual degradation.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Direct X 10 in Vista is supposed to support font rendering in hardware for WPF, if I put in a DX10 card will this work automatically, or will it require a WPF update?
A: The current version of WPF relies on Dx9, so an update would be needed to take advantage of Dx10 features.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @Q61 I would like to set the width of the combobox to the width of the widest element, is there any support within the controls for this, or do I have to write my own logic?
A: you would have to do that through logic... the other option is to possibly have the box in a canvas - in this case the width would be automatically sized

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any best practices papers so far on that developer/ designer prozess?
A: In https://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=202329, Karsten and Nathan have probably the best discussions I've seen so far on this issue. It's not a whitepaper, but there's sample code and video available!

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [54] [59] When should we expect the next CTP, and how long of a CTP cycle do you expect (asp.net ajax years long ctp cycle or a shorter cycle)?
A: A short cycle

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: this is an old question: But with WPF and WPF/E, where does it leave developers who can't design very well? :)
A: The same place developers like me have always been... asking for help from people with better design sense (my wife helps me on my applications)

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Karen Corby (q88). Since XBAPs are slow loading, can we get a better 'loading, progress' screen for the users to look at. Currently it looks like the page is stuck, not going to load. The user clicks the backbutton.
A: Are you asking about *before* the download progress page is shown?

Appreciate the feedback & the feature request. We will investigate this. Thanks!

frederid [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is there any plan on releasing a book on "Windows Presentation Foundation Internals" in the future ?
A: "Applications = Code + Markup" is a Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation by Charles Petzold. visit https://www.charlespetzold.com/wpf/ for more information

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Kevin: That stinks. Why wouldn't you build multi-select support in from day 1? Was there an overriding reason to omit that commonly needed functionality? *-)
A: Getting done. :-). Single select was the bar from WinForms/Win32. We wanted to nail the core scenarios with high quality before moving to other features (like multi-select). We know people want it.

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When creating custom controls for WPF, what is the recommended base class for a composite control (containing a couple of grids), some kind of container class? Should base method(s) be overriden to render the child controls, or some other method be used?
A: I would derive from one of these base classes depending on the content model that makes sense for the problem you're trying to solve: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms751553.aspx

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: In regards to "which distributions/versions" of Linux, this is difficult. Essentially, my customers would immediately be turned off if I began saying it supports certain versions and not others. They really want a definitive "yes" it supports Linux answer
A: Understood, but we can't really commit to support every possible variant of Linux. We don't support every possible version of Windows, either, we don't support Windows 95 for instance. I think this is a solvable problem, I don't think people need support for every possible variant of Linux (or Windows), but we need to figure out what that required set is.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [30] what does this mean... will there be a own set of classes of .net framework or will it use the local installed one? will the .net support in wpf/e end in larger installation files?
A: we have obviously thought about this, but I'm not sure we're ready to provide detailed answers yet; expect a lot more on this topic at the PDC.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: GridView of ListView define columns. Those columns does not have a Visibility property on them which makes it hard to hide columns of GridView at runtime. What is the solution for that?
A: Adding/Removing columns from the collection is the only way to do it (aside from making the width super small).

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: [91] Nick, try to open a sample page that includes a wpf/e control, then use IE7 zooming (in the bottom right corner), set it to 50% or 400%
A: Was it only about ie7 zoom, or was there some additional problem?

Ernie Booth [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What about the mask functionality of Flash in WPF?
A: Use the OpacityMask or Clip properties on the control.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Arik, I am not sure your wife will want to help my team too. Would she?
A: I can ask... but she's not a professional at it.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any samples out there which show how to make the TreeView show it's items like an org chart (where child nodes can be to the left of their parent)? I assume it's a custom ItemsPanel to make that work. I'd love to see a sample of that.
A: Don’t know of any samples in the wild. You should be able to do it with TreeView/TreeViewItem or ItemsControl/HeaderedItemsControl. You just want to do stack panels with Orientation=Horizontal.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: when does this chat end?
A: Scheduled end time is 1:30pm

**Christian (Moderator):
** We have about 5 minutes left for today’s chat. If you have any last minute questions, please submit them asap.

**Katheryn (Moderator):
** Hi Everyone! Great Chat! The experts are doing a great job answering all of your WPF questions. At 1:30 (in 5 mins) we will close new questions and the experts will work on finishing up the remaining questions in the queue

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: does WPF/E (or XBAP) support XPS? I need really good text layout, but I need it on the web - what do you recommend?
A: xbaps support XPS. WPF/E does not, we support most (but not all) of the xaml that's part of the XPS format, but we don't support any of the container logic, which binds together separate xaml pages into a single file.

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is there any timeframe decided for WPF v.Next yet ?
A: As soon as we can . Sorry... no more details at this time :)

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: whats the uptake of WPF been like apart from with the partners?
A: Excellent. Looking at the amount of interest at this chat shows how many people are interested.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there a build-in XBAP feature to disable all IE 7 Toolbars?
A: There is no such feature today. Would be interested in understanding your scenario. Thanks!

