Smart Client Software Factory and VS 2008

I have an old (9 years) Windows application that I'm going to work on bringing up to date.  I am using VS 2008 Pro.  Of course I could make it into a WinForms application, and that would be quicker for me to do, but I would like to try making it in WPF.  However, I've never written a WPF app, and this one is complicated.  Currently it is a multiple document interface (MDI), which the users are adament that the new version also be an MDI.  I've asked around and found out that WPF does not have a MDI like window/form.  Someone else in this forum has said that I could probably roll my own.  That's a nice idea, but given my time constrains and work load, I do not have the time to become a guru at WPF.  I really need to have those things provided so that all I have to do is drag-and-drop onto the form and wire up the events (ideally).

A colleague has recommended that I use Microsoft's Smart Client Software Factory.  I am downloading it and will be looking carefully at it, to see if it will give me what I need.  However, I see that the Smart Client Software Factory came out in May 2007, and VS 2008 was recently released.  I realize that this question is going to expose my gross ignorance, but  here goes: will the Smart Client Software Factory work with VS 2008, or will I have to do some tweaking with it in order to make it work?

RodAtWork wrote:

I have an old (9 years) Windows application that I'm going to work on bringing up to date.  I am using VS 2008 Pro.  Of course I could make it into a WinForms application, and that would be quicker for me to do, but I would like to try making it in WPF.  However, I've never written a WPF app, and this one is complicated.  Currently it is a multiple document interface (MDI), which the users are adament that the new version also be an MDI.  I've asked around and found out that WPF does not have a MDI like window/form.  Someone else in this forum has said that I could probably roll my own.  That's a nice idea, but given my time constrains and work load, I do not have the time to become a guru at WPF.  I really need to have those things provided so that all I have to do is drag-and-drop onto the form and wire up the events (ideally).

A colleague has recommended that I use Microsoft's Smart Client Software Factory.  I am downloading it and will be looking carefully at it, to see if it will give me what I need.  However, I see that the Smart Client Software Factory came out in May 2007, and VS 2008 was recently released.  I realize that this question is going to expose my gross ignorance, but  here goes: will the Smart Client Software Factory work with VS 2008, or will I have to do some tweaking with it in order to make it work?

wkempf wrote:



RodAtWork wrote: I have an old (9 years) Windows application that I'm going to work on bringing up to date.  I am using VS 2008 Pro.  Of course I could make it into a WinForms application, and that would be quicker for me to do, but I would like to try making it in WPF.  However, I've never written a WPF app, and this one is complicated.  Currently it is a multiple document interface (MDI), which the users are adament that the new version also be an MDI.  I've asked around and found out that WPF does not have a MDI like window/form.  Someone else in this forum has said that I could probably roll my own.  That's a nice idea, but given my time constrains and work load, I do not have the time to become a guru at WPF.  I really need to have those things provided so that all I have to do is drag-and-drop onto the form and wire up the events (ideally). A colleague has recommended that I use Microsoft's Smart Client Software Factory.  I am downloading it and will be looking carefully at it, to see if it will give me what I need.  However, I see that the Smart Client Software Factory came out in May 2007, and VS 2008 was recently released.  I realize that this question is going to expose my gross ignorance, but  here goes: will the Smart Client Software Factory work with VS 2008, or will I have to do some tweaking with it in order to make it work?

I've not used SCSF, but I don't believe it provides MDI either.  Acropolis (http://windowsclient.net/acropolis/) is a more modern SCSF type of library, but it doesn't provide MDI either.  Further, both of these are basically dead-ends.  Microsoft is currently working on something along these lines that's supposed to be part of .NET proper, instead of an add-on library.  However, there's not much information about this beyond what's linked from the Acropolis site.

I was the one that said MDI would be simple enough to "roll your own".  And by simple, I mean it shouldn't take you more than an hour.  This wouldn't need much more than an ItemsControl with some templating.  Or go with a tabbed metaphor, which is nearly the same and more typical of "modern" applications.  WPF directly supports that.

If that sounds to complicated, then I wouldn't suggest you use WPF here.  Either it won't buy you anything over WinForms, or your going to have to learn how to do that stuff any way.

Here's an interesting article on CodeProject that goes about 80% of the way towards fully implementing MDI in WPF.  It's missing a few features I consider necessary, such as Ctrl-Tab support, double-clicking the title bar to maximize and a few other things.  It also adds an "interesting" feature called "attachable" windows that I'm not so sure about.  Might be worth checking out.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/mwiwpf.aspx