I have tried this approach first but getting error "Element is already the child of another element"
var objClone = new MyImageControl();
objClone = this;
((Canvas)this.Parent).Children.Add(objClone);
Then I checked this and this, but XamlWriter and XamlReader is not available in WinRT. I have tried to use MemberwiseClone() but it throws exception, "COM object that has been separated from its underlying RCW cannot be used. System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidComObjectException
". So can anyone tell me how can I clone the existing UserControl in my canvas to itself ?
I have written a UIElement
extension that copies the properties and children of an element -- note that it does not set up an events for the clone.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Windows.UI.Xaml;
using System.Reflection;
using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;
namespace UIElementClone
{
public static class UIElementExtensions
{
public static T DeepClone<T>(this T source) where T : UIElement
{
T result;
// Get the type
Type type = source.GetType();
// Create an instance
result = Activator.CreateInstance(type) as T;
CopyProperties<T>(source, result, type);
DeepCopyChildren<T>(source, result);
return result;
}
private static void DeepCopyChildren<T>(T source, T result) where T : UIElement
{
// Deep copy children.
Panel sourcePanel = source as Panel;
if (sourcePanel != null)
{
Panel resultPanel = result as Panel;
if (resultPanel != null)
{
foreach (UIElement child in sourcePanel.Children)
{
// RECURSION!
UIElement childClone = DeepClone(child);
resultPanel.Children.Add(childClone);
}
}
}
}
private static void CopyProperties<T>(T source, T result, Type type) where T : UIElement
{
// Copy all properties.
IEnumerable<PropertyInfo> properties = type.GetRuntimeProperties();
foreach (var property in properties)
{
if (property.Name != "Name") // do not copy names or we cannot add the clone to the same parent as the original.
{
if ((property.CanWrite) && (property.CanRead))
{
object sourceProperty = property.GetValue(source);
UIElement element = sourceProperty as UIElement;
if (element != null)
{
UIElement propertyClone = element.DeepClone();
property.SetValue(result, propertyClone);
}
else
{
try
{
property.SetValue(result, sourceProperty);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex);
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
Feel free to use this code if you find it useful.
You can try serializers other than XamlWriter and XamlReader to achieve the same effect described by your links. For example, use ServiceStack.Text to JSON serialize your object to a string, then get a new object from that string and add it to the parent.