How can I add this WPF control into my WinForm?

Question

I know that I must use an ElementHost to display a WPF control in a WinForm, but as the WPF control is third party software and it only comes with an XML file and a DLL file.

The control is AvalonEdit, I added both the ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.xml and ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.dll files to my project, and I went to Project -> Add Reference and added the DLL as a reference. Now I can access the ICSharpCode namespace in my code, all of the classes and methods are exposed, but from this point I am unsure how to actually use the control in my WinForm.

I was expecting a WPF control to appear in the Solution Explorer, but it does not. I tried adding an ElementHost control to my WinForm anyways, but when I try to Select the Hosted Content, no controls appear, so it doesn't know about my WPF control. How can I use the AvalonEdit WPF control in my WinForm?

Answer 1

You'll want an example on how to do Code Colouring/Syntax Highlighting as well:

public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.TextEditor textEditor = new ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.TextEditor();
    textEditor.ShowLineNumbers = true;
    textEditor.FontFamily = new System.Windows.Media.FontFamily("Consolas");
    textEditor.FontSize = 12.75f;

    string dir = @"C:\Temp\";
    #if DEBUG
    dir = @"C:\Dev\Sandbox\SharpDevelop-master\src\Libraries\AvalonEdit\ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit\Highlighting\Resources\";
    #endif

    if (File.Exists(dir + "CSharp-Mode.xshd"))
    {
      Stream xshd_stream = File.OpenRead(dir + "CSharp-Mode.xshd");
      XmlTextReader xshd_reader = new XmlTextReader(xshd_stream);    
      // Apply the new syntax highlighting definition.
      textEditor.SyntaxHighlighting = ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.Highlighting.Xshd.HighlightingLoader.Load(xshd_reader, ICSharpCode.AvalonEdit.Highlighting.HighlightingManager.Instance);
      xshd_reader.Close();
      xshd_stream.Close();
    }
    //Host the WPF AvalonEdiot control in a Winform ElementHost control
    ElementHost host = new ElementHost();
    host.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
    host.Child = textEditor;
    this.Controls.Add(host);
}

Answer 2

If you want to be able to set the hosted content at design time the control needs to be part of your solution. One way to achieve that is to create a custom WPF user control which contains the AvalonEdit component you want to use. I.e

1. Create a WPF User Control library project and create a user control containing the AvalonEdit component.

2. Add the User control project to your Winforms solution.

Now you should be able to select your new user control as the hosted content.

Or you could add the AvalonEdit control directly in code like this:

public Form1()
{
  InitializeComponent();

  ElementHost host= new ElementHost();
  host.Size = new Size(200, 100);
  host.Location = new Point(100,100);

  AvalonEditControl edit = new AvalonEditControl();
  host.Child = edit;

  this.Controls.Add(host);
}

Not sure what the control is called so replace the AvalonEditControl as appropriate.