Infragistics

Changing Printer Settings with PrintDocument

Anthony Trudeau — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:27:09 GMT

The System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument class has the Print mode which will print your document directly to the printer. The Infragistics NetAdvantage suite has a couple of subclasses of PrintDocument. One of them is the Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.UltraGridPrintDocument which is designed to print the contents of a specific data grid. The problem I ran into with the PrintDocument is that it prints to the default printer. There is no prompt for a different printer. However, as it turns out getting those details is very simple.

There are two ways to approach the problem. You can have the user specify the settings and then use those settings for every call you make until the settings are specifically changed, or you can prompt when a print request is made. I chose the latter, because it makes sense for my application and all you have to do is add a handler for the BeginPrint event of the PrintDocument.

private void ultraGridPrintDocument1_BeginPrint(object sender, System.Drawing.Printing.PrintEventArgs e)
{
    /* include this check otherwise the dialog will be
    * displayed when a print preview is shown */
    if (e.PrintAction == System.Drawing.Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview)
        return;
 
    using (PrintDialog dialog = new PrintDialog())
    {
        /* record the current printer settings for the document;
        * otherwise, the default system settings are used */
        dialog.PrinterSettings = ultraGridPrintDocument1.PrinterSettings;
 
        if (dialog.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK)
            ultraGridPrintDocument1.PrinterSettings = dialog.PrinterSettings;
        else
            e.Cancel = true;
    }
}

The Infragistics NetAdvantage suite also has a preview dialog named Infragistics.Win.Printing.UltraPrintPreviewDialog. This class is similar to the one provided by the Framework, but it uses Infragistics controls and has a matching look-and-feel. The solution provided also works for using the print preview dialog. The one thing of note is that the print preview dialog allows the printer settings to be changed, but it's not direct (File --> Page Setup, click Printer, change settings, click OK). I ignore this possibility and display the dialog, because it's not something that will be an issue to my users.

Infragistics NetAdvantage 2009 Volume 2

Anthony Trudeau — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:06:34 GMT

Infragistics just released 2009 Volume 2 of their NetAdvantage Windows client controls which includes controls for Windows Forms and WPF.

New Controls:

Timeline control
Tile Panel
WinControlContainerEditor

See the Infragistics New Features page for more information.

Infragistics Timeline Control

Anthony Trudeau — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:12:50 GMT

The UltraTimeline control is one of the new controls being released with this month's NetAdvantage for Windows Client release. The new UltraTimeline control is joined by a new layout metaphor called the UltraTilesPanel (see a video of both here). However, the timeline control is what I'm most excited about.

A timeline control displays a data series across a period of time for different subjects. For example, in a scheduling scenario a subject is a person and the data series is the appointments for each subject. The timeline has a large number of uses with scheduling and resource utilization being at the top of my concerns.

The following image is a sneek peek of the UltraTimeline control. You can also see it in use in the video linked above):

I've been using Infragistics controls for years now. Of all the suites I've used Infragistics has been my favorite. Besides the product itself one thing I like is that I know what to expect about upgrades. There is a consistent schedule and a consistent upgrade/support fee every year. This makes the accountants happy. And it makes me happy, because it's no hassle come upgrade time. Infragistics continues to provide additional value every year.

FR11622: Serializable EventArgs for Infragistics Controls

Anthony Trudeau — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:50:43 GMT

I ran into an issue on Friday night while using the Infragistics controls within the scope of the Composite UI Application Block (CAB). My problem started when I tried to create a command with CAB from a UltraToolbarsManager tool using a function with a CommandHandler attribute that matched the signature of the event as shown below:

   // statement within the work item

   Commands["MyCommand"].AddInvoker(myTool, "ToolClick");

   
   [CommandHandler("MyCommand")]
   public void MyCommand(object sender, ToolClickEventArgs e)
   {
      // do something
   }

The application compiles fine; however, at run-time you get an ArgumentException as soon as the class with the CommandHandler is added to the WorkItem. The message on the exception is "Error binding to target method." Internally, the CAB fails at CommandStrategy.CreateCommandHandler method.

After a little digging I determined that the EventArgs sub-classes such as ToolClickEventArgs are not serializable as is standard fare for EventArgs classes and that is apparently required by CAB. Typically in the case of a toolbar button click it will not matter, because all you care is what button was pushed. But, with the Infragistics UltraWinToolbars you can have different buttons such as a state button or a combo box button. In those cases you likely will need access to the state of the tool.

