I have a WPF project in Visual Studio 2012. It have it all set up with source control, so that if I try to edit a file that I don't have checked, it will automatically try to check it out, and then allow me to edit it.
Is this supposed to work in Expression Blend 2012 as well?
If I open the same project in Expression Blend, it lets me edit a non-checked-out file, and I may not even realize that I don't have the file checked out until I try and save it, and it tells me that the file is read-only.
Is there something that I have to do to enable source control in Blend? Or, does Blend not even support source control integration?
It sounds more like a setting issue. In Visual Studio, there is an 'Allow checked-in item to be edited' option at Tools->Options->Source Control->Environment. Please make sure you uncheck it.
Blend supports source control integration. This blog article might help.
Related
Goal: Edit the ControlTemplate of a Window to remove the caption buttons via Blend (Close/Minimize/Maximize). Why? Need a window with a title bar (draggable) that can't be closed/minimized/resized. It's a temporary status window that pops up, etc. (I've seen solutions that go into the Win32 APIs, and wonder why. This should be doable via Blend!)
Anyway... Blend for Visual Studio 2017 seems to be OK with my attempt. At least initially.
Click "[Window]" in the Document outline and then select "Edit Template => Edit a copy"
Blend complies and gives me this control template.
However, immediately the XAML is flagged as having errors.
I figured "well, maybe this is just a designer issue. Maybe it will build." Nope.
"The type reference cannot find a public type named 'WindowInstance'.
"The name 'WindowInstance' does not exist in the namespace
'clr-namespace:Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.WpfDesigner.InstanceBuilders;assembly=Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.WpfDesigner"
Well, I've looked for "Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.WpfDesigner" on both NuGet and in the install folders and it doesn't seem to be there.
I've also read this solution, which mentions adding "Blend for Visual Studio SDK for .NET" in the Visual Studio 2017 installer under the "Individual Components" page. I've done that. Still I have the error.
I'm uncertain where Blend got the initial ControlTemplate from in the first place if it doesn't resolve to an assembly on my machine.
Regarding the actual solution... what I'm doing now is faking a window with a title bar (that has no buttons) and using the system brushes to make it look like a window with a title bar--but that isn't draggable... which is another problem to solve.
Really, why I can't do something as trivial as removing control buttons from a window is beyond me. I suppose there are philosophical reasons to not allow people to remove the close button on a window, but that shouldn't be some arbitrary call that a dev at Microsoft gets to make for me or anyone on my team.
Thank you for your assistance.
Chad.
I created a project/solution in VS 2012. I open the same solution in Blend but it doesn't allow me to edit it in the designer - I only can edit the XAML directly.
I'm lost. What's going on?
EDIT: I read somewhere that Blend requires "Any CPU" - I verified that this is set.
EDIT2: It works with .NET4.0. Does this mean that .NET4.5 is not supported?
Yes. It needs the blend for vs2012 preview in order to edit it, however .xaml and .xaml.cs files don't really have any difference between .net4 and .net45, so there isn't anything to stop you creating a solution in vs2010 and including the same files, so that you can use blend to edit it.
Has anyone else experience incredibly slow performance in the XAML editor in VS 2010? If I have a new project with a limited number of files, the performance is fine. However, if I have a project with a larger number of XAML files, the XAML editor hangs intermittently every few seconds, making it almost impossible to use.
I should also note that the performance is only slow in one particular project where I am referencing DevExpress 2010. I am not certain if this is related.
Any suggestions on solutions to this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Chris
In Visual Studio 2012:
Go to
Tools > Options > TextEditor > XAML > Misc
Check Always open documents in XAML view and uncheck Automatically populate toolbox items.
In Visual Studio 2015, 2017:
Go to
Tools > Options > XAML Designer
uncheck Automatically populate toolbox items.
This fixed my same problem.
If you don't need the visual designer, you can select a different editor in visual studio:
Right click the xaml file -> Open With... -> Source Code (Text) Editor
You will only lose the split view, intellisense etc. should still work.
If you need to check something in the designer you can still click 'view designer' to open the normal XAML editor again.
