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Intro to WPF Flow Diagrams

Tagged as Products, WPF Diagrams

About a month ago we introduced our WPF Flow Diagrams control, and we thought it was time to start writing more about the sorts of things that can be done with this. Before kicking off a series of tutorial posts on the WPF Flow Diagrams, let’s refresh on the features you will find in this sexy new product.

Some of the cool features in WPF Flow Diagrams

WPF Flow Diagrams, being 100% WPF, gives you complete flexibility over all the colours, shapes, animations, and feel of each and every aspect of your flow diagrams. Everything from the nodes and connections to the toolbox items and the background can be templated and styled to however you desire using all the power that WPF supplies.

WPF Flow Diagrams provides an easy-to-use interface. Nodes can be quickly dragged from a tool box onto the diagram, and then connections can be made by dragging the mouse between connection points located on these nodes. Grid snapping support allows you to snap diagram elements to grid lines with specifiable snapping intervals. Diagrams are kept clean and easy on the eye by only showing connection points and other various tools when the mouse is hovered over an appropriate element. The diagram surface even provides multiple types of zooming including being able to zoom towards and away from the position of the mouse.

WPF Flow Diagrams makes it easy to manage all of the connections within your diagrams with real time path finding. Connections can avoid collisions with their adjacent nodes allowing them to be displayed nicely on the diagram. We also make it very easy for you to slot in any path finding algorithms of your own. On top of the path finding, every line segment of each connection can be extended horizontally or vertically allowing for even more diagram customization. Also, not only can connections be made between two nodes, but they can also be attached to any position along any other connection.

The flow diagrams pack can be easily extended so you can create your own customized node types. These customized nodes are easy to add to the drag and drop tool box, and can be styled and templated just like any other node. Customized nodes can include any number of their own attributes, and can be integrated with the saving, loading, and undo/redo features. But the extensibility doesn’t end here – everything from the connections and connection points to the image and save/load formats can be customized. Our solid foundation even allows you to develop a whole new type of diagramming framework of your very own.

If you want to get a feel for how the WPF Flow Diagrams feel to use and have .NET 3.5 installed then check out the live XBAP showing them in your browser. Note that this is a fairly vanilla sample and you’re free to extend and explore your own creative and interaction needs thanks to WPF and the extensibility model that is baked in.

Coming soon

In just a few more weeks we will be releasing another diagramming product specific to constructing star diagrams. This will include more great features such as diagram layout algorithm support. If there is anything that you would like to see from Mindscape in the WPF diagramming space, we will be happy to hear from you. Keep watching this space for tutorials about how to implement your own extensions for your copy of WPF Flow Diagrams. Download a copy of the free trial today.

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Posted by Jason on 5 April 2009

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