I can not dynamically GoToState in WPF. What is wrong? - wpf

Question

I created the simplest WPF application with Blend for Visual Studio.
I created the simplest visual state groups for a single textbox:
My problem is that I can not dynamically GoToState using this code:
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
textBox.MouseEnter+=new System.Windows.Input.MouseEventHandler(textBox_MouseEnter);
}
private void textBox_MouseEnter(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseEventArgs e)
{
// This will be an empty list
var states = VisualStateManager.GetVisualStateGroups(textBox);
// This will be false
bool thisReturnsFalse = VisualStateManager.GoToState(textBox, "VisualState1", true);
}
This is my XAML:
<VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
<VisualStateGroup x:Name="VisualStateGroup">
<VisualState x:Name="VisualState">
<Storyboard>
<ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="textBox">
<EasingColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#FFE40404"/>
</ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
</VisualState>
<VisualState x:Name="VisualState1">
<Storyboard>
<ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" Storyboard.TargetName="textBox">
<EasingColorKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="#FF23FF00"/>
</ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
</VisualState>
</VisualStateGroup>
</VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
<TextBox x:Name="textBox" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="TextBox" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120">
<i:Interaction.Triggers>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="KeyUp">
<ei:GoToStateAction StateName="VisualState1"/>
</i:EventTrigger>
<i:EventTrigger EventName="KeyDown">
<ei:GoToStateAction StateName="VisualState"/>
</i:EventTrigger>
</i:Interaction.Triggers>
</TextBox>

Answer 1

Your VisualStateGroups are not defined in the TextBox, so the call
var states = VisualStateManager.GetVisualStateGroups(textBox);
won't return what you expect. If you want to get the defined states, pass the FrameworkElement that contains the VisualStateGroups (I'm assuming the Window here):
var states = VisualStateManager.GetVisualStateGroups(this);
The same should probably be used for the call to VisualStateManager.GoToState:
bool shouldReturnTrue = VisualStateManager.GoToState(this, "VisualState1", true);