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How can I select or activate a ContentPane without causing a Window.Activate
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We have a situation where we need to display a particular ContentPane (in a TabGroup or DocumentContentHost) without causing the application to steal the focus. We are currently using latest NetAdvantage WPF v9.2.

Unfortunately, ContentPane.Activate() internally calls Window.Activate() on the Window that contains the ContentPane, this causes the application to get focus if it does not already have it.

Is there any way to make a ContentPane visible without causing the application to steal focus?

Below is a simple test that shows the problem. When this window is running the active pane is changed every second and each time the active pane changes the application gets focus (try clicking on another application while it is running).

<UserControl x:Class="Tests.ContentPaneActivateView"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:dm="clr-namespace:Infragistics.Windows.DockManager;assembly=Infragistics3.Wpf.DockManager.v9.2">
    <Grid>
        <dm:XamDockManager>
            <dm:SplitPane>
                <dm:TabGroupPane Name="TabGroup">
                    <dm:ContentPane Header="Pane 1">
                        <RichTextBox/>
                    </dm:ContentPane>
                    <dm:ContentPane Header="Pane 2">
                        <RichTextBox/>
                    </dm:ContentPane>
                    <dm:ContentPane Header="Pane 3">
                        <RichTextBox/>
                    </dm:ContentPane>
                    <dm:ContentPane Header="Pane 4">
                        <RichTextBox/>
                    </dm:ContentPane>
                </dm:TabGroupPane>
            </dm:SplitPane>
        </dm:XamDockManager>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

namespace Tests
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class ContentPaneActivateTest
    {
        [Test]
        public void ShouldActivateContentPane()
        {
            var view = new ContentPaneActivateView();
            var panes = view.TabGroup.Items;

            int index = 0;
            var timer = new DispatcherTimer(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),
                                            DispatcherPriority.Background,
                                            (o, e) => ((ContentPane) panes[index++ % panes.Count]).Activate(),
                                            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher);
            timer.Start();

            new Window { Content = view }.ShowDialog();
        }       
    }
}

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  • 54937
    Offline posted

    The Activate method is intended to make that element the active pane and since the ActivePane is the one with keyboard focus it made sense to try and activate the associated window. That being said in a recent hotfix (~June-July) the Activate method was changed such that it will not activate the window if it is within a window that was disabled because a modal window was shown.

    BTW if you just want to bring the pane into view then you can use the FrameworkElement's BringIntoView method on the pane or an element within the pane.

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