Window vs Page vs UserControl for WPF navigation

Question

I am currently writing a desktop application  but I cannot seem to get my head around what to use when redirecting someone to a new section of the application   My options appear to be   Window Page UserControl   but I don t understand what the difference between them is  and when I should use each one   Could someone explain the differences for me  and give an example of what situations applications you may use each one for

User · Answer

We usually use One Main Window for the application and other windows can be used in situations like when you need popups because instead of using popup controls in XAML which are not visible we can use a Window that is visible at design time so that ll be easy to work with  on the other hand we use many pages to navigate from one screen to another like User management screen to Order Screen etc In the main Window we can use Frame control for navigation like below XAML       lt Frame Name  mainWinFrame  NavigationUIVisibility  Hidden   ButtonBase Click  mainWinFrame Click  gt       lt  Frame gt    C        private void mainWinFrame Click object sender  RoutedEventArgs e                try                       if  e OriginalSource is Button                                Button btn    Button e OriginalSource                   if   btn CommandParameter    null   amp  amp   btn CommandParameter Equals  Order                                            mainWinFrame Navigate OrderPage                                                     catch  Exception ex                        MessageBox Show ex Message   Error                      That s one way of doing it We can also use a Tab Control instead of Fram and Add pages to it using a Dictionary while adding new page check if the control already exists then only navigate otherwise add and navigate  I hope that ll help someone

User · Answer

A Window object is just what it sounds like  its a new Window for your application  You should use it when you want to pop up an entirely new window  I don t often use more than one Window in WPF because I prefer to put dynamic content in my main Window that changes based on user action   A Page is a page inside your Window  It is mostly used for web-based systems like an XBAP  where you have a single browser window and different pages can be hosted in that window  It can also be used in Navigation Applications like sellmeadog said   A UserControl is a reusable user-created control that you can add to your UI the same way you would add any other control  Usually I create a UserControl when I want to build in some custom functionality  for example  a CalendarControl   or when I have a large amount of related XAML code  such as a View when using the MVVM design pattern   When navigating between windows  you could simply create a new Window object and show it  var NewWindow   new MyWindow    newWindow Show      but like I said at the beginning of this answer  I prefer not to manage multiple windows if possible    My preferred method of navigation is to create some dynamic content area using a ContentControl  and populate that with a UserControl containing whatever the current view is    lt Window x Class  MyNamespace MainWindow      gt       lt DockPanel gt           lt ContentControl x Name  ContentArea    gt       lt  DockPanel gt   lt  Window gt    and in your navigate event you can simply set it using   ContentArea Content   new MyUserControl      But if you re working with WPF  I d highly recommend the MVVM design pattern  I have a very basic example on my blog that illustrates how you d navigate using MVVM  using this pattern    lt Window x Class  SimpleMVVMExample ApplicationView          xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation          xmlns x  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml          xmlns local  clr-namespace SimpleMVVMExample          Title  Simple MVVM Example  Height  350  Width  525  gt       lt Window Resources gt         lt DataTemplate DataType   x Type local HomeViewModel   gt            lt local HomeView   gt   lt  -- This is a UserControl -- gt         lt  DataTemplate gt         lt DataTemplate DataType   x Type local ProductsViewModel   gt            lt local ProductsView   gt   lt  -- This is a UserControl -- gt         lt  DataTemplate gt      lt  Window Resources gt       lt DockPanel gt         lt  -- Navigation Buttons -- gt         lt Border DockPanel Dock  Left  BorderBrush  Black                                      BorderThickness  0 0 1 0  gt            lt ItemsControl ItemsSource   Binding PageViewModels   gt               lt ItemsControl ItemTemplate gt                  lt DataTemplate gt                     lt Button Content   Binding Name                             Command   Binding DataContext ChangePageCommand                               RelativeSource  RelativeSource AncestorType  x Type Window                               CommandParameter   Binding                              Margin  2 5   gt                  lt  DataTemplate gt               lt  ItemsControl ItemTemplate gt            lt  ItemsControl gt         lt  Border gt          lt  -- Content Area -- gt         lt ContentControl Content   Binding CurrentPageViewModel     gt      lt  DockPanel gt   lt  Window gt

User · Answer

Most of all has posted correct answer  I would like to add few links  so that you can refer to them and have clear and better ideas about the same   UserControl     http   msdn microsoft com en-IN library a6h7e207 v vs 71  aspx  The difference between page and window with respect to WPF     Page vs Window in WPF

User · Answer

Window is like Windows Forms Form  so just a new window  Page is  according to online documentation      Encapsulates a page of content that can be navigated to      and hosted by Windows Internet Explorer  NavigationWindow  and Frame    So you basically use this if going you visualize some HTML content UserControl is for cases when you want to create some reusable component  but not standalone one  to use it in multiple different Windows

User · Answer

All depends on the app you re trying to build  Use Windows if you re building a dialog based app  Use Pages if you re building a navigation based app  UserControls will be useful regardless of the direction you go as you can use them in both Windows and Pages   A good place to start exploring is here  http   windowsclient net learn

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