Change CaretBrush in RadMaskedTextBox - wpf

I'm having a difficult time changing the CaretBrush in a RadMaskedTextBox. I'm using WPF and implementing the ExpressionDark theme. The problem is that the caret is black, and against the dark theme, it's difficult to see where the caret is in the textbox. I found this from a Telerik rep:
"The RadMaskedTextBox uses a TextBox internally to display its text. The TextBox exposes a CaretBrush property which you can use to change the color of the caret. You can modify the default template of the control and set this property on the TextBox inside."
But that doesn't provide an example of how to do it. I've tried adding a TextBox style, with a white CaretBrush, but the RadMaskedTextBox isn't picking that up. Any ideas?

All I had to do was add this to my app.xaml:
xmlns:telerikMask="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls.MaskedTextBox;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input"
<Style TargetType="telerikMask:ExtendedTextBox">
<Setter Property="CaretBrush" Value="White" />
</Style>

Related

Issue with WPF styles

I wonder if someone can help, I am designing a custom WPF window for an application i am working on and I have an issue with the Min, Max and Close buttons. I have designed a ControlTemplate for the 3 buttons and they are in a StackPanel with Vertical orientation. In my base style I have the following
<Style x:Key="BaseWindowButtonStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value={Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type FrameworkElement}}, Path=(TextElement.Foreground)}" />
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent" />
...
</Style>
Have also tried setting the Foreground to a specific color such as #FF000000 and nothing displays
I have a style that inherits this style for the buttons but does not change the foreground or background.
My problem is that the button content does not display, the button displays and the IsMouseOver trigger fires which changes the background but the textual content never displays.
The Min button style is
<Button x:Name="PART_Min">
<Path Fill="{Binding Path=Foreground, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Button}}}"
Data="F1M0,6L0,9 9,9 9,6 0,6z"
SnapsToDevicePixels=True" />
</Button>
I am at a loss as to why the content does not display so would appreciate your thoughts.
The Visual Tree is below, I have examined this and identified the Foreground values
Window (Foreground: #FF000000)
Grid
AdornerDecorator
Grid
ContentControl (Foreground: #FF000000)
StackPanel
Button (Foreground: #FF000000)
Grid
ContentControl (Foreground: #FF000000)
But like I said above I have removed the binding and specified a physical value and still do not get the content displaying
Use ContentPresenter instead of ContentControl in your button's template. (You should include the button's control template in a question like this... it's potentially highly relevant.)
As I too was a beginner with WPF, and trying to understand things was a bit of a learning curve, I would like to offer a few previous links posted out here.
First a simple style for creating simple label and having all labels as a default take on this format without explicit style assignments.
Another sample showing creation of a custom button. This is where I went step by step to create a custom class and apply a style to it to show/hide image on a button.
Maybe the button link and style declaration will help you find your button coloring issues too.

How to set font, background etc. to be inherited by all controls in page?

My intent is to override phone theme. By default page markup has following code:
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"
Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"
I replace it with a style reference:
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
Style="{StaticResource stylePage}"
Style is defined in app resources like this:
<Application.Resources>
<Style x:Key="stylePage" TargetType="phone:PhoneApplicationPage">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="White" />
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="DeepSkyBlue" />
<Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Arial" />
</Style>
</Application.Resources>
But background is still black, and font is white. Debugger shows that the values were applied.
If I set VisualRoot Grid's background, it's applied, but I want to set fontfamily and foreground values to be used by all my controls by default. Is it possible?
According to this msdn article - only the following properties are inherited in the visual tree in Silverlight: FontFamily, FontSize, FontStretch, FontStyle, FontWeight, and Foreground. Normally - dependency properties are not inherited in Silverlight (they often are in WPF). This is likely why these are not mentioned in the Silverlight MSDN article on dependency property value precedence, but the WPF version of the article mentions inherited value as lower priority than the local value or style setters. Your solution in fact works to some degree, but by default - most controls have font properties set by their style - Buttons by their default style, TextBlocks in page templates use PhoneTextNormalStyle or PhoneTextTitle1Style. If you remove the XML attributes setting the style of your TextBlocks - your application-wide font properties will apply to the TextBlocks.
Background dependency property unfortunately is not inherited, so your background will remain as is.
Your application-wide properties will not work on controls more complex than TextBlocks - like Buttons, since the default style of Buttons and other controls defines the style of TextBlocks explicitly using appropriate system styles.
I would say you should create your own resource dictionaries with styles of your controls and apply these to your controls manually, otherwise - you would need to write some code to automatically replace these properties at run time.

