Suggestions in Windows Forms AI AssistView

15 Jul 20266 minutes to read

Use the Suggestions property to display AI-driven suggestions in the bottom-right corner of the AssistView, so users can quickly respond or select from relevant options.

ViewModel

The following ViewModel populates Chats with a sample conversation and updates the Suggestion collection once the bot response is added. The collection is mutated in place (via Add) so the bound ObservableCollection notifies the UI of the change:

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Syncfusion.WinForms.AIAssistView;

public class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    private ObservableCollection<object> chats;
    private Author currentUser;
    private ObservableCollection<string> suggestion;

    public ViewModel()
    {
        this.Chats = new ObservableCollection<object>();
        this.CurrentUser = new Author { Name = "John" };
        this.Suggestion = new ObservableCollection<string>();
        this.GenerateMessages();
    }

    private async Task GenerateMessages()
    {
        this.Chats.Add(new TextMessage { Author = CurrentUser, Text = "What is Windows Forms?" });
        await Task.Delay(1000);
        this.Chats.Add(new TextMessage
        {
            Author = new Author { Name = "Bot" },
            Text = "Windows Forms (also known as WinForms) is a graphical user interface (GUI) framework developed by Microsoft for building desktop applications for the Windows operating system."
        });

        // Mutate the existing collection so the bound UI updates automatically
        this.Suggestion.Add("What is the future of WinForms?");
        this.Suggestion.Add("How does WinForms handle UI rendering?");
    }

    public ObservableCollection<string> Suggestion
    {
        get { return this.suggestion; }
        set
        {
            this.suggestion = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged(nameof(Suggestion));
        }
    }

    public ObservableCollection<object> Chats
    {
        get { return this.chats; }
        set
        {
            this.chats = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged(nameof(Chats));
        }
    }

    public Author CurrentUser
    {
        get { return this.currentUser; }
        set
        {
            this.currentUser = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged(nameof(CurrentUser));
        }
    }

    public void RaisePropertyChanged(string propName)
    {
        PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

Binding the Suggestions Property

Bind the control’s Suggestions property to the ViewModel.Suggestion collection:

C#

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    ViewModel viewModel;

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        viewModel = new ViewModel();

        SfAIAssistView sfAIAssistView1 = new SfAIAssistView();
        sfAIAssistView1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(41, 40);
        sfAIAssistView1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(818, 457);
        sfAIAssistView1.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
        this.Controls.Add(sfAIAssistView1);

        sfAIAssistView1.DataBindings.Add("Messages", viewModel, "Chats", true, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged);
        sfAIAssistView1.DataBindings.Add("Suggestions", viewModel, "Suggestion", true, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged);
    }
}

Handling Suggestion Clicks

The SuggestionSelected event occurs when a user clicks a suggestion displayed in the AI AssistView. Use this event to retrieve the selected suggestion text and perform custom actions, such as sending the suggestion as a new prompt, generating a response, or updating the conversation.

The selected item is available through the Item property of the SuggestionSelectedEventArgs.

C#

sfAIAssistView1.SuggestionSelected += AiAssistView_SuggestionSelected;

private void AiAssistView_SuggestionSelected(
    object sender,
    SuggestionSelectedEventArgs e)
{
    string suggestionText = e.Item?.ToString();

    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(suggestionText))
        return;

    // Handle the selected suggestion.
    // For example, add it as a user message or forward it to an AI service.

    viewModel.Chats.Add(new TextMessage
    {
        Author = viewModel.CurrentUser,
        Text = suggestionText
    });
}