Implementing common control library for both the WPF and UWP version of an application
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Hello, this might not be a real question, more like an interest about, how bad my current workaround is. I hope it's OK to post here :) . I have an application which I have started developing for WPF and now I also want to port it to UWP. I have created some custom visual controls for the app in a Controls library, which is a Class Library in C# and references .Net WPF libraries. Some custom panels would look very similar with code working in both frameworks, so I thought it would be nice to reuse my old code. This is the solution I came up and currently porting the library to: - left the original Controls class library project untouched - created a Controls.UWP class library for UWP platform - added source files from Controls to Controls.UWP as linked files - finally - and currently working on - resolving the namespace changes by adding stuff like this at the beginning of source files:
#if WINDOWS_UWP
using Windows.Foundation;
#else
using System.Windows;
#endifHowever, in some cases I must completely rewrite the class eg. because I used OnRender function to draw it, so now I have to rewrite it to use Win2D. For this reason I don't know if it's worth bother with #if statements. What do you think, is this a bad idea?
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Hello, this might not be a real question, more like an interest about, how bad my current workaround is. I hope it's OK to post here :) . I have an application which I have started developing for WPF and now I also want to port it to UWP. I have created some custom visual controls for the app in a Controls library, which is a Class Library in C# and references .Net WPF libraries. Some custom panels would look very similar with code working in both frameworks, so I thought it would be nice to reuse my old code. This is the solution I came up and currently porting the library to: - left the original Controls class library project untouched - created a Controls.UWP class library for UWP platform - added source files from Controls to Controls.UWP as linked files - finally - and currently working on - resolving the namespace changes by adding stuff like this at the beginning of source files:
#if WINDOWS_UWP
using Windows.Foundation;
#else
using System.Windows;
#endifHowever, in some cases I must completely rewrite the class eg. because I used OnRender function to draw it, so now I have to rewrite it to use Win2D. For this reason I don't know if it's worth bother with #if statements. What do you think, is this a bad idea?
How I would tend to do this is put common code inside a PCL which can be used by both sides. Then all you have to do is write your platform specific code and call the shared functionality.
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How I would tend to do this is put common code inside a PCL which can be used by both sides. Then all you have to do is write your platform specific code and call the shared functionality.
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Thank you for the reply! Then I guess, I wanted to create a monster with platform specific code (the UI controls) for two frameworks in common source files. I have already used PCL, that's why I thought it would be nice to have something similar for UI, too. Also, since my post I found other issues, like the missing
FrameworkPropertyMetadatafrom UWP and more restricted attached property accessors. So, it seems, that I couldn't save anyway as much code-rewriting as I wanted :( . -
Thank you for the reply! Then I guess, I wanted to create a monster with platform specific code (the UI controls) for two frameworks in common source files. I have already used PCL, that's why I thought it would be nice to have something similar for UI, too. Also, since my post I found other issues, like the missing
FrameworkPropertyMetadatafrom UWP and more restricted attached property accessors. So, it seems, that I couldn't save anyway as much code-rewriting as I wanted :( .The biggest problem you will face is that, despite appearances, WPF and UWA are two vastly different beasts. Universal Windows programs are a lot closer to Silverlight, so there are things that you can do in WPF that just aren't available in WPF (and vice versa). This would have a fundamental impact on things such as what your XAML does, which would be a major pain to work around.
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