My application runs and works absolutely fine. Now I want to use the VS2012 designer to design my MainWindow which is derived type of the HandledWindow from a different library.
Here is my XAML code for MainWindow:
<UI:HandledWindow x:Class="Diamond.Executor.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:UI="clr-namespace:Diamond.Core.UI;assembly=Diamond.Core"
Title="MainWindow"
Height="250"
Width="500"
Style="{DynamicResource WindowStandard}"
WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
Loaded="Initialise">
Here is where base type HandledWindow:
namespace Diamond.Core.UI
{
public class HandledWindow : Window
{
What is wrong here? When I run my application anything works, the bindings, The style and it's template.
But suddenly the designer says "'UI' doesn't map to a namespace". I just don't get it. It stops my development really without a reason. Perhaps a VS2012 bug, But I want to insure I am doing everything right and if there is a way to pass that bug and continue using the designer?
I've discovered what just causes the issue, But I don't know why, Because by syntax it's okay and logically it works. But XAML's desginer fails to work properly with such data binding expression:
FontSize="{Binding Path=(UI:HandledWindow.FontSizeTitle), Mode=OneWay}"
(It's part of a style inside the UI namespace that XAML declined in a whole because of this expression)
Then I've changed it to this expression:
FontSize="{Binding FontSizeTitle, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}"
It does exactly the same, But now the XAML designer works again and stops ignoring the whole namespace UI because of a single data binding expression.
Anyway, The issue is finally resolved.
Related
Visual Studio (10) gives the expected message "Intentionally Left Blank" in the designer.
I know already that I can do this with Blend, just looking around if there is an alternative solution...
I don’t really mind to graphically edit the template; I want only to see it without having to run the application.
Thanks!
Not exactly what you might want, but you can use XamlPad and just paste the content of your datatemplate into it. As long as you don't have layout related bindings, it should work well. Bindings are just ignored by xamlpad, and you need to add the 2 wpf namespace aliases by hand.
for example:
<TextBlock xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Text="{Binding test}"
Background="Red"
Width="20" Height="20"/>
the textblock is empty in XamlPad, but everything else works as expected.
This is my first foray into custom controls, and it's not going well. I have a custom graph control derived from Canvas.
namespace Grapher2 {
public class SeriesManager : Canvas {
public SeriesManager() {
...
}
}
}
It's defined in the same project and namespace as my app. I tried adding a reference to the control in XAML as follows:
<Window x:Class="Grapher2.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:graph="clr-namespace:Grapher2"
Title="Grapher" Width="800" Height="600">
<StackPanel Name="container" Width="700" Height="500">
<graph:SeriesManager Name="seriesManager" Width="700" Height="500" />
</StackPanel>
But when I try to reference the control name "seriesManager" in the code-behind for the Window, I get "The name 'seriesManager' does not exist in the current context."
Furthermore, the XAML editor will not render the Window, giving a huge stack trace with the error: "Type 'MS.Internal.Permissions.UserInitiatedNavigationPermission' in Assembly 'PresentationFramework, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' is not marked as serializable."
I imagine the solution is something stupidly simple for anyone who's done custom controls. But I'm stumped.
did you try x:Name="seriesManager" in your xaml?
Edit: This may not be the issue seeing how you said your xaml isn't rendering. I'm guessing once you get the xaml to render in the designer... the code behind will work better.
Edit 2: Whenever I've had a problem with the designer rendering, it's because I'm doing something in the constructor of my custom control. Check your SeriesManager to see if you are doing something in its constructor that is causing a problem. Maybe you are referencing something that doesn't exist yet. If you do have extra code in your constructor, consider moving it to the UserControl_Loaded event.
Backing up Scott's answer here, since he helped me solve it:
What I did wrong was trying to access the control BEFORE InitializeComponent(), but was confused by 2 other error messages somewhere else in the code.
Just in case someone else has this error.
