I have a custom Expander control called SpecialExpander
. It is basically just a standard Expander
with a fancy header and a couple properties (HeaderText
and IsMarkedRead
).
I began by creating a simple class:
public class SpecialExpander : Expander
{
public string HeaderText { get; set; }
public bool IsMarkedRead { get; set; }
}
Then I created a style that sets a couple properties on the expander (e.g., margins, padding, etc.) and, importantly, it also defines a custom DataTemplate
for the HeaderTemplate
property. The template is basically a grid with two rows.
As shown in the illustrations below...
- for the top row, I'd like a fixed layout (it's always
TextBlock
TextBlock
CheckBox
)
- for the bottom row, however, I want to be able to provide custom XAML for each expander.
I tried putting <ContentControl Grid.Row="1" ... />
in the DataTemplate
, but I couldn't figure out how to hook it up properly.
alt text http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1194/contentcontrolwithintem.jpg
Question
How can I build a DataTemplate
for my SpecialExpander
so that the header has some fixed content (top row) and a place-holder for custom content (bottom row)?
For the second illustration, I would want to be able to do something like this:
<SpecialExpander HeaderText="<Expander Header Text>" IsMarkedRead="True">
<SpecialExpander.Header>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<RadioButton Content="High" />
<RadioButton Content="Med" />
<RadioButton Content="Low" />
</StackPanel>
<SpecialExpander.Header>
<Grid>
<Label>Main Content Goes Here</Label>
</Grid>
</SpecialExpander>
It hit me this morning how to solve this: instead of building a SpecialExpander
, I just need a normal Expander
. Then, for the header, I will use a custom ContentControl
called SpecialExpanderHeader
.
Here's how it works...
SpecialExpanderHeader class:
public class SpecialExpanderHeader : ContentControl
{
public string HeaderText { get; set; }
public bool IsMarkedRead { get; set; }
}
SpecialExpanderHeader style:
<Style TargetType="custom:SpecialExpanderHeader">
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="10" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="custom:SpecialExpanderHeader">
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="5" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<StackPanel Grid.Row="0" Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=custom:SpecialExpanderHeader}, Path=HeaderText}" />
<CheckBox Margin="100,0,0,0" IsChecked="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor, AncestorType=custom:SpecialExpanderHeader}, Path=IsMarkedRead}" />
</StackPanel>
<Separator Grid.Row="1" />
<ContentPresenter Grid.Row="2" />
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
Expander style
<Style x:Key="Local_ExpanderStyle" TargetType="Expander" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type Expander}}">
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="0,0,0,10" />
<Setter Property="Padding" Value="10" />
<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="12" />
</Style>
Usage
<Expander Style="{StaticResource Local_ExpanderStyle}">
<Expander.Header>
<custom:SpecialExpanderHeader IsMarkedRead="True" HeaderText="Test">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<RadioButton Content="High" />
<RadioButton Content="Medium" />
<RadioButton Content="Low" />
</StackPanel>
</custom:SpecialExpanderHeader>
</Expander.Header>
<Grid>
<!-- main expander content goes here -->
</Grid>
</Expander>