Text Notifications

• Dec 22, 2023
• 5 minutes to read

In XAF applications, you can display a message box with a detailed notification text using the ShowViewStrategyBase.ShowMessage method.

DevExpress Components and Widgets Used to Show Notifications

XAF uses the DevExpress WinForms, DevExtreme, and ASP.NET Core Blazor components and widgets to show the notifications for WinForms, ASP.NET Web Forms, and ASP.NET Core Blazor applications.

ASP.NET Core Blazor Notifications

Blazor applications support the following notification API:

• MessageOptions.CancelDelegate
• MessageOptions.Duration
• MessageOptions.Message
• MessageOptions.OkDelegate
• MessageOptions.Type
• WebMessageOptions.OkButtonText
• WebMessageOptions.CssClass
• WebMessageOptions.ShowCloseButton

Windows Forms Notifications

You can choose one of the three available notification types listed in the WinMessageType enumeration for a WinForms application:

Alert

The notification is displayed using the Alert Window.

Toast

The notification window is displayed using the Toast Notification Manager. Used only in Windows 8 or later.

Flyout

The notification window is displayed using the Flyout Dialog.

ASP.NET Web Forms Notifications

Notifications are displayed using the DevExtreme dxToast widget.

Using Text Notifications

To display a “Success” message when a user clicks the platform-independent Mark Completed Action, use the ShowMessage(MessageOptions) method. The MessageOptions class contains both the platform-agnostic and platform-specific settings of a text notification.

using DevExpress.Data.Filtering;
using DevExpress.ExpressApp;
using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Actions;
using YourSolutionName.Module.BusinessObjects;

namespace YourSolutionName.Module.Controllers {
    public class DemoTaskController : ViewController {
        public DemoTaskController() {
            TargetObjectType = typeof(DemoTask);
            TargetViewType = ViewType.Any;
            SimpleAction markCompletedAction = new SimpleAction(
                this, "MarkCompleted",
                DevExpress.Persistent.Base.PredefinedCategory.RecordEdit) {
                TargetObjectsCriteria =
                    (CriteriaOperator.Parse("Status != ?", MySolution.Module.BusinessObjects.TaskStatus.Completed)).ToString(),
                ConfirmationMessage =
                            "Are you sure you want to mark the selected task(s) as 'Completed'?",
                ImageName = "State_Task_Completed"
            };
            markCompletedAction.SelectionDependencyType = SelectionDependencyType.RequireMultipleObjects;
            markCompletedAction.Execute += (s, e) => {
                foreach (DemoTask task in e.SelectedObjects) {
                    task.DueDate = DateTime.Now;
                    task.Status = MySolution.Module.BusinessObjects.TaskStatus.Completed;
                    View.ObjectSpace.SetModified(task);
                }
                View.ObjectSpace.CommitChanges();
                View.ObjectSpace.Refresh();
                MessageOptions options = new MessageOptions();
                options.Duration = 2000;
                options.Message = string.Format("{0} task(s) have been successfully updated!", e.SelectedObjects.Count);
                options.Type = InformationType.Success;
                options.Web.Position = InformationPosition.Right;
                options.Win.Caption = "Success";
                options.Win.Type = WinMessageType.Toast;
                options.OkDelegate = () => {
                    IObjectSpace os = Application.CreateObjectSpace(typeof(DemoTask));
                    DetailView newTaskDetailView = Application.CreateDetailView(os, os.CreateObject<DemoTask>());
                    Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowViewInPopupWindow(newTaskDetailView);
                };
                Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowMessage(options);
            };
        }
    }
}

Imports DevExpress.ExpressApp
Public Class ProjectTaskController
    Inherits ViewController
    '…
    Private options As New MessageOptions()
    options.Duration = 2000
    options.Message = String.Format("{0} task(s) have been successfully updated!", e.SelectedObjects.Count)
    options.Type = InformationType.Success
    options.Web.Position = InformationPosition.Right
    options.Win.Caption = "Success"
    options.Win.Type = WinMessageType.Toast
    options.OkDelegate = Sub()
        Dim os As IObjectSpace = Application.CreateObjectSpace(GetType(ProjectTask))
        Dim newTaskDetailView As DetailView = Application.CreateDetailView(os, os.CreateObject(Of ProjectTask)())
        Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowViewInPopupWindow(newTaskDetailView)
    End Sub
    Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowMessage(options)
End Class

