HP TouchSmart SDK Development Documentation –

WPF-based Hosted Application 3.0 Library A User’s guide for developers

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1. Introduction This document describes a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) library released by the HP

TouchSmart software core team to simplify the creation of applications written for the TouchSmart

software environment (SmartCenter.exe version 2.8 and later).

The library makes it easier for the application developer to focus on the functionality and features

specific to the hosted application by implementing many of the requirements that must be met when

writing a SmartCenter hosted application.

This document assumes that the reader is familiar with both WPF and C# and plans to write a hosted

WPF application in C#.

2. Functionality overview The library helps to take care of the following hosted application requirements:

Definition of a single, chrome-less window to exist for the lifetime of the application

Support for the “chromeless” command-line argument meant to suppress accidental launch of

the application when not hosted by SmartCenter.exe

Initial off-screen launch

Events and WPF Application-level Resource Dictionary changes to help react to

o required layout changes (Small, Medium, Large, Minimized, Idle)

o theme changes (colors and background image)

o dual touch

Events to help react to registered window messages that SmartCenter uses to communicate

state information to the hosted application

Exclusion of the hosted application from Alt+Tab and Task Manager’s application list

The library also provides functionality for the following common hosted application needs:

Running in “debug” mode for testing layout changes using interactive window sizing with the

mouse/touch

Loading of localized string resource dictionaries based on CurrentUICulture or CurrentCulture

Turning on .NET trace functionality via trace switch “SC” in app.config

Disabling tablet gestures

Basic Restart Manager awareness

Creating messages for the SmartCenter notification area

Creating request files for SmartCenter

Things that are NOT provided by the library:

Styles for UI look and feel

Common/useful touch optimized controls

3. Library details The library is installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) as part of the factory software build starting

with version 2.8 of SmartCenter.exe. It is identified by the following Assembly string:

HP.TouchSmart.InfoviewWindow,Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=436e80ff5a6fd94d

For SmartCenter.exe starting with version 3.0, the Assembly is identified by:

HP.TouchSmart.InfoviewWindow,Version=1.1.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=436e80ff5a6fd94d

To use the library in your project, include a reference to it in your Visual Studio project and add a using

statement for convenience:

using HP.TouchSmart.Library;

You have to add the reference by unloading the project in Solution Explorer, manually editing the .csproj

file and adding the following line into an <ItemGroup> element (find the one that has the System and

System.Core includes already):

<Reference Include="HP.TouchSmart.InfoviewWindow" />

3.1. Creating a hosted application main window

After adding the necessary reference and using statement (as described above), creating a hosted

application main window is done by inheriting the InfoviewWindow class in the (single/only) window

the hosted application creates:

public partial class Window1 : InfoviewWindow

{

...

}

In the Window XAML file, you also need to map the library namespace like this:

xmlns:TS="clr-namespace:HP.TouchSmart.Library;assembly=HP.TouchSmart.InfoviewWindow"

Then change the root XAML element to this:

<TS:InfoviewWindow ... />

3.2. Layout change management

The application library provides two mechanisms that help with adjusting to the size and layout changes

that SmartCenter.exe initiates as the user manipulates the hosted application tile. The first mechanism

is a .NET event notification. The second is a set of resource elements in the application’s Application-

level Resource Dictionary.

To receive the event notification, subscribe and unsubscribe as appropriate to the

SmartCenterSupport.LayoutChanged event as follows:

SmartCenterSupport.LayoutChanged += new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.LayoutChangedArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_LayoutChang

ed);

SmartCenterSupport.LayoutChanged -= new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.LayoutChangedArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_La

youtChanged);

Then handle the event like this:

private void SmartCenterSupport_LayoutChanged(object sender, HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.LayoutChangedArgs e) { // This demonstrates accessing the Layout dependency property of the // SmartCenterSupport object Trace.WriteLine("New layout: " + this.SmartCenterSupport.Layout.ToString()); }

The event parameter LayoutChangedArgs provides the following enum values in the Layout member:

Idle, Minimum, Small, Medium, WideInteractive [3.0 only], Large

The Small, Medium, WideInteractive [3.0 only] and Large values can be used to show or hide UI

elements to produce the correct arrangement of displayed information for each layout. The Idle and

Minimum values can be used to adjust resource usage of the hosted application.

