I have a solution with two WPF projects: Primary and Secondary.
In the Primary project, a Window named PrimaryView instantiates an UserControl called SecondaryControl, defined in Secondary project.
SecondaryControl uses SecondaryStyle, which is defined in SecondaryResourceDictionary (as you might have guessed already, defined in SecondaryProject).
The fact is: when I try to run the solution, I get a XamlParseError, and digging InnerExceptions I eventually find the culprit, the ResourceNotFound error.
So my questions are:
If SecondaryControl and its SecondaryStyle are defined in the same assembly, why can't I instantiate it it PrimaryAssembly?
Should I make SecondaryStyle available to PrimaryProject namespace somehow? Why?
I try to help you by explanation how it works in my projects.
A separate assembly contains a common control and common resource dictionary like this:
CommonResources.xaml
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<!-- Some resources -->
</ResourceDictionary>
SomeCommonControl.xaml
<UserControl x:Class="YourAssembly.SomeCommonControl"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/YourAssembly;component/CommonResources.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
<!-- Some specific content -->
</UserControl>
I can use this control and resources from another assemblies and WPF-projects like this:
<Window x:Class="YourWPFProject.SomeWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:common="clr-namespace:YourAssembly">
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/YourAssembly;component/CommonResources.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
<common:SomeCommonControl />
</Window>
I hope this will help you.
Related
I have created two custom controls, both inherited from System.Windows.Controls.Button. One is called XLButton and the other is XLBox. They have identical XAML styles/templates in two separate ResourceDictionary objects in two separate .xaml files, and identical code-behind files, except that "XLButton" appears in the XLButton files where "XLBox" appears in the XLBox files, and vice versa.
I have created a simple test window with a two-row Grid. I merge the the ResourceDictionary files into a the Window.Resources of that test window and create an instance of each custom control, one in the top row, one in the bottom. This works fine. Here's the test window's XAML:
<Window x:Class="ScratchPadWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExLuminaControls"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="ScratchPadWindow" Height="118" Width="145">
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Styles/XLBox.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Styles/XLButton.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<local:XLBox Content="Hi!"/>
<local:XLButton Grid.Row="1" Content="Yeah!"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
This works just fine. But, when I comment out the ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries section and copy it in its original form to Themes\Generic.xaml, so it looks like this:
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExLuminaControls"
mc:Ignorable="d">
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Styles/XLButton.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Styles/XLBox.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
I get a "Cannot locate resource 'styles/xlbutton.xaml' error, associated with this line:
<local:XLBox Content="Hi!"/>
That doesn't make sense to me, but what's more confusing is that the problem goes away if i click "Disable project code" in the designer.
I'm using Blend 2017 Community.
Can anyone help me understand this?
Thanks!
it's path problem, when in generic, use it like this
<ResourceDictionary Source="/AssemblyName;Component/Styles/XLButton.xaml" />
or have to go up with "../../"
themes and generic lowercase
assembly info
app.xaml if nothing works
[assembly: ThemeInfo(
ResourceDictionaryLocation.None, //where theme specific resource dictionaries are located
//(used if a resource is not found in the page,
// or application resource dictionaries)
ResourceDictionaryLocation.SourceAssembly //where the generic resource dictionary is located
//(used if a resource is not found in the page,
// app, or any theme specific resource dictionaries)
)]
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/Fluent;Component/Themes/Generic.xaml" />
...
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
Definition and style
#region --------------------CONSTRUCTORS--------------------
static WaitSpin()
{
FrameworkElement.DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(WaitSpin),
new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(WaitSpin)));
}
/// <summary>
/// LoadingAnimation constructor.
/// </summary>
public WaitSpin()
{
this.DefaultStyleKey = typeof(WaitSpin);
}
#endregion
<Style x:Key="{x:Type local:WaitSpin}" TargetType="{x:Type local:WaitSpin}">
I made a new CustomControl based on the Window Control.
When I use my Control it doesn't appear in the designer mode, instead it still uses the default window style.