If you want to improve the performance of the visual designer, try checking DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode in your code-behind. The visualiser instantiates your controls to know how to display them, thus executing parts of the code-behind.
Like the OP, I had extreme lag in the xaml editor on a project that relied heavily on DevExpress WPF controls. After trying unsuccessfully to resolve this issue with the other solutions posted here, I eventually tried deleting my Solution User Options (.suo) file, which is usually located in the same folder as the solution (.sln) file. This immediately resolved the issue. You may want to read this post about what visual studio stores in the suo file so you can reset anything important (such as build configuration - mine always defaults the active solution platform back to "Mixed Platforms" for example)
Short answer: if you do not use designer much, just replace the default editor for XAML, thus getting rid of XAML visual designer and speeding things up. Right click any XAML file, click Open with... and choose another default editor. Source code (text) editor works just fine.
Now it should be already fine. If you want to understand the details and completely get rid of the slow designer, read the long answer.
Long answer: Here is a nice explanation of what happens and why is it that slow.
A brief todo based on the aforementioned article in order to completely disable the visual designer of XAML:
Under Tools->Options->Text Editor->XAML->Miscellaneous->Default View check Always open documents in full XAML view
Open Task manager and end XAML Designer process XDesProc.exe (Note: for VS2013 right click this process and go to containing folder. Rename the exe to sth else, than end the process)
Standard XAML editor will load this process again (I guess it will not succeed with VS2013 and actions done in P.2). However, right click any XAML file, Open with... and choose another default editor. Source code (text) editor works just fine.
While using dev express, I've noticed some laggy response in the Visual Studio designer. This appears to be due to the license authentication of the DevExpress products.
If you delete the "Licenses.Licx" file (found in the project properties folder) you'll notice a marked improvement in performance.
Note: Removing the license file doesn't stop you from using DevExpress controls. But it does stop VS from constantly authenticating it.
I would like to know if there is a way to simply turn of the WPF design surface in Visual Studio 2008. I would like to have the xaml editor, but not the design surface as it slows down the IDE, when I try to open a XAML file. For my workflow having only the source files for xaml would be a better fit as I am doing all visuals in Blend.
Tools->Text Editor->XAML->Miscellaneous uncheck Always open documents in full XAML view
alt text http://www.dolittle.com/blogs/einar/WindowsLiveWriter/DisableXAMLdesignerinVisualStudio2008_118F4/image_2.png
The comment below informs of a catch when using this checkbox, that is it only affects files that have not been opened before. A solution from the link to the Microsoft Connect issue in the comment states that
If you really wish to reset the
open/close behavior for all XAML files
in your project, you can achieve this
by closing Visual Studio, then
locating the SUO file adjacent to your
SLN file and deleting or renaming it,
then re-opening Visual Studio. When
you re-open your solution an new SUO
will be created and all files will be
treated as "new". Please note this
will also remove any other
solution-specific IDE behavior for
your solution.
You should be able to right-click the .xaml file and select "Open With..." then select "Source Code (Text) Editor" (optionally clicking "Set as Default" to make it the default). This will open the file in the plain XML editor (you still get syntax highlighting and IntelliSense, too).
I'm opening valid XAML within my VS2008 solution in Expression Blend 3 and it is only showing XAML when I try to open individual XAML files. My solution/projects all build and run correctly.
When I go to View -> Active Document View the Design View, Split View and XAML View options are all grayed out... which doesn't make much sense.
I'm not much of a Blend user, but this has never happened before, and I'm coming up blank for how to fix it. Any ideas?
How did you create your project ? Did you use the "Class library" templates in Visual Studio ?
I remember I had a similar problem. You can create a new WPF project and compare the CSPROJ with the one not working in Blend. You should be able to see the differences and add the missing lines in your CSPROJ.
HTH
For me, the problem was solved by changing the target framework of the project - I was using 4.5, but Blend could support max version 4.0 - try that...
open the project file in notepad and add the following line within the <PropertyGroup>
<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>
Found the solution here -> link text