ASP.NET Core Blazor

Windows Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms

Notifications Customization

• Use the WinMessageOptions.ImageOptions property to change the default image of the WinForms notifications the Toast or Alert control displays:

  • For the .NET Framework projects:

    • C#
    • VB.NET

    using System.Drawing;
    using DevExpress.ExpressApp;
    using DevExpress.Utils.Svg;
    //...
        MessageOptions options = new MessageOptions();
        //options.Win.ImageOptions.Image = Image.FromFile(@"D:\Images\success.png");
        // or
        options.Win.ImageOptions.SvgImage = SvgImage.FromFile(@"D:\Images\Success.svg");
        options.Win.ImageOptions.SvgImageSize = new Size(50, 50);
        Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowMessage(options);
    

  • For .NET 6+ projects:

    • C#
    • VB.NET

    using System.Drawing;
    using DevExpress.ExpressApp;
    using DevExpress.Utils;
    using DevExpress.Utils.Svg;
    //...
    MessageOptions options = new MessageOptions();
    ImageOptions imageOptions = new ImageOptions();
    //imageOptions.Image = Image.FromFile(@"D:\Images\success.png");
    // or
    imageOptions.SvgImage = SvgImage.FromFile(@"D:\Images\success.svg");
    imageOptions.SvgImageSize = new Size(50, 50);
    options.Win.ImageOptions = imageOptions;
    Application.ShowViewStrategy.ShowMessage(options);
    

  Alternatively, you can use the WinShowViewStrategyBase class’s CustomGetImage event as shown below:

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  using System.Drawing;
  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win;
  //...
      ((WinShowViewStrategyBase)Application.ShowViewStrategy).CustomGetImage += 
      ShowMessagesController_CustomGetImage;
      //...
      void ShowMessagesController_CustomGetImage(object sender, CustomGetImageEventArgs e) {
          e.Image = new Bitmap(32, 32); 
          //...
      }
  

• Use the WinShowViewStrategyBase class’s CustomGetFlyoutBackColor event to change the Flyout Dialog‘s color:

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  using System.Drawing;
  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win;
  //...
      ((WinShowViewStrategyBase)Application.ShowViewStrategy).CustomGetFlyoutBackColor += 
      ShowMessagesController_CustomGetFlyoutBackColor;
      //...
      void ShowMessagesController_CustomGetFlyoutBackColor(object sender, CustomGetFlyoutBackColorEventArgs e) { 
          if(e.InformationType == InformationType.Error) {
              e.BackColor = Color.Red;
          } 
      }
  

• Use the WinShowViewStrategyBase class’s CustomizeAlertControl event to customize the Alert control:

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Utils;
  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win;
  using DevExpress.XtraBars.Alerter;
  //...
      ((WinShowViewStrategyBase)Application.ShowViewStrategy).CustomizeAlertControl += 
  ShowMessagesController_CustomizeAlertControl;
      //...
      void ShowMessagesController_CustomizeAlertControl(object sender, CustomizeAlertControlEventArgs e) {
          AlertButton button = new AlertButton(ImageLoader.Instance.GetImageInfo("BO_Attention").Image);
          button.Name = "buttonAlert";
          e.AlertControl.Buttons.Add(button);
          //...
      }
  

• Use the WinShowViewStrategyBase class’s CustomizeToastNotificationsManager to access the Toast Notification Manager instance:

  • C#
  • VB.NET

  using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win;
  //...
      ((WinShowViewStrategyBase)Application.ShowViewStrategy).CustomizeToastNotificationsManager +=
  ShowMessagesController_CustomizeToastNotificationsManager;
      //...
      void ShowMessagesController_CustomizeToastNotificationsManager(object sender, 
  CustomizeToastNotificationsManagerEventArgs e) {
          e.ToastNotificationsManager.UserCancelled += ToastNotificationsManager_UserCancelled;
      }
      void ToastNotificationsManager_UserCancelled(object sender, 
  DevExpress.XtraBars.ToastNotifications.ToastNotificationEventArgs e) {
          //...
      }
  

Notification Button Caption Localization

You can localize the notification button captions using the Model Editor. Navigate to the Localization | DialogButtons node, choose the OK or Cancel node and set a particular string to the Value property. Note that this setting also applies to other dialog buttons.