Using WinForms Commands in WPF

You can use WinForms-based command components in a WPF based application. This is made possible by the CommandServiceAdapter component, which implements the WinForms ICommandService so it works in a WPF environment. In other words, it adapts Sce.Atf.Wpf.Applications.ICommandService to Sce.Atf.Applications.ICommandService.

The CommandServiceAdapter component exports Sce.Atf.Applications.ICommandService. If this component is included in an application, the WinForms-based components that need ICommandService import it from CommandServiceAdapter, rather than the WinForms-based CommandService component. This allows the components to function with the WPF application. The application would not include the WinForms-based CommandService component in its MEF catalog in this case.

CommandServiceAdapter also creates an object of the CommandClientAdapter class, which adapts the ICommandClient interface for WinForms-based command clients to WPF. This allows command clients implementing Sce.Atf.Applications.ICommandClient to operate properly in WPF.

The StandardInteropParts class includes the CommandServiceAdapter component in a MEF TypeCatalog:

public class StandardInteropParts
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets type catalog for all components</summary>
    public static ComposablePartCatalog Catalog
    {
        get
        {
            return new TypeCatalog(
                typeof(MainWindowAdapter),
                typeof(CommandServiceAdapter),
                typeof(ContextMenuService),
                typeof(DialogService),
                typeof(ControlHostServiceAdapter)
            );
        }
    }
}

This catalog can be included in an AggregateCatalog, as in this line from the ATF Simple DOM Editor WPF Sample App.xaml.cs file:

return new AggregateCatalog(typeCatalog, StandardInteropParts.Catalog, StandardViewModels.Catalog);

After this, the WPF application can use the WinForms-based commands component — with no additional support from the application.

Topics in this section