In my WPF application I created a resource of type SolidColorBrush and a button style which uses this resource as a background.
In my UserControl I override the color resource with the same name but a different color.
Can I create it in a way that a button in that UserControl will use the application Style but with the color defined in the UserControl?
What you are trying to do here is a little bit against the idea of resources in WPF as you try to mix up the top-down nature of resource definitions. So even if you get it to work, it will lead to untypical behavior, making it hard for the next person working on the code (or the future-you) to understand what's going on.
I would suggest to do the following to get exactly the behavior you want, still keeping things in order:
Suppose your app level resource like this:
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="MyColor" Color="Blue" />
<Style x:Key="TextBlockStyle" TargetType="TextBlock">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource MyColor}" />
... (other setters)
</Style>
If you want to override the Foreground with a local brush, do this explicitly when using the TextBlock (might be your UserControl as well) and use BasedOn to inherit everything else from the app level style:
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="MyOverridingColor" Color="Red" />
<Style x:Key="OverridingTextBlockStyle" TargetType="TextBlock" BasedOn="{StaticResource TextBlockStyle}">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource MyOverridingColor}" />
</Style>
I would suggest to use a different name for the second color (MyOverridingColor in the example above) to make clear that it is a different color.
Related
I can't override a default style attribute of a third-party component that I use in a clean way. The visual tree looks something like this:
A
--B
...
------------Z
--------------TextBlock
I try to override the style of TextBlock like this:
<Style
TargetType="A">
<Style.Resources>
<Style
TargetType="TextBlock">
<Setter
Property="TextWrapping"
Value="Wrap" />
</Style>
</Style.Resources>
</Style>
But this doesn't work. In live visual tree, I confirm that component A sees my custom style but TextBlock doesn't see it. However, when I try:
<Style
TargetType="Z">
<Style.Resources>
<Style
TargetType="TextBlock">
<Setter
Property="TextWrapping"
Value="Wrap" />
</Style>
</Style.Resources>
</Style>
It works though. Therefore, it seems to me that WPF forces me to add all of the child components one by one as Style.Resources to be able to edit the innermost child. But I don't want to define all of the resources between component A to Z just to add one simple style. What are my options?
I'm not sure if I fully understand your question, as you've provided a working answer, and I can't see why would WPF force you to 'define all of the resources between component A to Z'.
However, here is a tip:
You can create a custom control that inherits Z and overrides OnApplyTemplate(). When OnApplyTemplate() is called you're guaranteed that the template was applied, so you can find any child control (your textbox) you want. (Just google for e.g 'wpf find child control by name' if you don't know how.) Once you have your textbox, you can change its' wrapping from code.
I had to customize a Ribbon control once, and that approach greatly simplified the task.
I am pretty new to WPF and am sitting here with my book trying to figure out the best approach to this application.
The title bar is not part of the client area so I am making my own title bar.
Which way would it be easiest to make this into some sort of resource to apply to all new windows I create?
<Application.Resources>
<Style x:Key="WindowTheme">
<Setter Property="Window.WindowStyle" Value="None"/>
</Style>
<!--Would I create a user control here for the title bar/border and title bar buttons? Or would it be a style?-->
</Application.Resources>
In WPF, there are two ways to use styles: Named styles and typed styles. A named style has an x:Key="..." attribute. A typed style doesn't have a name, but a TargetType="..." attribute (Rem: Named styles can and very often do have a TargetType as well, so named styles and unnamed styles would be more precise). Typed styles automatically get applied to all controls in the scope, which are of type TargetType (not a derived type).
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Blue" />
</Style>
To create your own window, you can set it's template property to a UserControl in the style:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
The professional way to implement the control template is to implement it 'from scratch', this means not using a UserControl which derives from Window. To do this, you define the visual tree of the Window, and use the WPF feature TemplateParts to define what part of your control template is responsible for what functionality of the window.
Here is a tutorial which describes pretty exactly what you want to do:
CodeProject tutorial
In WPF I could apply a style to a target type without giving it a name. This would effectively style all elements of that type without explicitly setting the style on each button.
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White" />
</Style>
<Button Content="Button1"></Button>
This seems to be giving me problems within WP7 SL as the style is not applied unless I give it an x:Name and set the style on each instance.
<Style x:Key="btnStyle" TargetType="Button">
<Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="Red" />
</Style>
Is this a chore that I will have to suffer or is there a workaround?
As far as I know, what you have observed in WP7 XAML is inherited from Silverlight. WP7 Silverlight is based on Silverlight 3 and some bits of Silverlight 4.Styles need to be explicitly applied, although this may seem to be too verbose, I personally find defining styles and using them to be best for maintenance of the code.
HTH, indyfromoz
I have UserControls containing other controls. I want that if I set a Foreground color for the UserControl, all child controls automatically inherit it. I have the same problem with font style/size.
Can I set these properties somehow to auto/inherit? Is this possible to set all subcontrols without a loop?
You can you create resource dictionaries to define default styles globally.
You can also reference a resource dictionary or define a style in any object.
In either case those styles will apply to all child objects that don't have a style explicitly defined...
Example:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" >
<!--Default styles that will apply to any object of the specified type (if it doesn't have style set locally)-->
<Style TargetType="Label" >
<Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold"/>
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="0"/>
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="0"/>
</Style>
</ResourceDictionary>
Look into using Styles and BasedOn settings.
I recently wrote an example of something similar located here. Unfortunally the question was related to Silver Lite so didn't answer the question, but I think it may give you some ideas on where to look.
Can I use generic.xaml in Silverlight to set the style of all TextBlock in the application?
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Style TargetType="TextBlock">
<Setter Property="Foreground"
Value="White" />
<Setter Property="FontSize"
Value="24" />
</Style>
</ResourceDictionary>
I was expecting this to work but it doesn't :-(
Whats the simplest way to apply styles across a whole application??
Thanks,
Mark
EDIT
Thanks for your response. I'm not getting an error, the styles just aren't being applied. All the examples that I found on the internet (including the ones you have listed) are all for styling custom controls. This I can do, but I'd like to just style the default controls:
<TextBlock Text="Style me!!" Grid.Row="2" />
Do I need to add reference to the generic.xaml from page.xaml??
Do I need to name and reference the generic.xaml style as a resource??
Thanks again, Mark
In Silverlight 4, you can use implicit styling!
Setting Styles generically/automatically by setting the TargetType and omitting a ResourceKey only works in WPF, not Silverlight.
If you want to have a Style available throughout your application you can add it to the Resources collection in your App.xaml, but to use it it will need a x:Key and you will have to apply it individually as a StaticResource binding to each instance of your target type that you want to use it.
I do believe this is in Silverlight 3. But the other guys are right, you need to style each one by hand in Silverlight 2.
Note that you could also use the ImplicitStyleManager from the Silverlight Toolkit to do this:
http://www.codeplex.com/Silverlight/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Silverlight%20Toolkit%20Overview%20Part%203&referringTitle=Home
Apply the style to the top level control in your hierarchy and it will propagate down to all child controls.
What exactly doesn't work about it? Do you get an error, or do your text boxes just not get themed?
Your method is the correct way to theme controls, so just work at ironing out the problems you're having with it.
This is a good tutorial, as is this, though note that in Silverlight 2 you need to put the generic file in
themes\generic.xaml
which differs from many tutorials you might find (including the ones given above
Edit: Another tutorial here
Try something along the lines of.
<UserControl.Resources>
<Style TargetType="TextBlock" x:Name="tbStyle">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White" />
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="24" />
</Style>
</UserControl.Resources>
Then when using your TextBlock.
<TextBlock Style="{StaticResource tbStyle}" />