I'm pretty green when it comes to WPF, so forgive me if this is an obvious question.
I'm trying to modify an existing code base that is using the Divelements SandRibbon libraries, but am finding that the GalleryButton control doesn't behave quite how I'd like. What I'd like to do is change the way GalleryButton arranges the image and label, but keep the default 'look' for all triggers such as mouse over etc.
Is it possible to apply a ControlTemplate to some parts of a control but not others? I want to specify that the GalleryButton displays its 'Image' and 'Text' properties differently than the defaults, but not touch anything else.
Unfortunately no -- it's all or nothing. However, one solution I've used before is to simply sublass the control and alter the layout in code behind in OnApplyTemplate.
Related
I am very new to Expression Blend but can't find any solution with google. I would like to style a Menu and it's items. But how can I see the actual look of the PART_Popup? The IsOpen Property is bound to something like {Binding IsSubmenuOpen, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}. It seems I am only looking at something complete invisible :). There is also a SystemDropShadowChrome but I actually can't see this thing. The eyes next to all the items are active. And even if I change some background colors all that I see is just a black transparent rectangle.
Is this a toolkit control (dropdownmenu) or a telerik (radmenu) or something? If you've already broken out the template (eg; Right click->Edit Template->Edit Current/Copy) Then there's a couple things you want to try to find it since sometimes they can be oddly embedded.
Go to the root level of the control, try Right Click->Edit Additional Templates->...
If that' doesn't provide your part_ look in your broken out template resource you've created and inspect your object tree. You're looking for embedded controls appearing as objects. Right click the embedded control in your object tree and edit its template (Current or Copy)
You'll potentially sometimes have to drill down multiple layers within a template to expose the objects you wish you to edit. If you specify which control you're working with I'm sure we can tell you exactly how to get to where you need more efficiently. Cheers!
Try exploring the States tab. Most likely some of the parts are only visible in certain states.
I've stuck with one pretty trivial problem (at first look).
Simplified version of my situation looks like this:
I want multiple Background(for example) colors to be applied to SAME Control and to be able to clear only some of them (by condition). WPF does not offer such capability, I can set only one value for each DP.
So, I want to apply Yellow then Green then Red colors successively to Control object and then be able to reset Red so that Control will be with Green background (on the other hand, reseting Green leaves background Red). Looks pretty simple, have you ever created such Decorator for Control? I believe DP internally use such behavior, but there are no public APIs for it.
Please, do not suggest using triggers or any other kinds of conditional DP setting, I really need to set multiple values for single DP and to be able to manage them
Its not a good idea to say "do not suggest" ... Anyway, Well its not possible, and WPF does not do this, what you might meant is the value precendence but this List is fixed, you can't just add another layer in between, for good reasons. The whole system relys on that. Otherwise you could not set one value and use triggers to override it and don't need to take care of resetting the value. Also animations, Style inheritence etc. wouldn't be possible if people start to mess with this list.
So you don't like the trigger idea ... Why? Its exactly for that.
Ok, if you don't like it, how about adding an attached property for Background1, Background2 etc. You also could make Background as an attached property and make it inheritable. You could make an attached behavior, listen to property changes and modify your Background color. You could use a MultiBinding or PriorityBinding.
Well alot of stuff is possible if the obvious solution is not desired :)
As you know, the built-in themes all define styles for the standard controls such as the TreeView control. We're trying to create something that looks an awful lot like a TreeView but isn't actually one, nor is it a subclass of one. It just has parts that we want to look like one for consistency.
For instance, our control too has a selected item whose background we'd love to match to the appearance of the background for the selected item in a TreeView (or more accurately the TreeViewItem) for the current theme. (You can't simply use highlight color as the themes have nice gradient brushes and borders, not just a solid brush.) Same with our expand/collapse togglebuttons. We want them to look just like the ones used in a TreeView for the current theme. (i.e. Sometimes a triangle, sometimes a box with a '+' in it, etc.)