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Another question we're all desperate to ask you folk: what are you building at the moment? How far have you got? Are you writing an XBAP or an EXE? We're always looking for good showcases of WPF, and we're also just keen to get validation of how our stuff is being used in the real world so that we can help build out future releases.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Generally speaking, what type of functionality belongs in XAML and what type belongs in code behind?
A: This is the “art” of WPF. There are people who try to do everything in code and are very unhappy. There are people who try to do everything in XAML (stupid XAML tricks). Most things in the UI should be XAML, but this is only when you want to compose existing UI “things”. There are times when you want to build something that is either really tough or impossible in XAML, in which case there is nothing wrong with composing elements via a customer FrameworkElement or using OnRender.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When can we expect support for WCF in an XBAP?
A: The WCF team is working at enabling WCF in the partial trust sandbox for future releases. The WCF team can give more details.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be something like a MaskInputBox in future releases?
A: This has been one of the feature requests which will be considered in the planning stages.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: To Tim...you know our biggest obstacle is basically the standard control set.
A: thanks - good feedback. Have you seen Kevin's Bag-o-Tricks? https://wpf.netfx3.com/files/folders/controls/entry7094.aspx

Dennis Cheng [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How do you create a auto-hide panel in WPF (similar to the properties windows in VS 2005)?
A: take a look at the TearOffPanel in the SdkViewer sample on MSDN. https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa972141.aspx

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Regarding the TemplatePartAttribute does the compiler enforce this? Or will it be up to the designer to enforce it.
A: The compiler does not enfore this. This is just there for the design tool to know what parts need to be provided in the template.

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: will there be any support for windows mobile in the future (wpf and wpf/e)? I have a dell axim with 3d support graphics card.
A: We are currently exploring our options here as part of the WPF/E project.

SamBent [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: It seems that the option to programmatically modify a datatemplate created in XAML has been removed (or broken?) ( https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=533124&SiteID=1) Any plans to fix this?
A: Yes, but it's a pretty big feature. It's something that could show up in the next "significant" release, but don't expect it in "service" release.

**Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
** Thanks!

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: basic controls is a big deal.
A: Good to know. Any specific controls you want?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tim: I could tell you what we're doing but then I'd have to kill you ;)
A: :-) I'm considering whether it's worth it. Would you take my firstborn in exchange for the info? :)

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tim, so far the greatest obstacle is the sandbox restrictions for XBAP applications.
A: Thanks for the feedback! We've done a lot of work to make the sandbox safe and as big as security & V1 timeline allowed.

Do you have any limitations in particular that you're blocked on?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @[133] Definitely, I recommend that newcomers in the Forums look at it all the time.
A: thanks for that!

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Can you do this chat again in the future?
A: We've had a great time and definately plan on doing more of these in the future.

Thanks for coming today!

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Kevin: Please explain that. How would I use StackPanels to layout the items in a TreeVIew?
A: You may have to re-template TreeView, but you should be able to define the ItemsHost to be a StackPanel w/ Orientation=horizontal. You would also have to change the template of TreeVIewItem to center the header and align the children below it. Just XAML tricks.

**Christian (Moderator):
** Thanks again, everyone for all your great questions. We are no longer excepting any new questions, but the Experts will stick around for awhile to answer the remaining questions in que.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tim, Is there an off-line way to discuss what we are doing with WPF?
A: sure - you can always contact me through my blog at https://blogs.msdn.com/tims. I don't have any bandwidth for support, but certainly interested to hear feedback.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why is drag n drop still so complicated for such a comonly used task in a UI...anything planed to improve that?
A: What do find to be tough? Any examples?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Please add Safari as an important target for XBAPs - the Mac devoted users don't want to have to install another browser (even Firefox) to run one business app. Thanks.
A: XBAPs don't support Macintosh, but WPF/E does support Safari on Macintosh - you might want to look at that as a potential future solution to your needs.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tim, we're starting work on a standalone AND XBAP application. Feel free to contact me at galasoft-lb@bluewin.ch for details. It's going to be a big application.
A: Thanks - will do.

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: this is an old question: But with WPF and WPF/E, where does it leave developers who can't design very well?
A: Obviously enabling better graphic design in applications was something we put a lot of effort into in WPF, but there's nothing that requires you to have design skills to use WPF. And there's several features, such as control composition and data binding, that are great even for the "ugliest apps ever written" that I write for my own personal use.

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Controls: Masked Edit, Data Grid like functionality...
A: Good to know...these are already on our list (to consider)...not at a point we can make promises or give dates

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: kevin will have to get back with you on that. the bag of tricks is a good start though, look forward to that being in vnext:)
A: Thanks!

