In a MvvmCross app, I have a page with the classic chat behavior (WhatsApp like): this page shows the history of messages exchanged between two users with the last message at the bottom of the list.
I've successfully implemented the view in Windows Phone 8.1, but I'm struggling with a problem in Android.
I'll give you a short introduction and description of my problem and next I'll go through technical details.
INTRODUCTION
Actually, my need is to apply different style to messages sent by different users: tipically align left messages sent from other user and align right messages sent by me (I do this through the weight property); I need to apply a different drawable background and set different gravity property also.
I use custom binding because, AFAIK, those properties cannot be binded with classic binding: local:MvxBind="Gravity MyPropery" doesn't work because there is no Gravity property.
So, I have of course two axml files:
the first one contains the Mvx.MvxListView
the second one contains the item template for MvxListView
And I've created three different custombinding (for Background, Gravity and Weight) following these guides:
http://slodge.blogspot.it/2013/06/n28-custom-bindings-n1-days-of-mvvmcross.html
In MvvmCross how do I do custom bind properties
THE PROBLEM
I want that, when a user opens the chat View, the list widget shows automatically the last message. To accomplish this, I scroll programmatically the list to the last message and this seems to be the problem.
If I don't scroll programmatically, when I open the page and scroll manually to the end of the page, all custom bindings are applied successfully: I can see messages aligned right and left, with correct background and weight applied.
If I force the scroll programmatically, when I open the page I see a strange behavior: all the messages are present (classic binding, such as Text property, have been successfully applied), but custom bindings are missing. All the messages have the same background and are all left aligned.
BUT, if I scroll manually up and down, the custom binding are processed and the messages are displayed with right style.
DEBUG ANALYSIS
To debug the behaviour I've put a simple static counter in a custom binding procedure to track every time the function is processed.
public class LinearLayoutWeightTargetBinding : MvxAndroidTargetBinding
{
public static int debugCounter = 0;
public LinearLayoutWeightTargetBinding(object target) : base(target)
{
}
protected LinearLayout MyTarget
{
get { return (LinearLayout)Target; }
}
public override Type TargetType { get { return typeof(bool); } }
protected override void SetValueImpl(object target, object value)
{
var ll = (LinearLayout)target;
var itsMe = (bool)value;
var weight = itsMe ? (float)20.0 : (float)5.0;
var layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(0, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WrapContent, weight);
ll.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
Log.Debug("MeeCHAT", string.Format("LinearLayoutWeightTargetBinding::SetValueImpl::ItsMe:{0} - counter:{1}", itsMe, ++debugCounter));
}
public override MvxBindingMode DefaultMode { get {return MvxBindingMode.TwoWay;} }
}
By this way I saw that actually by scrolling up and down the custom bindings are applied (debugCounter increases correctly).
BUT when I apply the programmatically scroll, only the first 10 items are processed by the custom bindings and this seems the reason why I see the messages without the right style. Because I have a long list, only the first 10 items are processed but they are not visible (they are out of the visible area) and the visibile items have not been processed.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Here are some details related to technical aspects of my app. I try to give you all important aspects.
ORGANIZATION OF THE VIEWS
By following the approach described by Greg Shackles in this article http://gregshackles.com/presenters-in-mvvmcross-navigating-android-with-fragments/ I have just one general Activity for the app and one Fragment for each View; then through a Presenter is possible to activate the right ViewModel and manage the stack of the navigation.
The Fragment for the View where I have the Mvx.MvxListView widget is
public class MyMatchersChatView : MvxFragment
{
public override View OnCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
var ignore = base.OnCreateView(inflater, container, savedInstanceState);
var result = this.BindingInflate(Resource.Layout.MyMatchersChatView, null);
var headerFrame = result.FindViewById<FrameLayout>(Resource.Id.headerFrameMyMatchersChatView);
var headerWidget = new HeaderWidget() { ViewModel = this.ViewModel };
var tran = ChildFragmentManager.BeginTransaction();
tran.Add(headerFrame.Id, headerWidget, "headerMyMatchersChat");
tran.Commit();
var listView = result.FindViewById<MvxListView>(Resource.Id.messagesList);
listView.SetSelection(listView.Adapter.Count - 1); // Scroll to the end of the list
return result;
}
}
The statement listView.SetSelection(listView.Adapter.Count - 1); force the list to scroll to the end.
Last two things: how the custom bindings are registered and how are applied in axml file.
