Presenting an ItemsControl - wpf

simple question!
I want to present an itemscontrol inside of an expander and grid which contains a textbox. I want to do this multiple times so I wrapped it in a ControlTemplate.
<ControlTemplate x:Key="ArrayPresenter">
<Expander Template="{StaticResource ArrayTemplate}">
<Grid>
<ContentPresenter/>
<TextBlock FontWeight="Bold" Text="Empty" Margin="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Foreground="#66C9C9C9" FontSize="15" Visibility="{quickConverter:Binding '$P.Count == 0 ? Visibility.Visible : Visibility.Collapsed', P={Binding Array}}" />
</Grid>
</Expander>
</ControlTemplate>
This is what I want to present. Unfortunately whenever an item is added to the itemscontrol, nothing happens and it doens't display the new items!
<ContentControl Template="{StaticResource ArrayPresenter}">
<ItemsControl Style="{StaticResource ArrayItemsStyle}" Margin="5" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource StructureFieldTemplate}"/>
</ContentControl>

As mentioned in the comment you need to target type of your ControlTemplate
<ControlTemplate ... TargetType="{x:Type ContentControl}">
Without that ControlTemplate targets System.Windows.Controls.Control type and that does not have Content to present so ContentPresenter does not know what to show.

Related

WPF Button from Controltemplate isn't visible

I want to instantiate two Controls (an Expander and a Button) from two ControlTemplates. They are docked in a Dockpanel (right and left). The Expander is visible and it works fine, but the Button isn't visible.
The ControlTemplate of the Button in App.xaml:
...
<ControlTemplate x:Key="OpenFileButton" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Image Name="OpenFileButton" Source="F:\AudioNodeGUI_XAML\images\filebutton.jpg">
</Image>
</ControlTemplate>
...
And the instantiation in a usercontrol:
<Grid>
<Image Source="F:\AudioNodeGUI_XAML\images\FileInputNode.jpg"/>
<DockPanel Name="dock" Width="151" Height="20" Margin="27,53,122,139">
<Expander Name="expander" Template="{StaticResource FileExpander}" Height="20" Width="41" PreviewMouseLeftButtonUp="expand" DockPanel.Dock="Left">
<ListView Name="usedFiles" Background="Black" BorderBrush="Transparent" BorderThickness="0" Width="140" Height="120" Opacity="0.5">
</ListView>
</Expander>
<Button Name="OpenFileButton" Template="{StaticResource OpenFileButton}" DockPanel.Dock="Right" />
</DockPanel>
</Grid>
But the Button isn't visible, neither in the Designer (just the outline) nor in execution. What am I doing wrong?
I suspect that your issue is just incorrect path to the image file. Unfortunately you won't have any tip about this kind of error neither in designer nor in output window. However if you have ReSharper it should highlight the path to the file if it doesn't exist

