In a WPF popup window that I display to the user I want to put a text that is bound to a variable inside a block of text.
I've tried to do so by putting a <Label> inside a <TextBlock>.
However, this leads to alignment problems, see markup and picture below.
I wonder how I can get the text in the Label to align vertically with the text in the TextBlock, or if there is a better solution?
I could put the entire text in a variable, but then I don't know how to get <Bold> formatting for part of the text.
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Left" TextWrapping="Wrap"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="99" Width="339" Grid.RowSpan="3">
The user is <Bold>responsible</Bold> for
<Bold><Label Content="00" Padding="0"/></Bold> vehicles
</TextBlock>
You can use the Run inline element for data binding text.
Starting in the .NET Framework 4, the Text property of the Run object is a dependency property, which means that you can bind the Text property to a data source.
It also has properties for styling the text, like FontWeight, no need for <Bold> here.
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Left" TextWrapping="Wrap"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="99" Width="339" Grid.RowSpan="3">
The user is <Bold>responsible</Bold> for
<Run Text="{Binding YourProperty}" FontWeight="Bold"/> vehicles
</TextBlock>
The result looks like this:
As a general note on the issue: The elements inside TextBlock should be inline elements. Here is an article that has links to other inline elements that could be useful to you, like span that allows for grouping other inline elements and applying styles or to them.
How to: Manipulate Flow Content Elements through the Inlines Property
WPF has two fundamental base types, UIElement and ContentElement. While a TextBlock and Label are UIElements, the content of TextBlock are inlines, which are ContentElements. That is why the alignment is off, they serve very different purposes. You can read up more on the differences and concepts here:
Base Element APIs in WPF Classes
UIElement
UIElement is a base class for WPF core level implementations building on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) elements and basic presentation characteristics.
ContentElement
Provides a WPF core-level base class for content elements. Content elements are designed for flow-style presentation, using an intuitive markup-oriented layout model and a deliberately simple object model.
Flow Document Overview
Related
I want to change the graphical UI elements in WPF.
For example, I want to use a kind of a stack panel, but on the other hand I want to show my details in a star, or circle, etc.
Maybe setting a bitmap as a background, but I am working with lots of Data using zoom tool.
I found tutorials, documentation only for changing attributes of "old components", but nothing to make new ones.
Great resource for WPF beginners is www.wpftutorial.net
One of the best idea of WPF is separation of concerns:
UI Control = Logic in Code/XAML + Template
Using templates in XAML we can vary representation without modifying the control.
For example, if there is a need in creation of list of items. Then we can use ListBox control:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem>USA</ListBoxItem>
<ListBoxItem>UK</ListBoxItem>
</ListBox>
By default LisboxItem internal part is just binded TextBlock.
Now making UI modification without changing control source code:
<ListBox ImageSource="{Binding PathToSource}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="{StaticResource ProjectIcon}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=PropertyName}" />
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
there appears image and text.
If there is a need in creating exclusive control then you can always use Custom Control.
Using raster images (e.g. PNG) is not good point, especially with zoom behaviour. If it is possible better to use vector images, that can be created in XAML or imported from SVG.
With some xaml like this:
<Grid Name="grid">
<AdornerDecorator>
<TextBox Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Name="textBox1" Width="120" />
</AdornerDecorator>
</Grid>
The WPF Snoop utility indicates textBox1 is a child of AdornerDecorator (as you would expect) but also that the AdornerLayer that AdornerDecorator creates is also a child. As a custom adorner added to the AdornerLayer can be displayed 'outside' the textbox, the AdornerLayer's drawing surface must stretch outside too (presumably all over the window).
So, what real significance does the placement of AdornerDecorator have (given we bind a UI element to the custom adorner, which we place in the AdornerLayer)? I know AdornerLayer.GetAdorner(textBox1) will get the first adorner layer in the visual tree up from textbox1, but what does it matter where that is (as the custom ardorner gets added to the layer and the custom ardoner knows which element it is bound to)?
The short answer is that it matters when you start to deal with controls that overlap other controls (in the z-index plane) and you care about whether or not a particular adorner layer shows on top of the overlapping controls. For example, when you use an ErrorTemplate, its contents get rendered in an adorner layer and if you don't supply an <AdornerDecorator> in your app (meaning that you just use the one provided by most Window templates), then you can end up with this happening.
By placing the <AdornerDecorator> where we want, we can control how this overlapping behaves.
I have XAML:
<TextBlock Text="Param 1 name" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBlock>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Param1Value, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBox>
<TextBlock Text="Param 2 name" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBlock>
<TextBox Text="{Binding Param2Value, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBox>
...
<TextBlock Text="Param N name" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBlock>
<TextBox Text="{Binding ParamNValue, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" Margin="6,6,0,0"></TextBox>
How can be optimized this code to prevent copy-paste?
Control, Style, ContentControl or DataTemplate?
I can use Style to reuse margin, but how can be reused structure of this pairs TexBlock and TextBox?
Make a UserControl with two properties (E.g., Caption and Text) and bind the TextBlock to the Caption and the TextBox to the Text property.
You could also use a Templated Control if you want to allow the designer to create a custom templates so he can fully control the UI design.
UserControl vs. Custom/Templated Control (read the entire thread for maximum benefit):
Well the difference between user control and custom control is that If
you have a portion of views or UI which will be used repeatedly in
your own project, using UserControl is a much simpler and preferred
way, but if you have a portion of UI and functionality which you
believe will be used aross different projects, then using custom
control is the right approach.
