dotnet distributed apps: 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!

Hi,

maybe this is something you are looking for:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=c92b944e-a7e7-434d-9dd4-5e0281145a73

regards, antti

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Excellent! Just what I was looking for.

Thank you!!!

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Hi, I've been playing with the UIP block since it was released, and =
spent a lot of time (weeks) trying to figure out how it works, and how =
to apply to Winform application design.
The major issue that I encountered was how to design an application =
Shell with associated controls/mdi child forms that could utilise teh =
controller functionality.
I've also used the modified UIP Block found on gotdotnet.


The main problem is that you can't access the controller from OUTSIDE a =
non IVEW UI component--=20
meaning you would have 2 controllers, since you can't instantiate the =
BaseController class without a State object--
however has anyone tried passing in null ,etc.?
so one controller for the shell application, containing most of the =
application navigation...
and the other UIP controller for all teh views and their logic...


I considered building a custom IVIEW and Viewcontroller just for the =
'shell'/MainForm part of the application-- it has the Main menu, =
toolbars, status bars etc...

Most of my applications have the Windows explorer/ Outlook Type Style-- =
Ie task/navigation on the left, and modules of application =
functionality(ie Views) in a RHS panel.

I don't need all the functionality such as state management (I use =
memory persist state handler)

The problem I encountered initially was that if you call =
UIPManager.StartTask(aTaskName, etc.), I was ending up with multiple =
Views being loaded. The other problem was that if the START VIEW had all =
the navigation on it, when I navigated away from that, I'd lose all the =
controls (but I found a solution see below!)
Another technique I tried was passing through a simple, dummy Task that =
I created.. and it seemed to lock the view-- preventing other tasks from =
starting, despite playing with the OnTaskEnter ovverride in the =
controller.. I couldnt' get it to work (am I doing something wrong?)


if I inherited the general navigation from a baseView.. it somewhat =
solves the problem, however the Shell application was doing very little =
until
I started using infragistics controls-- such as their toolbar..which had =
most of my navigation defined in the intial StartView. I am able to =
undock it from the child control, and dock it to the main shell =
container..
Now I'm able to navigate to other views, however I have to create a =
rather large Navigation graph--
if I have 5 View, each view has 5 <navigate to> directives-- making it =
cumbersome to maintain -- but works nevertheless


I think the UIP block is extremely powerful, but there are a lot of =
concepts to get a grip on, and implementing it affects the GUI design =
significantly.



[quoted text, click to view]
http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=3D=
c92b944e-a7e7-434d-9dd4-5e0281145a73
[quoted text, click to view]