I opened up a support incident with Infragistics and this morning I was told that a feature request has been made. The feature request is FR11622 if you run into this same problem and want them to change it. At this point the request hasn't been committed to development, so please let them know if you need this too.

You can work-around this problem by changing the ToolClickEventArgs to EventArgs in your CommandHandler attributed method, but then you have to figure out a different way to get at the button state.

Unrecognized configuration section userSettings

Anthony Trudeau — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:16:26 GMT

Tonight I ran into a problem running the start of a composite application that I was making work with the Infragistics support for the Composite UI application block. The problem occurred with the simplist implementation of an empty shell form. The exception was a configuration exception that said, "Configuration system failed to initialize" and it had an inner exception with the message, "Unrecognized configuration section userSettings..."

I let Visual Studio create a Settings class and add the configuration information to the App.Config (before this point I didn't have one), but the same problem occurred. Investigating the exception further I dug down into where it was pulling the configuration information. It was grabbing settings from within the user application data folder. In there was a configuration file that contained a toolbars layout file from a prototype that had a ToolbarsManager instance.

I deleted the file and rebuilt the project and it ran fine. Hopefully, this will help someone else out that gets a similar exception.

Using an UltraExplorerBarGroup as a UIExtensionSite

Anthony Trudeau — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:33:22 GMT

The Infragistics NetAdvantage control suite provides good support for the composite application block (part of the smart client software factory). However, I ran into the difficulty today when I wanted to extend an existing group in an UltraExplorerBar instance.

I'm using an UltraExplorerBarWorkspace in my ShellLayoutView. At the start, it contains only one group with the text "Properties" and the key "PropertyGroup". I have the need for modules to add their own groups and to add items to the "PropertyGroup". The former is straightforward and just requires you to create a group in the module and add it dynamically to the extension site. The latter, however, isn't clear at all.

I started out by defining my extension site to use the UltraExplorerBarGroup with the key "PropertyGroup". The site was registered in my view's presenter class and then referenced in the module's controller class using the following code (simplified for brevity):

UIExtensionSite propertyGroup =

WorkItem.UIExtensionSites[UIExtensionSiteNames.PropertyGroup];

propertyGroup.Add(ViewElementFactory.CreateCoilPropertiesItem());

In this code, CreateCoilPropertiesItem returns a new UltraExplorerBarItem. Unfortunately, the code doesn't work. You get an exception of type ModuleLoadException with the text:

Failed to load module from assembly ... Error was: UI element must be a Infragistics.Win.UltraWinExplorerBar.UltraExplorerBarGroup.

The UltraExplorerBarGroup can contain other UltraExplorerBarGroup instances as well as UltraExplorerBarItem instances. Therefore, I tried it again but this time when I registered my UI extension site I registered the Items collection of the UltraExplorerBarGroup like the following:

// property within the ShellLayoutView
internal UltraExplorerBarItemsCollection PropertyGroup

{

   get

   {

       return _leftWorkspace.Groups["PropertyGroup"].Items;

   }

}

// code within the view's presenter

WorkItem.UIExtensionSites.RegisterSite(UIExtensionSiteNames.PropertyGroup, View.PropertyGroup);

That did the trick. And although it wasn't clear it wasn't hard to figure out.

Infragistics support with SCSF -- April 2008

Anthony Trudeau — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:03:25 GMT

I just recently installed the new version of the Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) and wanted to utilize the Composite UI Application Block (CAB) support within my Infragistics components with it within Visual Studio 2008. Luckily, the process is easy and these steps are all you have to do:

Open Visual Studio 2008
Open the Infragistics.CompositeUI.WinForms solution and allow the conversion
Add references to the following Microsoft libraries from the SCSF installation:
- Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.CompositeUI.Winforms.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.dll
Specify a key file for signing in the project settings if desired
Build the solution

The Infragistics composite UI solution is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Infragistics\NetAdvantage for .NET 2008 Vol. 1 CLR 2.0\CAB Extensibility Kit folder (folder may vary based on the version of the Infragistics controls). You must have at least 2008 Vol 1. controls.

