Binding a Viewbox to a Canvas - wpf

I'm trying to bind a Viewbox to a Canvas that is created dynamically like so:
<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<DockPanel>
<Viewbox>
<ContentPresenter Content="{Binding Canvas}"/>
</Viewbox>
</DockPanel>
</DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>
This works fine as long as the Canvas doesn't have any children, but as soon at the Canvas has children it's not shown. What am I missing here?

How do you know it works? A Canvas is just a Panel with zero width/height. Even if it has any children, its dimensions are still going to be 0,0. You must explicitly set Width and Height to a non-zero value in order for it to appear. Paste the following snippet into XamlPad or just test in your own app. Now, remove either Width or Height and it will vanish.
<Viewbox>
<ContentPresenter>
<ContentPresenter.Content>
<Canvas Background="Red" Width="1" Height="1">
<TextBlock Canvas.Left="10" Canvas.Top="20" Text="123" />
</Canvas>
</ContentPresenter.Content>
</ContentPresenter>
</Viewbox>

Forget I ever asked :-)
I caused an exception when creating the children of canvas, and this in turn caused the canvas to not be shown. I'm sad to say that it's not the first time I have made this mistake, and it's probably not that last time either:
TextBlock tb = new TextBlock();
tb.SetValue(Canvas.LeftProperty, 5);
tb.SetValue(Canvas.TopProperty, 5);
"5" is not a valid value for 'Left' or 'Top'. It should of course be
TextBlock tb = new TextBlock();
tb.SetValue(Canvas.LeftProperty, 5.0);
tb.SetValue(Canvas.TopProperty, 5.0);
And because it was created as part of data binding, no exception dialog was shown. All in all ... DOOOOH :-)
:-)

Related

How to have one element in a horizontal StackPanel dictate the height of another element in the StackPanel

In a StackPanel, I would like the Height of the TextBlock to dictate the height of the Image, but trying to bind the Image Height to the TextBlock ActualHeight causes the Image to disappear. The height of the TextBlock will vary depending on the size of the font being used.
The StackPanel is defined as follows:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Image Source="{Binding HyperlinkIconImagePath}"
Height="{Binding ElementName=hyperlinkTextBlock, Path=ActualHeight}"
Margin="{StaticResource IconLeftMargin}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
<TextBlock>
<Hyperlink
NavigateUri="{Binding HyperlinkUri}">
<TextBlock
Name="hyperlinkTextBlock"
Text="{Binding HyperlinkDisplayedText}"/>
</Hyperlink>
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
I have tried many different things and none will work. Any help is greatly appreciated. Note that this StackPanel is contained in a ControlTemplate.
The solution to this issue came from a rather subtle direction. I was initially trying to bind to the ActualHeight value of the TextBlock. During the layout process, the ActualHeight value was apparently not yet determined when it was referenced by the Image Height attribute. I then thought about using the size of the font being displayed in the TextBlock, and this FontSize value apparently is already established and usable.
<Image Source="{Binding HyperlinkIconImagePath}"
Height="{Binding ElementName=HyperlinkTextBlock, Path=FontSize}"
Margin="{StaticResource IconLeftMargin}"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
I therefore changed the Image Height binding to reference the TextBlock font size, and this resulted in a successful rendering.
try VerticalAlignment="Center" :
<TextBloc VerticalAlignment="Center" .../>

How do I freely move a textblock around in a Border in Windows Phone 7

I cannot seem to freely move a textblock around wherever I want inside a border control. It always snaps to the center. How can I stop this from happening?
This is my markup:
<Border BorderThickness="0" Height="258" Margin="30,206,20,188" Name="border2" Width="406" >
<Border.Background>
<ImageBrush ImageSource="/TestApp;component/Images/blurb.png"/>
</Border.Background>
<TextBlock Height="103" x:Name="tBlk_Steps" Text="{Binding Count}" Width="298" FontSize="56" Foreground="#FF00BCE4" ></TextBlock>
</Border>
Use the HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment properties on the Textblock. You can also control it with the Margin on the TextBlock.
/Anders
Try VerticalAlignment="Top" and HorizontalAlignment="Left"
Alternatively try setting Margin properties on the TextBlock.
One great way to work this sort of thing out is to open up a project in ExpressionBlend - it's Visual designer drives me crazy, but it does also help with some things!