How can I force the designer to display my window style instead of the default one?
My MainWindow.xaml:
<CustomWindow:MetroWindow x:Class="Testz.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:CustomWindow="clr-namespace:MetroWindow;assembly=MetroWindow"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" BorderBrush="Red">
<Grid>
</Grid>
</CustomWindow:MetroWindow>
Link to my whole project - maybe you'll need it
How it looks in the designer and how it really looks:
I think I understood what you was trying to accomplish.
The problem is that the Visual Studio Designer can't find the Resource because it is on the library. What you need to do is to create a ResourceDictionary pointing to it on you Application to be able to see the designer time template.
<Application x:Class="DemoMetroWindow.App"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:MetroWindow"
StartupUri="DemoWindow.xaml">
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:/MetroWindow;component/Themes/Generic.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
</Application>
You can learn more from links bellow.
OnApplyTemplate() never being called
WPF get Type in Design time?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jgalasyn/archive/2007/10/29/troubleshooting-wpf-designer-load-failures.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2007/11/08/code-behind-and-the-wpf-designer.aspx
You're using Mahapps Metro, right?
You can use the styles provided by it.
Styling a window with Metro
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MahApps.Metro;component/Styles/Colours.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MahApps.Metro;component/Styles/Fonts.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MahApps.Metro;component/Styles/Controls.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MahApps.Metro;component/Styles/Accents/Blue.xaml" />
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MahApps.Metro;component/Styles/Accents/BaseLight.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
You can change the color of the window by changing the Resource dictionary of Blue.xaml by other colors, just check it out.
When the resource references in App.xaml are fine you should restart Visual Studio. In most cases the themes are then displayed correctly.
Regards
I've recently split my silverlight application into several smaller projects.
I've moved all of the resource dictionaries containing my styles into a separate project ("Application.Themes") I then reference these from my App.xaml file within my main project.
This works fine for the main project however all other projects that reference styles within these resource dictionaries throw "Object Reference not set to an instance of an object" exceptions within the designer, although they do compile and run without any problems and with the correct styles.
I've added an App.xaml file to each of the individual projects which references the same dictionaries as my main App.xaml file, this has made no difference.
Is there a correct way to reference resource dictionaries from another project which allows the designer to be used?
EDIT:
Here is some more information and some code snippets to demonstrate the issue I'm having
I have a styles project called "Themes" within this project I have several dictionaries that define all of the styles for the project.
Within my main App.xaml I have the following
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Themes;component/Styles/CoreStyles.xaml"/>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Themes;component/Styles/Styles.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
If I reference styles within the main project they work correctly. however they don't for any other projects even if those projects reference the Themes project.
I've attempted to put the following at the start of each UserControl in order to resolve the styles at design time, however it still cannot resolve styles that are within the project.
<UserControl>
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Themes;component/Styles/CoreStyles.xaml"/>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Themes;component/Styles/Styles.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<!-- Additional Control Specific resources -->
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
<!-- The following resources are defined in Styles.XAML and don't resolve at design time and throw errors -->
<TextBlock Text="Header Test"
FontFamily="{StaticResource HeaderFontFamily}"
Foreground="{StaticResource StrongBrush}">
</UserControl>
My styles.xaml looks similar to this.
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity"
xmlns:behaviors="clr-namespace:Minerva.Presentation.Behavior;assembly=Minerva.Presentation"
xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation">
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="StrongBrush" Color="{Binding Source={StaticResource MetroColors}, Path=Palette.StrongColor}" />
<FontFamily x:Key="HeaderFontFamily">Segoe UI Light, Lucida Sans Unicode, Verdana</FontFamily>
</ResourceDictionary>
Create an assembly for the styles/themes project so that this can be referenced by other projects.
In order to merge these styles into application either at app.xaml/page.xaml using MergedDictionaries
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Assembly;component/Stylesorthemes.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
Hope this is useful.
