GUAPR, GUI App Refresh, is an application that loads a .NET WPF app and automatically reloads the GUI controls as the WPF app is recompiled. This allows for faster development when running/developing GUI applications.
To get started, your assembly must:
- Reference the WpfHosting.Client nuget package
- Add an assembly attribute to your .NET application/dll that points to a valid
HostedEntryPointtype
You must apply the HostedTargetTypeAttribute to your assembly, passing in a reference to a type that extends HostedEntryPoint . It is the responsibility of this HostedEntryPoint subclass to create the control that will be shown in GUAPR and to load/save any related state that is needed for making the reload cycle as seamless as possible.
Here is an example of an application entry point that merely consists of a textbox:
// required to give GUAPR a control
[assembly: HostedTargetType(typeof(ExampleWatchEntryPoint))]
// required to give GUAPR a control
public class ExampleWatchEntryPoint : HostedEntryPoint
{
// this is where we load the control that we want to show and load any saved
// data from our configuration dictionary
public override FrameworkElement Initialize(Dictionary<string, string> configuration)
{
// If we have the saved text from last time, use it, otherwise use the default text
if (!configuration.TryGetValue("message", out string message))
message = "No Message Loaded";
return new TextBox()
{
Text = message
};
}
// this gets invoked before we unload the app, and allows us to save any data
// to the configuration dictionary so that the next time we load, we can load
// the app right to where we were before
public override void Shutdown(FrameworkElement originalInstance, Dictionary<string, string> configuration)
{
var textBox = (TextBox)originalInstance;
// save the message that currently have in the textbox
configuration["message"] = textBox.Text;
}
}If you add this to a an empty project, you'll notice that when run from GUAPR, the text from your textbox is maintained even when you recompile the project.