WPF console app does not work

[AndrewBragdon]

Great project! The WinForms version works fine, but the WPF version does not work (at least on Windows Server, which is where I am running it on). I am unable to type characters into the window / no input is accepted after starting the console connection.

Thoughts?

[gandalf1819]

WinForms is working perfectly fine but WPF version is not interacting with the shell. On giving any input, there is no output. Can you help?

[danielseis]

It gives the sensation that this project is abandoned. in wpf you can not make any entry by keyboard. nor dir. nor launch any command. If someone has solved it, I would appreciate the solution. Thank you

[adamecr]

I was looking for ideas how to "make" a WPF console for my project and ended up here - actually I do like the work Dave did, it's nice piece of code with good ideas behind. However I have had issues to make the WPF park working, so I have quite redesigned some parts to make it work. If still somebody interesting in the WPF part, you can check the code within the project I use the console in. The important files for console WPF control are in Console XAML part ProcessWrapper (ProcessInterface here) RichTextBox extensions used

[dwmkerr]

I will take a quick look when I get back home @adamecr! For some reasons I had notifications disabled for this project so I've not been keeping up to date with it. If I can get it working based on your input, are you OK for me to update the code in this repo then credit you as a contributor?

[adamecr]

Hello Dave @dwmkerr , I have found some issue with BackgroundWorker, I have a fix, but just finishing the release of other functionality of my VSIX, so I think, I'll upload the latest code during the weekend (I use the GitHub just as a public mirror of my release branches). Once it's done, I'll get back with more details what I have done to make the console working, so it will make the digging through the code easier. Of course no problem with using my findings/code here.

[adamecr]

So I'm back to summarize the updates I have made to make the control working in WPF. The key part was in ConsoleControl.xaml.cs:

• RichTextbox's PreviewKeyDown event is to be used instead of KeyDown due to bubbling nature of WPF event routing.
• I use the immutable inputStartPos to identify the end of read only zone. When it's assigned from Selection.Start, it just gets the reference and changes over the time. So I "measure" the position as integer ordinal from content start.

I think these two changes are crucial and the rest are just the improvements and/or adjustments:

• StartProcess supports optional working directory definition (like request in issue #18)
• I added the command history (Ctrl-Up, Ctrl-Down) to the console control.
• Esc clears the current input.
• I added the brushes for input, output, error and diagnostics as dependency properties of control, so they can be customized when using the control in XAML.
• I handle IsInputEnabled in key handler rather then (re)setting the read only property on process start, so it can be changed dynamically when needed.
• Console scrolls to the end when output is added. But be careful - this might be slow when there is a lot of content in the console (WPF version of issue #1).
• I added handler disabling the selection drag-and-drop to protect the read only area.
• I merged output and error processing/handler from backing process (see later). This is just simplification for me.

The updates to ProcessInterface (I call it ProcessWrapper) are not really game changers:

• The StartProcess supports optional working directory definition.
• The StartProcess doesn't start a new process when there is a process already running.
• I don't split the output and error events as I do handle them the same way in control, so I rather use the IsError field in event data to signal type of the output.
• I wanted to have the ability to restart (or start another) process in the process-exited handler, but this got me into the problems with asynchronous cancellation of the BackgroundWorkers processing the standard and error output - they have not been finished (cancelled) before the new process starts and I didn't want just to create a new instances of workers. So I have implemented BackgroundWorkerWithSyncCancel giving me better control over the workers. Not sure, but it might also help with issue #20

That's it, hope this helps... Should you have any questions, just raise the comment.

If you want to have a look into my version of code or use the console control itself, you need these files: ConsoleControl.xaml ConsoleControl.xaml.cs RichTextBoxExtensions.cs ProcessWrapper.cs BackgroundWorkerWithSyncCancel.cs

[Buddha1996]

@danielseis found a solution, posted the fix in i a new Issue.. i know it has been a while since 2018.. Best regards