To use the Application-level Resource Dictionary elements for layout changes, reference the following

three Visibility resources in XAML:

LayoutVisibilitySmall LayoutVisibilityMedium

LayoutVisibilityWideInteractive [3.0 only]

LayoutVisibilityLarge

For example:

<!-- This demonstrates how to use the Resources available through InfoviewWindow --> <Grid x:Name="SmallLayout" Visibility="{DynamicResource LayoutVisibilitySmall}"> <!-- This demonstrates how to use the XAML string resource loader in markup --> <TextBlock Text="Small Layout"></TextBlock> </Grid>

The values will be either Visible or Collapsed. Hidden is not used.

To use the Application-level Resource Dictionary elements for Idle and Minimum layout changes,

reference the following bool resources in XAML:

IdleMode MinimumMode

The values will be true or false.

3.3. Theme change management (deprecated for 3.0)

SmartCenter theming consists of two potential entities: a “theme color” and a background picture. The

application library provides notification of theme change in the same manner as for layout change: by

.NET event and by resource dictionary element changes.

To receive the event notification, subscribe and unsubscribe as appropriate to the

SmartCenterSupport.ThemeChanged event as follows:

SmartCenterSupport.ThemeChanged += new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.ThemeChangedArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_The

meChanged);

SmartCenterSupport.ThemeChanged -= new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.ThemeChangedArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_The

meChanged);

Then handle the event like this:

private void SmartCenterSupport_ThemeChanged(object sender, HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.ThemeChangedArgs e) { Trace.WriteLine("Theme changed"); if (e.Theme.Valid) { Trace.WriteLine(e.Theme.BackgroundPicturePath); Trace.WriteLine(e.Theme.PrimaryForegroundColor); Trace.WriteLine(e.Theme.PrimaryBackgroundColor); Trace.WriteLine(e.Theme.SecondaryForegroundColor); Trace.WriteLine(e.Theme.SecondaryBackgroundColor); } }

The event parameter ThemeChangedArgs provides the following System.Windows.Media.Color fields

on the Theme member:

PrimaryForegroundColor, PrimaryBackgroundColor, SecondaryForegroundColor,

SecondaryBackgroundColor

In addition it also provides a string field on the Theme member:

BackgroundPicturePath

To use Application-level Resource Dictionary elements for theme changes, use the following resources in

XAML:

PrimaryForegroundColor

PrimaryBackgroundColor

SecondaryForegroundColor

SecondaryBackgroundColor

BackgroundPicture

BackgroundBrush

The four colors are of type System.Windows.Media.Color. The BackgroundPicture is of type string

and the BackgroundBrush is of type Brush.

For example:

<!-- This demonstrates how to bind against dependency properties in the SmartCenterSupport object --> <TextBlock> <TextBlock.Foreground> <SolidColorBrush Color="{Binding ElementName=TheWindow, Path=SmartCenterSupport.Theme.SecondaryForegroundColor}" /> </TextBlock.Foreground> Text in SecondaryForegroundColor </TextBlock>

Or

<!-- This demonstrates how to use color resources in markup --> <TextBlock Text="Hello World!"> <TextBlock.Foreground> <SolidColorBrush Color="{DynamicResource PrimaryForegroundColor}" /> </TextBlock.Foreground> </TextBlock>

NOTE: SmartCenter positions the background picture with bottom left alignment and uses opacity fades

and gradient overlays to make the picture fade to black towards the top right. It is recommended to

mimic this approach in hosted applications for visual consistency.

The four theme colors make up two main color axes of the SmartCenter environment. In the current

implementation the PrimaryForegroundColor is white and the PrimaryBackgroundColor is black. While

these values are currently fixed, they may change in the future. The SecondaryBackgroundColor is

meant to define the “sheen” on themed elements like buttons. It is the “base” color for deriving

gradients for visually pleasing effects. Essentially, the base color defines the hue of the theme.

