Override a control style with a key bound to a control - wpf

Question

So in my main app ResourceDictionary I have a style that starts with
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}" x:Key="{x:Type TabItem}">
Now what I'm doing is overriding the TabControl to make a custom control(without ANY xaml). The problem is at this point it doesn't inherit the custom TabControl template.
So what I'm wondering, is how can I programatically bind to the 'x:Key' of the template, considering it's bound to a specific control without having my control have a xaml file.
Some places online say to do this
this.Style = (Style)FindResource("TabItem");
But it doesn't seem to work in my situation. The 'style' is in a separate file, and imported into my App.Xaml resource dictionary...so it overrides all TabItems properly, but not the one I overrode.
Here is my App.xaml
<Application x:Class="Octgn.OctgnApp" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Resources/Themes/Full/ExpressionDark.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
</Application>
And the item(slightly truncated cause it's large) from the ExpressionDark.xaml
<Style d:IsControlPart="True" TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}" x:Key="{x:Type TabItem}">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource TextBrush}" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}">
<Grid x:Name="grid" Margin="2,1,2,3">
<Grid.LayoutTransform>
<TransformGroup>
<ScaleTransform ScaleX="1" ScaleY="1"/>
<SkewTransform AngleX="0" AngleY="0"/>
<RotateTransform Angle="0"/>
<TranslateTransform X="0" Y="0"/>
</TransformGroup>
</Grid.LayoutTransform>
<Border x:Name="border" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" CornerRadius="2,2,2,2" Opacity="0.5">
<Border.Background>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,0.976" StartPoint="0.5,0.039">
<GradientStop Color="#7F595959" Offset="0" />
<GradientStop Color="#19FFFFFF" Offset="1" />
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Border.Background>
</Border>
<Border x:Name="SelectedBorder" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" CornerRadius="2,2,2,2" Opacity="0" Background="{DynamicResource SelectedBackgroundBrush}"/>
<Border x:Name="HoverBorder" BorderBrush="{x:Null}" CornerRadius="2,2,2,2" Opacity="0">
<Border.Background>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,0.976" StartPoint="0.5,0.039">
<GradientStop Color="#7F595959" Offset="0" />
<GradientStop Color="#19FFFFFF" Offset="1" />
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Border.Background>
</Border>
<Grid>
<ContentPresenter x:Name="ContentSite" RecognizesAccessKey="True" ContentSource="Header" d:LayoutOverrides="Width, Height" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="6,1,6,1" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
This style auto applies to a TabItem, but I'm trying to apply it to my override of TabItem.
Here's the code for that
/// <summary>
/// The chat bar item.
/// </summary>
public class ChatBarItem : TabItem
{
/// <summary>
/// Sets the Chat Room
/// </summary>
private readonly NewChatRoom room;
/// <summary>
/// Initializes static members of the <see cref="ChatBarItem"/> class.
/// </summary>
static ChatBarItem()
{
DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(
typeof(ChatBarItem), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(TabItem)));
}
/// <summary>
/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="ChatBarItem"/> class.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="chatRoom">
/// The chat Room.
/// </param>
public ChatBarItem(NewChatRoom chatRoom)
{
this.room = chatRoom;
this.ConstructControl();
}
/// <summary>
/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="ChatBarItem"/> class.
/// </summary>
public ChatBarItem()
{
this.room = null;
this.ConstructControl();
}
/// <summary>
/// Constructs this control
/// </summary>
private void ConstructControl()
{
//this.Background = Brushes.Transparent;
//this.BorderThickness = new Thickness(0);
//this.Style = (Style)FindResource("TabItem");
// this is where I want to set the style of this control
// Main content object
var mainBorder = new Border { Margin = new Thickness(5) };
// Main content grid
var g = new Grid();
g.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition());
g.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition { Width = new GridLength(16) });
// Create item label
var label = new TextBlock() { VerticalAlignment = VerticalAlignment.Center };
if (this.IsInDesignMode() || this.room == null)
{
label.Inlines.Add(new Run("test"));
}
else
{
label.Inlines.Add(new Run(this.room.GroupUser.User.User));
}
// Create close button
var borderClose = new Border { Width = 16, Height = 16 };
var imageClose = new Image()
{
Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri("pack://application:,,,/Octgn;component/Resources/close.png")),
Stretch = Stretch.Uniform
};
// --Add items to items
// Add close image to closeBorder
borderClose.Child = imageClose;
// Add Close 'button' to grid
g.Children.Add(borderClose);
Grid.SetColumn(borderClose, 1);
// Add label to main grid
g.Children.Add(label);
// Add main grid to main border
mainBorder.Child = g;
// Add main grid to this
this.Header = mainBorder;
}
}
If I had a xaml for the TabItem I could easly just go Style="{DynamicResource {x:Type TabItem}}"(or something similar), but I'm doing it all programatically.

Answer 1

You already tried:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TabControl}" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type TabControl}}">
</Style>
By the way, you need not define an x:Key, if you want the style to be applied to all TabControl and if you want it to work for your entire application, set the style in App.xaml
Edit: I still do not understand exactly what you want to do. (If you can, edit your question again).
But you can try to set the style manually by:
Style customStyle = (Style)Application.Current.FindResource("StyleKey");
As mentioned,
static MyCustomTabControl()
{
DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(MyCustomTabControl), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(TabControl)));
}
But this will only work if:
1) The style your control is in the file: Themes\Generic.xaml
2) The file "Generic.xaml" has the property "BuildAction" with value = Page.
3) AssemblyInfo.cs contains:
[assembly: ThemeInfo (
     ResourceDictionaryLocation.None,
     ResourceDictionaryLocation.SourceAssembly
)]

Answer 2

What about this in your static constructor of your dervied tab Control
static MyCustomTabControl()
{
DefaultStyleKeyProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(MyCustomTabControl), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(typeof(TabControl)));
}

Answer 3

Ok so after some digging around, and the help of the other two answers here, I was able to figure this out. Instead of doing a string for the FindResource, it would seem that the resource dictionary, is in fact a diciontary with an object key. So...
this.Style = (Style)Application.Current.FindResource(typeof(TabItem));
And that did it for me.
Thanks again to the other two answers as well.