NanUI

Create An aApplication

This article describes how to create a simple WinFormium application and also shows the minimal configuration required to develop a WinFormium application.

Environment

Visual Studio 2017 and above (Visual Studio 2022 recommended)
.NET 6.0 SDK and above or .NET Framework 4.6.2 and above

Create project

1. Create WinForm Project Create a WinForm application project using the default template. Depending on the needs of the project, please choose a WinForm project template based on .NET Framework or .NET. The following example will be demonstrated using a .NET 6.0 based WinForm project.

Select project template

2. Install WinFormium ¹ and WinFormium Runtime packages via NuGet

Install the WinFormium package using NuGet Package Manager or run the following command using the NuGet Package Manager console:

PM> Install-Package NetDimension.NanUI

Install the Chromium Embedded Framework runtime library that WinFormium depends on:

PM> Install-Package NetDimension.NanUI.Runtime

In addition, if your project is based on .NET Framework, the package manager may prompt an error that the dependencies cannot be found when installing WinFormium, then you need to install the two dependencies manually. It should be noted that these two dependencies are in preview status, so you need to check the “Include pre-release versions” checkbox in the package manager before searching.

Check the "Include pre-release versions" checkbox

SharpGen.Runtime dependencies:

PM> Install-Package SharpGen.Runtime -Version 2.1.2-beta

SharpGen.Runtime.COM dependencies:

PM> Install-Package SharpGen.Runtime.COM -Version 2.1.2-beta

3. Modify project files

Delete the Form1.cs file and related resource files preset in the template. Then modify the Program.cs file code as follows.

In the following sample code, WinFormiumApp is the entry class of the WinFormium framework, which provides a series of static methods for configuring WinFormium applications. Here we create a builder for a WinFormium application using the CreateBuilder method and then associate the builder with our own application class MyApp using the UseWinFormiumApp method. Finally, use the Build method to create a WinFormium application instance and run it.

using WinFormium;

class Program
{
     [STAThread]
     static void Main(string[] args)
     {
         var builder = WinFormiumApp.CreateBuilder();

         builder.UseWinFormiumApp<MyApp>();

         var app = builder.Build();

         app.Run();
     }
}

Create the MyApp.cs class file and inherit from the WinFormiumStartup base class. This class is mainly used to configure the initialization information of the WinFormium application.

In the following sample code, MyAPP inherits the WinFormiumStartup class and overrides several of its methods. The UseMainWindow method is used to configure the main form of the application, the WinFormiumMain method is used to configure the code in the application’s main process, the ConfigurationChromiumEmbedded method is used to configure the Chromium Embedded Framework, and the ConfigureServices method is used to configure the application program services. Here, we use the UseMainFormium method to set the application’s main form to the MyWindow class, which inherits from the Formium class to configure the form’s style and homepage address. In subsequent development, you can add other business logic code to this class to achieve more functions.

using WinFormium;

class MyAPP: WinFormiumStartup
{
     protected override MainWindowCreationAction? UseMainWindow(MainWindowOptions opts)
     {
         //Set the main form of the application
         return opts.UseMainFormium<MyWindow>();
     }

     protected override void WinFormiumMain(string[] args)
     {
         //The code in the Main function should be here, this function only runs in the main process. This prevents the child process from running some incorrect initialization code.
         ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize();
     }

     protected override void ConfigurationChromiumEmbedded(ChromiumEnvironmentBuiler cef)
     {
         // Configure Chromium Embedded Framwork here
     }

     protected override void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
     {
         // Configure the application's services here
     }
}

Create a WinFormium form file MyWindow.cs. This class implements Formium and is used to configure the style and home page address of the main form. In subsequent development, you can add other business logic code to this class to achieve more functions.

using WinFormium;
using WinFormium.Forms;

class MyWindow : Formium
{
     publicMyWindow()
     {
         //Set homepage address
         Url = "https://cn.bing.com";
     }

     protected override FormStyle ConfigureWindowStyle(WindowStyleBuilder builder)
     {
         // Configure the style and properties of the form here, or do not inherit this method to use the default style.

         var style = builder.UseSystemForm();

         style.TitleBar = false;

         style.DefaultAppTitle = "My first WinFomrim app";

         return style;
     }
}

Run the project

Now that you have finished coding, compiled, and run the application you just wrote, you will see a simple form that displays the page specified by the Url property.

Simple WinFormium application

But you will find that the form does not display the title bar and command control area of the native WinForm form. Although you can drag the border to change its size, there is no place for you to drag it to move it, and there is no minimize, Maximize and close buttons. This is because the code style.TitleBar = false; that configures the form style above causes the form to remove the native title bar and implement a form style without a title bar, so you can control the entire form area. In Forms Without Titlebar will introduce how to control this type of form. For how to detect various properties and status of the form, please refer to Form Features.

NanUI

Create An aApplication

Environment

Create project

Run the project

See also