I created an assembly test which contains the resource dictionary Theme.xaml
Theme.xaml code
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Thickness x:Key="GeneralThickness">10</Thickness>
</ResourceDictionary>
I created seperate silverlight project testreturns
case1.In App.xaml
<Application xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
x:Class="testreturns.App"
>
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary >
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/test;component/Theme.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
</Application>
case2.Usercontrol level
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary >
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/test;component/Theme.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
And using it to set borderthickness of button
<Button Height="50" Width="150" BorderThickness="{StaticResource GeneralThickness}"/>
In both cases it is working for me.
Is this what you intend for?
Did you set the theme.xaml file properties BuildAction to Resource while creating assembly?
i'm using a listbox style twice in my project so i want to use it in a resource dictionary. This listbox style has two value converter's in it, so i instantiated the converters in the same resource file. at runtime though it says that the 'unknown type cannot be declared' although the same converter declarations work when using them in the mainwindow.xaml file.
Anyone have an idea?
I had the same issue until I moved the converter into the App.xaml file under the resources section. This is my sample App.xaml file, I just created a converter named TextConverter for the sample.
There are two ways to do this if you are using other ResourceDictionaries you have to use the ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries in all cases as seen below:
<Application x:Class="WPFFeatureSample_Application.App"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:converters="clr-namespace:WPFFeatureSample_Application.Converters"
StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml">
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary>
<converters:TextConverter x:Key="TextConverter1"></converters:TextConverter>
</ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary Source="Resources/ControlDictionary.xaml"></ResourceDictionary>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
If you do not have other resource files it would look like this:
<Application x:Class="WPFFeatureSample_Application.App"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:converters="clr-namespace:WPFFeatureSample_Application.Converters"
StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml">
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<converters:TextConverter x:Key="TextConverter1"></converters:TextConverter>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
One interesting reference when using converters and Resource Dictionaries in general is this:
http://www.dotnetdude.com/2011/01/23/ResourceDictionariesAreMakingMyHairHurt.aspx
I'm facing some strange issue with a ResourceDictionary in my Application.Resources.
In order to fill multiple ComboBoxes inside my application, I want to store the data in a ResourceDictionary.
However, I get the "Cannot find a Resource with that Name/Key..." error constantly.
My XAML-Code here:
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary x:Key="RDArray">
<sys:String x:Key="item1">Item1</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item2">Item2</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item3">Item3</sys:String>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
<ListBox x:Name="lb" ItemsSource="{Binding Values, Source={StaticResource RDArray}}" />
Due to some lucky circumstances I was able to find out that putting another resource like Style above the Dictionary solves the problem.
<Application.Resources>
<Style x:Key="fubar" />
<ResourceDictionary x:Key="RDArray">
<sys:String x:Key="item1">Item1</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item2">Item2</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item3">Item3</sys:String>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
The "bug" occurs in a WPF application as well as in Silverlight.
Although I can solve this using the shown "trick", I am curious where this error is coming from. I wasn't able to find anything about this. Maybe it is just me and something I am understanding wrong about resources in WPF.
This is because if you have a resource dictionary as the only item in the resources section then the contents simply get added to the parent dictionary (I snooped and this seems to be the case). To get around this you need to put your resource dictionary in separate xaml file (List.xaml in this case):
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<ResourceDictionary x:Key="RDArray">
<sys:String x:Key="item1">Item1</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item2">Item2</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item3">Item3</sys:String>
</ResourceDictionary>
</ResourceDictionary>
and then reference that in your main app:
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="List.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
<ListBox x:Name="lb" ItemsSource="{Binding Values, Source={StaticResource RDArray}}"/>
Thanks for your answer.
In my real application I created that separated file, but I didn't make a second ResourceDictionary inside of it a nd just put the string values there. So it looked like:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<sys:String x:Key="item1">Item1</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item2">Item2</sys:String>
<sys:String x:Key="item3">Item3</sys:String>
</ResourceDictionary>
So this was of course not working either.
Thanks for your answer, definitely solves this one.