REGISTRATION OF CUSTOM BINDING
In Setup.cs I have:
protected override void FillTargetFactories(IMvxTargetBindingFactoryRegistry registry)
{
base.FillTargetFactories(registry);
registry.RegisterFactory(new MvxCustomBindingFactory<LinearLayout>("CustomWeight",
(b) => new LinearLayoutWeightTargetBinding(b)));
}
APPLYING OF CUSTOM BINDING
In my axml I have:
<LinearLayout
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:layout_width="0dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
local:MvxBind="CustomWeight IsCurrentUser">
LISTVIEW AND VIEWMODEL
Here is the code of ListView
<Mvx.MvxListView
android:id="#+id/messagesList"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
local:MvxBind="ItemsSource MyMessages"
local:MvxItemTemplate="#layout/mymatcherschatview_itemtemplate" />
and the property in ViewModel
private IEnumerable<MyMatchMessageModel> _myMessages;
public IEnumerable<MyMatchMessageModel> MyMessages
{
get { return _myMessages; }
set
{
_myMessages = value;
RaisePropertyChanged(() => MyMessages);
}
}
ENVIRONMENT
Finally, here is my environment:
Visual Studio 2015
MvvmCross 3.5.1
Core targets: .NET Framework 4.5, Windows 8, ASP.NET Core 5.0, Windows Phone 8.1, Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.iOS (Classic)
The Android app target is API Level 19 (Xamarin.Android v4.4 Support)
Xamarin 3.11.1450.0
Xamarin.Android 5.1.6.7
Someone can help me to understand if I'm doing something wrong?
Thanks for reading and for any help!
>>EDIT 1<<
I've changed my layout by adding stackFromBottom and transcriptMode properties and by removing the scrolling to below programmatically in Fragment obtaining an auto-scroll behavior, but the problem still remains: to see messages with correct style I have to manually scroll up and down (to activate the custom bindings)
Here is the new axml...
<Mvx.MvxListView
android:id="#+id/messagesList"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:stackFromBottom="true"
android:transcriptMode="alwaysScroll"
local:MvxBind="ItemsSource MyMessages"
local:MvxItemTemplate="#layout/mymatcherschatview_itemtemplate" />
...and the new code in Fragment
public override View OnCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
var ignore = base.OnCreateView(inflater, container, savedInstanceState);
var result = this.BindingInflate(Resource.Layout.MyMatchersChatView, null);
var headerFrame = result.FindViewById<FrameLayout>(Resource.Id.headerFrameMyMatchersChatView);
var headerWidget = new HeaderWidget() { ViewModel = this.ViewModel };
var tran = ChildFragmentManager.BeginTransaction();
tran.Add(headerFrame.Id, headerWidget, "headerMyMatchersChat");
tran.Commit();
return result;
}
First thing I would do is to make sure that your custom binding is always getting called.
Set a breakpoint on the SetValueImpl() method and check it´s getting called on those problematic items. If that happens, then the issue relies on the view no getting updated for any reason and you should work on that. If it doesn´t break, you will know for sure it´s a custom binding problem (possibly a bug) in MvxAdapter.
If you find out it´s the second one. I would suggest getting rid of your custom binding and creating your own ChatListAdapter : MvxAdapter as follows:
public class CoolChatListAdapter : MvxAdapter
{
public CoolChatListAdapter(Context context, IMvxAndroidBindingContext bindingContext) : base(context, bindingContext)
{
}
protected override View GetBindableView(View convertView, object source, int templateId)
{
var item = source as MyMatchMessageModel;
var weight = item.IsCurrentUser ? (float) 20.0 : (float) 5.0;
var ll = (LinearLayout) convertView;
var layoutParams = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(0, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WrapContent, weight);
ll.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
return base.GetBindableView(convertView, source, templateId);
}
}
Then, in your android view:
var adapter = new ChatListAdapter(this, (IMvxAndroidBindingContext)BindingContext);
_chatList = FindViewById<MvxListView>(Resource.Id.chat_list_view);
_chatList.Adapter = adapter;
Related
I have two datatemplates. One is the default and the other one is for when the user selects this item. I need to give the selected item double width and height of the normal template. How can I do this?
What you want to do is not difficult, but it is not solved by swapping the data template. Instead, it is accomplished by using Visual States in XAML. A Visual State allows you to create multiple "views" of your XAML (for example, what it looks like when it is selected and when it is not selected) and to switch between those easily. Swapping data templates is a big deal, Mostafa, and can result in your UI flickering because the underlying subsystem has to re-render so many parts of the visual tree.