May be you should try an ItemsControl Class and set it's DataTemplate.
Any help on this really appreciated. In summary I'm trying to databind to properties of a custom class instantiated in xaml that then forms the content of a templated listboxitem (phew!).
I have a simple c# class called MenuItem. It has two properties:
- Heading
- Icon
Concentrating on just one of those menu items (i.e. to provide a simple example of where I am stuck) If I do this (with the values hard coded) it works fine:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="News" IconImage="News.png"/>
</ListBoxItem>
</Listbox>
Where MenuItemTemplate is an appropriate DataTemplate in the resources section binding each property) containing lines such as:
<TextBlock x:Name="tbHeading" Text="{Binding Heading}">
Wheareas when I try to use binding to set the Heading property it falls over (AG_E_PARSER_BAD_PROPERTY_VALUE error)- e.g.:
<ListBox>
<ListBoxItem ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}" Icon="News.png"/>
</ListBoxItem>
<Listbox>
I've wondered if it is because I'm doing some kind of double binding (i.e. the template is binding to a value on the MenuItem class that needs to be bound) and that's not possible? I've tried having the properties declared as dependency properties but no difference (although I only learned about those today so I may be missing something).
I know I could set the menuitem objects up in the view model, and bind from there, but I would like to understand why the above doesn't work (as for my purposes there are advantages in constructing the menu items in the xaml).
Thank you!!!!
Ian
thanks for sticking with this. I agree the listbox might not be needed - but even if I reduce it to just one item in a contentcontrol:
<ContentControl ContentTemplate="{StaticResource MenuItemTemplate}">
<myclasses:MenuItem Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}" IconImage="News.png"/>
</ContentControl>
I still have the same problem - which is that I can get databinding to work within the content of a contentcontrol (prior to it being presented by the datatemplate referred to in ContentTemplate) using purely xaml.
I.e. the above bit of xaml doesn't work - it throws an error on the bit that binds the NewsHeading:
Heading="{Binding NewsHeading, Mode=OneWay}
So I am trying to understand whether what I'm doing is impossible, or whether it is but I'm doing it wrong.
Thanks.
Assuming that you have multiple MenuItem classes (because you're putting them in a listbox and ti wouldn't make sense to do that if you just had one). You need to bind the collection to the ItemsSource property of the ListBox.
Somehting like this:
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding MyMenuItems}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Heading}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
Note that the above assumes you've set the DataContext on the page to an object with a property called MyMenuItems which is a collection of your MenuItem objects.
To see a full example of this, look at the default code created when you create a new "Windows Phone Databound Application".
Edit:
Based on your comments, it seems that a ListBox is not the most appropriate solution to your needs. A ListBox is designed/intended to take a collection of items and display them in a list.
If you have a number of different objects which you know about at design time and simply wish to have them one on top of another (giving the appearance of a list) you could simply put them inside a ScrollViewer and/or a StackPanel (or other appropriate container). Plus, you would still be able to databind if you did it this way.
I'm working on a simple chat application. Currently the messages are binded to a custom-styled listbox like this (simplified XAML):
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding MessageCollection}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
Now I would like to be able to put images (like graphical smileys) into the displayed message text. Is there any way to achieve this using TextBlock (or any other standart component) or do I need to use some special control for this?
Thanks in advance
Just use the InlineUIContainer.
<TextBlock TextWrapping="Wrap">
<Run>Some text.</Run>
<InlineUIContainer>
<Image Source="http://sstatic.net/stackoverflow/img/apple-touch-icon.png" Height="20"></Image>
</InlineUIContainer>
<Run>Some more text.</Run>
</TextBlock>
The Content of a TextBlock is always just a series of Inlines, so you should use the InlineUIContainer. You can insert this container as one of the Inlines in your TextBlock wherever you want an Image to appear, alternating with text Runs. You could parse a message and at the same time keep adding the tokens (either text or images) that you find to the Inlines collection of the TextBlock.
If you want the Images actually inside the text (like an emoticon), then you are going to have to do some work. This sounds like one of the few times I would actually want a User Control, the point of which would be one that scans the Text looking for emoticon values and building a Data Template on the fly.
Remember that anything you can do in XAML you can do in code, so the code I'm thinking of would follow this general idea:
Scan text for emoticon values and
create a list of values for data
elements.
Create a DockPanel.
Foreach element in the List, add
either a TextBlock or an Image
(based on value).
Set this.Content to the DockPanel.
I think something like this is actually what you are looking for, but if you want just an Image, then the ValueConverter suggestion would work.
You could use a value converter to convert the text to another type which has a list of segments which are composed of either text or the smiley face (in the order in which they appear).
Then, you can use a data template to bind to that new type and display the text and smiley faces appropriately.
I also encountered this problem recently and I overcome this by
Creating an ListBox ItemTemplate containing an ItemsControl that has a WrapPanel in the ItemsPanelTemplate and then binding my string to the ItemsSource of the ItemsControl with a IValueConverter that houses all the logic.
Split out your words and query/search your emoticons strings, hyperlinks etc and create your TextBlock, Image, Hyperlink, Button elements and set your values and event handles.
In the function create a List<UIElement> and populate the List with the controls you have generated and return the List as the object in the Convert function of the IValueConverter.
Because you have the WrapPanel in there you get your wrapping done.
Use the Image element instead of the TextBlock and use a Converter to map the text value to the smile image.
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding MessageCollection}">
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Image Source="{Binding Text, Converter={StaticResource MyImageConverter}}"/>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>