WPF tab control spacing between headers - wpf

The default behavior of the WPF Tabcontrol is to place the Tab Headers adjacent to each other, without any empty space in between. What if I wanted to specify a gap between the headers? Do I have to define a control template for this? I'm relatively new to WFP and any help is appreciated.
Thanks

I believe you will need to define a custom control template for the TabItem, maybe even one for the TabControl. Here is an example of a TabItem that uses a spacer for some separation.
<Style
x:Key="SpacedTab"
TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}">
<Setter
Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate
TargetType="{x:Type TabItem}">
<Border
x:Name="Spacer"
Width="Auto"
Height="Auto"
Padding="0 0 5 0"
Margin="0 0 0 0"
BorderBrush="Transparent"
BorderThickness="0">
<Border
x:Name="Border"
MinWidth="150"
Width="Auto"
Height="30"
Background="Gray"
BorderBrush="DarkGray"
BorderThickness="0,0,0,0"
CornerRadius="6,6,0,0"
Cursor="Hand"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom">
<ContentPresenter
x:Name="ContentSite"
TextElement.FontSize="10pt"
TextElement.FontFamily="Arial"
TextElement.Foreground="Black"
VerticalAlignment="Center"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
ContentSource="Header"
Margin="8,3,8,3"
Width="Auto"
Height="Auto" />
</Border>
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
Hopefully that is a nudge in the right direction; you will still need to add that as a style resource and reference it from your TabControl -> TabItem.

It is easy to add space by doing it in the designer. Select the Tab you want to move, by starting with the rightmost tab. Then hold ctrl and use the right arrow key to move the tab to the right. Do the same with the rest of the tabs. Then you can manually adjust the margin in the xaml code.

Related

Stretch WPF ListView Template layout [duplicate]

I want to have the ListItems to extend with their orange background the full width of the Listbox.
Currently they are only as wide as the FirstName + LastName.
I've set every element I can to: HorizontalAlignment="Stretch".
I want the background of the ListboxItems to expand as the user stretches the Listbox so I don't want to put in absolute values.
What do I have to do so that the background color of the ListBoxItems fill the width of the ListBox?
<Window x:Class="TestListBoxSelectedItemStyle.Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:TestListBoxSelectedItemStyle"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Window.Resources>
<local:CustomerViewModel x:Key="TheDataProvider"/>
<DataTemplate x:Key="CustomerItemTemplate">
<Border CornerRadius="5" Background="Orange" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Padding="5" Margin="3">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Width="Auto">
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<TextBlock.Text>
<MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0} {1}">
<Binding Path="FirstName"/>
<Binding Path="LastName"/>
</MultiBinding>
</TextBlock.Text>
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid>
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Path=GetAllCustomers, Source={StaticResource TheDataProvider}}"
ItemTemplate="{StaticResource CustomerItemTemplate}"/>
</Grid>
</Window>
I found another solution here, since I ran into both post...
This is from the Myles answer:
<ListBox.ItemContainerStyle>
<Style TargetType="ListBoxItem">
<Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch"></Setter>
</Style>
</ListBox.ItemContainerStyle>
This worked for me.
I'm sure this is a duplicate, but I can't find a question with the same answer.
Add HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" to your ListBox. That should do the trick. Just be careful with auto-complete because it is so easy to get HorizontalAlignment by mistake.
If your items are wider than the ListBox, the other answers here won't help: the items in the ItemTemplate remain wider than the ListBox.
The fix that worked for me was to disable the horizontal scrollbar, which, apparently, also tells the container of all those items to remain only as wide as the list box.
Hence the combined fix to get ListBox items that are as wide as the list box, whether they are smaller and need stretching, or wider and need wrapping, is as follows:
<ListBox HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch"
ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
(credits for the scroll bar idea)
Since the border is used just for visual appearance, you could put it into the ListBoxItem's ControlTemplate and modify the properties there. In the ItemTemplate, you could place only the StackPanel and the TextBlock. In this way, the code also remains clean, as in the appearance of the control will be controlled via the ControlTemplate and the data to be shown will be controlled via the DataTemplate.
The fix for me was to set property HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" on ItemsPresenter inside ScrollViewer..
Hope this helps someone...
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="ListBox">
<ScrollViewer x:Name="ScrollViewer" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" Foreground="{TemplateBinding Foreground}" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
<ItemsPresenter Height="252" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"/>
</ScrollViewer>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
I also had the same problem, as a quick workaround, I used blend to determine how much padding was being added. In my case it was 12, so I used a negative margin to get rid of it. Now everything can now be centered properly