How do the default color, font family and font size for a TextBlock and Label get set in an WPF app?

Edit: I guess the question wasn't stated very clearly. It actually composes of 4 separate ones:
How does a TextBlock get its default color, if the client app doesn't provide any style, either programmatically or through xaml?
How does a Label get its default color?
How does a TextBlock get its default font size and font family, if the client app doesn't provide any style, either programmatically or through xaml?
How does a Label get its default font size and font family?
BTW, the questions are not about how to change or define styles for the color/font size/font family of a TextBlock or a Label, although they are somehow related. I think I already knew the answer for #2, that is a Label gets its color from SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey and by overriding ConrolTextBrushKey like so:
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}" Color="Red"/>
You would be able to "globally" change color for Labels. After some research, I guess I also find the answer for #1: A TextBlock inherits the its foreground color from its containing Window, which by default gets its Foreground color from SystemColors.WindowTextBrushKey. By defining a color for the WindowTextBrush like so:
<Window.Resources>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.WindowTextBrushKey}"
Color="Yellow"/>
</Window.Resources>
You would be able to change the "foreground" color for the TextBlocks inside the Window.
Question #3 and #4 remain puzzles for me, but I am assuming they have to do with the SystemFonts.
Hope this makes sense. I really like to know the answers as they have been bothering me for a while. Many thanks!
Below is the original post:
If you look into the style for a Label in the theme (for example "aero.normalcolor.xaml") that comes with Windows, you can find
<Setter Property="Foreground"
Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}}"/>
Which sets the color for a Label. But there is no where the FontSize property is specified in the style, which I assume has something to do with the SystemFonts. For a TextBlock, it looks even more mysterious as the style for it in "aero.normalcolor.xaml" has only 4 lines:
<Style x:Key="{x:Type TextBlock}"
TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
<Setter Property="TextWrapping"
Value="NoWrap"/>
<Setter Property="TextTrimming"
Value="None"/>
</Style>
Where does a Label or a TextBlock get the values for its color and font size/family from, if the app doesn't set any, and where are those hooks in WPF?
Edit:
This is a test drive attempting to set the TextBlock color through SystemColors.ControlTextBrush (assuming that's where a TextBlock gets its default color from, which seems to be false):
<Window x:Class="TestFontColor.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<StackPanel>
<StackPanel.Resources>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}" Color="Red"/>
</StackPanel.Resources>
<Button Content="This is red."/>
<Label Content="This is blue.">
<Label.Resources>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}" Color="Blue"/>
</Label.Resources>
</Label>
<TextBlock Text="TextBlock: This is still black."/>
</StackPanel>
As far as I remember, in most cases classes like TextBlock, TextBox and many others take the text color from the TextElement.Foreground property. The property value is inherited throughout the visual tree, i.e. you may set it on the root element and have most of the text change its color. For example:
<Grid TextElement.Foreground="Red">
<TextBlock Text="test"/>
</Grid>
In fact, the same is true even for labels: the setter in their default style simply sets the TextElement.Foreground to one of the system colors.
However, this is true only for the default state of controls. Altered states, like highlighting, are not inherited, but rather taken from the system colors, as Rachel has written.
UPDATE
The same is true for FontSize and FontFamily. They are properties of the TextElement class that have attached property usage. They inherit their values. Once you set a value on a visual tree item, all its children will get the same value. Unless they override it either by an explicit property assignment, or by style and so on.
Once again, text color font size and font family are governed by the value of TextElement.Foreground, TextElement.FontSize and TextElement.FontFamily attached dependency properties on a specific visual element.
