How to manipulate cursor for WinRT UI control as like WPF control?

In this blog post I am going to demonstrate on how to manipulate cursor for WinRT UI control as like in WPF control.

In WPF, you will find a property (Cursor) in UI control which allows you to get/sets the cursor which displays when mouse pointer is over the UI (ex: Textbox) element. Whereas in WinRT environment there is no cursor property for each UI control instead we can manipulate the cursor used by the window using the current core window pointer cursor.

//Gets or sets the cursor used by the window.

Window.Current.CoreWindow.PointerCursor

In the below sample (referred from WinRTXamlToolkit samples) I have manipulated the cursor used by the window when hovering over (pointer entered and pointer exited event) the text block element.

Sample link:

http://www.filedropper.com/app5

 

Code Snippet:

private void txtBlock_PointerEntered_1(object sender, PointerRoutedEventArgs e) { //Store current cursor used by the window m_defaultCursor = Window.Current.CoreWindow.PointerCursor; //Set cursor of current core window Window.Current.CoreWindow.PointerCursor = Cursor; }   private void txtBlock_PointerExited_1(object sender, PointerRoutedEventArgs e) { //Reset pointer cursor on mouse pointer exits Window.Current.CoreWindow.PointerCursor = m_defaultCursor; }

References:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.ui.core.corewindow.pointercursor

http://winrtxamltoolkit.codeplex.com/

How to access Manifest (Embedded) resource from an Assembly in WinRT application.

CodeProject In this blog post, I am going to demonstrate on how to access a simple XML file embedded in the WinRT assembly.

One of the easier way to retrieve an assembly in .Net application is by using below method.

// This will return the assembly whose code is currently executing.

Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

Alternate one is to use Type object of the classes present in the assembly.

Assembly assembly = typeof(DemoClass).GetType().Assembly;

From the assembly object we can retrieve the manifest resource stream (embedded file) using GetManifestResourceStream() method. All we need is to pass the name of the embedded resource. The name of the embedded resource is the combination of root namespace, folder path and the file name.

For example consider the root namespace of a demo application to be MyApp and the XML file (Embedded.xml) is available under Resources folder of the assembly. Then the name of the embedded resource is “MyApp.Resources.Embedded.xml”.

Sample code snippet for .Net

Assembly assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly(); Or Assembly assembly = typeof(DemoClass).GetType().Assembly; Stream xmlStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("MyApp.Resources.Embedded.xml");

In WinRT, Both GetExecutingAssembly() and GetType().Assembly are not available, instead you can retrieve the assembly object from the classes declared in the assembly by means of using TypeInfo object. Now the remaining part to access the manifest resource is same as in .Net application. Please find the code snippet from below.

Sample code snippet for WinRT

Assembly assembly = typeof(DemoClass).GetTypeInfo().Assembly; Stream xmlStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("MyApp.Resources.Embedded.xml");

Please find the demo application from below link

http://www.filedropper.com/retreiveembededxml

In this application, embedded XML file is retrieved and its contents are displayed in a text box.

How to decompress files in Metro style applications?

CodeProject In this blog post, I am going to demonstrate on how to use ZipArchive class in Metro style app to decompress a set of files and save the extracted files to a particular location.

Steps to decompress a set of files:

Step 1: Select the compressed file to decompress.

//Initialize file open picker FileOpenPicker fileOpenPicker = new FileOpenPicker(); fileOpenPicker.ViewMode = PickerViewMode.List; //Suggest start location fileOpenPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.ComputerFolder; //Add file type filter fileOpenPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add("*.zip"); //Opens file open picker to allow the user to select the compressed file StorageFile stgFile = await fileOpenPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();

Step 2: Select folder to extract the files

//Initialize folder picker FolderPicker saveFolder = new FolderPicker(); //Suggest start location saveFolder.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.Desktop; //Add file type filter saveFolder.FileTypeFilter.Add("*"); //Opens folder picker to allow the user to select the folder to extract the compressed items StorageFolder storageFolder = await saveFolder.PickSingleFolderAsync();

Step 3: Use ZipArchive class to extract the files to the selected folder

//Read the stream from the compressed file Stream stream = await stgFile.OpenStreamForReadAsync(); //Copy it to Memory stream for further manipulation MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(); await stream.CopyToAsync(ms); ms.Position = 0; //Open Zip archive of the compressed file zipArchive = new ZipArchive(ms, ZipArchiveMode.Read); //For each archive entry, create file and folder accordingly and then copy the entry stream to the file. foreach (ZipArchiveEntry entry in zipArchive.Entries) { StorageFile storageFile; //Assign Selected save folder StorageFolder stgFolder = storageFolder; //Create Folder stgFolder = await CreateFolder(storageFolder, entry.FullName.Replace(entry.Name, string.Empty)); //Create File storageFile = await stgFolder.CreateFileAsync(entry.Name, CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting); //Open file stream for writing Stream s = await storageFile.OpenStreamForWriteAsync(); //Copy the entry stream to the file stream await entry.Open().CopyToAsync(s); //Dispose s.Dispose(); } //Dispose zipArchive.Dispose(); stream.Dispose(); ms.Dispose();

Helper methods:

Create folder based on the file path present in Zip Archive entry

async Task<StorageFolder> CreateFolder(StorageFolder stgFolder, string path) { //Split the folder path for creating sub folder string[] locationSplit = path.Split(new char[] { '/' }); for (int i = 0; i < locationSplit.Length; i++) { //Create folder if (locationSplit[i] != string.Empty) stgFolder = await stgFolder.CreateFolderAsync(locationSplit[i], CreationCollisionOption.OpenIfExists); } return stgFolder; }

Thus the files under the selected compressed file are extracted to a particular location.

References:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br207928.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/BR207847

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.storage.pickers.folderpicker.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/system.runtime.interopservices.windowsruntime.windowsruntimebufferextensions%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh454050%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/system.io.compression.ziparchive%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

How to compress files in Metro style applications?

CodeProject In this blog post, I am going to demonstrate on how to use ZipArchive class in Metro style app to compress a set of files and save the compressed file to a particular location.

Steps to compress a set of files:

Step 1: Select the folder containing the files which you want to compress.

//Select Folder to Compress FolderPicker saveFolder = new FolderPicker(); //Suggest start location saveFolder.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.Desktop; //Add file type filter saveFolder.FileTypeFilter.Add("*"); //Opens folder picker to allow the user to select the folder to compress StorageFolder storageFolderForCompression = await saveFolder.PickSingleFolderAsync();

Step 2: Retrieve the files present under the selected folder

// Retrieve the files to compress IReadOnlyList<StorageFile> filesToCompress = await GetStorageFiles(storageFolderForCompression as IStorageItem);

Helper methods:

async Task<List<StorageFile>> GetStorageFiles(IStorageItem storageItem) { List<StorageFile> storageFileList = new List<StorageFile>(); // Gets the items under the selected folder (Storage Item) IReadOnlyList<IStorageItem> items = await (storageItem as StorageFolder).GetItemsAsync(); foreach(IStorageItem item in items) { switch(item.Attributes) { case FileAttributes.Directory: // If the item is a directory under the selected folder, then retrieve the files under the directory by calling the same function recursively List<StorageFile> temp = await GetStorageFiles(item); // Copy the files under the directory to the storage file list Copy(temp, storageFileList); break; default: // If the item is a file, Add the item to the storage file list storageFileList.Add(item as StorageFile); break; } } // Return storage file list for compression return storageFileList; }

private void Copy(List<StorageFile> source, List<StorageFile> destination) { // For each file item present under the directory copy it to the destination storage file list foreach (StorageFile file in source) { destination.Add(file); } }

Note: Alternatively you can use FileOpenPicker control’s PickMultipleFilesAsync() method to allow the users to select multiple files instead selecting the folder. In this way you can skip both Step 1 and Step 2.

// File open picker FileOpenPicker fileOpenPicker = new FileOpenPicker(); fileOpenPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.ComputerFolder; fileOpenPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add("*"); // Allows user to select multiple files which returns storage file list IReadOnlyList<StorageFile> filesToCompress = await fileOpenPicker.PickMultipleFilesAsync();

Step 3: Create ZipArchive object using a memory stream and then for each file to be compressed Add a ZipArchiveEntry with the file name and copy the file contents to the ZipArchiveEntry stream.

Once the files are added to the zip archive, close the zip archive object and copy the contents of memory stream to the storage file which is saved to a particular location.

// Retrieve files to compress IReadOnlyList<StorageFile> filesToCompress = await GetStorageFiles(storageFolderForCompression as IStorageItem); // Created new file to store compressed files //This will create a file under the selected folder in the name “Compressed.zip” StorageFile zipFile = await storageFolderForCompression.CreateFileAsync("Compressed.zip"); // Create stream to compress files in memory (ZipArchive can't stream to an IRandomAccessStream, see // http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winappswithcsharp/thread/62541424-ba7d-43d3-9585-1fe53dc7d9e2 // for details on this issue) using (MemoryStream zipMemoryStream = new MemoryStream()) { // Create zip archive using (ZipArchive zipArchive = new ZipArchive(zipMemoryStream, ZipArchiveMode.Create)) { // For each file to compress... foreach (StorageFile fileToCompress in filesToCompress) { //Read the contents of the file byte[] buffer = WindowsRuntimeBufferExtensions.ToArray(await FileIO.ReadBufferAsync(fileToCompress)); // Create a zip archive entry ZipArchiveEntry entry = zipArchive.CreateEntry(fileToCompress.Name); // And write the contents to it using (Stream entryStream = entry.Open()) { await entryStream.WriteAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); } } } using (IRandomAccessStream zipStream = await zipFile.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite)) { // Write compressed data from memory to file using (Stream outstream = zipStream.AsStreamForWrite()) { byte[] buffer = zipMemoryStream.ToArray(); outstream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); outstream.Flush(); } } }

Thus the files under the selected folder are compressed to a particular location.

References:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br207928.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/BR207847

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.storage.pickers.folderpicker.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/system.runtime.interopservices.windowsruntime.windowsruntimebufferextensions%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh454050%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/system.io.compression.ziparchive%28v=vs.110%29.aspx