ContentPresenter loosing it data binding after triggers invoked more than twice

I have created an extended button with 2 different border styles invoked by triggers in XAML. Both share the same contentpesenter but after changing the border style more than twice the content in the contentpresenter fails to display.
Below is a link to the entire project with a test bed application that demonstrates the issue, I think the issue is somewhere in the XAML below but I cannot see why it breaks:
Sample Button App
<Style.Resources>
<ContentPresenter x:Key="ButtonContent" Margin="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
Content="{Binding Content}"/>
</Style.Resources>
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Grid Margin="{Binding KeyMargin}">
<Grid Visibility="{Binding RectangleVisibility}">
<Grid.OpacityMask>
<VisualBrush Visual="{Binding ElementName=rectBorder}" />
</Grid.OpacityMask>
<Border x:Name="rectBorder"
CornerRadius="{Binding BorderCorners}"
BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"
BorderThickness="{Binding BorderThickness}"/>
<Viewbox Stretch="Fill"
StretchDirection="Both">
<ContentControl Content="{StaticResource ButtonContent}"/>
</Viewbox>
</Grid>
<Grid Visibility="{Binding EllipseVisibility}">
<Ellipse Stroke="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}"
StrokeThickness="{Binding BorderThickness}"
Fill="{TemplateBinding Background}">
</Ellipse>
<Viewbox Stretch="Fill"
StretchDirection="Both">
<ContentControl Content="{StaticResource ButtonContent}"/>
</Viewbox>
</Grid>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
The problem is most likely that you cannot have the same element (the ContentPresenter in this case) in more than one place in the visual tree, and in which one of the two grids it ends up is undefined, i.e., an implementation archetype of WPF.
To get the element duplicated this might work:
<ContentControl Content="{TemplateBinding Content}"/>
or in your case
<ContentControl Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" Margin="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center"/>
instead of a static resource. The <ContentPresenter/> syntax is pretty much an optimized shortcut for that (or you could set x:Shared="False" on the resource, but having a ContentPresenter as a static resource is as far as I know not how it is intended to be used)
If the Button content is a UIElement itself though, it will be used directly itself in the visual tree, i.e., twice and this wont work either. A better solution would be to just have the content once in the control template and change the visual appearance around it, e.g., using a trigger to set the Grid's OpacityMask.
Another remark is that your control template is very tightly bound to where the Button is used, with direct bindings to the current data context, which reduces its reusability. Some easy fixes is to use TemplateBinding instead of Binding for BorderThickness respectively Margin (instead of KeyMargin), since those are existing properties of the Button.
For better reusability and cleaner code you should consider looking into creating a custom control deriving from Button with dependency properties for BorderCorners, the desired visual state (ellipse vs rectangle) etc. You might also want to use triggers to get the mouse-over effects of the button etc. Have fun control templating!