Now while we can simply rip open Expression and copy the styles ourselves (or at least the parts that we need), we'd have to do that for each and every theme that MS provides. Plus, that wouldn't handle newer themes. And in a purest standpoint, that's duplicate styling information which just sits wrong with me.
Also, if someone styles the actual TreeView(Item), we want to pick it up as well. Since the parts that we want to style are required parts of a TreeView, we feel pretty confident that they're in there somewhere style-wise.
Not even sure what I want to do is possible but if anyone knows, they're most likely here on SO!
Yet another question close to a month old without even a comment. Very odd for the SO community to not chime in at least once! Guess it's not possible.
Well, what we ended up doing was using 'Show Me The Template' (Google it) to get the templates for the part (we don't have Expression), then manually managing them ourselves instead of using the built-in styles. NOT at all what we wanted to do since we don't know of a way to get the nice gradients that are defined in the system already without duplicating them, but the end result does match perfectly so there's that. As such, this too is getting marked as the answer. I'll gladly change it if someone else actually gives me one that works (or is close enough! Just need something people! Feel like I'm posting in a vacuum here!
I wanted to know which one amongst Style and UserControl would be better to use in WPF?
For example:
I have created an image button in two different ways.
One uses Style and ContentTemplate property is set.
It uses one other class with dependency properties.
The other way is I have created a UserControl which has a button and its content property is set.
The file UserControl.xaml.cs also contains the dependency properties.
For Code details see the answers of this question:
Custom button template in WPF
Which one would be better to use? In which scenario should one go for Style or UserControl or any CustomControl?
Styles are limited to setting default properties on XAML elements. For example, when I set the BorderBrush , I can specify the brush but not the width of the border. For complete freedom of a control’s appearance, use templates. To do this, create a style and specify the Template property.
Styles and templates still only allow you to change the appearance of a control. To add behavior and other features, you’ll need to create a custom control.
For example,
To create a button like a play button use styles and templates, but to create a a play button which will change its appearance after pausing it use UserControl.
For this type of thing I would go with Style, even though I'm not really adept with graphical tools. I tend to produce a basic, boring style that I can get started with and then prettify it once the application functionality has been verified.
The nicest thing about WPF is being able to distance much of the graphical look, feel and behaviour away from the code.
This allows you to change the style of your application without revisiting the code and indeed means that you can change styles on the fly at runtime.
There is an awkward line to tread with regards to how much behaviour is placed within the XAML and how much is placed within the code. A rough guide would be to decide on what behaviour must always be present within the UI and place that in the code, everything else place within the XAML.
Think of the code as being an abstract class with defined interfaces and the XAML Styles as being classes based on that class and you'll get an idea of what I mean.
Conversely, I know that people who are far more adept at the GUI work prefer to put more functionality in the XAML and others who prefer the code side, because they find the GUI work slow or difficult.
When thought of that way you'll see that there's never really a right or wrong answer, just better solutions that suit your skills.
I asked a similar question about this previously, but I did not specify that this needs to work in Partial-Trust mode. Unfortunately both correct answers (using UIElement.BitmapEffect or UIElement.Effect) are not allowed in Partial-Trust, because it requires UIPermissionWindow.AllWindows.
Does anyone know of a way to do something similar to the OuterGlowBitmapEffect in a Partial-Trust app?
If you need a rectangle outline, you can attach an Adorner with a simple rectangle in it. It's not going to have the glow effect you are looking for, though.
If you need a non-rectangle outline, you can still use Adorner, but you also need to specify opacity mask, based on a visualBrush on your object. You will also have to make the adorner a little bit bigger than the source visual, to make it look like it surrounds the object instead of overlapping it.
If you want to go fancy, you can encapsulate attaching the adorner in an attached dependency property and just attach it to any visual you need to outline.
If you don't want to bother with adorners, you could have two separate templates for you visual - one with the outline pre-created and one without and switch them as needed. However, this requires you to know upfront what cvisuals you would need to outline and what is their style. Granted, you can make it quite flexible with data binding, but still it's not a generic solution to your problem.