Saturation and lightness of this hue can be changed to arrive at gradient stop colors that make for a

good visual look.

Implementation details of deriving appropriate colors from the “base” color fall outside the scope of this

document, but sample code can be found in the HP TouchSmart Application Development Guidelines

previously published by HP (at the time of this writing available at

http://www.touchsmartcommunity.com/download/list). Please refer to the section in that document on

supporting the theme change event.

3.4. Dual touch (deprecated for 3.0)

Dual touch notifications also arrive by two mechanisms: .NET events and Application-level Resource

Dictionary element changes.

To receive the dual touch event, subscribe or unsubscribe as appropriate to the

SmartCenterSupport.TouchEvent event, as follows:

SmartCenterSupport.TouchEvent += new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.TouchEventArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_Touch

Event);

SmartCenterSupport.TouchEvent -= new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.TouchEventArgs>(SmartCenterSupport_Touch

Event);

Handle the event like this:

private void SmartCenterSupport_TouchEvent(object sender, HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.TouchEventArgs e) { Trace.WriteLine("Touch event: " + e.Touch.State.ToString() + " " + e.Touch.FirstPoint.ToString() + " " + e.Touch.SecondPoint.ToString()); }

The event parameter TouchEventArgs delivers several points of information in the Touch member:

State: Up, Down, Move

FirstPoint

SecondPoint

Valid

State is a uint-based enum. FirstPoint and SecondPoint are System.Windows.Point structures.

Valid is a bool.

The Application level Resource Dictionary elements related to dual touch events are:

TouchVisibility

TouchPoint1

TouchPoint2

TouchVisibility is a System.Windows.Visibility enum, set to Visible when the State is Down or Move,

and set to Collapsed when the State is Up. TouchPoint1 and TouchPoint2 are

System.Windows.Point structures.

3.5. SmartCenter state change events (new for 3.0)

SmartCenter will communicate certain state changes to hosted applications via registered messages.

The library will handle these messages and turn them into .NET events, which are easier to subscribe to

than registered messages.

There are five notifications delivered by SmartCenter:

AppAttached: This lets the hosted application know that SmartCenter has attached to the

hosted application

MinimalResources: This lets the hosted application know that it should lower its use of

resources as low as possible

NormalResources: This lets the hosted application know that it should resume normal use of

resources to perform its design purpose

SmartCenterHomeView: This lets the hosted application know that SmartCenter is in the home

view, displaying tiles in medium or wide interactive sizes

SmartCenterLargeView: This lets the hosted application know that SmartCenter is showing a

hosted application in large view.

The large view hosted application window will be identified by the LargeWindow member of

AppEventArgs (see below). If the hosted application is the current application, the LargeMode

member of AppEventArgs will be true. If a different hosted application is in large view, the

LargeMode member of AppEventArgs will be false.

These notifications are part of an enum called AppNotification, an instance of which is called

Notification in the AppEventArgs class. The AppEventArgs class is the EventArgs-derived class

that the .NET event handler receives.

To receive notifications, subscribe or unsubscribe as appropriate to the

SmartCenterSupport.AppEvent event, using code like the following:

SmartCenterSupport.AppEvent += new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.AppEventArgs>(SmartCenterSupport

_AppEvent);

SmartCenterSupport.AppEvent -= new

EventHandler<HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.AppEventArgs>(SmartCenterSupport

_AppEvent);

Handle the event using code like this:

void SmartCenterSupport_AppEvent(object sender,

HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.AppEventArgs e)

{

Trace.WriteLine("App event: " + e.Notification.ToString());

}

3.6. Loading localized string resources

The application library contains methods that help make localization of hosted applications a matter of

including appropriately named string resource dictionaries as part of the application binary. In addition

resources can also be loaded from loose files installed alongside the application.