How can I make a Datatemplate for a ViewModel blendable (designable in expression blend). When I go to resources and try to edit the DataTemplate directly all I see on the Drawingborad is a blank rectangle. This is because the DataTemplate is not bound to anything. Of course I can create a UserControl and create some designtime data in code there to see the template but I now would have to switch back and forth between the resource (to edit) and the usercontrol (to see the result of my edit). Isn't there a more direct way to edit and see my DataTemplate?
It's a bit of a stretch to use, but Blend has a feature called "Design-Time Data" that can help you out. It's tough to get started at first, but once you do a few it's pretty easy. It kind of forces you into a nice pattern for DataContext as well.
Here's a good link on the subject: http://www.robfe.com/2009/08/design-time-data-in-expression-blend-3/
Here's a few choice excerpts:
On Design-Time Sizes
...design time properties can be
safely ignored by other tools and they
are ignored at the runtime
(mc:Ignorable specifies that the
namespace with the "d" prefix can be
ignored).
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Expression Blend uses two design time
properties (d:DesignWidth,
d:DesignHeight) to specify a size for
a control to be used at design time...
On Design-Time Data Sources
I stumbled across d:Datacontext when I
was playing with Blend 3 and tried
adding a “live datasource” to my
window. I thought it was going to
behave just like the old way of
setting a DataContext, but when I ran
my application, there was no data! ...
So the upshot is, now we can write
code like this:
...
<Grid ...
DataContext="{StaticResource GameDataSource}"
d:DataContext="{StaticResource DesignTime_DateDataSource}">
Note that this is for Blend 3 if you want first-party support for these features. They are pretty good - there's even a designer for the design-time data, though I've not looked into those features yet.
Applying To DataTemplates
This is something I sorta made up, but it seems to work. Here I'm using the Design-Time data feature to pull data into the visual element's d:DataContext. You'd have to do this for every top-level element that needed a DataContext set.
<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"
mc:Ignorable="d">
<!-- Resource dictionary entries should be defined here. -->
<DataTemplate x:Key="MyTemplate">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}" d:DataContext="{StaticResource SampleDataSource}" />
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
The binding syntax is a little bit more explicit if you are using a DataTemplate with a DataType set, but it still works:
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type vm:MyViewModel}" >
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Text}"
d:DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource SampleDataSource}}" />
</DataTemplate>
This strategy will allow you to see how the DataTemplate will work while editing it directly, however you won't be able to see the result on any view that utilizes that DataTemplate unless you actually run the app. This is a limitation of Blend at the moment due to the fact that they don't appear to be using Mocks, but rather complete replacement objects. If blend ever adds the ability to create a new fake data source by clicking on "New DataSource -> Based on Referenced Object -> MyCustomerObject", then you will be in business.
It's possible you could overcome this limitation with some attached property trickery of your own, but it would be difficult at best.
Alternative
An alternative that will work in every situation, but is a bit more cumbersome to setup is setting up StaticResources that swap out fake data for real data during runtime, but in the designer show static sample data.
Here's a really great article by Karl Shifflett that includes some of these techniques and a few videos on it:
http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/viewing-design-time-data-in-visual-studio-2008-cider-designer-in-wpf-and-silverlight-projects/
Hope this helps,
Anderson
This strategy will allow you to see
how the DataTemplate will work while
editing it directly, however you won't
be able to see the result on any view
that utilizes that DataTemplate unless
you actually run the app. This is a
limitation of Blend at the moment due
to the fact that they don't appear to
be using Mocks, but rather complete
replacement objects. If blend ever
adds the ability to create a new fake
data source by clicking on "New
DataSource -> Based on Referenced
Object -> MyCustomerObject", then you
will be in business.
If I want to use acutal ViewModel mocks I guess it is the best way to create actual ViewModel instances and the references them with d:DataContext (e.g. using a ObjectDataProvider or x:Static)
Hey, I've included an MS Access database in my WPF VB app, and I'm trying to link the data to an XCEED Datagrid. I have the following code in my testerDataSet.Designer.vb file which I assume is the funcion I should be referencing
Public ReadOnly Property Contact() As ContactDataTable
Get
Return Me.tableContact
End Get
End Property
I'm trying to get it to fill my datagirid using this
<Grid.Resources>
<xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_contacts" Source="{Binding Path=Contact, *Source={x:Static testerDataSet}*}"/>
</Grid.Resources>
<xcdg:DataGridControl Margin="54,18,4,3" Name="DataGridControl1" ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_contacts}}"/>
Unfortunately the bolded/stared part is givi ng me errors, does anyone know the correct code i should be using here to reference my source?
