Create popup “toaster” notifications in Windows with .NET

Question

I am using .NET and am creating a desktop app/service that will display notifications in the corner of my Desktop when certain events are triggered. I don\'t want to use a r

Answer 1

I went ahead and created a CodePlex site for this that includes "Toast Popups" and control "Help Balloons". These versions have more features than what's described below. https://toastspopuphelpballoon.codeplex.com.

This was a great jumping off point for the solution that I was looking for. I've made a couple of modifications to meet my requirements:

• I wanted to stop the animation on mouse over.
• "Reset" animation when mouse leave.
• Close the Window when opacity reached 0.
• Stack the Toast (I have not solved the problem if the number of windows exceeds the screen height)
• Call Load from my ViewModel

Here's my XAML

The Code Behind

public partial class NotificationWindow : Window
{
    public NotificationWindow()
        : base()
    {
        this.InitializeComponent();
        this.Closed += this.NotificationWindowClosed;
    }

    public new void Show()
    {
        this.Topmost = true;
        base.Show();

        this.Owner = System.Windows.Application.Current.MainWindow;
        this.Closed += this.NotificationWindowClosed;
        var workingArea = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea;

        this.Left = workingArea.Right - this.ActualWidth;
        double top = workingArea.Bottom - this.ActualHeight;

        foreach (Window window in System.Windows.Application.Current.Windows)
        {                
            string windowName = window.GetType().Name;

            if (windowName.Equals("NotificationWindow") && window != this)
            {
                window.Topmost = true;
                top = window.Top - window.ActualHeight;
            }
        }

        this.Top = top;
    }
    private void ImageMouseUp(object sender, 
        System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        this.Close();
    }

    private void DoubleAnimationCompleted(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!this.IsMouseOver)
        {
            this.Close();
        }
    }
}

The call from the ViewModel:

    private void ShowNotificationExecute()
    {
        App.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(
            () =>
            {
                var notify = new NotificationWindow();
                notify.Show();
            }));
    }

The Styles referenced in the XAML:

UPDATE: I added this event handler when the form is closed to "drop" the other windows.

    private void NotificationWindowClosed(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        foreach (Window window in System.Windows.Application.Current.Windows)
        {
            string windowName = window.GetType().Name;

            if (windowName.Equals("NotificationWindow") && window != this)
            {
                // Adjust any windows that were above this one to drop down
                if (window.Top < this.Top)
                {
                    window.Top = window.Top + this.ActualHeight;
                }
            }
        }
    }