WPF UI Layout for LOB Applications

Question

I have been trying to find some resource on this topic for a while now but to no avail so what is the best way to construct a WPF UI for LOB (Line of Business) applications? specifically Customers, Orders, Products, etc.. I have seen many single window WPF application examples that don't need to be anything else but a single window and i've looked at applications such as FamilyShow which looked promising until all I could see in the code was a big pile of user controls that faded in and out over the lifetime of the application and not something I could really use for lets say a 30-40 views in an application.

So what exactly am I asking? Well should I build a LOB application as a single WPF window with lets say a panel that has user controls dynamically loaded into it and then swap these out when lets say a navigation item is pressed or should I have multiple window forms that get shown or hidden when lets say a navigation item is pressed from a launching main form.

UI Design has never really been my strengh but i'm keen to learn so I would really appreciate your thoughts and offered experience in laying out your WPF LOB applications (Window+UC's or Windows) or could point me to any articles that cover WPF UI Layout design for LOB applications.

Thanks for reading...

Geoff.

Answer 1

Ultimately, your UI look/feel depends heavily upon what you're trying to do. "Line of Business" (I assume you mean Line of Business by "LOB") is a very vague term that could mean dozens of different things. Your UI should be constructed to reflect which of those dozens of different things you're actually trying to do.

So I can only answer your question with another: What are you trying to do?

Answer 2

What you want is Microsoft's best practices for composite client applications.

This is probably the best thing to date as far as a framework and starting for business applications. It is what it sounds like - a framework and basis for building a larger app out of smaller components, which happens a lot when creating LOB business apps.

Now, very specific to WPF, is the prism framework. Which I believe shares some of the same concepts as the above composite application blocks (CAB).

Answer 3

Yes, I have been google a lot online to look for resources for WPF/Silverlight "LOB killer app". There was one very good demo(Bill Hollis) which you can find it here

WPF and MVVM is the the popular trend, I highly recommend to add it in your toolbox. It's very powerful foundation for your application framework. I think Microsoft nails databinding for WPF. It's the very main core of the WPF technology to enable (developer & designer) co-exist. It's very high learning curve, but worth the journey. Happy coding.