I am developing three kiosk-like applications in WPF. They will share a similar look and feel, and I was hoping to create the projects all in the same solution. What I would like to do is add a project to the solution that just holds shared resources, such as fonts and images.
My question is, is it possible to share resources like embedded fonts across applications, and if so, what is the appropriate project type for this use? (class library? WPF user control?)
I would create a WPF Custom Control Library, then create a ResourceDictionary to hold the resources, where in the App.xaml of your start-up project I would link the Resource dictionary.
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/myResourceLibrary;component/myResourceDictionary.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
That way, you can just move the DLL around to whichever solution you want to use it in.
Related
I'm developing a bunch of custom activity designers, which contain custom controls, images, styles etc. The designer XAMLs are spread over several subdirectories in a library project (not a WPF application, therefore no app.xaml available)
I need a central place to store resources, just like the app.xaml in a regular WPF application.
Currently I use a projectdir\Properties\lib.xaml file like this:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<ControlTemplate x:Key="TrafficLight">
...
</ControlTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
And reference this from all my designer XAMLs like this:
<sap:ActivityDesigner.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/ActDesLib;component/Properties/lib.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
where ActDesLib is the name of my assembly.
This does work, but it looks a bit clumsy. Is there a better way to do it?
Is there some "magic" app.xaml-like file that gets included automatically for a library project, without the need to add any special markup to the individual XAML files? That would make it so much easier to enforce a consistent style, even with multiple developers working on the different designers.
BTW: I tried to use relative pathes in the Source="..." attribute. This did not work when using my activities in a workflow inside VS2010, it could not find the resources then. With the absolute path, containing assembly name, it works fine. But is there no way that VS2010 or a rehosted designer can find out the path to the resource dictionary file automatically, with only relative references inside my XAMLs?
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. :)
Resource dictionary
03-11-2010 10:56 AM |
I have two different projects. I linked a resource directory in using add existing item add as link.
Silverlight does not see the resource dictionary when it is a linked file and give me an out of range error.
Any work around to this or any better way to use the same file across two projects?
I would reference the assembly that has the resource dictionary normally (don't add it in as a link), and then bring it into the application using Merged Dictionaries. You can specify a resource dictionary in an external assembly to merge into the current application or page's resource dictionaries.
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/SharedThemeAssembly;component/MyStyles.xaml"/>
...other ResourceDictionaries to merge in...
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
I answered a similar SO question here:
Silverlight: Multiple project sharing the same style files
If the share is between a silverlight and a WPF project, I find it easier to put the file inside the silverlight project, and link it to the WPF project, than doing it the other way around.
In other words the file is moved to the silverlight project, not the WPF project, then "linked" to the WPF project.
Also remember when the file is referenced from WPF, since it is linked, you need to change the reference URL as if it is in the root, like so:
<ResourceDictionary
Source="pack://application:,,,/AssemblyName;component/DictionaryName.xaml" />
Removing the folder above works, the uri below does NOT work:
<ResourceDictionary
Source="pack://application:,,,/AssemblyName;component/FOLDER/DictionaryName.xaml" />
I have multiple silverlight project that I would like to use the same styles, colour scheme, and some templated objects.
How do I accomplish this?
One way to do this would be to create a new silverlight class library which would be your shared theme/style assembly which would be referenced by the other silverlight projects. This assembly would have one or more Resource Dictionary XAML files in it which could define all of your styles, brushes and templates. You could even set up some cascading style hierarchies using the BasedOn attribute of the Style class.
You could then use MergedDictionaries to merge these styles into your application either at the App.xaml-level or on a page-level basis.
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/SharedThemeAssembly;component/MyStyles.xaml"/>
...other ResourceDictionaries to merge in...
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
You would then reference the shared styles / brushes as you normally would any other StaticResource.
There are two options, first as Dan indicates you could create a library that is shared by the other projects. If the clients access several of your projects and your projects use application library caching then you reduce the total download size.
The other approach is to create a Resource dictionary in one project, then add the same file to the other projects. Note in the Add Existing Item dialog the add button has a small drop down image, drop it down and then select "Add as Link".
This leaves the dicitionary as a simple Xaml file. One advantage I can see for this is to actually leave the dictionary file out of the Xap and just place it in the clientBin folder (or whatever the folder that the Xap is placed in). This approach allows all the Xaps to share the single dictionary (in the same way the first approach does) but allows the Xaml to be tweaked without messy rebuilds.