How To Make A WPF UserControl Act As A Container

I'm trying to create a Toolbar control that can group selected buttons with a border and a label. If there is already a built-in control that will do this then I could use that instead of building a UserControl.
If not, then what I'm wanting to build is a UserControl that would allow me to enter one-to-many of my ImageButton UserControls and set a GroupLabel text like below. Can this be done in WPF?
<User_Controls:ToolbarGroup GroupLabel="Entity">
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="Entity Setup"/>
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="New Entity"/>
</User_Controls:ToolbarGroup>
PS: I would post an image but this quirky forum won't allow me to post an image.
If i have got you correctly then I think you can achieve this way also, and on mouse eneter and leave event you can do the button click job.
for setting text you can use a grid and a label inside it to set the text, and Image buttons below it.
<UserControl x:Class="ABC.View.Oats"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="300">
<Grid>
<Image Source="{Binding Image}" Stretch="Fill"/>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
I think what you're looking for is a GroupBox, it has a header property where you can set the label.
Something like this:
<GroupBox Width="300" Height="100">
<GroupBox.Header>
<Label>Text</Label>
</GroupBox.Header>
<StackPanel>
<Button Content="Button"/>
<Button Content="Button"/>
<Button Content="Button"/>
</StackPanel>
</GroupBox>
I would also recommend using the groupbox, it seems to be doing exactly what you want it to do and it looks neat. Here's some examples on how to use them: http://www.dotnetperls.com/groupbox-wpf
On the other hand, if you believe the groupbox is not sufficient, you could create a control that inherits from the groupbox and you could extend it and add whatever you need to it. It would look like this:
public class customGroupBox: GroupBox{
....Add whatever you need here
}
Thanks for the replies. I tried the GroupBox and it's not the layout we want because we want the label underneath the buttons and centered. I never could find a way to add a collection to the UserControl. Maybe I didn't ask the question right by calling it a container. The code below will work, but it's not elegant. I wanted something that would wrap the layout in a UserControl and allow me to add a variable number of buttons to each toolbar group.
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">
<Border Background="GhostWhite" BorderBrush="Gainsboro" BorderThickness="1">
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="New 1"/>
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="New 2"/>
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="New 3"/>
</StackPanel>
<Label HorizontalAlignment="Center" Content="Group 1"/>
</StackPanel>
</Border>
<Border Background="GhostWhite" BorderBrush="Gainsboro" BorderThickness="1">
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<User_Controls:ImageButton ButtonText="New 4"/>
</StackPanel>
<Label HorizontalAlignment="Center" Content="Group 2"/>
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</StackPanel>
One way to accomplish this is with a custom styled ItemsControl.
You can then reuse it and just bind it to different data.
Please forgive me, this is hand-typed...
In your resources...
<Style x:Key="ToolbarGroupItemsControlStyle" TargetType="ItemsControl">
...
<Setter Property="ItemsPanel">
<Setter.Value>
<ItemsPanelTemplate>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"/>
</ItemsPanelTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="ItemsControl">
<Grid>
... XAML to form your group with a binding to the
... group name
<ItemsPresenter/>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
<DataTemplate x:Key="ToolbarGroupItemTemplate">
<Grid>
... XAML and binding for each toolbar group item ...
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
In your XAML...
<ItemsControl
Style="{DynamicResource ToolbarGroupItemsControlStyle}"
ItemsSource="{Binding ToolbarGroupItems}"
ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource ToolbarGroupItemTemplate"/>
If your resources above are at the application level, then you can place the ItemsControl above on any Window/UserControl you want.
Your ItemsSource will need to be a collection of a custom type you create that has bindings for the button text, etc.
I hope this is helpful.

ItemsControl items bindings called when collapsed

I have an ItemsControl which displays a list of messages. It's defined as ...
<ItemsControl HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
ItemsSource="{Binding Messages}" >
</ItemsControl>
I then have a DataTemplate which handles the display for each message. It's defined as...
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:MessageViewModel}">
<Button Command="{Binding CommandOpenPage}">
<Button.Template>
<ControlTemplate>
<Border Margin="2" BorderThickness="1"
BorderBrush="{Binding Flags, Converter={StaticResource msgFlagConverter}}"
Background="{Binding Flags, Converter={StaticResource msgFlagConverter}, ConverterParameter=1}" >
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=Message}" Style="{StaticResource ActionItem}" TextWrapping="Wrap" />
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Button.Template>
</Button>
</DataTemplate>
Everything displays OK. My problem is when the parent controls are set to Visibility=Collapsed my ItemsControl still goes through the DataTemplate and calls the converters for BorderBrush and BackgroundBrush for each MessageViewModel.
This is bothersome because when the list is very large the bindings are set and converters are executed when they shouldn't. This list is only visible when the user chooses to see it. I understood the binding engine ignores elements under a collapsed parent. Is there an exception to this rule? Or am I just missing something?
I found my problem. The above ItemsControl and DataTemplate were in a UserControl. The visibility was originally handled inside the usercontrol itself by binding the main layout grid to a visibility property. By simply setting the user controls visibility in the parent XAML all bindings started behaving as expected.
This fixes my problem but I still don't understand the difference between setting the visibility of the main layout grid vs the visibility of the usercontrol itself.
<c:ApplicationMenuView Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="4"
HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="1"
VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
DataContext="{Binding Menu}"
Visibility="{Binding IsVisible, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}"/>