Cannot access drag adorner template

I've used the sample code provided by Bea Stollnitz (http://bea.stollnitz.com/blog/?p=53), in order to enable drag and drop in my application, and drag adorner, etc.
Everything works fine, my drag adorner is well displayed, I have all the behavior I want.
But (yes there is always a but), I cannot access the DataTemplate of the Drag Adorner, in order to display different data depending on the dragged data.
I have simplified the code, but the basics are still there.
This is the DataTemplate of my DragAdorner
<DataTemplate x:Key="DragAndDropTemplate" DataType="{x:Type MyType}">
<Grid>
<Grid Opacity="0.5">
<Border x:Name="HeaderBorder" CornerRadius="2" BorderThickness="1" Margin="5,2,5,2">
<Border x:Name="InsideBorder" CornerRadius="2" BorderThickness="1">
<TextBlock x:Name="number" Text="{Binding Name}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="White"/>
</Border>
</Border>
</Grid>
<Border Width="17" Height="17" BorderBrush="White" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" CornerRadius="1" x:Name="numberContainer" Visibility="Collapsed">
<TextBlock x:Name="number" Text="80" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="White"/>
</Border>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
This is the code that create the Adorner :
if (this.draggedAdorner == null)
{
var adornerLayer = AdornerLayer.GetAdornerLayer(source);
this.draggedAdorner = new DraggedAdorner(draggedData, dataTemplate, source, adornerLayer);
}
And this is the code that init an adorner
public DraggedAdorner(List dragDropData, DataTemplate dragDropTemplate, FrameworkElement adornedElement, AdornerLayer adornerLayer)
: base(adornedElement)
{
this.adornerLayer = adornerLayer;
this.contentPresenter = new ContentPresenter();
this.contentPresenter.Content = dragDropData[0];
this.contentPresenter.ContentTemplate = dragDropTemplate;
this.adornerLayer.Add(this);
}
The draggedData, will be a list of MyType, I get the first item as the content of the ContentPresenter of my DraggedAdorner, so the DataTemplate can apply.
The problem is, I want to access the numberContainer and number control of the DataTemplate, in order to display the number of dragged object, in the adorner. But I cannot manage to access it, whatever I try, It ends with the "This operation is valid only on elements that have this template applied." message.
I have tought I could do something like this :
this.contentPresenter.ContentTemplate.FindName("number", this.contentPresenter);
Since the DataTemplate should apply to the ContentPresenter, but nope...
For information the adornedElement is the ListViewItem from which the drag occurs.
If you have any idea...
Ok, so I have found how to achieve what I wanted.
I don't know why it didn't comes to mind earlier, and why I didn't found anything about this before.
I have just added a single line before trying to access the template :
this.UpdateLayout()
Looks like it forces the ContentPresenter and DataTemplate object to be update and "re-rederend" so the ContentPresenter is really templated by my DataTemplate.