If you want to learn more about the Visual States, you might read over the blog article I wrote on the same subject.
http://blog.jerrynixon.com/2013/11/windows-81-how-to-use-visual-states-in.html
The only problem now is to figure out how to trigger the visual state when the item in a gridview or listview is selected. First, you should know that IsSelected is a property on the gridviewitem or listviewitem control that houses your item. However, it's tricky to reach that property and the most common approach is to sub-class your gridview/listview and override PrepareContainerForItemOverride and set the binding in code-behind.
Like this:
class MyModel
{
public bool IsSelected { get; set; }
}
class MyList : Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.ListView
{
protected override void PrepareContainerForItemOverride(DependencyObject element, object item)
{
var model = item as MyModel;
var listViewItem = element as Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.ListViewItem;
var binding = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Data.Binding
{
Source = model,
Mode = Windows.UI.Xaml.Data.BindingMode.TwoWay,
Path = new PropertyPath(nameof(model.IsSelected)),
};
listViewItem.SetBinding(Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.ListViewItem.IsSelectedProperty, binding);
base.PrepareContainerForItemOverride(element, item);
}
}
I hope this helps.
Best of luck!
I am new to automation and want to create an automation test which can do following:
Open one tab --- click and get some info from that tab
Switch to another tab --- click and get some info from this tab now.
Compare the infos.
We use Page Object Model to get info from one page. However the moment, I switch to another tab -- it switches the tab successfully but does not locate any element on it.
Any idea ?
Questions I would ask is,
Is the element locator correct?
Is this a unique element locator?
Is this a synchronization issue? Are you waiting enough for the page to load before finding the element?
Is this problem particular to a browser? Is it consistent across?
Also make sure you pass on the driver object from one page object to the other. Like,
public class PageOne {
public PageOne(WebDriver driver) {
//do something in constructor
}
public void someMethodInPage1() {
driver.findElement(By.id("button1")).click();
PageTwo pageTwo = new PageTwo(driver);
pageTwo.someMethodInPage2();
}
}
public class PageTwo {
private WebDriver driver;
public PageTwo(WebDriver driver) {
//do something in constructor
this.driver = driver;
}
public void someMethodInPage2() {
driver.findElement(By.id("button2")).click();
}
}
In the N+1 video #34 (Progress), there was an example of using CreateBindingSet() for the Android version, which is not typical. But the narrator also mentioned briefly that the same can be done on the Windows platform.
As much as I tried, however, I am unable to get a View's property to be bound to its ModelView on the Windows Phone. I always get a NullReferenceException.
The closest I came was the code below, including suggestions from ReSharper. Here's my FirstView.xaml.cs:
using Cirrious.MvvmCross.Binding.BindingContext;
using Whatever.ViewModels;
namespace Whatever {
// inheriting from IMvxBindingContextOwner was suggested by ReSharper also
public partial class FirstView : BaseView, IMvxBindingContextOwner {
public class MyBindableMediaElement
{
private string _theMediaSource = "whatever";
public string TheMediaSource
{
get
{
return _theMediaSource;
}
set
{
_theMediaSource = value;
}
}
}
public FirstView()
{
InitializeComponent();
_mediaElement = new MyBindableMediaElement(this.theMediaElement);
var set = this.CreateBindingSet<FirstView, FirstViewModel>();
// the corresponding view model has a .SongToPlay property with get/set defined
set.Bind(_mediaElement).For(v => v.TheMediaSource).To(vm => vm.SongToPlay);
set.Apply();
}
public IMvxBindingContext BindingContext { get; set; } // this was suggested by ReSharper
}
I get a NullReferenceException in MvxBaseFluentBindingDescription.cs as soon as the view is created. The exact location is below:
protected static string TargetPropertyName(Expression<Func<TTarget, object>> targetPropertyPath)
{
var parser = MvxBindingSingletonCache.Instance.PropertyExpressionParser; // <----- exception here**
var targetPropertyName = parser.Parse(targetPropertyPath).Print();
return targetPropertyName;
}
I have not seen a working example of creating a binding set on a Windows Phone emulator. Has anyone gotten this to work? Thanks.
I can confirm that the narrator said that remark a little too flippantly without actually thinking about how he might do it...
