NavigationWindow derives from Window and extends it with the ability to navigate to and display content.

Content can be any .NET Framework object or HTML file. In general, however, a Page object is the preferred way to package content for navigation.

Content can be navigated to by setting the Source property with the URI for the desired content. Additionally, content can be navigated to by using one of the following overloads of the Navigate method:

• Navigate(Uri)

• Navigate(Uri, Object)

When content is navigated to by URI, NavigationWindow will return an object that contains the content.

Note:
Navigation by URI also supports navigation to a content fragment. See FragmentNavigation.

Alternatively, content can be navigated to by using one of the Navigate method overloads that accepts an object:

• Navigate(Object)

• Navigate(Object, Object)

The lifetime of a navigation can be tracked through the following events:

• Navigating

• Navigated

• NavigationProgress

• NavigationFailed

• NavigationStopped

• LoadCompleted

• FragmentNavigation.

Not all events are raised each time that a navigation occurs; the set of events that are raised is determined by the type of navigation that occurs (content or content fragment) and how the navigation completes (canceled, stopped, or failed).

The following figure illustrates the sequence in which these events will fire:

During or after a navigation, NavigationWindow provides information about the content that is being navigated to, including the URI of the content being navigated to (Source), the URI of the current content (CurrentSource), and an object that contains the content that was navigated to (Content).

When content is navigated to, NavigationWindow records the navigation as an entry in navigation history. An entry is added to back navigation history when either a new navigation occurs, by calling the Navigate method, or by navigating to an entry in forward navigation history, by calling GoForward. An entry is added to forward navigation history by navigating to an entry in back navigation history, by calling GoBack. CanGoBack and CanGoForward report whether there are entries in back and forward navigation history, respectively.

The first time that one piece of content is navigated to from another piece of content, NavigationWindow automatically displays a navigation UI that allows users to navigate back and forwards through navigation history. You can configure when the navigation UI is shown by setting the ShowsNavigationUI property.

The most recent entry in back navigation history can be removed by calling RemoveBackEntry.

NavigationWindow does not store an instance of a content object in navigation history. Instead, NavigationWindow creates a new instance of the content object each time it is navigated to by using navigation history. This behavior is designed to avoid excessive memory consumption when large numbers and large pieces of content are being navigated to. Consequently, the state of the content is not remembered from one navigation to the next. However, WPF provides several techniques by which you can store a piece of state for a piece of content in navigation history, which include:

• Remember a Single Item of State Across Page Instances.

• Remember a Single Set of State Across Page Instances

Using AddBackEntry, you can also remember multiple sets of state for a single page instance (see Remember Multiple Sets of State per Page Instance).

NavigationWindow is one of two navigators in WPF, the other being Frame. Essentially, navigator is a class supports navigation and navigation history. Visually, XBAPs use Internet Explorer 7 as a navigator, to provide an integrated user experience. However, XBAPs actually use NavigationWindow as the navigator; the MainWindow property of an XBAP running in Internet Explorer 7 will return a reference to the NavigationWindow, and the navigation history that is managed by the NavigationWindow is integrated with the navigation history that is managed by Internet Explorer 7.

Content Model: NavigationWindow is a ContentControl, which means that NavigationWindow can contain content such as text, images, or panels. Also, NavigationWindow is a root element and, consequently, cannot be part of another element's content. For more information about the content model for Button, see Content Models.

The following example shows how to create a NavigationWindow.

<NavigationWindow 
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="MainWindow"
    Title="NavigationWindow Sample"
    Source="http://www.microsoft.com" />

Windows Vista

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Reference

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