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I need to bind the dialog box not to be draggable beyond its parents border. Is there a simple way :) or a hack way to do it.....
A: It would be possible to programmatically "move back" the dialog when dragged outside the bounds.... but visually that would probably be pretty messy.

My suggestion would be to use a Popup control and put your dialog content inside of it.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why is drag n drop still so complicated for such a comonly used task in a UI...anything planed to improve that?
A: Some things are complicated by security issues, or difficult to do completely in a single release. This is a feature that we understand some of the pain, and we are planning when and how to improve the experience. Do you have a specific set of pain points?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Tim, also, for management acceptance,more platforms for WPF and XBAPs would be great! (Firefox on Windows, Linux...)
A: Obviously you see the direction we're taking with WPF/E, and we certainly hear the feedback and plan to take account of it for future releases...

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I support that, Expression should be part of MSDN.
A: thanks for your feedback

Arik Cohen [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is there a recommended way to design a custom non-client area like Office 2007 that does not use WPF transparent windows (which is causing a huge performance degredation in Vista)?
A: Unfortunately to do this you do need to use a transparent window (if you want to have a non-rectangular window). Otherwise -- set the WindowStyle=None and then you can just render all the chrome yourself

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is it possible to mix WPF and managed DirectX 9 (for example, rendering a 2D WPF control in a 3D DirectX scene)?
A: You can mix WPF and managed (or unmanaged) DirectX using HwndHost/HwndSource. Practically speaking, you'd have a pretty difficult time putting a single WPF control in the middle of a DirectX scene, there's a some good information about hwnd interop in the SDK/MSDN document, look for "HwndHost".

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Kevin: Putting one StackPanel in the TreeView wouldn't allow me to show a hierarchy. That would be an excellent thing to see in a blog, a mythical blog about some lake... ;)
A: It’s all about how you template the TreeViewItem…that’s where you put the logic to go “one layer down”. I’ll look into making it a sample in “the bag”.

kshearer [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is localization support going to change in future versions of WPF? How will it work in Orcas?
A: We will continue to evolve localization support, but I don't think we plan any large changes. Are you asking about features in the product, or tooling?

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: This is terrific, please schedule more WPF chats in the future. Happy Holdays!!! :D
A: thanks - we're really enjoying this. I didn't know whether we'd have five or fifty people - it's amazing that we had nearly 100 people here. we'll certainly do more in the future - i'll blog the next one (https://blogs.msdn.com/tims) as soon as it's scheduled.

Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: any plans to streamline xbap download into a zipped container?? much like xps or office docx ??
A: This IS actually something we've considered. We would l love more feedback as to whether this is something folks want/would use.

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: At this point, I just want to ask you guys to keep blogging like you're doing now. It's never been as exciting to learn a new technology as it is now. Keep up the great work.
A: thank you - it's an honor to be part of such an exciting project, and we're all waiting with baited breath to see how people extend and use it

Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I heard that the Ribbon Controls for the office 2007 can be reused. Is there a way to register for the same and do it?
A: indeed - check the following URL: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa973809.aspx

**Karen Corby [MSFT] (Expert):
** Yes, we are planning on making this better. If you specific gotcha scenarios that you're interested in, we would love to hear about them.

**Tim Sneath [MSFT] (Expert):
** ok, so folk, we're about out of time here. We've tried to answer all the questions we can - believe me, all our keyboards have been steaming as we frantically tried to handle the incoming load. Any questions that we don't get to, we'll answer in the transcript, so check back. Thank you again for your participation, and come and join us at the next one!

Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [Q 196] I would like to only set a property to make any element draggable including nice transparent object while im dragging without too much effort....ist theres an easy way already?
A: Ah! Good feedback. Because our out layout system, that may not be easier said than done. I’ll put that on our list, though…

**Kevin-okoboji [MSFT] (Expert):
** Thanks everyone!

frederid [msft] (Expert):
Q: Could you please tell us more about how exactely the workflow between designers and developers may lookl like ...i guess lots of people have now idea how to accomplish that...what is you experince...
A: Before wpf, the designer was providing UI prototypes using file formats that were not compatible with dev tools. Now, the designer creates a UI and generate a xaml file the developer can leverage directly instead of iterating back and forward through several file formats. From my personal experience, I write the logic in a code behind file and then I use Expression to give the app a slick look.

**Christian (Moderator):
** Well that wraps it up for today’s chat. Thanks again to everyone for participating, and also thanks to the Experts for being here to answer everyone’s questions.

We will post the transcript from today’s chat here in the next few days: https://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/net/default.aspx

**Katheryn (Moderator):
** Thanks Everyone!

Nick Kramer [msft] (Expert):
Q: Google has toolkit which transform Java into combination of HTML and JavaScript. Is it possible to do the same with C# tranformed into HTML and WPF/E? Do you have plan to do that?
A: We don't currently have any plans for an officially supported C#-> JavaScript translation for WPF/E. Although Nikhil Kothari, ASP.Net architect, wrote an unsupported C#-> JavaScript translator.

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