Ok, this is driving me crazy now. I have a Silverlight 5 project. Not long ago we decided to theme our project, just to make it pop more. I found a theming implementation and went ahead.
First i used the .Theming namespace from the Silverlight Toolkit. I used the explicitly build theme.dll's. There was a shortcoming with this though, that i didnt have the ability to customize the theme. So i decided to just use the theme.xaml instead, and implement it by using <MergedDictionaries>.
The problem with this approach though, is that i lost the ability to see the theme in design time. In runtime it works fine. But that's just not good enough, when i wan't to customize the theme.
I implemented the theme by using merged dictionaries in App.Xaml like so
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/eCP;component/Themes/WhistlerBlue.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<vm:ViewModelLocator x:Key="ViewModelLocator"/>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
If i put the same blok in my MainPage, the theme instantly turns on in design time there. But it shouldnt be necessary to do it on every Silverlight page?
So in short: If i implement the theme in with MergedDictionaries in App.xaml it does not work in design time. If i do it on a specific page, it does work.
Funny thing though, if i open my project in Expression Blend, it works fine in design time.
My first notion is, that something is messing with my visual studio 2010 SP1. Maybe something in a hidden project file or something, but i don't know.
Anyone able to help?
Related
I'm trying to create a project dll file that holds core styles, resources, controls, etc. This will then be referenced into various other projects to use as a graphic base to unify the appearance.
Anyway, I have the graphics project set up and I can use it in other projects and it all seems to display correctly. However, XAML intellisense for my static resources doesn't seem to be working.
Here is my resource dictionary reference:
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/BIT.GraphicElements;component/BITCoreStyles.xaml" />
As you can see I'm using pack notation to reference it inside it's assembly. I can style elements like I would expect (StButtonAction is in the above dictionary):
Style="{StaticResource StButtonAction}"
However, I have to type it in manually. Intellisense doesn't give it as an option but if I type it manually is applies it successfully. It also works if I add the project to the solution and reference it there, however this is intended to be used by those that don't necessarily have access to the graphics project so that's not a good solution in the long run...
What am I missing? Is there a way to make Intellisense work for these?
Maybe this'll help future searchers even if it doesn't fix your specific problem.
When you have a solution involves external dll then you can occasionally find resources just don't get loaded at design time. At all. Even though you merge in app.xaml the things don't turn up until you run.
It looks like some sort of subtle bug to me.
The way I work round this is to use functionality originally intended for Blend. We are now using the blend designer in visual studio.
In solution explorer, add a resource dictionary to Properties. Yes. Properties. Create it first in your project and drag it up there. This must be called DesignTimeResources. This can then merge any resource dictionaries you will want to use just for design time or when you have an issue makes you think resource dictionaries aren't getting loaded for design time.
Mine is in army editor but uses resources from a referenced dll, UILIb. It looks like:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ArmyEditor">
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/UILib;component/Resources/UILibResources.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
This is a resource dictionary in a bit of an odd place but nothing particularly weird so far.
Next is the bit that many developers will never have done - editing your csproj.
Right click your project and choose unload.
Right click it again and edit it.
In there you will have entries for all the stuff makes up your project. And of course breaking this would be bad so maybe you want to back up first.
If you don't use blend then I think the important thing here is to add a node which says ContainsDesignTimeResources True, but here's mine:
<Page Include="Properties\DesignTimeResources.xaml" Condition="'$(DesignTime)'=='true' OR ('$(SolutionPath)'!='' AND Exists('$(SolutionPath)') AND '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)'!='true' AND '$(BuildingInsideExpressionBlend)'!='true')">
<Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
<SubType>Designer</SubType>
<ContainsDesignTimeResources>true</ContainsDesignTimeResources>
</Page>
Save your edits.
Reload your project.
When the designer is open, you should find resources from it are loaded. Maybe this will help intellisense find them.
I mentioned this earlier but.. In my experience, such intellisense on resources is often unreliable.
This definitely solved a similar issue I have had in this solution. It is also useful when you want to temporarily overlay resource dictionaries for localisation/branding testing.
I'm new to WPF and struggling to use styles that live in a separate assembly. This is what I'm doing:-
I have a class library project with a \Themes folder containing a "generic.xaml" that merges a number of xaml files from a subfolder within \Themes:-
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="Metro\CoreStyles.xaml" />
... etc ...
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
My solution also has a WPF application project, and in here the App.xaml merges in the resources from my library project like so:-
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MyThemeLibrary;component/Themes/generic.xaml"/>
... etc...
Standard stuff so far.
Finally, I have a third project - a WPF user control library. These controls use these common styles, typically with "Style={StaticResource SomeStyle}". I can run the app and it all looks fine, but the problem is I don't get design-time support when writing the user controls - the design surface is basically empty.