Validation.ErrorTemplate size

I've got the following control template which I use as a Validation.ErrorTemplate for TextBoxes:-
<ControlTemplate x:Key="ControlValidationErrorTemplate">
<DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
<Border Background="Red"
DockPanel.Dock="right"
Padding="2,0,2,0"
ToolTip="{Binding ElementName=valAdorner, Path=AdornedElement.(Validation.Errors), Converter={x:Static val:ValidationErrorsConverter.Instance}}">
<TextBlock Text="!"
VerticalAlignment="center"
HorizontalAlignment="center"
FontWeight="Bold"
Foreground="white" />
</Border>
<AdornedElementPlaceholder x:Name="valAdorner"
VerticalAlignment="Center">
<Border BorderBrush="red"
BorderThickness="1" />
</AdornedElementPlaceholder>
</DockPanel>
</ControlTemplate>
When a TextBox contains invalid content, the above template applies a red border and adds a red box containing an exclamation mark immediately to the right of the TB.
The problem is, the exclamation mark overlaps anything immediately to the right of the TB, rather than the layout changing to accomomodate the exclamation mark. I have a similar problem in DataGrids - the exclamation mark overlaps the right-hand edge of the containing cell, rather than the column width increasing to accommodate it.
Using Snoop, it appears that the template is being displayed in an "adorner layer" which I assume is a separate visual tree? This would explain why the window's layout isn't recalculated to take into account the exclamation mark. Can anyone suggest a way to achieve what I want?
As I suspected, it's due to the error template being rendered on the adorner layer, so it doesn't affect the layout of the window. See: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/9de3c9e5-5759-4f88-9184-175d3eaabdad/
I'm now using this control template instead:-
<ControlTemplate x:Key="ControlValidationErrorTemplate">
<Grid>
<Polygon Points="9,9 9,0 0,0"
Stroke="Red"
StrokeThickness="1"
Fill="Red"
HorizontalAlignment="Right"
VerticalAlignment="Top"
ToolTip="{Binding ElementName=valAdorner, Path=AdornedElement.(Validation.Errors), Converter={x:Static val:ValidationErrorsConverter.Instance}}" />
<AdornedElementPlaceholder x:Name="valAdorner"
VerticalAlignment="Center">
<Border BorderBrush="red"
BorderThickness="1" />
</AdornedElementPlaceholder>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
This draws a red border around the control, with a small red triangle overlapping the top-right corner of the control - hovering over this displays a tooltip containing the error message.

Having Trouble Styling and Editing AvalonDock Document Tab Panel

I'm trying to figure out how to make the VS2010 style for AvalonDock to function a little more like VS2010. The problem that I'm running into is that when there are more tabs than can fit in the header area there is no indication to the user that there are more tabs.
I thought that the tab headers were just clipped and not visible. I have a custom copy of the VS2010 style and went to the DocumentPane style:
<!--DocumentPane-->
<Style x:Key="{x:Type ad:DocumentPane}" TargetType="{x:Type ad:DocumentPane}"> ...
And found the tab headers (I think) as a "ad:DocumentTabPanel". I wrapped this in a ScrollViewer:
<ScrollViewer Style="{StaticResource ResourceKey=TabHeaderScrollViewer}" CanContentScroll="True">
<ad:DocumentTabPanel
x:Name="paneTabsPanel"
Panel.ZIndex ="1"
IsItemsHost="True"
TabItemStyle="{StaticResource CustomDocumentTabItemStyle}"/>
</ScrollViewer>
The scroll viewer is setup to have a custom style on it:
<Style x:Key="TabHeaderScrollViewer" TargetType="ScrollViewer">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="ScrollViewer">
<Grid Background="{TemplateBinding Background}">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<RepeatButton Command="ScrollBar.PageLeftCommand"></RepeatButton>
<ScrollContentPresenter Grid.Column="1"
x:Name="ScrollContentPresenter"
Cursor="{TemplateBinding Cursor}"
Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}"
ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}"/>
<RepeatButton Grid.Column="2" Command="ScrollBar.PageRightCommand"></RepeatButton>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
The problem I am having is that even when I load up a ton of tabs the scrolling doesn't work. I don't think this is an issue with my styling. It appears that the tab headers aren't in the VisualTree or have a collapsed visibility. I've been going through the AvalonDock source for a while, but I can't see how the headers are hidden.
I've already had to subclass some of the AvalonDock classes because I needed additional properties on them.
Can someone either explain/help me come up with a solution to scroll the tabs?
Problem was solved very simply. I had to set the HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto". I checked http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.scrollviewer.horizontalscrollbarvisibility.aspx to see what the default value is for this property, but didn't see one there or on the ScrollViewer page. I assume it defaults to "Hidden".
Anyhow, once set to "Auto" the repeat buttons are shown only when the tabs overflow.

