Catastrophic failure when adding help flyout in settings

Question

Hi,

I've created a user control to display a help flyout in the settings. I want to make it accessible on all pages in my app. Thus, I declared all the required event handlers in the App.xaml.cs. However, I'm getting a "Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))" error when I run the app.

The error occurred at the bold line below:

public App()
{
    this.InitializeComponent();
    this.Suspending += OnSuspending;
    _windowBounds = Window.Current.Bounds;
    Window.Current.SizeChanged += OnWindowSizeChanged;
}

I figured that perhaps I can't declare this in the App.xaml.cs page which causes the error to occur.

Can anyone tell me what went wrong?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Can anyone help me out?

I'm in deep need in finding a solution for this problem. I've been struggling for a few days now to figure out ways to overcome it.

Thanks.

Answer 2

Hello,

The following code works for me.

Add a new blank page called “HelpPage” and add a textbox as follows,

<Grid>

        <TextBlock x:Name="txtHelp" FontSize="15" TextWrapping="Wrap"></TextBlock>

    </Grid>

Now add a new method in the code behind of HelpPage as follows,

public void HelpFlyout()

        {

            string helpText = "Write down your own help menu here";

            txtHelp.Text = helpText;

        }

Now you have made some changes in your App.xaml file as follows,

Add an event inside the OnLaunched method as follows,

SettingsPane.GetForCurrentView().CommandsRequested += App_CommandsRequested;

 

And inside the event add the following code

void App_CommandsRequested(SettingsPane sender, SettingsPaneCommandsRequestedEventArgs args)

        {

            var hMenu = new SettingsCommand("help", "Help Menu", (handler) =>

            {

                var settings = new SettingsFlyout();

                settings.Content = new HelpPage();

                settings.HeaderBrush = new SolidColorBrush(_background);

                settings.Background = new SolidColorBrush(_background);

                settings.HeaderText = "Help Menu";

                settings.IsOpen = true;

            });

            args.Request.ApplicationCommands.Add(hMenu);

        }

Now to set the heading color differently add the background color as follows,

private Color _background = Color.FromArgb(200, 236, 222, 159);

So it will come as the image attached.  

Please let me know if you need some more help on this.

Thanks

Saswati

---

Saswati Sanyal Blog : http://saswatisanyal.blogspot.com/

Answer 3

Hi Saswati,

Thanks for your reply. The example works great! I have a question though.

Why there's no need to create a popup and fill the flyout in the popup window instead? The app settings sample that I refer to from MSDN implement a popup and then fill it with the flyout. Additionally, it also determines the height to ensure that the custom flyout fills the screen. Is this necessary when implementing a custom flyout in metro app? Because a number of examples that I refer to uses a popup as well as declaring the height and width in the code-behind.

I hope you could clarify my doubts.

Thanks.

Answer 4

Hello,

Thanks for your response. The example that I have shared previously is how to add a link of the help menu under the setting charm. However if you don’t need to add that inside the setting charm then you can have a custom flyout. Please see the guideline for the flyout as follows,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465341.aspx

Thanks

Saswati

---

Saswati Sanyal Blog : http://saswatisanyal.blogspot.com/