Prevent WPF control from expanding beyond viewable area

I have an ItemsControl in my user control with a scroll viewer around it for when it gets too big (Too big being content is larger than the viewable area of the UserControl). The problem is that the grid that it is all in just keeps expanding so that the scroll viewer never kicks in (unless I specify an exact height for the grid). See code below and thanks in advance.
<UserControl x:Class="BusinessObjectCreationWizard.View.TableSelectionPageView"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<GroupBox FontWeight="Bold" Height="300px"
Header="Tables"
Padding="2">
<ScrollViewer>
<ItemsControl FontWeight="Normal"
ItemsSource="{Binding Path=AvailableTables}">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<CheckBox Content="{Binding Path=DisplayName}"
IsChecked="{Binding Path=IsSelected}"
Margin="2,3.5" />
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</ScrollViewer>
</GroupBox>
</UserControl>
This user control is loaded here
<Border Background="White" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0">
<HeaderedContentControl Content="{Binding Path=CurrentPage}"
Header="{Binding Path=CurrentPage.DisplayName}" />
</Border>
I would like to not specify the height.
If you remove the Height from your GroupBox (which, as far as I understand, is what you want to do), then it will fill its container, unless there's a panel upstream that imposes its own sizing rules.
I used this simplified version of your XAML. I removed the template and the binding, and hard-coded some items, to make this stand alone; those changes won't affect the way layout is done.
<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation">
<GroupBox FontWeight="Bold" Header="Tables" Padding="2">
<ScrollViewer>
<ItemsControl FontWeight="Normal">
<TextBlock>Foo</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Bar</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Baz</TextBlock>
</ItemsControl>
</ScrollViewer>
</GroupBox>
</Window>
Run it, and you'll see that the content does indeed size to fit the window, and the scrollbar only enables when the window gets too small to see all three items. I believe this is what you want.
So the problem is most likely one of the parent panels, one you're not showing in your sample XAML. The problem you describe could occur if your GroupBox appears inside a StackPanel:
<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation">
<StackPanel>
<GroupBox FontWeight="Bold" Header="Tables" Padding="2">
<ScrollViewer>
<ItemsControl FontWeight="Normal">
<TextBlock>Foo</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Bar</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Baz</TextBlock>
</ItemsControl>
</ScrollViewer>
</GroupBox>
</StackPanel>
</Window>
Now the GroupBox appears at the top of the Window, sized to exactly fit its contents. If you shrink the Window enough, the GroupBox will be cut off -- because it's sized to fit its content, not its container. This sounds like the problem you're describing.
The reason is that StackPanel asks its children what their ideal height is (based on their content), and uses that height. Without StackPanel (or something similar), the default is to respect the control's VerticalAlignment, and if that's set to the default value of Stretch, then the control is stretched to fill its parent. This means it won't be taller than its parent, which sounds like what you want.
Solution: remove the StackPanel (or whatever else is causing you problems) and use something else. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you might have better luck with a DockPanel or a Grid. Hard to tell without knowing more about your layout.
Edit: Okay, it looks like the problem is indeed the HeaderedContentControl parent -- but not directly. HeaderedContentControl isn't a panel, so it doesn't do any layout of its own (and its descendant, GroupBox, doesn't have this same problem). The problem is its default template -- which includes a StackPanel. The good news is, you're free to use a different template, let's say one with a DockPanel instead:
<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<HeaderedContentControl>
<HeaderedContentControl.Style>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type HeaderedContentControl}">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type HeaderedContentControl}">
<DockPanel>
<ContentPresenter ContentSource="Header" DockPanel.Dock="Top"/>
<ContentPresenter/>
</DockPanel>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
</HeaderedContentControl.Style>
<GroupBox FontWeight="Bold" Header="Tables" Padding="2">
<ScrollViewer>
<ItemsControl FontWeight="Normal">
<TextBlock>Foo</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Bar</TextBlock>
<TextBlock>Baz</TextBlock>
</ItemsControl>
</ScrollViewer>
</GroupBox>
</HeaderedContentControl>
</Window>
If you leave off the <HeaderedContentControl.Style> part, this reproduces your problem; but with the style in place, it allows the GroupBox to fill its container, so the ScrollViewer will get a scrollbar when you want it to.
If the previous answer doesn't fix the problem, you could also try binding the Width, Height of your grid to the ActualWidth, ActualHeight of your parent UserControl. Something like:
<UserControl
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
x:Class="WpfApplication.UserControl1"
x:Name="UserControl">
<Grid Height="{Binding ElementName=UserControl, Path=ActualHeight}"
Width="{Binding ElementName=UserControl, Path=ActualWidth}" />
In this case you aren't setting an explicit width and height but you are limiting the Grids width/height to the constraints of the UserControl it sits in.
I had the same issue, after reading this response I replaced all StackPanels with Grids in UserControl. It resolved the Scrollbar issue.
Try removing the grid entirely and setting the HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment directly on the GroupBox. If a layoutpanel has only one child, it's often redundant... this migth be true in your case.
If that doesn't work... what's the parent of your grid control?
Why not just use a listbox instead of an itemscontrol, that has a built in scrollviewer.
They are different. If you do not want to have the items selectable, then don't use a ListBox. It is going to be heavier, and will also have the deselect a selection everytime the user clicks on an entry. Just put the ItemsControl in a ScrollViewer
I had the same problema with ListBox, it wasn't expanding and the scroll viewer didn't appear. I solved it as follows:
<UserControl x:Class="TesteView"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Grid MaxHeight="710">
....
....
<StackPanel>
<ListBox MaxHeight="515"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"
ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Teste,Mode=TwoWay}">
....
....
</ListBox>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</UserControl>

Window sizing related to contents

I've got two sizing issue regarding a Window I've got. The basic layout is like this
<Window MaxHeight="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemParameters.VirtualScreenHeight}}"
MaxWidth="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemParameters.VirtualScreenWidth}}"
>
<StackPanel>
<DockPanel LastChildFill="False">
<StackPanel DockPanel.Dock="Left"
Orientation="Horizontal">
<!--Some buttons-->
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel DockPanel.Dock="Right"
Orientation="Horizontal">
<!--Some buttons-->
</StackPanel>
</DockPanel>
<ScrollViewer>
<WrapPanel x:Name="Container">
</WrapPanel>
</ScrollViewer>
</StackPanel>
</Window>
1) How do I made the Window not get smaller horizontally than the DockPanel's width?
2) How do I make the ScrollViewer be restricted to the limits of the Window? It is sizing itself to its contents, extending past the bounds of the Window.
It sort of used to work when I had
<Window><ScrollViewer/></Window>
, but I really don't want the DockPanel inside the scroller. In the current form, it is even forcing the Window to break its MaxHeight.
I would recommend you to use Grid with * Lenght instead of DockPanel and StackPanel.
Just get rid of those StackPanels. Replace them with Grids and you should be good. The layout logic of the StackPanel is such that it will give children as much room in a certain direction (perpendicular to the StackPanels orientation) as they ask for. That's why you're seeing the odd layout issues.

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