WPF : dynamic view/content

I'm a bit beginner in WPF, so I ask this..
Let's say I have a window, and inside the window I want to have something like container, could be just border or maybe panel (in winform terms). The content of container is binded to the selected option (e.g:button). So, for instance, when user selects OPTION 1, the container shows chart; when user selects OPTION 2, the container shows listview filled with data; when user selects OPTION 3, the container shows another things, and so on.
What is the best/nicest (or easiest maybe) approach to do this? I'm thinking about using user control for the content of the container, but don't know if this is nice solution neither the performance for using user control to show little bit complex things and maybe some calculations. Any other idea guys?
To elaborate on #Sheridan's answer, here is a simple TabControl XAML that does what you need:
<TabControl TabStripPlacement="Left">
<TabItem Header="Option 1">
<Grid Background="DarkGray">
<TextBlock Foreground="AliceBlue" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" FontSize="20" Text="View 1"/>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Option 2">
<Grid Background="DarkBlue">
<TextBlock Foreground="AliceBlue" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" FontSize="20" Text="View 2"/>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
<TabItem Header="Option 3">
<Grid Background="DarkSlateBlue">
<TextBlock Foreground="AliceBlue" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" FontSize="20" Text="View 3"/>
</Grid>
</TabItem>
</TabControl>
Result:
You can customize it a little bit by adding this simple Style To your Window.Resources:
<Window.Resources>
<Style TargetType="TabItem">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="TabItem">
<RadioButton Content="{TemplateBinding Header}" Margin="2"
IsChecked="{Binding IsSelected, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, Mode=TwoWay}"/>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</Window.Resources>
Which then results in:
The "WPF Mentality" makes you think the UI controls in terms of their functionality, not their appearance, this is a TabControl =)
I solved this with a ContentControl
MainWindow:
(Define the views you wish to visualize as resources)
<Window.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewModels:SystemPCViewModel}">
<controls:SystemPCControl/>
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewModels:ChipPCViewModel}">
<controls:ChipPCControl/>
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<ContentControl Content="{Binding CurrentView}"/>
</Grid>
ViewModel: (can't get much simpler)
public ViewModelBase CurrentView
{
get { return currentView; }
set { Set(() => CurrentView, ref currentView, value); }
}
And there you go, you can change your views by setting the view model for the controls you defined in your MainWindow
private void OnCommandExecuted()
{
CurrentView = someViewModel;
}
private void OnAnotherCommandExecuted()
{
CurrentView = anotherViewModel;
}
HTH!
What you are describing sounds pretty close to a standard TabControl, but with a ControlTemplate that puts the tabs on the left side instead of above the content panel. Using this method would mean having a UserControl in each TabItem, eg. multiple controls. You can find out more about the TabControl from the TabControl Class page at MSDN.

WPF Expander in Xaml?

I want to make an ItemsControl that provides some of its own children, and then when used can add additional children, similarly to the built in Expander class.
However, in this example, the Header TextBlock is also removed. This is a rephrasing of
a question I asked yesterday.
LayerPanelItem.xaml:
<ItemsControl x:Class="Controls.LayerPanelItem"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock>Header</TextBlock>
<StackPanel Name="InnerContent">
<!-- Test 1 and Test 2 should go here. -->
</StackPanel>
</StackPanel>
</ItemsControl>
Main.xaml:
<controls:LayerPanelItem>
<TextBlock>Test 1</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Test 2</TextBlock>
</controls:LayerPanelItem>
If I'm understanding you correctly, you want more of a HeaderedItemsControl. Expander derives from HeaderedContentControl and this adds in the ItemsControl behavior to that:
<HeaderedItemsControl x:Class="WpfApplication1.LayerPanelItem"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<HeaderedItemsControl.Template>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type HeaderedItemsControl}">
<StackPanel>
<ContentPresenter ContentSource="Header"/>
<ItemsPresenter/>
</StackPanel>
</ControlTemplate>
</HeaderedItemsControl.Template>
<HeaderedItemsControl.Header>
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock>Header</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Other stuff...</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</HeaderedItemsControl.Header>
</HeaderedItemsControl>

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