How to generate xamlmarkup for properties of a custom control? - wpf

I am developing a custom control library using WPF in VS2010.It is a chart control like System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart.
When the Chart Control provided by MS is dragged from the toolbox and dropped into the VS XAML designer , the xaml markup is generated for the Chart Control, along with the xaml markup for the property ‘Series’(‘Series’ is a content property) of Chart Control.
I was wondering how this is implemented .In another word, how can I generate xamlmarkup with attribute set for properties of a custom control when dragged from the toolbox and dropped into the xaml designer?

You may have to pull down the SDK but here are some links on MSDN to get started:
How to: Create a Toolbox Control That Uses WPF
Walkthrough: Creating a WPF Toolbox Control
Control Authoring Overview.

Related

How to add a WPF user control which is created in control library into Win-forms element host

This is my actual requirement
I need to add a WPFmediaKit into a already existing Winforms application.
So in-order to do that i need to add WPFcontrol into Winform's application.
My final objective is : A camera application with capturating , saving and mail features.
Add WindowsFormIntegration reference , it gives us access to a control called ElementHost. This control is for WPF in WinForms what the WindowsFormsHost was for WinForms in WPF. In the designer, you can find this control in the Toolbox underneath "WPF Interoperability".

WPF datagrid control

what to do if data grid control was not available in WPF component visual studio 2008
i ll try to add control from wpf component but there are no data grid control available in the list.
If you are using WPF 3.5, you need to install WPF Toolkit to get DataGrid control.
However, with WPF 4.0, microsoft introduce DataGrid under System.Windows.Controls (PresentationFramework.dll) assembly so that it can be used just like other controls without referring to WPFToolkit.

Does Visual Studio WinForms support window-less controls?

Must every control in the Visual Studio WinForms toolbox descend from Control?
Does Visual Studio support window-less controls?
Every control you add to the Toolbox in Visual Studio:
must1 descend from Control, which is a wrapper around a windowed control.
Unfortunately, Windowed controls are very "heavy"; having a lot of them, especially nested, causes performance in WinForms to suffer.
In the past i've dealt with the problem by creating aggregate custom controls. The custom control internally contains other window-less controls:
an image (windowless version of a PictureBox)
title label (windowless version of a Label)
subtitle label (windowless version of a Label)
border (windowless version of a Panel)
These are useful to mitigate performance problems in WinForms, but they're stuck inside code.
i would like to do what other development environments allow, is a version of Control that doesn't create a Windows window. i would like the ability for the Visual Studio toolbox to accept **window-less* controls.
i know that if i really wanted window-less controls: i should switch to WPF. But that's overkill.
Does Visual Studio WinForms support window-less controls?
1 or not
Yes and No.
First, check out this article from the venerable Raymond Chen: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/02/11/371042.aspx
Yes. You are welcome to create "controls" that do not derive from Control. I have created several windowless controls in my application that natively support clicking, layering, etc., I draw them to an offscreen buffer, and then paint them directly on some parent Form or Control (such as a PictureBox). This is straightforward to do but not simple, as you will need to manage everything yourself in code.
No. Any windowless controls will not be supported in the Windows Forms designer for any of the Control-derived controls designers (such as placing them on a Panel or Form) so you won't have drag-and-drop form design.
As Hans has pointed out, the ToolStrip and MenuStrip (a windowless control) are such examples. Notice that when you create a new MenuStrip on a Form, the MenuStrip is placed in the Component tray underneath the form. The MenuStrip has a custom set of Designer classes associated with it to support the custom painting and "Type Here" functionality, as well as the dialog boxes to add and remove menu items. Note that the "child" windowless controls, such as the ToolStripButton, are not available in the ToolBox for drag-and-drop support directly onto the form - only the custom designer knows about it. The custom designer for the MenuStrip also supports selecting the child windowless controls so that you can edit the properties of each item in the Properties window.
I can't imagine this is suitable for your situation (unless you are creating some controls for resale), but if you are very determined, you can create designer support in much the same way for your set of windowless controls:
Create a class that derives from Component that will be used to manage your Windowless controls. For example, you could call this class WindowlessWidgetManager. After you compile, this control will be in your toolbox. The WindowlessWidgetManager can contain a collection of your windowless controls, and provide painting and other UI support for a canvas such as a Form or PictureBox.
Create a designer class that derives from ComponentDesigner that supports things such adding and removing your custom controls at design time. For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.design.componentdesigner(v=VS.90).aspx
This is a very lengthy process with a number of caveats, but if that is what you wish to achieve, the functionality is there.

User controls are not available in the toolbox in VS2010

I have created the WPF user control and WPF window in class library project. Controls are public.
These controls are available for other project of the same solution. I can see them in the toolbox of the VS2010 when i add project reference from the WPF application project.
However, when i create some WPF application project outside the solution and add reference to the my user control library project, the controls do not appear in the toolbox! (My applications XAML file is open when I try to see them in toolbox to drag-drop on the application's main XAML)
What makes the controls avilable to the outside world when their assembly is referenced by the consumers?
Try right clicking on the toolbox and selecting Choose Items From that form click browse and select your DLL. That should put the controls in the toolbox for you.
I think the problem is that in your new WPF project you need to set an XML namespace where you reference your user control library. Then you can use your controls in the XAML.
For example :
thats an xml namespace definition in the XAML:
xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;
assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"
And how you can use a control from this control library
< toolkit:ListPicker />
I hope this will help you.
Right click inside the toolbox and select "Show All".

WPF Designer Extensibility for TextBox

I want to modify the property table in VS 2010 that is associated with silverlight textbox.
I like to add a new property to the property table of a silverlight textbox without creating a custom control.
If I want to add a property called "Default value", and I want to run custom code when the user assign it from design-time property table
Can I do that?
I am reading about WPF designer extensibility, but all what I can find are for custom controls with custom properties.
Can we do it for an existing control?
No it is certainly not possible. You have to create a custom control thats the only way.

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