Another SO article suggested adding an App.xaml to the user control library project, and merging in the resources as above. This works and I get my design-time support, however I get an error when trying to build the solution:
Library project file cannot specify ApplicationDefinition element.
I have tried changing the App.xaml build action from "ApplicationDefinition" to "Page", as has been suggested elsewhere. This gets the build working but I lose the design-time support as the user controls can no longer see the styles.
Is there a way around this problem, or failing this, an alternative way of using styles from another assembly?
Thanks in advance
Andrew
The error message says it. You cannot use "pack://application..." syntax in a library project. You should do this in your wpf project.
I'm having some issues with resource files in my modular application.
I have Infrastructure.DLL and some custom controls inside this DLL. Those controls using templates from themes/generic.xaml
Issue that I have - Blend doesn't recognize those resources. Visual studio does.
Ideally I'd like to have styles for my cusom controls inside generic.xaml and styles for other controls somewhere else in common library that I can reference from my modules.
I also need Expression Blend and VS to work properly.
How do I arrange solution to make it happen?
PS. Important! WPF is different but I'm interested in Silverlight solution
You just need to create design time resource for your generic.xaml in order to let Blend recoganize it. Take a look at this post.
In each of your modules, you create a ResourceDictionary like this.
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
Source="/xxx.Silverlight.Controls;component/Themes/Generic.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
Also, in your .csproj file, you need to add this. Please note that normally this piece of code is auto-generated by Blend, so if your ResourceDictionary is auto-generated, you don't need to do the following.
<Page Include="Design\DesignTimeResources.xaml" Condition="'$(DesignTime)'=='true' OR ('$(SolutionPath)'!='' AND Exists('$(SolutionPath)') AND '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)'!='true' AND '$(BuildingInsideExpressionBlend)'!='true')">
<Generator>MSBuild:Compile</Generator>
<SubType>Designer</SubType>
<ContainsDesignTimeResources>true</ContainsDesignTimeResources>
</Page>
Design is the folder I created for storing my DesignTimeResources.xaml. I pretty much have the same structure as yours. :)
I'm writing some extension modules for a WPF Composite application supplied by another vendor. The application is themed, and gives users the option to select from a number of themes which will change the appearance of the entire applications, including any custom modules that register themselves with the theme manager appropriately.
I really want my custom extensions to look like an integrated component, so I'm trying to use only styles defined as resources within the main application. As I'm still learning the nuances of XAML, I'm styling more by trial and error.
I'm wondering if there's a way of 'discovering' what styles are available in a different assembly. Here is an example of what I'm currently doing.
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<common:DesignTimeResourceDictionary Source="/Vendor.Desktop.WPFCommon;component/themes/generic.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Window.Resources>
<Border
Background="{DynamicResource LightGradientBackgroundBrush}"
Margin="0"
>
The LightGradientBackgroundBrush is defined in the vendors assemblies. By including the above ResourceDictionary, the style is present during design time, and the brush isn't underlined in the XAML editor.
Can I find what other styles are defined? I'm only aware of that style because it was mentioned in passing in a sample provided by the vendor.
Edit:
I'm aware of a BAML add-in for reflector, but it doesn't work with reflector 7 unless it has been recompiled/patched. Someone has already done that here though.
I was hoping there was a better solution though. Intellisense for styles would be great.
There used to be a Reflector add-in for viewing BAML resources that worked well for that. But I haven't used Reflector in a while since Redgate crashed the party. It may not work with the current version.
You know where your resource dictionary is so you should be able to load it up in code and enumerate over the available resources. This will at least give you an idea of what's available.
See this link: http://blogs.claritycon.com/leeroth/2009/05/20/load-xaml-resource-dictionaries-at-runtime/
Enumerate over the Keys property and use the item property to access the resources. You can get as detailed as you want, but at the very least you should be able to spit out the resource names.
I am recieving following error in VS 2010.
I have two Silverlight projects. one project only contains styles and other project is my application. I have referenced styles project in my application and user static resources from that project in my whole application, but I keep recieving this error in VS though everything works fine when I compile and run the application.
The resource "SearchBoxStyle" could not be resolved
Yes, I stumped on this one today and I am also looking for a solution.
It seems to be a missing feature of Visual Studio - VS XAML designer just cannot find static resources outside of the current XAML file.
It seems, Expression Blend is smarter and offers a workaround for such cases.
Here is a similar thread which suggests using Blend:
The resource could not be resolved (VS 2010 RC)
And here is what Microsoft says about this issue:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb546934(VS.90).aspx#ResourcesatDesignTime
And for me the solution was to put a / in the path of my resource and set the xaml file to compile as a resource. So my App.xaml looks like this:
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Resources/ControlStyles.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<!-- Dummy Style for WPF 4 bug fix, anything you won't use goes -->
<Style TargetType="{x:Type WebBrowser}" />
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
It failed to load at design time when I did not use the first slash in the path, but now it works fine at design time in other XAML pages.