Bind Controls TO standalone animations - wpf

i'm new to wpf and i'm try to learn something.
My problem is : i need to bind all that i want to a looping animation...
Example:
<Window x:Class="Window1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<StackPanel>
<Slider Visibility="Hidden" Minimum="0" Maximum="100" Height="22" Margin="73,40,105,0" Name="Slider1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Value="0">
<Slider.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Slider.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation
Storyboard.TargetName="Slider1"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Value"
From="0" To="100" Duration="0:0:5"
AutoReverse="True" RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Slider.Triggers>
</Slider>
<Slider Minimum="0" Maximum="100" Height="22" Margin="72,98,106,0" Name="Slider2" VerticalAlignment="Top" Value="{Binding ElementName=Slider1, Path=Value}"/>
<Button Width="{Binding ElementName=Slider1, Path=Value}"></Button>
</StackPanel>
Slider1 is hidden and act as a Source for Slider2 and ButtonWidth.
Like a standalone oscillator.
I need a way to eliminate slider1 and bind directly to a standalone animation that loops.
It is possible?
Thanks in advance :)

Why don't you simply animate the Slider2 Value the same way you've animated Slider1's value? You can also animate the Button's Width. I am not sure why you would need Slider1 in the first place. The following markup demonstrates removing Slider1 and using the animation as a resource:
<Window.Resources>
<DoubleAnimation x:Key="ValueAnimation"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="Value"
From="0" To="100" Duration="0:0:5"
AutoReverse="True" RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
</Window.Resources>
<StackPanel>
<Slider Minimum="0" Maximum="100" Height="22" Margin="72,98,106,0"
Name="Slider2" VerticalAlignment="Top">
<Slider.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Slider.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard Storyboard.TargetName="Slider2">
<StaticResource ResourceKey="ValueAnimation"/>
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Slider.Triggers>
</Slider>
<Button Width="{Binding ElementName=Slider2, Path=Value}"/>
</StackPanel>
You could remove the TargetProperty from ValueAnimation and specify that per animation, as well. That would let you use a single animation for both the Button.Width and the Slider.Value.

thanks for your answer :)
Why don't you simply animate the Slider2 Value the same way you've animated Slider1's value?
because i need to centralize the animation values to share it on multiple objects (not only another slider) and, in this way, i can edit values in 1 place only :)
Thank you your example fits well :)

Related

Expander getting stuck after IsExpanded set to true by storyboard

So I have an expander that I want to have the normal functionality (open and close with its own button) but I also want a different button to expand it when pressed (this button is in the header of the expander). I'm using a storyboard in an event trigger for the Button.Click which works, but after it is expanded this way the normal button doesn't work, it just stays expanded. My xaml is below, I would really prefer to keep this all in the xaml, I could come up with a way to do it in the codebehind/viewmodel myself.
<Expander x:Name="IndexExpander" IsExpanded="True" Grid.Row="4" Grid.ColumnSpan="5" Margin="10" MaxHeight="150">
<Expander.Triggers>
<EventTrigger SourceName="btnAddIndex" RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="IndexExpander" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsExpanded" BeginTime="0:0:0.25" Duration="0:0:0.20" >
<DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="True" />
</BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Expander.Triggers>
<Expander.Header>
<StackPanel DockPanel.Dock="Left" Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="Indexes" FontWeight="Bold"/>
<!-- Add/Delete Buttons-->
<Grid Margin="10,0,0,0">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="50*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button Grid.Column="0" x:Name="btnAddIndex" Command="{Binding AddIndexCommand}" Template="{StaticResource AddButtonTemplate}" IsEnabled="{Binding IsEditable}" Margin="0,0,5,0" />
</Grid>
</StackPanel>
</Expander.Header>
Alright, so for anyone following in my footsteps here's what I did. I got the idea from here, and adapted it until it worked correctly.
<Expander.Triggers>
<EventTrigger SourceName="btnAddCol" RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
<BeginStoryboard x:Name="ColumnExpanderStory">
<Storyboard>
<BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ColumnExpander" Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsExpanded">
<DiscreteBooleanKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="True" />
</BooleanAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="ToggleButton.PreviewMouseUp">
<RemoveStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="ColumnExpanderStory" />
</EventTrigger>
</Expander.Triggers>
<Expander.Header>
The problem was that the storyboard overrides any other bindings to the IsExpanded property, so it has to be removed to restore them (read more here). The suggestion was to use the ToggleButton.Checked event to remove the storyboard, but that didn't work for me, only the "Preview" events seemed to have the right timing. I started with PreviewMouseDown, but it would remove the storyboard, then on mouse up toggle the expander, meaning the first click would just flip states back and forth quickly. Using PreviewMouseUp got around that issue.