To include localized strings, put all User Interface strings in a XAML file according to this example:

<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup- compatibility/2006" xmlns:localizationComment= "http://schemas.hp.com/cpc/localization-comment" mc:Ignorable="localizationComment" > <sys:String x:Key="strHelloWorld" xml:space="preserve" localizationComment:Comment= "A localization comment for the translator" localizationComment:MaxCharacters= "Character limit comment" >Hello World!</sys:String> </ResourceDictionary>

Name this file according to the language identifier standards that WPF follows in the

System.Globalization.CultureInfo class (TwoLetterISOLanguageName and Name), for example

en.xaml for English, de.xaml for German or fr.xaml for French. You can also create language-country

specific files by using names such as en-gb.xaml or fr-fr.xaml.

The localized string loading mechanism will look for included resource files first. They must be placed in

the following folder structure in your project: /Resources/Strings/*.xaml.

If no included file is found in the hosted application binary at runtime, the loading mechanism will look

in a subfolder on the hard drive where the application is installed. This subfolder must be named “res”.

Language-country specific files will be loaded first, language-only files second, and as a fallback language

en.xaml will be loaded.

The method to call for loading resources according to the above is:

hp.SmartCenter.Lib.StringResourceLoader.LoadStringDictionaries(bool loadGarbledFile,

bool useUICulture);

The first parameter enables loading a specific file called “garbled.xaml”. This is useful for testing

localization omissions. The second parameter enables testing of localization by basing the loading on the

.NET CurrentCulture instead of CurrentUICulture. CurrentCulture is easier to change, since it

doesn’t require installing MUI language packs (which can only be done on Vista Ultimate SKUs.)

Passing in the appropriate value for useUICulture can be done based on command-line arguments, for

example along the lines of this:

private bool useUICulture = true; string[] commandLineArgs = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs(); if (commandLineArgs.GetLength(0) > 3) { if (commandLineArgs[3].Equals("region", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) { this.useUICulture = false; } }

hp.SmartCenter.Lib.StringResourceLoader.LoadStringDictionaries(false,

this.useUICulture);

The following screenshot of a Visual Studio project illustrates the correct placement of included xaml

string dictionaries:

The files included as above must have a build action of “Page”.

In addition, the reader may wish to define the font family used for displaying strings based on locale by

defining appropriate resources within the locale-dependent XAML files. For example, double-byte

character sets should be displayed using a font that contains properly rendered glyphs for those

languages. The zh-cn culture might use SimSun, whereas zh-hk might use MingLiU, ko might use Malgun

and ja might use Meiryo. Such font changes can be made by defining a resource along the following:

<FontFamily x:Key="UIFontFamily">Meiryo</FontFamily>

This resource can then be used to define the font used in all text elements throughout the application.

To use strings from the loaded resource dictionary in XAML, use markup similar to this:

<TextBlock Text="{DynamicResource strHelloWorld}"></TextBlock>

To use strings from the loaded resource dictionary in code-behind, do something similar to this:

string helloWorldString = Application.Current.Resources["strHelloWorld"] as string;

3.7. Trace functionality

The application library includes functionality that lets developers output trace information to a log file

during execution of the hosted application. This functionality is turned on via standard .NET Framework

configuration files and uses .NET Framework features from the System.Diagnostics namespace. The

following app.config file snippet illustrates how to turn on the file tracing and how to select the level

of information that the library produces:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <system.diagnostics> <switches> <!-- To enable generation of trace log file, set TraceFileEnabled value="1"--> <add name="TraceFileEnabled" value="1"/> <!-- Levels: 0=off, 1=error, 2=warning, 3=info, 4=verbose --> <add name="SC" value="3"/> </switches> </system.diagnostics> </configuration>

A hosted application can add its own <switches> sub-elements and use the .NET tracing facilities with

code like this:

private static TraceSwitch traceSwitch = new TraceSwitch("HostedApp", "HostedApp

tracing", "0");

if (traceSwitch.TraceInfo) { Trace.WriteLine(String.Format("A sample trace line.")); }

The tracing for the above code can be turned on using the following app.config snippet:

<add name="HostedApp" value="3"/>

The trace file will be placed in %ProgramData%\Hewlett-Packard\TouchSmart\SmartCenter 2.0 and

will have a name patterned according to this:

HP.TouchSmart.InfoviewWindow_[Time Application Started]_[User].log.txt

3.8. Notification Area messages

SmartCenter contains an area for notifying the user of events that happen in a hosted application. The

application library contains code that makes creation of these notifications simple.

