Animated Items Control in Silverlight - silverlight

Does anyone know of a good, animated ItemsControl for Silverlight, or an easy way to implement it?
Bascially, I am looking for something that allows the items to fly in/out when the items are added/removed from the ItemsSource.
I tried re-templating the ItemsControl to use the RadWrapPanel from Telerik, but that wasn't quite what I was looking for. Realistically, an animated StackPanel would be nice.
I have also seen examples of doing this in Silverlight 4, but not with Silverlight 3.
Any thoughts?

You may be interested in the Blacklight project (here and here). It has an animated layout panel that might do what you need. I've used it successfully on various projects.

Unless the SL4 examples you saw use features only available in SL4, you should be able to adapt the example to SL3.

Related

Need guidance on whether to use Telerik WPF controls or Caliburn Micro or both

Not sure if this an appropriate forum for this, but I need some guidance from those who are further down the road than I am with WPF.
I've used Telerik Winform controls for a years and have mixed feelings about them. They look good, but they are deeply nested, have a steep learning curve, and sometimes don't perform the best. For example, just working with a RadWindow in the WPF designer, it's slow compared with native wpf controls.
I like Caliburn.Micro MVVM framework and MahApps metro styles, but to keep the same look and feel for a ribbon bar I'd need to use another third party tool (like Fluent) or just use the Microsoft Ribbon View control and figure out how to use templates and styles myself (or find an existing metro template for it).
I tried to combine Telerik and Caliburn but had trouble getting them to work. There is a Caliburn Telerik library but its based on Caliburn Micro 1.5.2 and I'm trying to use Caliburn.Micro 2.0.2. Problem is I always get an aero-looking full window title bar and frame wrapped around the Telerik styled window.
I just don't know enough about conventions and such to make it all work together. And frankly, not sure it's worth the trouble. I'm looking for a more streamlined approach that lessens my dependence on pricy and heavy third party controls.
So, I'm looking for guidance on whether I should use straight Telerik, straight caliburn or go through the work of trying to get them to work together.
What I would prefer is to use Caliburn as the mvvm framework with a layer of styling, like what MahhAps provides. And for those controls that aren't styled, like the Ribbon Bar, to either use Microsoft's ribbon bar and find templates and styles that would work or maybe a 3rd party control like Fluent. But would I be getting in over my head in trying to learn templates and styles?
Sorry for the ramble, but I'm frustrated and need some help in working through this. Thanks.
I found a great resource that maybe others new to WPF and struggling with similar questions would benefit from: MarkPad, a Code52 project on CodePlex.
It's written in WPF using Caliburn Micro MVVM framework (although it's version 1.5.2 rather than the current 2.0) and MahApps metro styles with some "roll your own" windows. It's a great looking app with the kind of simple menuing system I was looking for AND an MDI implementation. It's also a good example on how to organize a somewhat complex WPF application, something I was also unsure about.
It answers the question: Do I need to use Telerik? The answer is a definite NO. It's a great learning tool for me and maybe will be useful to others.

dragable controls in runtime Similar to a toolbox in wpf

I want to create a project in WPF for designing a custom report.
For this, I need a library to add controls to a panel, canvas, etc. with drag and drop at runtime.
Controls should be resizable and moveable with the mouse. Finally I want to print this.
Telerik's WPF controls contain the Diagram Control which supports the features you mention out of the box. I use it for a very similar scenario as you describe and it works well. The might be a counterpart offered by Infragistics as well.
With .NET framework's built in features and/or free libraries you will able to cover the drag&drop part. You will have to implement the rest yourself which is possible but too much to ask for one question.
Late reply, but I came across this. Take a look at this
There are 4 parts that show how to do a toolbox with what you're looking for.

How can I achieve a stylish vertical menu in WPF?

I'm new to WPF and I've been tasked with creating a UI and I was told it needs to be 'sexy'.
My first task is to createa menu structure for the various options I need to make available to the user. I'd like to do something like this, taken from http://www.wpftutorial.net :
Unfortunately I don't see any examples on that site of how to implement a vertical menu with sub-menus that have the glassy look and feel.
I'm hoping to achieve the same level of 'sexy' (<-- my bosses term, not mine), but the style doesn't need to be exactly the same.
What steps do I need to take to achieve this?
The 'sexy' layout you showed, is actually quite outdated (glossy is so 2008-2010...).
Anyway, if you don't go for 3rd parties, here is what this is:
The container is a Menu
Each item is a MenuItem
Some MenuItems contain their own MenuItems (that's the horizontal dropdown you see)
Menu and MenuItem seem to have a custom Template/Style/ControlTemplate
It can indeed be quite some work for someone new to WPF, but you'll definitely learn a lot, however it'll take you several weeks to get it right with no experience.
HTH,
Bab.
You may need to go with 3rd party controls.
DevExpress and Telerik offer some very good WPF controls.
This will save you a lot of time as they have built-in themes and are really good looking.
Trying to do this yourself will probably cost you more in the long run.
You could even download the trial versions and show your boss a demo of the app.

Can I use the WP7 Panorama control outside of WP7?

I need a WPF control that acts like the Panorama control for Windows Phone 7, but I need it for a desktop application.
It will contain a series of panels (or Panorama Items) that the application will be able to slide through horizontally programmatically.
Also, the content inside the panels not currently displayed on the screen will need to be "lazy loaded". In other words, they should be referenced but not loaded or rendered.
Can I somehow adapt the WP7 Panorama control to do this? Or will I have to develop a custom control from scratch to behave similarly to it?
Thank you!
EDIT:
I could probably use a VirtualizingPanel to implement the lazyload behaviour.
MahApps.Metro while still not super mature does allow for the wp7 Panorama control. Demo of how to use a panorama here. I've played with it a little and while its not the most customizable thing out there it gets the job done. Pretty sweet. Also Sacha Barber (Codeproject Demigod) wrote up an article on making your own. Of which I haven't looked at yet but, the guy usually does awesome work. So I'd check that one out as well.
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/arielbh/archive/2010/10/21/porting-windows-phone-7-s-panorama-control-to-silverlight-4.aspx gives some clues about how do to this.
It suggests using http://phone.codeplex.com/ as your base and then you can use http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=4b281bde-9b01-4890-b3d4-b3b45ca2c2e4 (Microsoft Surface Manipulations and Inertia Sample for Microsoft Silverlight) to run convert get it to respond to touch.
Seems none exist as far as I can see so far.
This blog has started an attempt at making it, so you could work from there to make your own. Be sure to also check out this page which details the creation of an individual panorama item too.

Custom Wpf ListBox Control

I'm new to wpf and have just been given a project to create a set of custom controls which will be used to make a previous windows forms application more manageable and current. However I cannot seem to find much info with regards to customising the built in Listbox, this would involve preferably replacing the scroll bar and the +/- buttons with custom images etc..
Just wondered if anyone knows how to get at these ?
Thanks in advance.
Check here for the default control template of the listbox.You can customize the scrollviewer there to do what you are looking for.Check the below article to get started
Using Templates to Customize WPF Controls
Learn about WPF styling and templating. Other than that, the question is too generic for SO. Read the article (and perhaps google some more articles on the topic), try to style the listbox and come back with specific issues. WPF is not easy to get into, but it is definitely worth the time.

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