How to handle WndProc messages in WPF?

Question

In Windows Forms, I\'d just override WndProc, and start handling messages as they came in.

Can someone show me an example of how to achieve the same thi

Answer 1

If you don't mind referencing WinForms, you can use a more MVVM-oriented solution that doesn't couple service with the view. You need to create and initialize a System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow which is a lightweight window that can receive messages.

public abstract class WinApiServiceBase : IDisposable
{
    /// 

    /// Sponge window absorbs messages and lets other services use them
    /// 
    private sealed class SpongeWindow : NativeWindow
    {
        public event EventHandler WndProced;

        public SpongeWindow()
        {
            CreateHandle(new CreateParams());
        }

        protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
        {
            WndProced?.Invoke(this, m);
            base.WndProc(ref m);
        }
    }

    private static readonly SpongeWindow Sponge;
    protected static readonly IntPtr SpongeHandle;

    static WinApiServiceBase()
    {
        Sponge = new SpongeWindow();
        SpongeHandle = Sponge.Handle;
    }

    protected WinApiServiceBase()
    {
        Sponge.WndProced += LocalWndProced;
    }

    private void LocalWndProced(object sender, Message message)
    {
        WndProc(message);
    }

    /// 

    /// Override to process windows messages
    /// 
    protected virtual void WndProc(Message message)
    { }

    public virtual void Dispose()
    {
        Sponge.WndProced -= LocalWndProced;
    }
}

Use SpongeHandle to register for messages you're interested in and then override WndProc to process them:

public class WindowsMessageListenerService : WinApiServiceBase
{
    protected override void WndProc(Message message)
    {
        Debug.WriteLine(message.msg);
    }
}

The only downside is that you have to include System.Windows.Forms reference, but otherwise this is a very encapsulated solution.

More on this can be read here