Thanks guys!
EDIT: Okay let me try and outline what I've done... I've added an Access 2007 Database called "tester" to my project as an existing item, and VS has gone and made testerDataSet for me, and inside testerDataset.Designer.vb I assume the first code above is the code i need to display my table data.
Basically my entire code for Window1.xaml is as follows (its just a test project to see If I can actually get the database working)
<Window x:Class="Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="369" Width="503" xmlns:xcdg="http://schemas.xceed.com/wpf/xaml/datagrid">
<Grid>
<Grid.Resources>
<xcdg:DataGridCollectionViewSource x:Key="cvs_contacts" Source="{Binding Path=Contact, Source={StaticResource testerDataSet}}"/>
</Grid.Resources>
<xcdg:DataGridControl Margin="54,18,4,3" Name="DataGridControl1" ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource cvs_contacts}}"/>
</Grid>
What I'm trying to achieve is for the datagrid to display the data in the Contact datatable. I'm probably missing something important here (I'm quite new to coding =/ ) To be perfectly honest I've had a hard time finding appropriate tutorials for this so I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing
THanks again
Can you update your sample to include the code for the static resource testerDataSet?
One way you can try and work around this problem is to set the Binding directly in imperative code.
DataGridControl1.DataContext = testerDataSet.Contact
Then you could modify your WPF code to be the following
<xcdg:DataGridControl
Margin="54,18,4,3"
Name="DataGridControl1"
ItemsSource="{Binding}" />
That may not be 100% what you're looking for but it should at least temporarily unblock you.
I have a window "Operation" in XAML that uses a user control "Status" defined in the same project. When I build the solution, it returns ok, but when I open the design view for the Window, visual studio says "Could not create an instance of type 'Status'. The XAML for the Window "Operation" is below:
<Window x:Class="TCI.Indexer.UI.Operacao"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:tci="clr-namespace:TCI.Indexer.UI.Controles"
Title=" "
MinHeight="550"
MinWidth="675"
Loaded="Load"
ResizeMode="NoResize"
WindowStyle="None"
WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
WindowState="Maximized"
Focusable="True">
<Canvas Name="canv">
<tci:Status x:Name="ucStatus"/>
<Grid Canvas.Top="0" Canvas.Left="0">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<!-- Indices -->
<Label Width="200"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Canvas>
</Window>
The xmlns:tci is the namespace where the Status Usercontrol is. And tci:Status becomes underlined in blue when this error happens. How to use a UserControl like this?
I was consistently having this problem with one control in my project and wound up resolving it by changing all of my images to DynamicResource rather than StaticResource.
The really strange thing is that the designer worked just fine for the control itself and showed the images as expected. It was only when I used the control inside my main window that the designer gave me the "Could not create instance of " message.
I don't know exactly whats the solution, but that happens to me too from time to time. I end up deleting declaration of the namespace, rebuilding and trying again. :\
Try cleaning your entire project, then do a full rebuild. The WPF designer in VS is poorly done, in my opinion, and there are weird issues like this all over the place.
I recommend not relying on Design View for anything, at this point - it's just too unstable. Try Expression Blend, it's a little bit better with things like this. If you don't want to go that route, you're probably better off building and running your app :-(
If you're running VS 2008, do you have SP1 installed?
I typically see this when I haven't built the control. Make sure you build the control and see if you still see the problem. Occasionally, VS just gets confused and you need to close and open the control you are having a problem with. In this case, that would be your window.
Similar to what Jon Norton said, I also found this link (-link removed, see below-) that implicates resources. I had the situation described in the link, and Jon's fix sorted it.
EDIT
Sorry, the link now requires a login and the page doesn't exist anymore. I couldn't find what it was supposed to be after three years.