Use relative binding to bind prop Window.ActualHeight to DoubleAnimation.To prop

I try use relative binding and bind Window.ActualHeight property to DoubleAnimation.To property.
Relative binding doesn’t work but if I use binding by ElementName it work.
NOT WORK:
<Window xmlns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
x:Class="Sample.Window"
x:Name="Shell"
Title="Sample"
Width = "525"
Height = "350">
<Canvas Height="400">
<Ellipse Canvas.Left="80"
Canvas.Top="0"
Width="30"
Height="30"
Fill="LimeGreen">
<Ellipse.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Ellipse.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Canvas.Top)"
Duration="0:0:5"
RepeatBehavior="Forever"
AutoReverse="True"
To="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Window}, Mode=FindAncestor}, Path=ActualHeight}" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Ellipse.Triggers>
</Ellipse>
</Canvas>
</Window>
THIS WORK:
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Canvas.Top)"
Duration="0:0:5"
RepeatBehavior="Forever"
AutoReverse="True"
To="{Binding ElementName=Shell, Path=ActualHeight}"/>
It is possible use relative binding to Window.ActualHeight property ?
EDITED:
I tested again on routed event Ellipse.Loaded animation not work but if I changed routed event to MouseEnter animation work. I posted all project.
sample download
Thank
Strangely if any frameworkElement traverses Visual Tree till ancestral window, in that case DoubleAnimation too is able to find ancestral window but if no element is referring to ancestral window, DoubleAnimation is not able to traverse up the Visual tree.
In your sample in case i simply traverse till window outside of animation, it works. Test this sample (traverse tree using Tag property of canvas)-
<Canvas Height="400"
Tag="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor,
AncestorType=Window}}"> <-HERE
<Ellipse Canvas.Left="80"
Canvas.Top="0"
Width="30"
Height="30"
Fill="LimeGreen">
<Ellipse.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Ellipse.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Canvas.Top)"
Duration="0:0:5"
RepeatBehavior="Forever"
AutoReverse="True"
To="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource
AncestorType={x:Type Window},
Mode=FindAncestor},
Path=ActualHeight}" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Ellipse.Triggers>
</Ellipse>
</Canvas>

XAML animation of height of control with dynamic content

I have a panel that should be minimized unless the user hovers the mouse over the panel. It is implemented using a storyboard that lets the height of the panel grow when the use puts the mouse over the control. At the moment the target height is hard coded to 400 which is a bad solution as the content of the panel will be different each time the application starts (it is static during execution).
How do you create an animation that lets the panel grow to the size of the current content?
<Window x:Class="MainWindow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Title="MainWindow" Height="500" Width="525">
<Grid>
<Border Margin="10,0" Background="LightGray" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" CornerRadius="0,0,8,8">
<Border.Effect>
<DropShadowEffect Opacity="0.5"/>
</Border.Effect>
<Border.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Border.MouseEnter">
<BeginStoryboard>
<BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Height"
From="25"
To="400"
Duration="0:0:0.2" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Border.MouseLeave">
<BeginStoryboard>
<BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Height"
From="400"
To="25"
Duration="0:0:0.2" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Border.Triggers>
<StackPanel Margin="5">
<TextBlock Height="25" Text="My items panel" />
<ListBox MinWidth="150" MinHeight="100" ItemsSource="{Binding MyItems}" />
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</Grid>
Edit: I have tried with binding to the Height of the StackPanel but that didn't really help as it didn't take the margins of the stackpanel into account thus making the panel shorter than needed.
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="Height"
From="{Binding ElementName=NameOfStackPanel, Path=ActualHeight}"
To="25"
Duration="0:0:0.2" />
You could create a converter to handle adding the margins to the ActualHeight of your StackPanel. You could even use a multivalue convertor so you could bind the margin too and not have to hardcode a fudge factor. Finally, you could probably wrap your stackpanel in another panel (without margins) and bind to the height of that instead.