However, with a little effort, you definitely can get the CreateBindingSet to work in Windows if you want to.
Before you start, do consider some alternatives - in particular, I suspect most people will use either Windows DependencyProperty binding or some hand-crafted code-behind with a PropertyChanged event subscription.
If you do want to add CreateBindingSet code to a Windows project then:
Add the Binding and BindingEx assemblies to your Ui project - the easiest way to do this is using nuget to add the BindingEx package.
In your Setup class, override InitializeLastChance and use this opportunity to create a MvxWindowsBindingBuilder instance and to call DoRegistration on that builder. Both these first two steps are covered in the n=35 Tibet binding video - and it's this second step that will initialise the binding framework and help you get past your current 'NullReferenceException' (for the code, see BindMe.Store/Setup.cs)
In your view, you'll need to implement the IMvxBindingContextOwner interface and you'll need to ensure the binding context gets created. You should be able to do this as simply as BindingContext = new MvxBindingContext();
In your view, you'll need to make sure the binding context is given the same DataContext (view model) as the windows DataContext. For a Phone Page, the easiest way to do this is probably just to add BindingContext.DataContext = this.ViewModel; to the end of your phone page's OnNavigatedTo method. Both steps 3 and 4 could go in your BaseView if you intend to use Mvx Binding in other classes too.
With this done, you should be able to use the CreateBindingSet code - although do make sure that all binding is done after the new MvxBindingContext() has been created.
I've not got a windows machine with me right now so I'm afraid this answer code comes untested - please do post again if it does or doesn't work.
I can confirm it works almost perfectly; the only problem is, there are no defaults register, so one has to do the full binding like:
set.Bind(PageText).For(c => c.Text).To(vm => vm.Contents.PageText).OneTime();
to fix this, instead of registering MvxWindowsBindingBuilder, I am registering the following class. Note: I have just created this class, and needs testing.
public class UpdatedMvxWindowsBindingBuilder : MvxWindowsBindingBuilder
{
protected override void FillDefaultBindingNames(IMvxBindingNameRegistry registry)
{
base.FillDefaultBindingNames(registry);
registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(Button), "Command");
registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(HyperlinkButton), "Command");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UIBarButtonItem), "Clicked");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UISearchBar), "Text");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UITextField), "Text");
registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(TextBlock), "Text");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UILabel), "Text");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(MvxCollectionViewSource), "ItemsSource");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(MvxTableViewSource), "ItemsSource");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(MvxImageView), "ImageUrl");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UIImageView), "Image");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UIDatePicker), "Date");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UISlider), "Value");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UISwitch), "On");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(UIProgressView), "Progress");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(IMvxImageHelper<UIImage>), "ImageUrl");
//registry.AddOrOverwrite(typeof(MvxImageViewLoader), "ImageUrl");
//if (_fillBindingNamesAction != null)
// _fillBindingNamesAction(registry);
}
}
This is a skeleton from Touch binding, and so far I have only updated three controls to test out (Button, HyperButton and TextBlock)
I have been googling on how to actually implement this with no avail. Could not find a single resource on how to actually do it using Caliburn Micro.
Basically, I am trying this http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/OAuth_on_Windows_Phone
In the example, it used redirect_uri as normal link. I did it with Protocol/File Association (refer http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/URI_associations_for_Windows_Phone_8). Everything works fine. I got it to work without Caliburn Micro.
But based on that example, I would require to implement UriMapperBase and assigned it to RootFrame.UriMapper.
My question is how do I actually implement UriMapper with CaliburnMicro for WP8. For Win 8, it is different as I could override the OnActivate and check for the ActivationKind.Protocol and there is no need for UriMapper.
Ok. Finally managed to get it to work. So, will post it here because I'm pretty sure there will be a lost soul again like me who will appreciate the answer to this.
To use UriMapper in Caliburn, you will need to override the CreatePhoneApplicationFrame in the bootsrapper.
In Boostrapper.cs
protected override PhoneApplicationFrame CreatePhoneApplicationFrame()
{
// var frame = base.CreatePhoneApplicationFrame(); this doesnt work
var frame = new PhoneApplicationFrame(); // this works
frame.UriMapper = new AssociationUriMapper();
return frame;
}
AssociationUriMapper.cs - I just followed the example as per links above
public class AssociationUriMapper : UriMapperBase
{
private string tempUri;
public override Uri MapUri(Uri uri)
{
tempUri = System.Net.HttpUtility.UrlDecode(uri.ToString());
// URI association launch for contoso.
if (tempUri.Contains("pocketthis:MainPage"))
{
// Get the category ID (after "CategoryID=").