WPF: Grid with column/row margin/padding?

Is it easily possible to specify a margin and/or padding for rows or columns in a WPF Grid?
I could of course add extra columns to space things out, but this seems like a job for padding/margins (it will give much simplier XAML). Has someone derived from the standard Grid to add this functionality?
RowDefinition and ColumnDefinition are of type ContentElement, and Margin is strictly a FrameworkElement property. So to your question, "is it easily possible" the answer is a most definite no. And no, I have not seen any layout panels that demonstrate this kind of functionality.
You can add extra rows or columns as you suggested. But you can also set margins on a Grid element itself, or anything that would go inside a Grid, so that's your best workaround for now.
Use a Border control outside the cell control and define the padding for that:
<Grid>
<Grid.Resources >
<Style TargetType="Border" >
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="5,5,5,5" />
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">
<YourGridControls/>
</Border>
<Border Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">
<YourGridControls/>
</Border>
</Grid>
Source:
Original Source
and from Way Back Machine
You could use something like this:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type DataGridCell}">
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="4" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type DataGridCell}">
<Border Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" SnapsToDevicePixels="True">
<ContentPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}"/>
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
Or if you don't need the TemplateBindings:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type DataGridCell}">
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type DataGridCell}">
<Border Padding="4">
<ContentPresenter />
</Border>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
Thought I'd add my own solution because nobody yet mentioned this. Instead of designing a UserControl based on Grid, you can target controls contained in grid with a style declaration. Takes care of adding padding/margin to all elements without having to define for each, which is cumbersome and labor-intensive.For instance, if your Grid contains nothing but TextBlocks, you can do this:
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="10"/>
</Style>
Which is like the equivalent of "cell padding".
I am surprised I did not see this solution posted yet.
Coming from the web, frameworks like bootstrap will use a negative margin to pull back rows / columns.
It might be a little verbose (albeit not that bad), it does work and the elements are evenly spaced and sized.
In the example below I use a StackPanel root to demonstrate how the 3 buttons are evenly spaced using margins. You could use other elements, just change the inner x:Type from button to your element.
The idea is simple, use a grid on the outside to pull the margins of elements out of their bounds by half the amount of the inner grid (using negative margins), use the inner grid to evenly space the elements with the amount you want.
Update:
Some comment from a user said it doesn't work, here's a quick video demonstrating: https://youtu.be/rPx2OdtSOYI
<StackPanel>
<Grid>
<Grid.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Grid}">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="-5 0"/>
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
<Grid>
<Grid.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="10 0"/>
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button Grid.Column="0" Content="Btn 1" />
<Button Grid.Column="1" Content="Btn 2" />
<Button Grid.Column="2" Content="Btn 3" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
<TextBlock FontWeight="Bold" Margin="0 10">
Test
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
Edited:
To give margin to any control you could wrap the control with border like this
<!--...-->
<Border Padding="10">
<AnyControl>
<!--...-->
You could write your own GridWithMargin class, inherited from Grid, and override the ArrangeOverride method to apply the margins
I did it right now with one of my grids.
First apply the same margin to every element inside the grid. You can do this mannualy, using styles, or whatever you like. Lets say you want an horizontal spacing of 6px and a vertical spacing of 2px. Then you add margins of "3px 1px" to every child of the grid.
Then remove the margins created around the grid (if you want to align the borders of the controls inside the grid to the same position of the grid). Do this setting a margin of "-3px -1px" to the grid. That way, other controls outside the grid will be aligned with the outtermost controls inside the grid.