Animating text color

I need to animate the text color of a custom control between two colors, which are read from two Brush properties of the custom control. My resources look like this:
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="TextBrush">{TemplateBinding Foreground}</SolidColorBrush>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="AltTextBrush">{TemplateBinding ForegroundAlt}</SolidColorBrush>
Right now, I am trying to animate using a ColorAnimation:
<ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="MyControlText" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Foreground" To="{StaticResource AltTextBrush}" Duration="00:00:00.3000000" />
The ColorAnimation seems to want a Color object, rather than the Brush I am trying to pass. I think I can write an IValueConverter to get the color from the brush, but before I do that, I want to see if there is a simpler way to do the job. Here are my questions:
-- Is there a simple way to animate between two brush resources, or do I need to extract the color for animation?
-- If I need to extract the colors, is an IValueConverter best practice?
-- And finally, amI headed down the right road, or is there a simpler solution to this problem?
Thanks for your help.
Tried with using a Binding and it seems to be working like this
To="{Binding Source={StaticResource TextBrush}, Path=Color}"
Here's a xaml example
<Window.Resources>
<SolidColorBrush x:Key="TextBrush">Black</SolidColorBrush>
<Storyboard x:Key="blinkAnimation" Duration="0:0:5" >
<ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(TextBlock.Foreground).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
Storyboard.TargetName="TitleTextBlock"
To="{Binding Source={StaticResource TextBrush}, Path=Color}"
AutoReverse="True"
Duration="0:0:2"/>
</Storyboard>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid Background="Black" Name="grid">
<TextBlock x:Name="TitleTextBlock"
Background="Black"
Text="My Text"
FontSize="32"
HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Bottom"
Foreground="White">
<TextBlock.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Loaded">
<EventTrigger.Actions>
<BeginStoryboard>
<StaticResource ResourceKey="blinkAnimation"/>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger.Actions>
</EventTrigger>
</TextBlock.Triggers>
</TextBlock>
</Grid>

Animation from within DataTemplate

Below is the data template I'm using for a listbox's ItemTemplate. It shows some simple data, and a button, which ideally should animate a Popup, also contained within the DataTemplate. Unfortunately the whole thing blow up at runtime. The error says line 52 is wrong, which is:
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
Here's the whole DataTemplate. I've used this popup before, with the same exact content templates and even the same animation elsewhere. It's only blowing up when I try to put it into a DataTemplate. I assume the animation is having difficulty finding the right animation target - I'm hoping someone here would know more.
<DataTemplate x:Key="ItemTemplate2">
<Border Width="100" Height="100" BorderThickness="4" BorderBrush="Red">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/>
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Price}"/>
<Popup x:Name="popupContent" IsOpen="True" Margin="10,0,0,0" Grid.Row="0" >
<Popup.Child>
<Thumb x:Name="thumbContent" DragDelta="Thumb_DragDelta" Width="0" Height="0">
<Thumb.Template>
<ControlTemplate>
<local:thumbTemplate Margin="0" x:Name="df" />
</ControlTemplate>
</Thumb.Template>
</Thumb>
</Popup.Child>
</Popup>
<Button Content="Show">
<Button.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.Click">
<BeginStoryboard>
<BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
<Storyboard x:Name="sbShowPopup">
<DoubleAnimation Duration="0:0:1" To="200" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Width)" Storyboard.TargetName="popupContent" d:IsOptimized="True"/>
<DoubleAnimation Duration="0:0:1" To="80" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Height)" Storyboard.TargetName="popupContent" d:IsOptimized="True"/>
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard.Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Button.Triggers>
</Button>
</StackPanel>
</Border>
</DataTemplate>
You may have used this before but not in Silverlight. The only supported value for RoutedEvent in Silverlight is "FrameworkElement.LoadedEvent".
You will need the BlendSDK to do this sort of thing in Silverlight.

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