Some controls, like Label explicitly set their Foreground to some brush. It happens so that the brush is one of the SystemColors. But it doesn't have to be true for all controls. Others (TextBlock, TextBox, etc.) don't override the property value and just use some default settings evaluated on startup. The same happens to FontSize and FontFamily. You do not need to set them wherever in order for them to work. That's how WPF works.
Supposedly, the values depend on the system theme. I believe they are evaluated during the app startup. Perhaps they are configurable.
UPDATE 2
Answers to your new questions:
How does a TextBlock get its default color, if the client app doesn't provide any style, either programmatically or through xaml?
It takes it from the inherited value of the TextElement.Foreground attached dependency property. By default it is inherited from the root visual element, which in turn is simply set to the default value of the dependency property (Brushes.Black). See also
How does a Label get its default color?
It takes it from the value of the TextElement.Foreground attached dependency property. Since its default style sets it to the {DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}, it gets bound to the system color.
How does a TextBlock get its default font size and font family, if the client app doesn't provide any style, either programmatically or through xaml?
The same as for its text color. MSDN says that for the default value of the font size is SystemFonts.MessageFontSize which depends on system settings. Font family is determined in similar way from SystemFonts.MessageFontFamily.
Both these default values are passed to the FrameworkPropertyMetadata constructor upon dependency property registration in the TextElement static constructor.
Going deeper: SystemFonts.MessageFontFamily and SystemFonts.MessageFontSize wrap internal SystemParameters.NonClientMetrics which in turn are retrieved from the WIN32 native SystemParametersInfo http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724947. Thus the WPF is tightly integrated with all Windows UI stuff like themes, fonts, etc.
How does a Label get its default font size and font family?
The same as for TextBlock. Label derives from ContentControl which in turn derives from Control. Control class adds itself as an owner of the TextElement.FontFamily and TextElement.FontSize properties with the same default values.
See also:
Property Value Inheritance
UPDATE 3
You should understand the main idea: the values are inherited. It means they might be inherited from anywhere, from any control. You can tell exactly which one it is inherited from only for a certain logical tree structure. You change it a bit - and the colors change. Someone sets a property's value explicitly - and all children will inherit the value. Therefore your questions make little practival sense. But they are still interesting from the perspective of undestanding the WPF.
Overriding default values
Although you cannot change the values of the SystemFonts properties (they are read-only), you don't have to. To change the font size and family for the whole window, simply assign the desired values to the TextElement attached properties on the Window:
<Window TextElement.FontSize="20" TextElement.FontFamily="Century Gothic">
..
</Window>
and all controls that do not explicitly override the inheritance will receive the settings. For those that do override - you'll have to override their default styles or even throw them away if they hard-code the values.
The same approach works for TextElement.Foreground (and Background and so on).
The default colors are pulled from the operating system's settings.
You can overwrite them by creating a brush which has the a key that references a SystemColors brush key
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="{x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}" Color="Red"/>
According to this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms788718.aspx
By default, WPF uses the GlobalUserInterface.composite font in your Windows\Fonts directory.
And according to this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.textblock.fontsize(v=vs.95).aspx
A non-negative value that specifies the font size, measured in pixels. The default is 11.
In addition, you can find many of the other default values stored in various places in the MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.textblock.fontstyle(v=VS.95).aspx for the style, which says:
The requested font style, which is a FontStyle that is obtained from one of the FontStyles property values. The default is Normal.

