Setting up the Secondary View

In this step you will set up the secondary view of the project. It will be called through the main view - MainWindow and will allow you to edit existing cars or add new ones to the database. To set it up you will need to define an interface exposing its functionality, create a class defining its base behavior, add and configure a new WPF Window.

• Defining the secondary view`s interface
• Creating the BaseDialogWindow class
• Setting up the window

Defining the secondary view`s interface

The secondary view will act as a dialog window and thus needs to expose functionality which would allow it to do so. In the ViewInterfaces folder add a new Interface named IDialogView deriving from IView.

public interface IDialogView : IView
{
    bool? ShowDialog();
    bool? DialogResult { get; set; }
    System.Windows.Window Owner { get; set; }
}

Public Interface IDialogView
    Inherits IView
    Function ShowDialog() As Boolean?
    Property DialogResult As Boolean?
    Property Owner As Window
End Interface

Creating the BaseDialogWindow class

Since the secondary view should act as a dialog window, it needs to be able to be initialized as such. To do that you should create a new class in the Views folder named BaseDialogWindow which derives from Window. In its default constructor, initialize the required window properties

public class BaseDialogWindow : Window
{
    public BaseDialogWindow()
    {
        this.Owner = App.Current.MainWindow;
        this.ShowInTaskbar = false;
        this.ResizeMode = System.Windows.ResizeMode.NoResize;
        this.WindowStartupLocation = System.Windows.WindowStartupLocation.CenterOwner;
    }
}

Public Class BaseDialogWindow
    Inherits Window
    Public Sub New()
        Me.Owner = Application.Current.MainWindow
        Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
        Me.ResizeMode = Windows.ResizeMode.NoResize
        Me.WindowStartupLocation = Windows.WindowStartupLocation.CenterOwner
        Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
    End Sub
End Class

Setting up the window

1. In the Views folder add a new WPF Window with name AddEditWindow.
2. Open the XAML view of AddEditWindow and change the name of the opening tag from Window to local:BaseDialogWindow. This way the window will be actually be an instance of the class defined earlier - BaseDialogWindow.

3. In the code behind of AddEditWindow inherit the BaseDialogWindow class and implement the IDialogView interface.

   public partial class AddEditWindow : BaseDialogWindow, IDialogView
   {
       public AddEditWindow()
       {
           InitializeComponent();
       }
   } 
   

   Partial Public Class AddEditWindow
       Inherits BaseDialogWindow
       Implements IDialogView
       Public Sub New()
           InitializeComponent()
       End Sub
       Public Overloads Property DialogResult As Boolean? Implements IDialogView.DialogResult
           Get
               Return MyBase.DialogResult
           End Get
           Set(value As Boolean?)
               MyBase.DialogResult = value
           End Set
       End Property
       Public Overloads Property Owner As Window Implements IDialogView.Owner
           Get
               Return MyBase.Owner
           End Get
           Set(value As Window)
               MyBase.Owner = value
           End Set
       End Property
       Public Overloads Property DataContext As Object Implements IView.DataContext
           Get
               Return MyBase.DataContext
           End Get
           Set(value As Object)
               MyBase.DataContext = value
           End Set
       End Property
       Public Overloads Function ShowDialog() As Boolean? Implements IDialogView.ShowDialog
           Return MyBase.ShowDialog()
       End Function
       Public Overloads Sub Close() Implements IView.Close
           MyBase.Close()
       End Sub
   End Class
   

Next step: Defining the User Interface of MainWindow