Center WPF RibbonWindow Title via XAML Code - wpf

Question

I've found some info on StackOverflow regarding my problem, so I introduced the following XAML code to my window.
Now everything is fine, while the WPF window hasn't quick launch icons or contextual tabs active.
Is there a way to center the application title completely via XAML Code.
<ribbon:Ribbon.TitleTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock TextAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
Width="{Binding ElementName=Window, Path=ActualWidth}">ApplicationTitle
<TextBlock.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="0" Color="MintCream " BlurRadius="10"/>
</TextBlock.Effect>
</TextBlock>
</DataTemplate>
</ribbon:Ribbon.TitleTemplate>

Answer 1

Here's a very naïve way to do it. It comes about from inspecting the visual tree of a RibbonWindow and its concomitant Ribbon. I've been playing with this code for a couple of hours (and no longer) -- it's a bit rough around the edges and I'm not sure it's completely bug free. There's some optimizations to be made and it should be noted that I suck at WPF; there might be better way to do things.
For what it's worth the code is below, but note first:
The references to the PART_Icon template are not directly related to your question, but it is related to the aesthetics of the window.
The references to IsWin8OrHigher and FindChild are in classes that I'll include at the end. My interest in Windows 8 is that the native ribbon library centres the title text, whereas earlier versions of Windows do not. I'm trying to emulate that here.
I have no idea how the RibbonWindow was shipped with Visual Studio 2012 in its current iteration. The rendering on Windows 8 looks pretty miserable. After all this, I'm tempted to overload TitleTemplate with a TextBlock to get rid of the default glow and leave it at that.
The RibbonWindow doesn't look very good maximized, customization or not.
When I started writing this code, this was approximately what I was aiming for:
For comparison, this is how the RibbonWindow renders itself with no customisation:
This is how it renders with TitleTemplate defined to a TextBlock with TextAlignment="Center" but otherwise without any fancy text effects:
With the code below, we get this result:
MainWindow:
public partial class MainWindow {
public MainWindow() {
InitializeComponent();
if (Environment.OSVersion.IsWin8OrHigher()) {
SizeChanged += (sender, args) => TitleHack();
Activated += (sender, args) => TitleHack();
}
}
public override void OnApplyTemplate() {
base.OnApplyTemplate();
if (!Environment.OSVersion.IsWin8OrHigher())
return;
var icon = GetTemplateChild("PART_Icon") as Image;
if (icon == null)
return;
icon.Margin = new Thickness(icon.Margin.Left + 3, icon.Margin.Top + 2,
icon.Margin.Right, icon.Margin.Bottom);
}
private void TitleHack() {
var ribbonTitlePanel = MyRibbon.FindChild<FrameworkElement>("PART_TitlePanel");
var qatTopHost = MyRibbon.FindChild<FrameworkElement>("QatTopHost");
var titleHost = MyRibbon.FindChild<FrameworkElement>("PART_TitleHost");
var tabGroup = MyRibbon.FindChild<FrameworkElement>("PART_ContextualTabGroupItemsControl");
var qatTopHostLeft = qatTopHost.TransformToAncestor(ribbonTitlePanel).Transform(new Point(0, 0)).X;
var tabGroupLeft = tabGroup.TransformToAncestor(ribbonTitlePanel).Transform(new Point(0, 0)).X;
var width = ribbonTitlePanel.ActualWidth;
if (tabGroup.Visibility == Visibility.Visible) {
width -= tabGroup.ActualWidth;
width -= tabGroupLeft - qatTopHostLeft;
} else {
width -= qatTopHost.ActualWidth;
}
if (ResizeMode != ResizeMode.NoResize && WindowStyle != WindowStyle.None)
width -= 48; // For the min and max buttons
titleHost.Width = width > 0 ? width : Double.NaN;
}
}
OperatingSystemExtensionMethods.cs:
public static class OperatingSystemExtensionMethods {
private static readonly Version Windows8Version = new Version(6, 2);
public static bool IsWin8OrHigher(this OperatingSystem that) {
if (that.Platform != PlatformID.Win32NT)
return false;
return that.Version.CompareTo(Windows8Version) >= 0;
}
}
DependencyObjectExtensionMethods.cs:
public static class DependencyObjectExtensionMethods {
public static T FindChild<T>(this DependencyObject that, string elementName)
where T : FrameworkElement {
var childrenCount = VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(that);
for (var i = 0; i < childrenCount; i++) {
var child = VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(that, i);
var frameworkElement = child as FrameworkElement;
if (frameworkElement != null && elementName == frameworkElement.Name)
return (T) frameworkElement;
if ((frameworkElement = frameworkElement.FindChild<T>(elementName)) != null)
return (T) frameworkElement;
}
return null;
}
}

Answer 2

That should be working fine. I've just tested it and the title centers as it should.

Answer 3

if you want it truly centered, it needs to be:
HorizontalAlignment="Center"