I have am creating a WPF extension to an existing Win32 MFC client application. Within a UserControl located in my WPF class library, I am merging libraries as follows:
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="MyResourceDLL;Component/dictionaries/styles.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
I also tried
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/MyResourceDLL;Component/dictionaries/styles.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
In either case, I get the following XamlParseException:
System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException
occurred
Message="MyResourceDLL;Component/dictionaries/styles.xaml'
value cannot be assigned to property
'Source' of object
'System.Windows.ResourceDictionary'.
Cannot locate resource
'ems.wpf.resources;component/dictionaries/styles.xaml'.
Error at object
'System.Windows.ResourceDictionary' in
markup file
'SARMaster.Maryln.EphemerisLib;component/getephemeriscontrol.xaml'
Line 9 Position 37."
I there a way I can load a relative DLL that is not referenced by main project?
I've been looking at the same issue recently. When compiling a Win32 CLR project the dependencies of the assemblies referenced by the MFC project aren't copied, so I simply set up a post-build event to copy the appropriate assemblies to the $(TargetDir).
Not ideal, but I believe it's by design.
I got the same problem and I found the solution. I needed to remove the Style of my ContentPresenter. This line was creating the XamlParseException:
<ContentPresenter.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}" BasedOn="{StaticResource TextStyle}"/>
</ContentPresenter.Resources>
And after fixing this error, I needed to do these steps to have something 100% working:
Here my projects:
StyleProject: the Class Library project that I want to use. It contains my styles
MainProject: the project that will use the styles
To do so:
Add the reference of my StyleProject inside my MainProject (see here)
Create a ResourceDictionary called MyStyle.xaml inside my MainProject
Add the different dictionaries of my StyleProject following this answer to MyStyle.xaml
Add MyStyle.xaml to the App.xaml using the following code
Code:
<ResourceDictionary Source="Resources/MyStyle.xaml"/>
Related
I believe my question is fairly simple and yet I am having difficulty implementing it successfully. I simply wish to extract the styling of elements in my WPF application because the xaml is rather crowded and xaml is often duplicated.
I therefore wish to place the styling in an external xaml file, in the form of a resource dictionary, then reference that file in the resources section of my code.
I have the following .xaml file:
<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Style x:Key="PTextBox" TargetType="TextBox" x:Name="PTextBox">
<Setter Property="Foreground" Value="#FFA1C8E7"/>
<Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="#FFA1C8E7"/>
</Style>
And I reference the dictionary here:
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary x:Key="PegasusStyles">
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="../../Resources/Styles/PegasusStyles.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
Visual studio has resolved the file location so I know this reference is correct.
The text box the styles are applied to then references the style:
<TextBox Style="{StaticResource PTextBox}"/>
If left as a static resource I get a xaml parse error like so:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException' occurred in PresentationFramework.dll
And if I make the resource dynamic then the styles simply do not get applied at runtime.
I'm not sure if xaml files require certain properties before run time but mine are as follows:
If someone could answer this mystery it would be wonderful. I googled till my fingers bled but none of the answers posted by others have resolved my issues and this seems very rudimentary.
EDIT: Solved. Switching the build action to Page instead of resource has fixed my issue as suggested by Andrew Stephens. This had been hidden by another underlying problem, which is that I had added a boolean to visibility converter (common tool) to my resources. This alone is fine but once I had declared a resource dictionary this converter needed to be brought inside the dictionary as well.
It sounds like a XAML syntax error somewhere, but can also be caused by an unhandled exception in the main window code-behind (if you have any code in here). There are a few ways to debug this cryptic exception here (read the comments for more tips)
Also the Build Action of your .xaml resource file should be "Page" rather than "Resource".
Try building the solution with your newly merged dictionary before you start referencing the external styles in your xaml.
It may seem counter intuitive but it is possible for visual studio to know about a type in another xaml file without the designer being aware which can cause bugs like this.
Koda
I always have problems making new prefixes in xaml. Most of the time, i get the message that the URI cannot be found in the assembly. My setup:
I have a WPF project (in a solution with class libs and asp.NET projects) with a MainWindow.xaml file. The XAML starts with : Window x:Class="MainWindow" ... .
So as default, there's no namespace given to it. In that same project i made a folder "Folder". In that folder, i have resx-files. What i need to do is make a prefix in xaml so i can address those files. I was thinking of :
xmlns:p="clr-namespace:WpfApplication.Folder"
and then for my controls
<Label Content="{x:Static p:NameResxFile.KeyName></Label>
However, the prefix generates the "URI cannot be found in the assembly" error. I'm i just failing at making prefixes?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT
If you cannot make a namespace ref to a folder, what is happening here?
xmlns specifies namespaces, it does not bother with folders or files, if you need access to an external resource you can load it into your control's resources via ResourceDictionary.
There was something like this i think:
<Window.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary x:Key="ExternalRes" Source="Folder/File.xaml"/>
....
</Window.Resources>
To reference an element of resource dictionary you should add that dictionary to your control's Resources collection or register it in the App.xaml file. After that you could just use StaticResource extension to get access to the element. Your code will look like this:
<UserControl.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Folder/NameResxFile.xaml" />
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</UserControl.Resources>
<!-- ... -->
<Label Content="{StaticResource KeyName}"/>
Things get trickier if you want to put the resource dictionary to another assembly and reference it. For this purpose refer to PackURIs in WPF article.