The InfoviewWindow class contains a public property, SmartCenterSupport, which in turn contains a

function called Message(). When this function is invoked, a new notification will be created using the

MessageEventArgs.Message fields. The following fields exist on the Message member:

Text Title Valid Expiration Icon

The following shows an example implementation of a method body that creates a notification in

SmartCenter:

HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.MessageEventArgs msgEventArgs = new HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.MessageEventArgs(); msgEventArgs.Message = new HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.MessageClass(); msgEventArgs.Message.Text = "Message Text"; msgEventArgs.Message.Title = "A hosted application alert"; msgEventArgs.Message.Valid = true; // Make sure the message doesn't expire right away DateTime messageExpiration = (DateTime.Now + new TimeSpan(0, 30, 0)).ToUniversalTime(); msgEventArgs.Message.Expiration = messageExpiration.ToString(); // Icon can be: "Asterisk", "Error", "Exclamation", "Hand" or string.Empty msgEventArgs.Message.Icon = "Asterisk"; this.SmartCenterSupport.Message(this, msgEventArgs);

The icons used in the SmartCenter notification area look like this:

Asterisk (deprecated in 3.0) / CircleCheck in 3.0

Error (deprecated in 3.0) / CircleX in 3.0

Exclamation

Hand (deprecated in 3.0) / Clock in 3.0

3.9. Requesting actions from SmartCenter

In addition to notifications, SmartCenter also makes it possible to request the launch of Internet

Explorer with a specific URL and to navigate to the “home” view of SmartCenter . The mechanism for

this is called a “request”. The application library makes creation of requests simple.

On the InfoviewWindow class there is a public property, SmartCenterSupport, which contains a

function called Request(). When this function is called, a new request will be created using the

RequestEventArgs.Message fields. The following fields exist on the Message member:

Action

Valid

The following shows an example implementation of a method that creates a request in SmartCenter,

causing the launch of Internet Explorer with the URL specified in the Action member:

HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.RequestEventArgs reqArgs = new HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.RequestEventArgs(); reqArgs.Message = new HP.TouchSmart.Library.SCHelpers.RequestClass(); reqArgs.Message.Action = "http://www.hp.com"; reqArgs.Message.Valid = true; this.SmartCenterSupport.Request(this, reqArgs);

If the Action member is set to the ID of the “home” view instead of a URL, SmartCenter will navigate to

the “home” view.

TouchSmart “Home” ACDB32C4-824E-496b-8954-8153065B18B9 reqArgs.Message.Action = "ACDB32C4-824E-496b-8954-8153065B18B9";

The Action member can also be set to the AppID / GUID of a hosted application that is registered with

SmartCenter. When a request with an AppID / GUID is made, SmartCenter will attempt to navigate to

the hosted application identified by this GUID. There is no programmatic mechanism to retrieve a list of

registered hosted applications.

4. Other functionality The application library suppresses Tablet PC messages such as flick and gesture messages. This is done

intentionally to prevent the Vista “ghost mouse” from appearing while using SmartCenter.

The application library is Restart Manager aware and responds appropriately to basic Windows Restart

Manager messages to shut down properly. There is no support for restarting with Restart Manager

startup parameters.

When a hosted application is started with the command-line arguments “chromeless debug”, the

behavior of the application’s main window is modified such that it is possible to interactively change the

size of the window to verify layout switching behavior.

5. Document history

Version Comment

1.0 Initial version

1.1 Incorporated review comments

1.2 Added 3.0 assembly string info Added section on handling of app events / registered messages in 3.0

1.3 Added information about WideInteractive layout for 3.0 Updated icon names usable for notification area in 3.0. Added information about themes being deprecated in 3.0 Added information about dual-touch being deprecated in 3.0 Added information about AppID navigation (using requests) in 3.0

1.4 Added License Agreement