Understanding The WinForms Template Studio Auto Generated Code

[Philip Caldwell]

Hi

I am a newbie coming from generic VB Desktop .Net Framework applications in Visual Studio to trying to learn and use Syncfusion Winforms with C# in VS2022 Community 17.8.6. I have successfully installed Syncfusion and can open and run the demo apps under .Net 8 and am trying to get to grips with the Solution auto generated code and project folder structure which contains Contracts with Service and Views, Models, Services and Views. I have not seen this type of Project folder structure before - it looks to me like an ASP.Net application structure - is this a feature of moving away from .Net Framework apps to .Net 8 or is it a specific Syncfusion model?. The project is also using an asynchonous OnStartUp event in Program.cs to configure services (including a reference to ASP.Net core documentation) which is also very new to me. 

Is there an explanation of the boilerplate code for a blank program created by the WinForms Template Studio anywhere or can you point me in the right direction to try and understand what is going on. I know it is boilerplate and i can probably ignore it but i would rather understand what it is doing if i can.

Thanks in advance

Phil

[Sivasankar Mathiyazhagan]

Hi Phil,

Thank you for reaching out to us. We're glad to hear that you're making progress with installing Syncfusion and running demo apps. Please find below the response to your queries:

Query 1: I have not seen this type of Project folder structure before - it looks to me like an ASP.Net application structure - is this a feature of moving away from .Net Framework apps to .Net 8 or is it a specific Syncfusion model?

Response 1:

No, this is not a specific Syncfusion model, and following this project structure is not mandatory. This project structure resembles that of Microsoft WPF project templates, which are created from their WPF Template Studio. Therefore, Syncfusion has adopted a similar structure for WinForms applications, maintaining consistency across different technologies. If it is confusing for you, refer to the WPF samples from this GitHub repository as it contains a simple project structure.

Query 2: Is there an explanation of the boilerplate code for a blank program created by the WinForms Template Studio anywhere or can you point me in the right direction to try and understand what is going on.

Response 2:

WinForms applications created using the "Syncfusion WinForms Template Studio" typically follow the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern. In this pattern, User Controls (Windows Forms) are added in the "Views" folder, accompanied by corresponding ViewModel files if necessary. These elements, along with their services, are managed in the "PageService" and "ApplicationHostService".

To learn more about the MVVM pattern that we follow in our template studio, please refer to this Microsoft help link.

To understand more and work with the boilerplate code generated by the WinForms Template Studio, here are some steps:

Steps to Navigate between multiple Forms:

1. Open the "ApplicationHostService.cs" file located in the "Services" folder of your project directory.

2. Within the "HandleActivationAsync" task, find the method call “_navigationService.NavigateTo(typeof().FullName);”.

3. Modify the Form name inside the parentheses to the desired Syncfusion Form name. For example, if the Form name is "BulletGraphPage," update the method call to “_navigationService.NavigateTo(typeof(BulletGraphPage).FullName);”.

Steps to Add New Forms:

1. Right-click on the "Views" folder and select "Add -> New Item."

2. Choose "User Control (Windows Forms)" and click "Add". (When naming the form, please append "Page" at the end of the name for clarity. For example, if your page name is "UserControl1," name it as " UserControl1Page")

Note: For MVVM-patterned Syncfusion WinForms applications, we integrate and configure User Control (Windows Forms) items but cannot integrate Forms (Windows Forms) items into it.

3. Open the "PageService.cs" file inside the "Services" folder and configure your form/page by including the following sample inside the constructor of the PageService class:

              Configure<YourFormPage>();

4. Open the "Program.cs" file. Inside the ConfigureServices method, register services for your form by including the following sample:

              services.AddTransient<YourFormPage>();

These steps should provide you with a basic understanding of how to add and navigate forms in your Syncfusion WinForms application. If you have any further questions or need clarification, feel free to ask!

Regards, 

Sivasankar M.