Border background image will not span entire border - wpf

I am writing a WPF application. In the application I have a grid that has two columns. The one column has a border tag that, when the application runs, spans the height of the main window with no issues.
The problem that I am running into is that I want a background image to also span the height of the application and be contained within the border. When I run the application, however, it only takes up enough space to provide background for the controls that exist on the page. This means that more than half of that grid column remains white. I have tried stretching the image (set the stretch to fill) and I know that the image is large enough.
Please, how can I achieve what I am looking for?
Here is the important XAML:
<Border>
<Border.Background>
<ImageBrush ImageSource="../Assets/control bg.png" Stretch="Fill" />
</Border.Background>
<Grid Margin="10,10,10,0">
<Grid.Background>
<ImageBrush />
</Grid.Background>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1">
<TextBlock TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="Owner Information" Margin="5,0,0,0" FontSize="21.333" Foreground="#FF2B2B2B" FontFamily="Verdana"/>
</Border>
<Grid Margin="10,10,5,5" Grid.Row="1">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
</Grid>
The grid does contain some controls which I have left out. They are just textboxes and combos.

Snowbear is right your XAML would be very helpful but here are some things to start off with:
By default, rows and columns in Grids take up the least amount of space necessary to accommodate the largest content within any cell contained in a given row or column. For example, if a column has one cell with a long word like "hippopotamus" contained within it but all the other cells in the column have smaller words like "dog", the width of the column will be the width of the largest word (hippopotamus). "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.grid.aspx"
So, if your border doesn't have an explicit height and width assigned to it then it will exist just around the content you provided in the column. Binding to a set value would work as well.
<Grid Height="50" Width="50">

Related

WPF Grid Expander Listview vertical scrollbar missing

I have the following UI element tree:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid>
<Expander>
<ListView/>
</Expander>
<Expander>
<ListView/>
</Expander>
</Grid>
I have set ScrollViewer.CanContentScroll="True", ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto", ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto". However, the content of the ListView extends beyond the widow size without showing any vertical scroll bar at all. Any advice and insight is appreciated.
Auto will fit to the content (that's why it stretches). So you need to change Height to * to be able to take any available space.
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>

Textbox alignment inside Groupbox (WPF)

I'm having trouble with placing a textbox inside a groupbox (which is inside a grid). Since groupbox can contain only one children I created a grid to place labels and textboxes. The problem is - the textboxes created inside the groupboxes are left aligned according to the 2nd column of the grid inside the groupbox. I need the textboxes to be aligned left in the 2nd column of the main grid.
My xaml code
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<GroupBox Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2">
<GroupBox.Header>
<Label Content="Header"></Label>
</GroupBox.Header>
<Grid Grid.Row="0" Column="0">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Grid.Column="0" Content="Label1:"/>
<TextBox Grid.Column="1" />
<Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" Content="Label2:"/>
<TextBox Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1"/>
</Grid>
</GroupBox>
</Grid>
Output for this code
You could see the textboxes in the column 1 of the main grid. If you look at the image, there is a radio button below that row which is in the second column. I need the textboxes to be aligned with that radiobutton I need them in the second column.
Width="Auto" means the Column will automatically take a width.
You need to use something like this instead;
`<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>`
Have a look at this ColumnWidths for further explanation if needed.
To move the TextBoxes to the next Column in the main Grid, you need to remove them from the GroupBox and add them to the main Grid instead. You haven't posted the whole XAML so it's difficult to advise further.
if there are going to be only two columns in your grid then just below column definitions for your inner Grid:
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
As you want to align with the radio buttons that must be in second column of main grid then for ColSpan=2 this will perfectly.
When Width is set to Auto for a ColumnDefinition of a Grid it
will take the width of element defined in the Column , So that's
the first thing you should remove a you are not using fixed Width
for TextBoxes.

