WPF Designer and Localization

WPF Designer and Localization

Posted by: Mick.George on 6 December 2018, 6:42 am EST

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 6 December 2018, 6:42 am EST - Updated 30 September 2022, 8:53 am EST

  Hi,

  We are currently looking to re-write an older v6 application to leverage v12 but also switch to WPF from WinForms. We have seen some issues with this approach using a WindowsHost control in a WPF view. I have attached an image to show the two issues we are seeing comparing a side by side comparison of a WinForms window hosting a v12 designer and a WPF view implementing the windows host control that assigns a WinForms UserControl per your WPF sample project listed here on these forums.

  Issue #1: The tabs and buttons are being clipped resulting in the text being clipped.

  Issue #2: One tab is overlaying on its neighbor.

  

  732×172 15.2 KB

  My question, is using the designer in WPF not entirely supported for commercial release? Or are there any properties available that would allow us to have control over the tabs, auto size to accommodate languages with long text, German for example?

  If we have to switch to using WinForms for the sake of reliability, functionality , etc we can do that but we are primarily a WPF developer so that would be our preferred development

  Any help would be appreciated.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 6 December 2018, 7:32 pm EST

  Hello,

  Could you please share the exact localization strings so that I can escalate the issue to our developer team.

  Thanks,

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 7 December 2018, 3:58 am EST

  Hi,

  I don’t believe its a resource issue because I can replicate the problem using the default language as shown below. Create a WPF project and reference the Designer is all you need to do to see the issue.

  
  
  xmlns:design="clr-namespace:GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design;assembly=GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design.Win.v12"
  
  
   <WindowsFormsHost Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" x:Name="Host" Padding="10" Margin="10" >
              <design:Designer x:Name="TheDesigner" 
                               Dock="Fill" 
                               ColorTheme="SystemTheme" 
                               DesignerUnits="System"     />
          </WindowsFormsHost>
  
  

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 7 December 2018, 4:07 am EST

  There is also the issue of the text over flowing the tab as it does not auto size to fit so I have attached a test DLL for that.

  
  System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("ja-JP");
  
  

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 7 December 2018, 4:11 am EST

  GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Design.Win.v12.resources.dll.zip

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 9 December 2018, 11:08 pm EST

  Hello,

  I am able to replicate the issue at my end. I have escalated the issue to our development team and will inform you once I get any information from them.

  Thanks.

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 10 December 2018, 12:21 am EST

  Thanks for the reply.

  Additional information is that we are using Windows 10 x64 machines to develop. We have tested on two separate machines creating brand new projects both with the same results.

  EDIT: Also seeing the same problem with version 10. Is anyone using the designer in WPF for commercial use? This issue leads me to believe no one is?

  Anything else please let me know.

  Thanks,
  
  Mick

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 10 December 2018, 10:19 pm EST

  Hello,

  I have already escalated this issue to our development team(268259) and will inform you once I get any information from them.

  Thanks.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 10 December 2018, 11:26 pm EST

  Hello,

  As a workaround, you can set the font of the MainWindow to “MS UI Gothic”. Also, we cannot provide the full support of the Designer control in WPF applications.

  Thanks.

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 11 December 2018, 1:11 am EST

  Hello Mohitg,

  Thank you for the update, however, we are unable to switch the font in our application for several reasons. We will be updating to AR13 hopefully tomorrow? but we will now have to switch from WPF development to WinForms because you do not offer full support for WPF and we are not comfortable developing and supporting a commercial application without your full support.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 11 December 2018, 4:12 pm EST

  Hello,

  Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
  
  Also, there is delayed in the release of AR13 due to some technical issue. Now, AR13 supposed to release on 10 Jan 2019.

  Thanks.

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 12 December 2018, 12:02 am EST

  Thank you for the update.

  My program director had a question for you, is there an ActiveReports road map publicly available? Will there be a native WPF Designer available anytime soon?

  To be honest we are some what hesitant to develop a brand new project in 2018 with WinForms.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 12 December 2018, 3:07 am EST

  Hello,

  Sorry to mention that there is no roadmap of AR that is publicly available. Also, there is no plan to release WPF designer in future as of now.

  However, I have asked the our higher team about the same and will update you once I get any information from them.

  Thanks.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 12 December 2018, 10:29 pm EST

  Hello,

  As said earlier, we do not have plans to create WPF Report Designer and also, “WPF viewer will be obsoleted in AR13”.

  As an additional workaround, you can set the font for the designer control directly as follows:

  
    this.TheDesigner.Font= new System.Drawing.Font("MS UI Gothic",9f);
  
  

  Hope it helps.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 12 December 2018, 10:31 pm EST

  Also, our development team is looking into this issue and will inform you once they find any feasible fix for this.

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 13 December 2018, 2:29 pm EST

  Hi mohitg,

  What do you mean when you say “WPF viewer will be obsoleted in AR13”

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 13 December 2018, 8:45 pm EST

  Hello Mick,

  Sorry for the confusion. I have rechecked with the higher team. WPF viewer will not obsolete in the AR13. There is still support for WPF viewer in AR13. There is some misunderstanding at my end.

  Thanks.

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  Pragati.Kaushik

  

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  Posted 16 December 2018, 8:35 pm EST

  Hi,

  This issue has been fixed in the hotfix which can be downloaded from here:
  
  http://cdn.grapecity.com/ActiveReports/ar12/hotfixes/ActiveReports-v12.2.15573.0.msi

  Please let me know if you need any additional help on this.

  Thanks,
  
  Pragati

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 17 December 2018, 3:24 am EST

  Hi Pragati,

  I was able to confirm the issue resolved with the hot fix, thank you very much,

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  Mick.George

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  Posted 17 December 2018, 3:25 am EST - Updated 30 September 2022, 8:54 am EST

  Image att

  

  1282×619 44 KB

  WinForms Designer hosted in a WPF Window.

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  mohitg

  

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  Posted 1 January 2019, 10:50 pm EST

  Hello Mick,

  I am able to reproduce the issue(grayish background) at my end. Could you please confirm that you are talking about the same grayish background issue or something else. If yes, I will escalate the issue to our developer team and If not, then could you please explain about the issue.

  Thanks,