Black Background for XAML Editor

I am currently working on a user control that has white text and a transparent background. Unfortunately because the XAML design view within VS2010 has a white background I cannot see anything that I am designing!
I have been through all the settings dialogs I can think of, but have been unable to find a setting that changes the background colour of the XAML designer.
Does anyone know how this can be done?
Alternatively, as of VS 2013, you can do this in Tools -> Options -> Fonts and Colors, XAML UI Designer.
The editable foreground / background colors there are the colors of the checkerboard background. I just set them both to a darkish grey color that seems to work for both light and dark theme'd background stuff.
In your XAML, set your background to black. Then in your user control, use the DesignerProperties to set the background at runtime:
XAML
<UserControl .... Background="Black" .... >
Code Behind
public YourUserControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
if( !System.ComponentModel.DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode( this ) )
{
this.Background = Brushes.Transparent;
}
}
Alternate Method
UserControl:
In your user control, do not declare a background color:
<UserControl ... namespaces ...>
UserControl Code Behind:
In your user control's constructor, use the DesignTime method as above, but check to see if it is Design Mode (opposite check from other method):
public YourUserControl()
{
InitializeComponent();
if( System.ComponentModel.DesignerProperties.GetIsInDesignMode( this ) )
{
this.Background = Brushes.Black;
}
}
App.xaml:
Finally, in your App.xaml, add a style to set a background color for UserControls:
<Application.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type UserControl}">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Black" />
</Style>
</Application.Resources>
Here's what's happening:
The App.xaml will effect the UserControl at design time because a typed style is applied on an object automatically, but it is not applied to a derived object (UserControl in this case). So, at design time, VS thinks it should apply the style, but at runtime, it will be ignored.
The GetIsInDesignMode check will effect the UserControl when viewing the control in a Window that is using the UserControl because VS is compiling the UserControl at design time in order to render it in the Visual Designer.
HTH's
As shown in this post, you can condense the code to a single style by using a trigger, since DesignerProperties.IsInDesignMode is an attached property.
Actually, the code there isn't quite right. It defines an implicit style for TargetType="{x:Type UserControl}", which would be ignored at runtime anyway because your UserControl is actually a derived class -- as Metro Smurf points out in his first point:
The App.xaml will effect the UserControl at design time because a
typed style is applied on an object automatically, but it is not
applied to a derived object (UserControl in this case). So, at design
time, VS thinks it should apply the style, but at runtime, it will be
ignored.
The right way to do it would be to give it a key and apply it manually to your UserControls:
<Application
...
xmlns:componentModel="clr-namespace:System.ComponentModel;assembly=PresentationFramework">
...
<Application.Resources>
...
<Style x:Key="DesignerBlackBackgroundStyle" TargetType="Control">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="componentModel:DesignerProperties.IsInDesignMode"
Value="True">
<Setter Property="Background" Value="Black" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
and:
<UserControl x:Class="MyUserControl"
Style="{StaticResource ResourceKey=DesignerBlackBackgroundStyle}">
As a trigger, this has an extra benefit over setting the background in code-behind -- it will behave properly if the background is explicitly set somewhere else, such as from a containing UserControl:
<UserControl x:Class="ContainerUserControl" ...>
...
<local:MyUserControl Background="Gray" />
Local values have precedence over style triggers, so on this screen the designer would use a gray background, whereas it would be black when designing MyUserControl stand-alone.
Are you able to use Blend for designing? Blend has an option to switch between light and dark color schemes.
Set the background color of the usercontrol to black in the XAML, then set it to transparent in code.
Edit:
If you're not comfortable leaving the code this way, then you can revert this change before you release, once you are done with all the designer work, though there is no harm in leaving it in.
Set the XAML Designer background color to Gray.
Tools > Options> Fonts and Colors:
Show settings for: XAML Designer,
Display items: Artboard Background,
Item foreground/background: Gray.
Now you can see text in XAML Designer
It's a shame there is this inconvenience.

WPF DataGrid Cell Text Wrapping - set to NoWrap (False)

How do I set the TextWrapping of every cell in a WPF DataGrid to "NoWrap"? I understand the Cell itself does not have a "TextWrapping" property, but I'd like to set the property on the control within the cell.
The DataGrid I am working with does not have columns defined explicitly, the result set it is displaying is dynamic.
I am looking for a solution similar to the answers provided in the links below. However I do not want to explicitly override the cell style/template and define the control to be used. Instead I would like to say, IF a TextBlock is being used, set its TextWrapping property to NoWrap.
WPF toolkit datagrid cell text wrapping
How do I enable text wrapping on all column headers?
In the resources of your DataGrid, you can specify an alternative default style for TextBlocks. This should do what you require ("IF a TextBlock is being used, set its TextWrapping property to NoWrap"). This won't work if the TextBlocks explicitly specify a different style to be used.
<DataGrid ...>
<DataGrid.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
<Setter Property="TextWrapping" Value="NoWrap"/>
</Style>
</DataGrid.Resources>
...
</DataGrid>
(Untested, since I do not have Visual Studio available right now.)

Resources