I’m currently working on a windows application which is entirely model, that is, it removes the start bar, disables alt-tab, etc.
Thus far what I’ve done is use a maximized, topmost, MDI container and hide/show the child forms as the user navigates through them. This works fine until you start getting into more complex interactions where the user is doing something but the system needs to notify them by bringing something to the front, then letting the user fall back to the prior screen etc.
Does anyone know of a framework/api for this type of UI?
What about any patterns or even just lessons learned? I know I’m not the first person to implement this type of thing and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
I think you will need to hand roll your own framework for this kind of interaction.
It sound like you just need to create a modal dialog and then show it passing in the MDI child as the owner. That way it will prevent the user moving to the MDI child until you have removed the showing modal dialog.