• Overview
• Downloads (2)
• Source
• Changesets
• Wiki
• Issues (0) »
  • New issues
  • Open issues
  • Closed issues
  • All issues
  • Advanced query
  • Create new issue
• Forks/Queues (0)
• Followers (1)

Aero.Wizard

This project is an implementation of an Aero Wizard for Windows Forms. The goal of the project is to provide a free and simple Aero Wizard that conforms to the Windows UX Guidelines to build powerful User Interfaces.

An example of a UI that uses an Aero.Wizard Dialog:

• History/Navigation handled automatically
• Page contents are children of separate container controls, which can be created in design time like a regular Windows form
• Glass title area degrades gracefully when running a theme without glass, or on XP
• Blank Wizard Page template included
• Use with Aero.Controls pack to make Windows UX Guidelines compatible user interfaces

Usage

1. Download the source, then open the Aero.Wizard.sln and build the project. This will create the necessary Aero.Wizard.dll assembly.
2. Download "Blank Aero Wizard Page.zip" and copy the whole zip file to your Item Templates directory (Probably "C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ItemTemplates")
3. Create a new Windows Forms project in Visual Studio, and add a reference to the Aero.Wizard.dll you just created.
4. Wizard Dialogs are hosts for Page content, and don't have a visual Design time component. You can create the Wizard object in code like so:

1
2

WizardDialog ExampleWizard = new WizardDialog();
ExampleWizard.ShowDialog();

Of course, this will be a boring, empty Wizard. The way to put stuff in a Wizard is via a series of Dialog Pages. If you have installed the Blank Wizard Page template, you can right click your project, go to "Add"->"New Item...", and "Blank Aero Wizard Page" will be at the bottom under "My Templates". Add one to the project.

Now we can get to work designing a great looking Page. You can add controls to it as you normally would a form. The bottom panel is designed to be reserved for special navigation controls, such as "Next" and "Cancel" buttons. The example project in the downloads section has a filled out Page that uses the Aero.Controls pack to design against the official Microsoft Windows UX Guidelines in only a few clicks.

Once you have designed a Page, you can start the Wizard with it like so:

1
2

WizardDialog ExampleWizard = new WizardDialog();
ExampleWizard.ShowDialog(new ExamplePage1(ExampleWizard));

You can use on-page event handlers to do this as well, so clicking "Next" can switch to another Page:

1
2
3

ExamplePage2 Page2;
Page2 = new ExamplePage2(HostDialog);
HostDialog.SwitchToPage(Page2);

The Wizard automatically keeps track of previous pages, so the built-in back button works automatically with no additional code.

Download

A binary build of the source code is available together with an example project that demonstrates how to use a Wizard.

A Visual Studio 2008 item template for a blank Wizard Page. Place this zip file in your Templates folder, which by default is "C:\Users\<Your Username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ItemTemplates"

Download Source, Example project, and Blank Page template