Grid in a Grid with RowDefinition Height="auto" suppresses Height="*" of child Grid's RowDefinitions

I have the following code:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="0" TextBlock.Foreground="Blue" ShowGridLines="True">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="0" />
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="2" />
</Grid>
<Grid Grid.Row="1" TextBlock.Foreground="Red" ShowGridLines="True">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="0"/>
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="2"/>
</Grid>
</Grid>
It's simply two equal grids with three rows, all three which should be of equal size (each in its own grid, that is).
The bottom grid, contained in the parent row with a height of "*" behaves as expected. Each row is of equal size, regardless of what is put into it.
But the top grid, contained in a row with height Auto, seems to discard the Height="*", and behave as if they had Height="Auto". The first and third row gets exactly the height they ask for, and the second, the empty row, is just given a height of 0. Is this normal behaviour? And if so, why is it the way it is?
This is how it appears:
And this is how I would expect it to work:
This behaviour is expected. Height="*" means that all rows will share evenly available space
The value is expressed as a weighted proportion of available space
When you set parent row height to auto it means that child Grid is not stretched vertically any more so there is no free space to share so rows will take only as much space as they need to. It's like you would set VerticalAlignment="Top" for example.
You can achieve what you want by using SharedSizeGroup on the top Grid. In this scenario all rows belong to the same group and all will share same height
<Grid Grid.Row="0" IsSharedSizeScope="True" TextBlock.Foreground="Blue" ShowGridLines="True" >
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition SharedSizeGroup="CommonRow"/>
<RowDefinition SharedSizeGroup="CommonRow"/>
<RowDefinition SharedSizeGroup="CommonRow"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="0" />
<TextBlock Text="test" Grid.Row="2" />
</Grid>
it behaves is normally.
when you set Height="*" that means fill the rest of space, while Height="Auto" means fit to all inner controls. so the first row is fitting all the controls that you have which they are only two, and because there is no Height property set to first inner grid or TextBlocks it takes only the height that equal yourFirstTextBlock.Height + yourSecondTextBlock.Height.

Force my grid to scale with 4:3 resolution

I designed my page to be 4:3 scalable and I'd like to have my grid to scale to 4:3 on any screen.
For example, on a 1900x1200, my grid will scale to 1600x1200 and we'll have 150px on each side of my grid. How can i manage to have this behavior ?
I've started with the following lines :
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="1024*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="768*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Name="my_grid" />
</Grid>
But I don't see how to manage the 4:3 thing. I'd like to force my grid to stretch until it has the highest 4:3 resolution possible and then let the free space on the sides.
Do you think I can manage to do this only in WPF ?
Thanks
You could use the ViewBox control. Design your XAML as you have done and place it inside it. The ViewBox will scale to fit the content to the available size. It will not resize the content so everything (ratios, width, etc.) will be left intact.
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.viewbox.aspx
Thanks to Sascha i did :
<Viewbox Name="grid_jeu" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" >
<MyControl Name="my_grid" />
</Viewbox>
My Control is designed this way :
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="32" MaxHeight="32"/>
<RowDefinition Height="72" MaxHeight="72"/>
<RowDefinition Height="10" MaxHeight="10"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="20" MaxHeight="20"/>
<RowDefinition Height="90" MaxHeight="90"/>
<RowDefinition Height="32" MaxHeight="32"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
</Grid>
I'd like to have only one row and one column which scale. As you can see I tried to put "MaxHeight" and "MaxWidth" to avoid my rows to scale but it doesn't work. When I launch my application I have my 309px column which scales to 420.

WPF Grid layout

Is it possible to design something like this using Grid in WPF? Design columns is easy, but what about rows? Or is there any better solution, like another container? Imagine each rectangle as module (GroupBox).
Make an outer Grid with two columns. Within this grid, place two other grids, one per column. This will lead to the desired layout.
Here an example of how to do. Please note that I have placed some stars for the heights. Change them accordingly to your needs.
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Column="0">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!-- Here content elements of the first column -->
</Grid>
<Grid Grid.Column="1">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<!-- Here content elements of the second column -->
</Grid>
</Grid>
Define your columns and rows.
Put each Groupbox on the desired row and column, and set its rowspan in order to define on how many rows it stretches.

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