All of the code samples I've found so far reference a Resource Dictionary that's not in a project subfolder (the dictionary is at the root of the project). I have mine in a subfolder, and I can't figure out how to get WPF to find it. This doesn't work...
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary Source="/Skins/Black/GlossyButtons.xaml"/>
</Application.Resources>
The ASP.Net tilde syntax doesn't seem to work either.
Is this the best way to include a ResourceDictionary in your app so that WPF can find resources? My goal in this particular case is to apply a style defined in GlossyButtons.xaml to all of the buttons in my app.
Try the Pack URI syntax
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970069.aspx
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/Skins/Black/GlossyButtons.xaml"/>
</Application.Resources>
Discovered the problem - WPF couldn't find an assembly referenced in GlossyButtons.xaml, but didn't show the actual error (that there was a problem with the .xaml) until I had compiled and executed several times. The error displayed (at first) was that GlossyButtons.xaml couldn't be located.
That was a little confusing.
I'm currently working on having dictionaries of styles and templates that I can dynamically apply to my application. Before this "new wanted" dynamical behavior, I had several resource dictionaries, one for each styled control, that I merged in the App.xaml:
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="ColorsDictionary.xaml"/>
<ResourceDictionary Source="ControlsTemplatesDictionary.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
Now, I'd like my application to be styled, so I decided to merge all my previous resources into a new one called "MyFirstTemplates" and to add only this dictionary to the App.xaml.
New dictionary "MyFirstTemplates.xaml":
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">"
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="ColorsDictionary.xaml"/>
<ResourceDictionary Source="ControlsTemplatesDictionary.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>
New App.xaml:
<Application.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="MyFirstTemplates.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Window}"/>
</ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>
Note: The default style for the Window is to correct a bug of WPF 4, see Adding a Merged Dictionary to a Merged Dictionary
Now that I have made this change, I cannot use a color resource from "ColorsDictionary.xaml" as a StaticResource in "ControlsTemplateDictionary.xaml" anymore. If I change back to merging these files in the app.xaml, everything works. To make it work, I have to change these StaticResource for DynamicResource. Do you have any idea why this doesn't work anymore?
Thank you :-)
By moving the dictionaries out of App.xaml the resources from each dictionary aren't in the other's resource tree during loading of MyFirstTemplates.xaml. Your original setup first loaded ColorsDictionary which was then available through App resources to ControlsTemplatesDictionary while it loaded. In your new setup, in order for the color resource to be available in App resources it needs to be loaded through MyFirstTemplates, which in turn requires loading of both dictionaries, which in turn requires access to the color resource... so it's sort of an infinite loop of references that can't be resolved statically. DynamicResource can wait until everything is loaded and then access the color without issue.
To fix either use Dynamic or merge ColorsDictionary directly into ControlsTemplatesDictionary.
Great answer by John explaining why this is happening.
So the problem is that when using merged dictionaries within a merged dictionary, the inner dictionaries can't "use" each other as StaticResource.
Basic solutions:
Use DynamicResource
Use just a single level of hierarchy from App.xaml when using StaticResource
Both of these solutions have problems. DynamicResource has a performance problem. The 2nd solution limits you on how you organize your XAML resources.
Alternative solution:
I created a small simple program (provided below in GitHub) that will run as a pre-build event and merge XAML files from a folder into one long .XAML file. Well, they need to be with a different extension (.txaml), otherwise they will be compiled.
This allows to structure resources folders and files however you want, without WPF’s limitations. StaticResource and the designer will work always.
The code in GitHub contains a simple solution that contains the merging program. It merges 2 folders into 2 files. One for App.xaml resources and the other for Generic.xaml resources. The .xaml files in a "Controls" project (There's also "Main" project).
Blog post explaining this
Consider a File | New Project of a WPF Application that contains:
A new custom control named CustomControl1
Two new resource dictionaries named Dictionary1 and Dictionary2
Take the generated style out of Generic.xaml and move it to Dictionary2. Then merge Dictionary2 into Dictionary1 and Dictionary1 into Generic like this:
<!--Generic.xaml-->
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/Themes/Dictionary1.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<!--Dictionary1.xaml-->
<ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
<ResourceDictionary Source="Dictionary2.xaml"/>
</ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
Then, add an instance of CustomControl1 into MainWindow's grid. (This part is necessary to reproduce the issue. The project always compiles fine - only at runtime does the issue show up, and the dictionaries must be referenced.)
In Dictionary1.xaml I am merging in another dict in the same folder, so a simple Source="Dictionary2.xaml" works. Yet in Generic.xaml I must use an absolute URI. If I change the above to be Source="Dictionary1.xaml" without the pack://application stuff then I get a XamlParseException caused by an IOException "Cannot locate resource 'dictionary1.xaml'" when it tries to construct the MainWindow.
My Question: What's special about generic.xaml regarding relative URI resolution, and why?
Excuse me because I have no ability to write comments so I post this as an answer.
I have the same situation and everything works fine for me. I don't need to put "pack://application" in the path in Generic.xaml. But only when the output type of an assembly is "Windows Application".
For "Class library" I need to add assembly name to the path (Source="/ClassLibarayAssemblyName;component/Themes/Dictionary1.xaml") becasue without it WPF engine tries to look for Dictionary1.xaml in application's main assembly.
Target framework in both cases is ".NET Framework 4 Client Profile"
Just a guess: generic.xaml needs to be accessible from outside assemblies as well, so it's a way to ensure that the resources can be found from anywhere, using absolute URIs. As I said, it's just a stab in the dark, not sure.