WPF controls from Infragistics

Anthony Trudeau — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:29:00 GMT

Yesterday Infragistics released the 2007 Volume 1 Beta 1 of the NetAdvantage control suite for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). I really like the look of the data presenter (carousel view), but then I like shiny things.

I'm hoping they put the data presenter in their .NET 2.0 version of the control suite, because I will not being doing WPF for awhile. And for that matter I'm hoping they release 2007 Volume 1 soon for the .NET 2.0 controls. The new version will have a beta of some new gauge controls. (The beta is currently available.)

CAB and Infragistics

Anthony Trudeau — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:45:00 GMT

It's my first post of the new year. I was hoping to do better at posting this year, but it's just not happening yet. It's been an eventful year so far, first my wife has given birth to our first child, second we're in the process of having a house built in Georgia, and third we're trying to sell our current home in Virginia.

I just recently finished a project involving allot of legacy VB script within a workflow application (VisiWatch) that I hope to sometime in the future roll into Windows Workflow Foundation or other services. I get a little diversion involving .NET to create a configuration tool for our VisiWatch solution. It has been months since I've been able to do anything appreciable in .NET. (My next project will probably be in a scripted barcoding software that can only barely be called a programming language.) The good news is that there is a plethora of projects on the horizon that will all be .NET -- first the old stuff has to be firmed up.

I was going to create the configuration tool I mentioned using the smart client software factory (SCSF) which uses the composite application block (CAB). However, my boss wants the tool quicker than I can deliver it if I were to add the learning curve for SCSF. But, this evening I took some time to get a feeling of the basic project infrastructure created from the Smart Client project type and see what it would take to get it to work with the Infragistics NetAdvantage control set.

I initially suspected that the implementation would be quite involved. But, it turned out that only a few simple if not monotonous steps are required. The first step is to either build or add the Infragistics CAB project to your project. The library in question is Infragistics.Practices.CompositeUI.WinForms.dll. After the project is built or added you need to add a reference to it in the Shell and Infrastructure.Library projects.

Only the SmartClientApplication class needs to be changed in order to get your project to build successfully. The first step is to add a using statement (Imports for VB) that references Infragistics.Practices.CompositeUI.WinForms. The second is to change the class so that it inherits from IGFormShellApplication instead of the standard FormShellApplication.

At this point your project will build. But, you'll have a bit to do in order to use the controls. The first will be to create your own ShellLayoutView and ShellLayoutPresenter in the Infrastructure.Layout project which you will reference in the Module class instead. Afer that you will need to register your UI extension sites as applicable (you can use the default classes and the Infragistics examples as guides).

Here is a summary of what you need to do:

Add a reference to Infragistics.Practices.CompositeUI.WinForms to the following projects:

Shell
Infrastructure.Library

Change the SmartClientApplication class as follows:

Add a using statement for Infragistics.Practices.CompositeUI.WinForms
Inherit from IGFormShellApplication

Create a new pair or edit the ShellLayoutView and ShellLayoutViewPresenter classes in the Infrastructure.Layout project

Register the UI extension sites as needed
Refer to Infragistics documentation for examples of specific workspace setup

Weekly update

Anthony Trudeau — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:22:00 GMT

Sorry I've been light on content lately. I've been busy with a lot of administrative, boring stuff. I was finally able to spend some time on my RFID projects this week -- I pretty much haven't had time all year. I'd say I'm a little annoyed at that, but what are you going to do?

I just got the e-mail today from GlobeRanger and the beta for iMotion Edgeware 5.1 with CLR 2.0 compatibility should be available Monday. I'll be jumping on that.

GlobeRanger is a good company with great people. I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of people (admittedly too many to remember from my two visits) and work with some. I've never had anything but great experiences. It's everything you'd expect in a professional organization, but all too often find lacking.

In other news, a new version of the Infragistics Netadvantage suite is available. The appearance of the charts has dramatically been improved. In addition, there's a new list view control. Oddly, I was saying several months ago, “Why isn't there a list view?” I ended up cramming the common, feature poor list view control into a solution surrounded by the pretty Infragistics controls. Do I upgrade it? Maybe someday.

I want to end by saying that my wife and I just celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary, and that I have the best wife in the world. I'm a lucky man! Both of us cannot wait to truly celebrate our anniversary in Hawaii next month.