I would like to name all unnamed controls in the xaml files in my project to support automated UI testing.
Can anyone think of way to report on all controls, in all .xaml files in a project without the x:Name attribute defined?
Naming the controls will be manual, but I would like to be able to have a test that fails if any .xaml document contains an unnamed control.
Related
I'm hoping to create a WPF User Control Library with reusable controls for my many projects to save time recreating them every time (something I've found myself doing).
So I:
Created a WPF User Control Library, and created a ThemeDark.xaml file to contain common colour keys and styles.
Created a separate regular WPF project in the same solution so that I can test the controls in an actual window.
Added a project reference to the User Control Library.
Added a ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries into the App.xaml which references the theme file from the other project.
The problem: I can access and use the SolidColorBrush keys from the theme file just fine in the testing project, but for some reason IntelliSense can't see the Styles (which all have keys).
I also can't seem to use the pack://application:,,,/ method of referencing the ResourceDictionary in App.xaml; it only accepts the filename. This was originally set through the Properties panel -> Source -> Browse, however I have tried a few different formats, all to no avail. It also doesn't seem to notice that ThemeDark.xaml is in a Themes/ directory within the User Control Library project.
So - How does one properly reference a ResourceDictionary from a WPF User Control Library project and be able to use all resources (including Styles)?
DarkTheme.xaml (inside user control library project):
App.xaml (inside testing project):
Resulting behaviour (very strange - SolidColorBrushes available but Styles aren't):
I found the problem. I had removed the spaces from the project's namespace, but not from the assembly name.
Once that was fixed I was able to use Source="pack://application:,,,/MyControlLibrary;component/Themes/ThemeDark.xaml"
MyControlLibrary isn't the actual name! ;)
I'm trying to work out the best way to couple my Views and ViewModels in MVVM and I've settled on the ViewModel-first approach using typed DataTemplates, as described in this article and in this answer. I'm using Prism and have multiple modules which have their own projects/class libraries.
My question is: Where should my DataTemplates live in my solution?
Should I put the DataTemplates in a Resource Dictionary which lives in the same project that has the types/ViewModels it renders?
Should I put the DataTemplates in a Resource Dictionary which lives in the project which has the application's MainWindow (i.e. Shell.xaml)?
Should these Resource Dictionaries then be added to App.Current.MainWindow.Resources.MergedDictionaries?
I hope this is enough information to describe what I'm trying to do.
Update: see comments of selected answer.
I'm sure that the best way here is to use Themes\Generic.xaml resources file. This is file (it should be exactly in folder Themes and has name exactly Generic.xaml) used by WPF/Silverlight themes engine and contains resources shared through whole application. You can also create separate file in folder Themes with name like Generic.DataTemplates.xaml and add link to it from Generic.xaml. Google knows a lot about generic.xaml or you can see more details in my answer here: WPF Prism - Where to put Resources?
Updated to explain more clear.
I will say if your DataTemplate is generic:
i.e You have a UserControl that binds to a ViewModel, and that ViewModel has BaseViewModel, which expose some sort of properties. Your DataTemplate is displaying those properties. So you can use this DataTemplate on every ViewModel that Implement the BaseViewModel.
Is better to put it in App.xaml, so you will able to pull it out with the Key and apply on different place in your project.
But if your DataTemplate is very specific,
i.e There is a UserControl that only binds on the specified property in that ViewModel and you know no other control will binds to that ViewModel, you will want to put into the same Xaml file's Resources or where you define your UserControl.
According to Microsofts App Studio the DataTemplates should live in a DataTemplates Subdirectory under the Views Directory. A Universal app has this directory for both the Windows UI as for the Windows Phone UI so its not in the Shared project because they are not the Same. Don't use the Converge PRISM architecture. Its completely wrong designed! That was not written with a Windows and a Windows Phone architecture in mind but like they call it Converged. It should have been completely redesigned like it works in Microsofts App Studio. Don't look for Dependency Injection its not in it and not needed. Most use Dependency Injection for stub or fake interfaces. The DataContext for design data works now so good with json data that a Dependency Injection component would be overkill.
I've just begun dabbling in putting together a set of controls as assemblies and I'm working on default styling. What I currently have is a UserControl in a project (thanks Reed!) and I'm able to bring that into another project via reference. I plan to add more controls over time to build something of an SDK.
I currently have some hooks that look for resources in the hosting application which either apply the resources to their respective properties, or style out the control via hard coded defaults.
Is it possible to set up resource dictionaries within the project containing the UserControls so they can use those references as the default, instead of hard coding? If so, how do I target them?
(I have a ResourceDictionary set up within the same project as the controls: Resources>Dictionaries>Colors.xaml)
Thanks in advance!
E
You should really look at creating custom templated controls in library rather than derivatives of UserControls. This will allow projects that reference your library to specify an alternative default style for you controls in the same way as we can for the controls in Microsofts own SDK.
The Creating a New Control by Creating a ControlTemplate topic on MSDN is good starter.
I think this is a better explanation, but i'm trying on a desktop application and i got the same problem.
XamlParseException: Failed to create a 'System.Type' from the text 'local:CustomerEntity'
If I'm undestanding correctly you want to create the file "generic.xaml" in the folder "Themes". However, I don't believe automatic styling works with UserControl only with Control. Generally if you trying to make a control that can be stylized and retemplated you want to inherit from Control and not UserControl.
We have a WPF application that is loading a usercontrol at runtime from the deployed .XAML file (customer requirement - they want to be able to replace the views entirely).
We would like to localize strings in this XAML file. All .resx file based WPF localization approaches I have found on the web seem to require recompilation when the localized values are changed.
How to localize a dynamically loaded XAML usercontrol without needing to recompile the resources?
This solution seems to provide a markup extensiion that manages localization loaded from XML files.
Syntax:
<TextBlock loc:Translate.Uid="3"
Text="{loc:Translate}"
Background="{loc:Translate}"
Width="{loc:Translate}"
Height="{loc:Translate}" FontSize="18"
/>
It also supports on the fly language selection (no need to reopen the window).
I would like to place some WPF Data Templates in a loose file that I can reference where needed in my UserControl. I do not want the Data Templates to be application wide (use app.config), I only want it to be specific to my library.
Is there a way to do this besides placing the Data Templates in UserControls and then loading the UserControls?
Thanks.
Create a ResourceDictionary and put them in that. You can then load the ResourceDictionary and access the contained DataTemplates using indexer syntax:
DataTemplate myTemplate = (DataTemplate)rd["MyTemplate"];
The ResourceDictionary is a XAML file which you would compile into your library just as you would with a UserControl or Window. If you want to ship the templates as loose (uncompiled) XAML then you can still use a ResourceDictionary, but would need to use XamlReader to load it from the .xaml source file.