Why does no WPF ListView Theme work? - wpf

Question

I am no graphic designer but I want a nice looking application. I searched the Internet for WPF Themes and I found i.e. these:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/30e8b37d-01a0-4749-abcb-a5d7631e7646
The themes work fine with Buttons and Textboxes and many controls but not with ListView.
This is how my sample ListView looks without Theme:
And this is how it looks with Theme ShinyBlue (other Themes look similar):
It does not matter which Theme I use (I downloaded many). There is always the problem that the ListView with Theme does not show the items. It just shows some thick lines instead of the items.
Here is the code:
<Window
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"
mc:Ignorable="d" x:Class="SahaWpfTheme20131.TestWindow1"
Title="Test Window" Width="250" Height="200"
>
<Grid>
<ListView x:Name="ListView1" HorizontalAlignment="Left"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="200" Height="150">
<ListViewItem Content="Coffee"/>
<ListViewItem Content="Tea"/>
<ListViewItem Content="Orange Juice"/>
<ListViewItem Content="Milk"/>
<ListViewItem Content="Iced Tea"/>
<ListViewItem Content="Mango Shake"/>
</ListView>
</Grid>
</Window>
Am I doing something wrong or do many Themes just not work with ListView? I am confused why this does not work.
I used a ListView sample from here: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/mahesh/listview-in-wpf/

Answer 1

When I create a ListView with columns and an ItemsSource, it works (but the colors are messed up, probably a different issue):
<ListView x:Name="ListView1" HorizontalAlignment="Left"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="200" Height="150">
<ListView.View>
<GridView>
<GridView.Columns>
<GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding A}" />
<GridViewColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding B}" />
</GridView.Columns>
</GridView>
</ListView.View>
</ListView>
And in code-behind (of course this is not the proper way to do this, but it is the shortest):
ListView1.ItemsSource = new[]
{
new { A = "qqq", B = "rrr" },
new { A = "qqqq", B = "rrr" }
};
I also got your code to work, but for this I changed the ListViewItem template in BureauBlack.xaml (the theme that is in use):
<GridViewRowPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" Margin="0,2,0,2" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
to
<ContentPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" Margin="0,2,0,2" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
And now the content in the list from your code is shown. But for what you're trying to do, like suggested in a comment, you probably want a ListBox, not ListView.