Where to find Generic.xaml (or other code with the default look) for native WPF controls such as Button, CheckBox, TextBox, etc?
In Silverlight (and I know that your question is about WPF) this information is more accessible than in WPF. You can get this information from any of these sources:
Control Styles and Templates on MSDN.
You can look at the resources of the relevant Silverlight assembly and extract the themes/generic.xaml embedded in a resource. I use Reflector to do this.
You can extract the control template of a specific control using a tool. I use Expression Blend to do this. This also works for WPF.
Unfortunately the XAML for native controls is not directly available as a file. You need to use a program for peeking into the WPF assemblies and extracting that info. I personally have used the Mole for Visual Studio tool, which has done the job very well. It integrates as a debugger-visualiser, which is quite handy.
Related
I added references to WinRT dlls to a WPF project and I want to use SwapChainPanel inside of a WPF window.
Is it really possible? For now I cant get it work.
The NuGet package description for Microsoft.Toolkit.Wpf.UI.Controls mentions a SwapChainPanel but I have not found any samples using this control in WPF.
SwapChainPanel : Provides a hosting surface, where Microsoft DirectX swap chains provide content that can be rendered into a XAML UI. A SwapChainPanel element is a key component for an app that renders Microsoft DirectX graphics and then presents those visuals within a XAML page.
It's not currently officially supported - might require some private APIs in Windows, though since Stardock could implement its ModernMix - there might be some way to get it working. The thing is though - you don't have to do that. You can render content with DirectX to a WPF window in other ways. I haven't done that and it might be quite a bit of work to do, but so is anything in DirectX. You can look into DirectComposition or D3DImage class. Perhaps the article on using Direct2D with WPF can be a good sample solution.
You dont have to, as says Filip Skakun, but you can ! Just give a try to SlimDX or SharpDX. They're DirectX's implementations in C#.
I'm making a mixed UserControl and Control Library in WPF. I need to provide icons , other details and designer support etc... that is needed for WPF Control Library Authoring. Please help me.
A well documented sample could be better
If you search the web you will find there are a few good tutorials on adding design-time support. It is rather a broad subject to answer here! Take a look at the following:
XPlorerBar : Part 2 - Adding design-time support to the WPF explorer bar control
There is also an entire MSDN chapter on the subject:
WPF Designer Extensibility
I've just begun dabbling in putting together a set of controls as assemblies and I'm working on default styling. What I currently have is a UserControl in a project (thanks Reed!) and I'm able to bring that into another project via reference. I plan to add more controls over time to build something of an SDK.
I currently have some hooks that look for resources in the hosting application which either apply the resources to their respective properties, or style out the control via hard coded defaults.
Is it possible to set up resource dictionaries within the project containing the UserControls so they can use those references as the default, instead of hard coding? If so, how do I target them?
(I have a ResourceDictionary set up within the same project as the controls: Resources>Dictionaries>Colors.xaml)
Thanks in advance!
E
You should really look at creating custom templated controls in library rather than derivatives of UserControls. This will allow projects that reference your library to specify an alternative default style for you controls in the same way as we can for the controls in Microsofts own SDK.
The Creating a New Control by Creating a ControlTemplate topic on MSDN is good starter.
I think this is a better explanation, but i'm trying on a desktop application and i got the same problem.
XamlParseException: Failed to create a 'System.Type' from the text 'local:CustomerEntity'
If I'm undestanding correctly you want to create the file "generic.xaml" in the folder "Themes". However, I don't believe automatic styling works with UserControl only with Control. Generally if you trying to make a control that can be stylized and retemplated you want to inherit from Control and not UserControl.
I'm looking for something like a pdf or anything else that would show a chart of available controls in SL and/or WPF.
Ideally, the chart should have a drawing of the control, some succinct description and the hierarchy if possible.
Has anyone seen such a thing? Freeware or Payware, can even be from a book I could buy.
The following MSDN link lists the controls within the Silverlight SDK:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189048(VS.95).aspx
You can try the sdk controls live following this link:
http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/Silverlight/SampleBrowser/#/?sref=HomePage
The controls within the Silverlight Toolkit can be found here:
http://silverlight.codeplex.com/
Also, there are plenty of third party controls for Silverlight. The following link contains a list to some of them (free or not):
http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/01/28/comprehensive-list-of-silverlight-controls.aspx
The controls that are shipped with the platform are fairly straightforward, so I'm not sure that would even make sense - i.e. the basic buttons, input box, text block, etc.
As for the controls that are shipped with the Toolkit, which is the richer feature set released out of band in relation to the Silverlight trunk, you can preview everything you asked for here:
http://www.silverlight.net/content/samples/sl4/toolkitcontrolsamples/run/default.html
What's more, the source code for the preview is included with the tool kit so it's very easy to see how any of those controls were used.
Does anybody know of a gallery of controltemplates, that I could use to learn more about what is possible with the different control types?
look at : https://github.com/jogibear9988/wpftoolkit
I've forked the Theming Package from Codeplex and switched to .Net 4.0
I'm not familiar with a gallery of control templates, though there are lots of examples on the internet. If you have a specific control you'd like to template (e.g. a ListBox or a Button), I would search for specific control templates that relate to that control. You will find countless options.
If you want to learn about what is possible with control templates, I'd suggest picking up one of the many great WPF books. A few I'd recommend are:
WPF Unleashed (by Adam Nathan)
Applications = Code + Markup by (Charles Petzold)
WPF Control Development Unleashed (by Pavan Podila and Kevin Hoffman)
You can completely recreate the visual tree of an element with a control template, so the possibilities are limitless. You can also check out the MSDN Help Topics on control styles and templates:
Control Styles and Templates
Using Templates to Customize WPF Controls
Hope that helps.
There's this one
http://www.xamltemplates.net/
There's this one
http://www.reuxables.com/
There's this one
http://www.codeplex.com/Silverlight/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Silverlight%20Toolkit%20Overview%20Part%203&referringTitle=Home
As a word of warning, all templates are not created equal - and not all templates will work across all XAML frameworks. For example if it is written for SL it may not work for WinRT. The same for WPF. But this list will get you started. In the end, you will probably create your own.