I ran into this problem while developing some software recently and it occured to me to ask WHY? Why have they done this...the answer was right there in front of me. A row of data is an object, so if we maintain object orientation, then the design for a particular row should be seperated (suppose you need to re-use the row display later on in the future). So I started using databound stack panels and custom controls for most data displays. Lists have made the occasional appearance but mostly the grid has been used only for primary page organization (Header, Menu Area, Content Area, Other Areas). Your custom objects can easily manage any spacing requirements for each row within the stack panel or grid (a single grid cell can contain the entire row object. This also has the added benefit of reacting properly to changes in orientation, expand/collapses, etc.
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<custom:MyRowObject Style="YourStyleHereOrGeneralSetter" Grid.Row="0" />
<custom:MyRowObject Style="YourStyleHere" Grid.Row="1" />
</Grid>
or
<StackPanel>
<custom:MyRowObject Style="YourStyleHere" Grid.Row="0" />
<custom:MyRowObject Style="YourStyleHere" Grid.Row="1" />
</StackPanel>
Your Custom controls will also inherit the DataContext if your using data binding...my personal favorite benefit of this approach.
I had similar problem recently in two column grid, I needed a margin on elements in right column only. All elements in both columns were of type TextBlock.
<Grid.Resources>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}" BasedOn="{StaticResource OurLabelStyle}">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="Grid.Column" Value="1">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="20,0" />
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Grid.Resources>
One possibility would be to add fixed width rows and columns to act as the padding / margin you are looking for.
You might also consider that you are constrained by the size of your container, and that a grid will become as large as the containing element or its specified width and height. You could simply use columns and rows with no width or height set. That way they default to evenly breaking up the total space within the grid. Then it would just be a mater of centering your elements vertically and horizontally within you grid.
Another method might be to wrap all grid elements in a fixed with single row & column grid that has a fixed size and margin. That your grid contains fixed width / height boxes which contain your actual elements.
in uwp (Windows10FallCreatorsUpdate version and above)
<Grid RowSpacing="3" ColumnSpacing="3">
Though you can't add margin or padding to a Grid, you could use something like a Frame (or similar container), that you can apply it to.
That way (if you show or hide the control on a button click say), you won't need to add margin on every control that may interact with it.
Think of it as isolating the groups of controls into units, then applying style to those units.
As was stated before create a GridWithMargins class.
Here is my working code example
public class GridWithMargins : Grid
{
public Thickness RowMargin { get; set; } = new Thickness(10, 10, 10, 10);
protected override Size ArrangeOverride(Size arrangeSize)
{
var basesize = base.ArrangeOverride(arrangeSize);
foreach (UIElement child in InternalChildren)
{
var pos = GetPosition(child);
pos.X += RowMargin.Left;
pos.Y += RowMargin.Top;
var actual = child.RenderSize;
actual.Width -= (RowMargin.Left + RowMargin.Right);
actual.Height -= (RowMargin.Top + RowMargin.Bottom);
var rec = new Rect(pos, actual);
child.Arrange(rec);
}
return arrangeSize;
}
private Point GetPosition(Visual element)
{
var posTransForm = element.TransformToAncestor(this);
var areaTransForm = posTransForm.Transform(new Point(0, 0));
return areaTransForm;
}
}
Usage:
<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApplication1"
mc:Ignorable="d"
Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
<Grid>
<local:GridWithMargins ShowGridLines="True">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Rectangle Fill="Red" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
<Rectangle Fill="Green" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
<Rectangle Fill="Blue" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
</local:GridWithMargins>
</Grid>
</Window>
Sometimes the simple method is the best. Just pad your strings with spaces. If it is only a few textboxes etc this is by far the simplest method.
You can also simply insert blank columns/rows with a fixed size. Extremely simple and you can easily change it.

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