Set Infragistics controls’ style in Windows Forms

Infragistics provides an application styling feature to make all the controls look and feel the same. Infragistics also provides some default styles that could be used. To use this feature:

1. All the controls need to be Infragistics controls and their UseAppStyling property should be set to true. (this property is set to true by default)
2. In the main form once the application is loaded, the application style file needs to be loaded using: Infragistics.Win.AppStyling.StyleManager.Load(<Style file’s Path>)

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Marking custom files as permanent in Setup project Visual Studio windows Applications

I had situations where I wanted files to remain on the users’ machine after uninstalling the windows application. These were user specific layouts (for example grid layouts) and I didn’t want to override them with default ones in the next install. These are the steps to achieve this goal:

• File System – select setup project in Solution Explorer, right click select View -> File System option

• Make the file Permanent – find the file from File System. In the file’s Properties window set Permanent to true. This way once the application is uninstalled, this file will not be deleted

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Setting AddRemoveProgram’s Icon in setup project Visual Studio Windows Form

Icons can be added to windows application’s setup thus when they are installed, in the Add Remove Program the application shows up with an icon.  To achieve this follow these steps:

• Setup Project’s Properties – select the setup project from Solution Explorer window and select Properties

 

•  AddRemoveProgramsIcon – in the Properties window, select AddRemoveProgramsIcon and Browse to find the icon’s location

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Setting Shortcut’s Icon in setup project Visual Studio Windows Application

Icons can be added to windows application’s setup thus when they are installed, their shortcuts have an icon associated with them.  To add icons to application’s shortcut follow these steps:

• Open File System – right click on Setup project, select View -> File System

 

• Select the shortcut – select the desired shortcut. In this example the shortcut is in User’s Desktop folder

• Shortcut’s properties – right click on the shortcut and select Properties Window

 

• Icon – in the Properties window, select Icon and Browse to find the icon’s location

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Remove dll from Setup project Visual Studio Windows Application

Once the application setup project is created, it will detect and list all the dependencies used in the application.

 

I found that in some cases the dll in setup project needs to be excluded from the dependencies list. One reason for this is the required dll might already exist on the installed machine. To exclude the dll, select the desired dll from the Detected Dependencies, right click select Exclude Option.

 

In this case the selected dll is not going to be in the project folder once the application is installed.

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Creating desktop shortcuts in deployment projects

Once the windows application is installed sometimes it is helpful to create a shortcut for the application. This can be done in the setup project, so once the application is installed, the shortcut is automatically put on the users’ desktop. To achieve this follow these steps:

• Open File System – to open the file system, right click on setup project in Solution Explorer and select View -> File System

• Create Shortcut – in the File System window on left hand side, click User’s Desktop. In the right hand side, right click and select Create New Shortcut

• Select output project – in the Select Item in Project window double click Application Folder. Then select Primary output from <project name> (Active) and select OK

• Rename Shortcut  – name the shortcut

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Create setup project for windows applications in Visual Studio

Once the windows application is ready for deployment the following steps could be used to create the deployment project (i.e. the msi):

• Add setup project – from solution explorer, right click and select Add -> New Project
• Create setup project – from the Add New Project window, from left hand side menu select Other Project Types -> Visual Studio Installer -> Setup Project – At the end of the window; you can pick the Name for the project

• Add Output file – in the File System select the Application Folder from left hand side menu. In the right hand side, right click and select Add -> Project Output

• Add Primary output – from the Add Project Output Group select Primary output option and click OK

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Adding custom folder and files to setup project Visual Studio Windows applications

In windows applications you might want to deploy the project with some files and/or folders that are required by the application at run time. To add custom folders and/or files to setup project following these steps:

• File System – select setup project in Solution Explorer, right click select View -> File System option

 

• Add Custom Folder – in File System, select File System on Target Machine (from left hand side), right click and select Add Special Folder -> Custom Folder option

 

• Rename Custom Folder – after last step you can rename the custom folder

 

• Select Custom Folder’s Location – in the properties window for Custom Folder, set the DefaultLocation to the path where you want the custom folder be installed

 

• Add files and/or folder – to add files or folders to the custom folder, select the custom folder made from last step, right click, select Add -> Folder or Add -> File

 

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Creating a Flat Dataset in WPF

There are three ways to retrieve and store data into DataSet: a connection object, a command object, and a DataAdapter object. Note that all WPF controls’ data bindings must be bind to an object that implements the IEnumerable interface. This link walks through a simple example to create a flat Dataset:

http://help.infragistics.com/NetAdvantage/WPF/2010.3/CLR4.0/

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.NET Control Navigation (Document Outline)

.NET has a window that is controls’ navigation window. In other words it lists all the controls used in the form. This helps to view all controls at once and select them easily. This window is called Document Outline and here is a picture:

This window can be added to .NET environment from View (Menu bar) -> Other Windows -> Document Outline:

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