//int categoryIdIndex = tempUri.IndexOf("CategoryID=") + 11;
//string categoryId = tempUri.Substring(categoryIdIndex);
// Views/MainPage.xaml returns external exception,
// so remember the / before views
return new Uri("/Views/MainPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative);
}
// Otherwise perform normal launch.
return uri;
}
}
Hope this will help anyone trying to implement Uri/File Association in WP8 with Caliburn Micro.
In our App we have a log-in ViewController A. On user log-in, a request navigate is automatically called to navigate to the next ViewController B. However when this is done we want to remove the log-in ViewController A from the stack so the user cannot "go back" to the log-in view but goes back the previous ViewController before the log-in instead.
We thought about removing the ViewController A from the stack when ViewController B is loaded, but is there a better way?
In the Android version of the App we've set history=no (if I recall correctly) and then it works.
Is there an similar way to achieve this in MonoTouch and MvvmCross?
I ended up with removing the unwanted viewcontroller from the navigation controller. In ViewDidDisappear() of my login ViewController I did the following:
public override void ViewDidDisappear (bool animated)
{
if (this.NavigationController != null) {
var controllers = this.NavigationController.ViewControllers;
var newcontrollers = new UIViewController[controllers.Length - 1];
int index = 0;
foreach (var item in controllers) {
if (item != this) {
newcontrollers [index] = item;
index++;
}
}
this.NavigationController.ViewControllers = newcontrollers;
}
base.ViewDidDisappear(animated);
}
This way I way remove the unwanted ViewController when it is removed from the view. I am not fully convinced if it is the right way, but it is working rather good.
This is quite a common scenario... so much so that we've included two mechanisms inside MvvmCross to allow this....
a ClearTop parameter available in all ViewModel navigations.
a RequestRemoveBackStep() call in all ViewModels - although this is currently NOT IMPLEMENTED IN iOS - sorry.
If this isn't enough, then a third technique might be to use a custom presenter to help with your display logic.
To use : 1. a ClearTop parameter available in all ViewModel navigations.
To use this, simply include the ClearTop flag when navigating.
This is a boolean flag - so to use it just change:
this.RequestNavigate<ChildViewModel>(new {arg1 = val1});
to
this.RequestNavigate<ChildViewModel>(new {arg1 = val1}, true);
For a standard simple navigation controller presenter, this will end up calling ClearBackStack before your new view is shown:
public override void ClearBackStack()
{
if (_masterNavigationController == null)
return;
_masterNavigationController.PopToRootViewController (true);
_masterNavigationController = null;
}
from https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross/blob/vnext/Cirrious/Cirrious.MvvmCross.Touch/Views/Presenters/MvxTouchViewPresenter.cs
If you are not using a standard navigation controller - e.g. if you had a tabbed, modal, popup or split view display then you will need to implement your own presentation logic to handle this.
You can't: 2. RequestRemoveBackStep().
Sadly it proved a bit awkward to implement this at a generic level for iOS - so currently that method is:
public bool RequestRemoveBackStep()
{
#warning What to do with ios back stack?
// not supported on iOS really
return false;
}
from https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross/blob/vnext/Cirrious/Cirrious.MvvmCross.Touch/Views/MvxTouchViewDispatcher.cs
Sorry! I've raised a bug against this - https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross/issues/80
3. You can always... Custom ideas
If you need to implement something custom for your iOS app, the best way is to do this through some sort of custom Presenter logic.
There are many ways you could do this.
One example is:
for any View or ViewModel which needs to clear the previous view, you could decorate the View or ViewModel with a [Special] attribute
in Show in your custom Presenter in your app, you could watch for that attribute and do the special behaviour at that time
public override void Show(MvxShowViewModelRequest request)
{
if (request.ViewModelType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(SpecialAttribute), true).Any())
{
// do custom behaviour here - e.g. pop current view controller
}
base.Show(request);
}
Obviously other mechanisms might be available - it's just C# and UIKit code at this stage
I don't know about mvvm but you can simply Pop the viewcontroller (AC A) without animation and then push the new viewcontoller (AC B) with animation
From within AC A:
NavigationController.PopViewControllerAnimated(false);
NavigationController.PushViewController(new ACb(), true);