How Can I Open a WPF Popup with a Delay?

Question

I simply want to open up the WPF Popup with a delay, sort of like a ToolTip.

How can I achieve this?

And, by the way, Popup.PopupAnimation = PopupAnimation.Fade ... fades in too quickly. I want at least half a second in there.

Answer 1

First off ... the credit for this answer goes to Eric Burke. He answered this very question posted in the WPF Disciples group. I thought it would be useful to put this answer out on StackOverflow too.

Basically, you need to animate the IsOpen property of the Popup with with a DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame.

Check out the following xaml (which can easily be pasted into Kaxaml or another loose xaml editing utility):

<Page
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
>
    <ContentPresenter>
        <ContentPresenter.ContentTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <Grid>
                    <CheckBox
                        x:Name="cb"
                        Width="100"
                        Height="40"
                        Content="Hover Over Me"
                    />
                    <Popup
                        x:Name="popup"
                        Placement="Bottom"
                        PlacementTarget="{Binding ElementName=cb}"
                    >
                        <Border Width="400" Height="400" Background="Red"/>
                    </Popup>
                </Grid>
                <DataTemplate.Triggers>
                    <Trigger SourceName="cb" Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
                        <Trigger.EnterActions>
                            <BeginStoryboard x:Name="bsb">
                                <Storyboard>
                                    <BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames
                                        Storyboard.TargetName="popup"
                                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen"
                                        FillBehavior="HoldEnd"
                                    >
                                        <DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame KeyTime="0:0:0.5" Value="True"/>
                                     </BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                                </Storyboard>
                            </BeginStoryboard>
                        </Trigger.EnterActions>
                        <Trigger.ExitActions>
                            <StopStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="bsb"/>
                        </Trigger.ExitActions>
                    </Trigger>
                </DataTemplate.Triggers>
            </DataTemplate>
        </ContentPresenter.ContentTemplate>
    </ContentPresenter>
</Page>

Please note that I modified his original solution slightly ... to trigger the IsOpen on mouse over versus checking the CheckBox as he had it. All in the attempt to make Popup behave a little like ToolTip.

Answer 2

The answer cplotts pasted is good but may not apply in your case because it leaves the animation attached to the IsOpen property, effectively locking it in place and preventing it from being changed via direct property setting, binding, and other ways. This may make it difficult to use with your code, depending on how you are using it.

If that is the case, I would switch to starting a DispatcherTimer when you want to open a popup after some delay, like this:

_popupTimer = new DispatcherTimer(DispatcherPriority.Normal);
_popupTimer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(100);
_popupTimer.Tick += (obj, e) =>
{
  _popup.IsOpen = true;
};
_popupTimer.Start();

For a ToolTip-like behavior this could be done on MouseEnter. If you want to cancel the popup opening for some reason (such as if the mouse leaves the control before the popup appears), just:

_popupTimer.Stop();

Update

As cplotts obseved in the comment, you will also want to set _popup.IsOpen = false in some situations in the MouseLeave event, depending on your logic for handling the mouse enter / exit events between your control and the popup. Be aware that you usually don't want to blindly set IsOpen=false on every MouseLeave event, because it may do so when the popup appears over it. This would in some situations lead to a flickering popup. So you'll need some logic there.

Answer 3

System.Windows.Controls.ToolTip tp = new System.Windows.Controls.ToolTip();

System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer tooltipTimer =
    new System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer
    (
        System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority.Normal
    );

private void TooltipInvalidCharacter()
{
    tp.Content =
        "A flie name cannot contain any of the following character :" +
        "\n" + "\t" + "\\  / : *  ?  \"  <  >  |";

    tooltipTimer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
    tooltipTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(tooltipTimer_Tick);
    tp.IsOpen = true;
    tooltipTimer.Start();       
}

void tooltipTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     tp.IsOpen = false;
     tooltipTimer.Stop();
}

Answer 4

You can extend the XAML for this solution so the popup stays open as long as the mouse is over it, then disappears automatically.

I modified the sample as follows:

1. Create a "ClosePopop" animation which sets IsOpen to False after 0.5 seconds. I made this a resource because it's used twice.
2. For the control's IsMouseOver trigger, add an ExitAction that starts the ClosePopup animation. This gives the user a chance to move the mouse over the popup before it closes. I named this animation"bxb"
3. Add a Trigger to the popup's IsMouseOver property. On mouseover, stop (but don't remove) the original "bxb" ClosePopup animation. This leaves the popup visible; removing the animation here will make the popup close.
4. On the popup's mouseout, start a new ClosePopup animation then remove the "bxb" animation. The last step is critical because otherwise the first, stopped "bxb" animation will keep the popup open.

This version turns the pop blue while the mouse is over it so you can see the sequence of events with Kaxaml.

<Page xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"&gt;
 <DataTemplate x:Key="TooltipPopup">
  <Grid>
    <CheckBox
        x:Name="cb"
        Width="100"
        Height="40"
        Content="Hover Over Me"/>
    <Popup
        x:Name="popup"
        Placement="Bottom"
        PlacementTarget="{Binding ElementName=cb}">
        <Border x:Name="border" Width="400" Height="400" Background="Red"/>
    </Popup>
  </Grid>
  <DataTemplate.Resources>
    <Storyboard x:Key="ClosePopup">
        <BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames
                        Storyboard.TargetName="popup"
                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen"
                        FillBehavior="Stop">
            <DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame KeyTime="0:0:0.5" Value="False"/>
        </BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
    </Storyboard>
  </DataTemplate.Resources>
  <DataTemplate.Triggers>
    <Trigger SourceName="cb" Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
        <Trigger.EnterActions>
            <BeginStoryboard x:Name="bsb" >
                <Storyboard>
                    <BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames
                        Storyboard.TargetName="popup"
                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsOpen"
                        FillBehavior="HoldEnd">
                        <DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame KeyTime="0:0:0.5" Value="True"/>
                    </BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
        </Trigger.EnterActions>
        <Trigger.ExitActions>
            <StopStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="bsb"/>
            <BeginStoryboard x:Name="bxb" Storyboard="{StaticResource ClosePopup}"/>
        </Trigger.ExitActions>
    </Trigger>
    <Trigger SourceName="popup" Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
        <Setter TargetName="border" Property="Background" Value="Blue"/>
        <Trigger.EnterActions>
            <StopStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="bxb"/>
        </Trigger.EnterActions>
        <Trigger.ExitActions>
            <BeginStoryboard Storyboard="{StaticResource ClosePopup}"/>
            <RemoveStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="bxb"/>
        </Trigger.ExitActions>
    </Trigger>
  </DataTemplate.Triggers>
 </DataTemplate>
</Page>