VO GUI Classes to Winforms

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:46 am

Hi Robert,
many, many years ago Michael Zech from CA told me that they had a customer that wrote his own GUI classes based on the Windows API, and his own databrowser.
Later, when I saw the first bBrowser prototype on a conference, I learned that this control was originally built on these proprietary GUI classes and then moved to the VO GUI classes by Joachim Bieler in his spare time.
And really, the bBrowser is more tied to the Windows API than to the VO GUI classes.
Wolfgang

ArneOrtlinghaus · Post by **ArneOrtlinghaus** » Fri Jun 12, 2020 4:01 pm

Thank you all for answering.
It isn't urgent. We hope that we will have converted all of our customer installations to Dotnet until beginning of 2021.
But we have started discussing what can come next, what features it may have and what it may cost. Code name "Facelift 3.0".

I have looked into the new VOSDKTyped Winforms GUI: interesting! I mainly will have to learn to use interfaces and not only to think in the old objected oriented 1-1 inheritences. Most of the ugly winapi casting operations have vanished.

Joachim Bieler · Post by **Joachim Bieler** » Sun Jun 14, 2020 4:07 pm

Hi Arne and all others,
I can already imagine to offer the bBrowser also for WinForms. However, I cannot estimate at present how large the programming effort for this is. For this I would first have to learn more about WinForms. Conceivable would be also a kind of community work where I get help with the implementation from you, the WinForms specialists.

Of course it is always questionable to what extent such an implementation is worthwhile. If only a handful of programmers are interested in such product, it might not be worth the effort.

Joachim

ArneOrtlinghaus · Post by **ArneOrtlinghaus** » Sun Jun 14, 2020 4:31 pm

Hi Joachim,
nice to hear from you.
Probably we can discuss in Autumn this year what can be possibilities.
Arne

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:57 am

Hi Joachim,

thank you very much for answering here!
Only two things: what is needed is a special implementation of bBrowser for the new VO GUI classes based on Windows Forms - a thing that Robert has presented a few weeks ago, and that currently is a work in progress (I'm pretty sure you will not only receive direct help from the developers, but also changes and enhancements in the GUI classes itself).
And the second thing, not less important IMHO: you will not only need to base you on sales, but also on sponsors: people that pays you in advance to build that tools.
For me the bBrowser is a very important part of my applications, and it is unthinkable to migrate them without having the bBrowser.
Wolfgang

Joachim Bieler · Post by **Joachim Bieler** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:53 am

Arne, Wolfgang,
I will contact Robert and Chris to get more information about the VO GUI classes for WinForms. Maybe I can estimate afterwards how big the effort for a bBrowser (WinForms Edition) is.
Joachim

robert · Post by **robert** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:10 pm

Guys,

Although I really appreciate your enthusiasm, I would also like warn you that we are not quite ready for supporting 3rd party controls for the new UI classes.
We'll work with Joachim when we the classes are stable enough.
I have looked at the bBrowser code and I am sure we can help Joachim to work with the new UI classes and also add support for Unicode strings and working in AnyCPU mode

Robert

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 4:04 am

Hi Robert,
personally I think that if may be important to make the bBrowser work on the new GUI classes as early as possible for at least two reasons: first of all, the classes itself can be adapted to the requirements of the bBrowser and prepare then also for other customcontrols, and then: for many people the availability of the bBrowser is required to start the migration of their applications to these classes.
Wolfgang
P.S. It is really a great work what you have done with these classes, I like them!

Bernhard Mayer · Post by **Bernhard Mayer** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:27 pm

Just a few thoughts on this topic:

A "plain" translation on bBrowser is definitely a good start, but in "full .NET mode" this control should also be capable of handling lists, collections and datatables.
What about ReportPro and the new WinForm based GUI classes?

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:35 pm

Hi Bernhard,

Exactly, I was looking into RP2 as well yesterday, and this will also require A LOT of work to be ported to the new GUI classes. So it's not something that can be done really soon...

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